Now, as it prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary, the Glasgow Cookery Book is ready to impart its wisdom to a fresh audience.

Once the bible of Scottish cuisine, the recipe book was the set text for the Glasgow and West of Scotland College of Domestic Science, affectionately known as the Dough School by locals.

Its tried and tested recipes formed the foundations of modern home economics, and the book found its way on to kitchen shelves across the country.

As fans of the publication prepare to celebrate the centenary of its first appearance, graduates of the school, now incorporated into Glasgow Caledonian University, have come together to revamp and revise the original text in preparation for an anniversary relaunch next month.

The university, along with publisher Waverley Books, are keen to track down as many Dough School graduates as possible to attend a launch event on September 23.

The new book, however, would never have seen the light of day had it not been for the chance discovery by Glasgow crime novelist Alex Gray of her late Aunt Ella’s handwritten notes, which made up the basis of the 1910 edition.

Looking into the notes’ origin -- a process Ms Gray describes as “a cookery detective story” -- the author realised the value of what she had and, helped by GCU archivist Carole McCallum, she pieced together the early history of the book.

A team of Dough School alumni were convened, and together they produced a new version designed to appeal to the modern chef.

Though controversial recipes such as sheep’s head broth have been relegated to the introduction because of changes to health and safety laws, and shifting public taste, the editors promise that fans of the original will not be disappointed.

The book’s 50-page foreword charts the evolution of Glasgow’s cookery schools, and shows how their work shaped wider culture in Scotland.

Originally developed by Victorian philanthropists to educate the working classes, the city’s home economics colleges, later amalgamated into one, instilled discipline and domestic skills and turned out thousands of marriageable young women to run the nation’s homes.

But while some of the values it inspired may seem outdated today, the college was also years ahead of its time on the issue of gender equality.

Isobel Scott Gibson, who became principal of the Dough School in 1947, preached the merits of teaching boys home economics long before it caught on in mainstream education.

In a 1962 interview with The Herald, she said that teaching boys what they regarded as “girls’ work” was in fact “simply equipping them to play an equal part in the partnership of marriage”.

And thanks in part to the lessons they learned at the Dough School, many female graduates went on to exert considerable influence on the world around them.

Jenny Fraser, who graduated in 1942, travelled with her husband to teach home economics in Zambia.

She said: “I used the textbook all the time while I was there, and it was only last autumn that my copy got damp and had to be discarded. I’d had it since 1938.

“We taught the pupils to cook Scottish food. The main thing they had was barley, and they didn’t go much beyond that. It wasn’t easy to get the ingredients -- you had to send down the line of rail, and you’d get them about thee weeks later.”

Ms Fraser, who now lives in Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow, also ran cookery lessons for soldiers in the Falklands and on Ascension Island.

Along with the dozen cook school graduates who helped shape the new book, she believes that the cheap, nutritious recipes it contains could set a valuable example to younger generations growing up without the advantages of an education in domestic arts.

Though several more exotic meals have been included for modern palates, including moussaka and curry, the new book harks back to the days

when food was fresh, local, and reliant on simple skills -- and when fancy foreign food was more or less unheard of.

Another graduate, Betty Orr recalled her colleagues being utterly bemused by European dishes during her time at the school. “I remember making paella for an open night in 1967, but hardly anyone knew what it was,” she said.