Download (14Mb) - VUIR - Victoria University

When the daily work was done, the family could relax in the evening about the
large open fire which, with its accessories of poker, shovel, fire tongs for holding the
embers, spit and hooks and chains for the pans, represented the gathering point of the
home. Sitting on the large stones to the side of the fire, a building feature translated
from their Swiss and Italian villages,^'* the children could watch the evening meal as it
cooked: large pots of soup, pasta from Lucinis' macaroni factory in Spring Creek,
polenta^^ and risotto. Most of these hearty dishes, which recalled the alpine climate in
which they had been created, needed long preparation times and the dedication of
several family members. The majority of dishes were vegetable-based (the vegetables
and herb gardens thus always placed near the home for convenience), some families
adding potatoes to cooking pasta for extra body (and to save use of another pot). The
heavy reliance on butter and other dairy products reflected the culinary habits of the
Lombard peasant, and a time when, as tenant farmers, they had paid their rent in
butter,^* Bread was one of the few prepared items purchased outside the home, the
large number of Italian-speaking bakers operating around Jim Crow making this
possible. Fresh meat, apart from a rabbit caught in the local forest, was a rare treat,
most families relying on a supply of pre-prepared and preserved sausages.
Dried and preserved foods had always been an important component of the
Italian speakers' diet, the harsh alpine climate necessitating their storage for the winter
months. Salami, bacon, cheese, bottled sauces and jams were among the most common
foods set aside in the cellar. Pork-based sausages, called cudeghini (a version of the
more weU-known Italian sausage cotechind), formed the basis of their meat supply
along with other sausages containing varying amounts of beef or donkey meat. They
383