How to Preserve Husbands

Husbands, like peaches, will not keep all year round unless they are well preserved.  First select him carefully: be sure he is not too green, neither should he be overripe. He might look very tempting and mellow in the market but if he is too old he will not stand the test of the preserving process, but will expose his hard stoney heart.

Husbands grown in the tropics of pleasure look very fine, but are usually insipid. The home grown are the best!  Select your husband, if possible, from a family tree growing on the sunny side of the Church – you will be sure he has a sound heart.  Unsound husbands, like unsound peaches, often have to be sorrowfully cast away.  Having selected your husband, you should have a clear, steady, cheery fire of love – your preserving pan, (The Home) must be clean and neat.  Give him plenty of sweetness, much sugar is needed – vinegar is never used in sweet preserves.  If you think he demands a little spice, use it with caution.  Do not keep stirring him up, neither should you keep poking him with sharp points to see if he is done – it will spoil his good looks. 
 If you follow this recipe, love will be preserved.....

My Hubby
There were always certain qualities that were important to me and in my mind and heart I always carried an image, a fantasy, a wish I guess, of a wonderful person I could love totally...  My Husband has given me what I always wished for, fun and laughter, concern and understanding, a trustworthy friend, a lover to cherish,  a partner in everything I do, a dependable, caring and supportive father for our children, he's a good provider and a great handyman around the Home.  The backbone of our family, I would be completely lost without him.
Sometimes I think I stir him up just a little too much, but I have learnt that if add a little bit of extra sugar, a dash of patience and a pound of understanding at the end of the day, it seems to keep everything blending quite nicely in our little preserving pan...  

Have you preserved your Husband yet? 
 Maybe you have had him salted and cured or perhaps sugar coated, is he pickled, soaked up with Brandy or Rum...

 Maybe you've Smoked him!!

The above preserving recipe is just one of my many favourite recipes from the Wheatland’s  70^th  Jubilee Recipe Book  1913 – 1983.

 I just love old style country cookbooks,  I have quite a collection in my cupboard, mostly from the local country areas where either myself or my husband grew up. 

This Wheatland’s recipe book was snatched from passed onto me from my mother. Wheatlands is a very small rural area in the South Burnett district, Queensland, near where my family grew up.  It is like a bible to me. It is  full of great old fashioned recipes, 

and I found this particular preserve is the wonderful 

Handy Hints section.

There is no author attached to this particular piece above nor the other kind words of wisdom and random sayings scattered throughout the pages, but I would like to acknowledge the Wheatland P&C association and Jubilee committee and all the cooks who kindly donated their time and favourite recipes for this special edition back in 1983.
Well done Ladies...