Welsh Susan’s secret recipes have found their way to the Pembroke council in the form of a book Susan’s Secrets – A Victorian Kitchen in Wales, published by granddaughter Jenny Kenna.

Ms Kenna has presented a signed copy of the book for the Pembroke library.

She took the initiative because her grandma Susan Webb was from the Welsh County of Pembrokeshire.

And it was in Pembroke, Wales, when, in 1892, Ms Webb, 15, began her working life as a kitchen maid, while being trained up to become the cook. Pembroke in Malta is twinned with Pembroke in Wales.

During this apprenticeship, each evening she would have to sit down at the kitchen table and, under the watchful eye of the stern old Victorian cook, meticulously write recipes in her cookery notebook.

When Jenny discovered her grandmother’s hand-written cookery notebook it was as if she had found a hidden treasure.

The notebook contained over 70 recipes, largely focusing on cakes and puddings, but it also included savoury dishes and a few surprises such as ‘How to make Orange Gin’

It also contained a small collection of poetry Susan Webb had so carefully copied.

Jenny soon began to cook each recipe according to her grandmother’s notebook.

The results were so good that she thought of publishing the book - a feat accomplished last May when the book was published by Ceiniog of Cardiff.

The cookery book it shows the original pages from the old notebook, with ‘up-to-date’ versions of the old recipes and glimpses of Susan Webb’s life and history.

The Welsh Books Council recently announced that this book was in their ‘top ten’ best-selling list in Wales for the month of June and a second ediction has been printed.