While less than desirable, these dishes and others like it helped early settlers survive and the recipes can be found in what is considered Australia's first cookbook, written by Tasmanian landowner Edward Abbott (who needs Jamie Oliver?).

The cookbook shows how British settlers adapted their cooking to local ingredients, adding the strange flora and fauna of the new continent to dishes they already knew.

So just how do you whip up a Slippery Bob? ABC says you take kangaroo brains, mix with flour and water into a batter and cook in emu fat. Yummy.

The English and Australian Cookery Book is on show at Tasmania's state library in Hobart to coincide with the 150th anniversary of its publication.

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