Sunday 30 March 2014

Five Years



It's Poires au Chocolat's fifth birthday today!

The past five years have taken me from being a 19-year-old fresher to a few months off 25. So much has changed but blogging has been one of the strongest threads through it all. It's hard to describe how important this space has become to me and how protective I feel - it's been a part of my entire adult life. As I sit here facing my next five years, I know that a lot of things will look very different. Though I'm sure my path won't make it easy, I really hope that Poires au Chocolat will reach ten.



In the end, I decided to celebrate five years by writing an ebook. I'd been looking for a fun project for a few months - something I could get my teeth into - and it seemed like the perfect thing to do. I wanted it to be different to the blog but still working along the same lines. I thought something historical with lots of references to stories and literature was the sort of thing that would work.

So the ebook I'm writing is about the food sent out to the front in parcels by loved ones in World War One. It's the sort of topic I love - slightly random but fascinating to research.



I studied WWI literature for my A Level synoptic paper in my last year of school. We could read anything we liked on the topic - poetry, prose, British, German, modern or contemporary. It was one of my favourite papers to study (tough competition came from my introduction to Chaucer and a paper on William Blake) and certainly my favourite to write, with the sort of open questions I came to love at university. The things I'd read stuck with me and suddenly resurfaced when I was thinking about possible topics.

The scale of the horror and suffering during WWI is hard to comprehend as someone who has never known war, looking from a century's distance. Despite that, I hope I can commemorate it with respect. I want to focus on the small moments of joy and on the comforting power of food from home. To remember those small personal details, in some ways insignificant and everyday, but vital nonetheless.



I'm not an expert on the history (it would take a lifetime - or at least several decades - to be that) and I'm not trying to write a textbook. In many ways this ebook will be a collection of all the anecdotes and comments that have made me smile or touched me as I've read and researched. It's a way of bringing together all the bits I don't want to forget and that I find myself excitedly blurting out to friends and family.

I think that blurting feeling comes from having found the research really gripping - it's had lots of moments, twists, and surprising gems. It's also been emotional at times. Sitting in the Imperial War Museum research room reading letters written in the trenches - touching the very paper - is an experience I won't forget.

I'll also remember - for different reasons - a day I was working in the Bod and stacked up a beautiful first edition of a 1915 cookery book to find that about a third of the edges had never been cut (it looked like it hadn't been read in several decades). I had to go and ask the librarians what to do and then sit there, paper knife in hand, slitting each page of the cakes chapter. The sound of tearing paper ripping through the silence in a no-seats-left lower Rad Cam is engraved upon my memory - I was half expecting a fellow reader to perform an enthusiastic citizen's arrest.



The ebook will be split into two sections. The first part will cover the sort of things that were sent out (from cakes and chocolate to two brace of grouse, smoked salmon & clotted cream), rationing, the rules, Christmas and various other topics, with quotes and contemporary photos and that sort of thing. The second part will contain ten recipes (things like shortbread and toffee) with headnotes that describe the letters and stories that mention them.

I'm going to experiment with selling it as a PDF from the blog (though Selz.com). You won't have to leave the site to buy it. I like the idea of a PDF ebook because I want to be able to design attractive, static pages with the images set in properly.

I'm planning to finish and release it in May - I'll let you know about a date soon.

I hope you'll all like it and find it as interesting as I have. Even if not, it's been just what I needed personally. It's felt completely different from working on the beginnings of bigger book projects (far less stress and fear). It's still a challenge, just of the right sort of size. There's something wonderfully satisfying - and, to let the geek really flow, thrilling - about being on a research hunt, chasing quotes and references from book to book and archive to library and back again. It's like fitting a puzzle together.



Anyway - back to the birthday. As I've mentioned many times, one of the reasons this blog is called Poires au Chocolat is because of the pear and chocolate loaf cake (as below) that I tested that fateful Easter holiday in 2009. Yet there's also another layer, in that one of my favourite desserts growing up - and today - is the humble combination of freshly chopped pear and melted chocolate.

It's too simple for a recipe but I thought it would be perfect as the background to this post. If it helps I reckon we usually use roughly 10-15g dark chocolate per pear (melted as per the glossary) and a pear serves one. A few splashes of double cream finish things off.



My first, 100th, 200th & 300th posts (this post makes 332 overall):
1: Lemon Curd Cake
100: Butterfly Fleur de Sel Caramel Cake
200: Toffee Apples
300: Dutch Baby a.k.a. Puffed Pancake

43 comments:

  1. What Kate Baked30 March 2014 at 20:17

    Happy fifth birthday Emma! And goodness what an exciting way to celebrate- this truly sounds a fascinating project and one that must have captivated and fascinated you from your wonderful descriptions of researching the book. Look forward to reading it this May and the very best wishes for the next five years

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  2. Happy Birthday Poires au Chocolat! I remember discovering your blog a few years ago and excitedly reading through all of your archives. I've made several of your recipes and they always turn out fabulously! Your ebook sounds very interesting - what a poignant and fascinating topic to research. I look forward to its publication!

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  3. Happy Blog Birthday! This sounds amazing. I can't wait to read it :) Congratulations.

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  4. Congratulations! Your book sounds interesting to me. I once read a book devoted to the world history of food, and found it quite fascinating - it's cool to get a peek at what our ancestors ate.


    I have enjoyed reading your blog over the years, and hope you make it to ten! :)

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  5. Stephanie - The Dessert Spoon31 March 2014 at 06:43

    Happy Blog Birthday! I am looking forward to your ebook; it sounds fascinating!

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  6. Gosh, you are 2 days older than me, I started pulling my original blogspot site together on the evening of April the 1st and it went up on April 2nd. Five years has sped by, no?

    I really love the sound of your e-book. Funnily enough, a week ago I wrote a post picking out my own favourites from my blog in different categories, and some of those were essentially history essays. I started researching something, got caught up in the topic, clicked through link after link to find out more information or connect the dots and ended up producing long long posts that I suspect only a few hardy readers even read! I didn't do any offline research though, and your library experiences sound like some special times, I can just imagine you sitting there slicing the pages of that cookery book, hyper aware of the sound of the paper tearing!

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  7. WOW! 5 years. You a re supper star of a food blogger Emma. I might not have been blogging for long but I simply love reading your recipes and stories. Also congratz on the E book, I am also a keen to see what you come up with but also the photography in it!

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  8. Congratulations on your blog birthday Emma - I've enjoyed reading it for the last couple of years and especially enjoyed your coconut milk chocolate cake recipe (one of my favourite chocolate cakes!). I love your the topic of your e-book...it reminded me of a recent episode from Mr Selfridge (did you watch it?) where they pare back their window display theme commemorating the boys that have gone off to WW1. The call it 'memories from home' after the parcels that the men got sent from their loved ones - food etc. This just reminded me of that! :)
    Mandy - TheStickyFig

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  9. Happy happy blog birthday Emma. Here's to many more years! xxx

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  10. Yay for the ebook and happy 5 years Emma! Here's to many, many more (if I'm having a party on my next blog birthday, you should too - cake all round!) x

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  11. Happy Birthday! I love reading your blog as the posts are not everyday so it is exciting to receive a new email with a new blog post on. The recipes you post are delicious and I love all the info you put in your posts too. Your book sounds great. I really like the period of history covering WW1 and WW2 and can't wait to buy a copy of it!

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  12. Congratulations Emma! Five years is such an achievement! I can't wait for your ebook it sounds amazing.

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  13. Happy Blog Birthday! I can honestly say that your sites is one of my favourites, and is the best put together, so thank you so much for doing what you do. I'm looking forward to reading your ebook, it sounds fascinating, and I'm sure you're enjoying the research!

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  14. anna @ annamayeveryday31 March 2014 at 11:56

    What a great subject you have picked, I'm sure there is a lot more to it than Anzac biscuits which is about all I can think of. Good luck with your project!

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  15. Congratulations, on both the anniversary and the ebook! I think this is a wonderful post about the excitement of research. I continue to love how you mix together the academic + baking on this blog

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  16. This is so exciting! Congratulations!

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  17. There is something so wonderful about you wanting to keep those food memories alive from that era, the comforting memories those people had of their favorite foods and how they made them. It is a GREAT topic for you as you are a very detailed food writer and can pull it off with making the reader learn about what it was like 100 years ago.

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  18. really excited about your book, cannot wait for the release!

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  19. kellie@foodtoglow31 March 2014 at 21:24

    What a fantastic idea for a book! So unique. It is bound to be of interest to many. And congratulations not only on your anniversary in blogging, but also for your nomination at Saveur for best use of video. That is so fantastic! Saveur is such a great magazine and site. Good luck. All best, Kellie@foodtoglow (we sat together at FBC after your talk)

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  20. I can't tell you how good it was to get your comment - I was very nervous letting my little project out into the world and to hear that you think it sounds fascinating was wonderful!

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  21. Hehe, thanks - rejoicing all round!

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  22. I'm so pleased you are thinking of sharing it with your children - I hope they'll find it interesting. It's an important year to remember.

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  23. Thanks Kezia. It's lovely to hear that you've been happy with the recipes you've tried. & I'm glad you like the idea of the ebook!

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  24. Thanks! It feels like such a long time.

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  25. Ooh, that world history book sounds great - do you remember the title? I love a good food history book. & thank you - it feels like such a long time ago we first 'met' :)

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  26. Thank you Amy! I'm so pleased you think it's a good idea.

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  27. Thanks Sophie! Congratulations for your blog birthday, too :)

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  28. It's lovely to hear that you think it sounds fascinating - thank you.

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  29. Congratulations on 5 years of blogging!
    I was so excited to hear about your new project. About 10 years ago, my Great Aunt died. As we were sorting her belongings, we found all the letters that my Great Grandfather had sent home during his time in the trenches. It was so incredible to be able to read his words, and have those details of his life during the war. I was fascinated; I studied the same paper as you for my A levels, and then went on to research the era during my MA. I can remember the same feelings you describe as I read carefully through letters, diaries and documents in the Imperial War Museum, trying to decode the faded script. It's humbling to be able to go through these records and memories isn't it. As you say, its the small, personal, details that have the most impact. Your angle sounds fascinating, especially the recipes linked to their references. I can't wait to read it :)
    Jennie

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  30. I believe it was "Food in History" by Reay Tannahill. It's not a can't-put-it-down kind of read, but it's interesting to read about the supposed origins of things like kefir. I'm sure there's better, more modern food history books, I just picked it up at a second hand shop and gave it a go. :)

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  31. I've just had a look and and it looks interesting - thanks for letting me know. & much as I love food history, I haven't found many books on it to be can't-put-it-down types...

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  32. Thanks! I'm so pleased you think so.

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  33. Happy slightly-belated blog birthday then! They have sped by so quickly.


    I bet some do read them - I think people underestimate people's patience for reading online sometimes. I do love a good bit of offline research, libraries can definitely be inspirational. I had fun at the Post Office Archive last week. No paper slitting there thankfully, though the cover of one big book was crumbling a bit.

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  34. Thanks Belinda! I'm looking forward to doing the photography and I hope I can licence plenty of contemporary images too.

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  35. Ooh, I hadn't realised that! I've only seen the first two episodes of this series - can you remember which episode it was in? Thanks for the hint! (& I love that coconut milk cake too.)

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  36. Mmm, cake all round! Maybe I should have a ebook launch party with cake... I hadn't thought of that.

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  37. Or I could send cake/the other recipes out in parcels!

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  38. Thank you Helen, I'm so pleased that you love the blog & the idea for the ebook. It's a very interesting period - so much changes.

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  39. Thank you Jenny, it really does feel like a long time (though in some ways it's sped by, as always) - I've learnt such a huge amount doing it. I'm so pleased you like the ebook idea.

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  40. I'm really touched, Rachel, thank you. Out of curiosity, what do you mean by put together? x

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  41. I'm glad you like the topic. My mum used to make Anzac biscuits when I was little - they were delicious. To try and restrict the topic to a manageable area I'm only looking at things sent from Britain to British soldiers (Gallipoli and Egypt as well as the Western Front & Italy) so sadly Anzac biscuits aren't going to be included.

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  42. All the different elements run together and compliment each other (photos, videos, design, text etc.) without feeling forced. Branding that has come naturally, rather than specifically being planned out.

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