A NEW book is to give Notts cooks a chance to try their hand at weird and wonderful recipes their ancestors enjoyed.

Librarian and keen cook Carol Barstow put together 100 recipes from the mid-1700s she found in a collection called The Receipt Book of Grandmother Gell – and made them easy for modern cooks to recreate.

Ms Barstow, who found the recipes at Notts Archives when she was studying for a local history MA at the University of Nottingham, said: "There's a mixture of the delicious and the bizarre. There's a recipe for something called Wiggs, which is a rich bread flavoured with caraway seeds which is nice.

"Then there's instructions on how to hash a calf's head – which is something I haven't done a modern equivalent for!"

Other recipes included how to pickle a pig and plenty of cakes and biscuits.

Six years after her studies Ms Barstow decided to create the book, which has taken her four years to compile.

The collection came to the archives from the Edge family of Strelley Hall, who were related to the Gell family of Derbyshire.

It was put together in the 1740s and 1750s but recipes could be even older as they are attributed to "Grandmother Gell."

Ms Barstow, 48, of Farnsfield, near Southwell, said: "I fell in the love with the recipes when I was studying.

"It has been a fascinating process working through them.

"It has been a real challenge to convert them into ones that can be cooked in our modern ovens and yet still have that authentic taste of the past."

Carol, who was inspired to cook by her own family's recipes that have been handed down through generations, said her family, which includes two adult daughters, and her colleagues at Bromley House Library, had benefited from her baking efforts.

"I've really enjoyed cooking them – some worked out and some didn't and then you realise what you need to change. "One weekend I made nine dozen cakes," she said.

'In Grandmother Gell's Kitchen', published by the county council's Libraries, Archives and Information Publications Group, was launched yesterday at Rufford Mill.

She said she wanted to thank council staff for their help with the project.

Councillor John Cottee, cabinet member for culture and community, said: "This book is a wonderful way of preserving our culinary heritage and I hope people are inspired to cook from it."

Notts Archives and county libraries will sell the book for £5.95, or it can be obtained by post for £8.95 by sending a cheque payable to Nottinghamshire County Council to Libraries, Archives and Information, Communities Department, 4th Floor, County Hall, West Bridgford, Nottingham, NG2 7QP.