Many popular recipes come from lineages that can be traced back for decades, even centuries. Festive cakes have been made in December for at least two thousand years. Using archaeological evidence and ancient books, the authors define the key ingredients of the cakes that would eventually be served on Twelfth Night, at the end of the Christmas season. From 17th century English cookbooks, they identify recipes that would have been made as twelfth cakes, full of expensive ingredients like raisins, almonds, sweet wine and candied peel, but made like fruit-breads, with yeast. In the 18th century, a revolution in mixing occurred. Ingredient proportions followed the new pound cake principle, and for the first time butter and sugar were creamed together. The Victorian age saw Twelfth Night customs give way to those associated with Christmas Day. The first English recipe to be called 'Christmas Cake' was Mrs Beeton's. In the colonies, growing demand for rich Christmas cakes resulted in the renaming of a range of recipes. Plum cakes, rich fruit cakes and wedding cakes were all co-opted as Christmas cakes. The Christmas cakes of the 20th century are a special focus of this book.Nine cake recipes feature here, four derived from pound cakes, and five highlighting new methods of mixing or new ingredients. Their family histories are tracked, but the authors also show how New Zealand cooks modified each recipe and developed new variations.

Prehistoric Man in Palliser Bay presents, in 14 papers by 9 authors, the results of a pioneering, multifaceted, archaeological research programme carried out between 1969 and 1972 in the south-eastern coastal part of the North Island of New Zealand. The volume reviews archaeological evidence from the time of first settlement from Polynesia through to the 19th century. More than 25 excavations were carried out, focussing on midden sites, house areas, kumara storage pits and prehistoric gardens. Laboratory analysis of middens revealed details of the history of fishing, birding and sea mammal hunting. Artefacts of stone, bone and shell are described in the volume, and analysis of land snails provides evidence for environmental change during the period of occupation. Analysis of human bone samples provided detailed medical histories of the people who lived in the region. Two concluding chapters consider the significance of the evidence for early horticulture in Palliser Bay and the nature of prehistoric communities in the area.

This engrossing history of the domestic kitchen covers 10 decades that saw our culinary traditions accommodate extraordinary changes in technology and the irresistible process of globalisation. Each chapter surveys the external influences on households and their kitchens, samples the dishes prepared during the decade, and discusses the structure of meals. A study of kitchen equipment and design then closes each chapter, cumulatively revealing more innovation in these aspects than in what we ate. 'Kitchens: The New Zealand kitchen in the 20th century' is the culmination of a 10-year research and writing project by anthropologist Helen Leach, supported by the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand, focusing on the material culture of cooking by New Zealanders living in the past two centuries. The project has led to the publication of From Kai to Kiwi Kitchen (2010), The Pavlova Story (with Mary Browne, 2008), The Twelve Cakes of Christmas (with Mary Browne and Raelene Inglis, 2011) and this book. Helen Leach is an Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of Otago. Her research interests include the evolution of human diet and prehistoric horticulture. The Pavlova Story was shortlisted in the Montana New Zealand Book Awards 2009.

In the past two decades, cuisine and culinary history have attracted increasing attention. Recipes are both sensitive markers of the socio-economic conditions of their times and written representations of a culture's culinary repertoire. Yet, despite the vast number of cookbooks that survive, they have not been the primary focus of research projects. Acknowledgement of their potential contribution to our understanding of culinary history has been slow. From Kai to Kiwi Kitchen is a first in its field. This book opens with the three lectures presented by Helen Leach at Canterbury University in 2008, and also broadcast on New Zealand's National Radio. The second part of the book is comprised of essays by a number of contributors from a major research project that looked at Kiwi cookbooks, supported by the Marsden Fund. The essays explore several themes in New Zealand's food history, including the adaptation of British and Maori culinary traditions in the 19th century and the fate of the Maori tradition in the 20th century, external influences on New Zealand cookery (previously thought to be predominantly British until after World War II), the transmission of cookery knowledge between and within generations, the impact of changing technology on cooking methods and recipes, nutritional advice in community cookbooks, and the transition from modernism to post-modernism, as seen in the cookbooks of Aunty Daisy and Lois Daish. This book will entertain anyone interested in food, New Zealand history, or domestic culture. "Leach provides invaluable insights into Maori food history....and provides the best commentary to date on the development of the diet and cuisine of New Zealand." Gastronomica, Fall 2012