Heirloom Recipes.

This is not to be maudlin but maybe just a gentle heads-up. I'm about to turn fifty and all my close relatives except my Mom have passed away. I have tried to duplicate many of the recipes that these wonderful people have served me through the years but it is just not the same.

I grew up in Western New York and so it was a rather ethnic enviornment. We had stuffed cabbages, stuffed peppers, beef on weck, red hots, white hots, goulash, on and on and on. My Aunt Ester made the best spaghetti sauce that I have ever had. My grandmother made cornmeal mush, creamed onions and potato pancakes that were to die for. My Aunt Florence made the best baked beans in the world.

I know that this is nostalgia and maybe I am feeling my age but it seems to me that we should make sure that we go to our loved ones and write down the recipes of the foods that they served to us. The foods that we loved as children. The foods that gave us comfort.

When we want that stuffed cabbage that Grandma made we can have it.


BB

quote:

Originally posted by BakersBoy

This is not to be maudlin but maybe just a gentle heads-up. I'm about to turn fifty and all my close relatives except my Mom have passed away. I have tried to duplicate many of the recipes that these wonderful people have served me through the years but it is just not the same.

I grew up in Western New York and so it was a rather ethnic enviornment. We had stuffed cabbages, stuffed peppers, beef on weck, red hots, white hots, goulash, on and on and on. My Aunt Ester made the best spaghetti sauce that I have ever had. My grandmother made cornmeal mush, creamed onions and potato pancakes that were to die for. My Aunt Florence made the best baked beans in the world.

I know that this is nostalgia and maybe I am feeling my age but it seems to me that we should make sure that we go to our loved ones and write down the recipes of the foods that they served to us. The foods that we loved as children. The foods that gave us comfort.

When we want that stuffed cabbage that Grandma made we can have it.


BB

Now adays you can actually videotape someone cooking the classic. I've known people to do that and they were glad they did. Beyond a nice nostalgic look back, you can catch some of the nuances that can't be written down.

BB, you are so right in your thinking about recipes that not only give us comfort but keep us close to those we've loved and lost. I have many recipes of my mother's but try as I might, nothing ever turns out tasting like hers did, so I'm convinced that the taste of her meals included the love that she put into them.

I'd give most anything to have her fried chicken once more, or any one of her wonderful pies. She made chicken and dumplings that could bring tears to your eyes. I could go on and on, as probably most anyone else here could also, about their Moms, Grandmas, Aunts, etc., cooking. Again, I say thank goodness for memories. Even if we can't make things taste the same, we have the memory of those delicious foods.

Donna

I started cookbooks (in scrapbooks) for my boys. Part cookbook, part photo album, part scrapbook. We only put in a recipe after they, themselves, have prepared it. When they move away they'll each have a collection of family recipes that they already know how to prepare. I'm so glad I thought to have my Grandmother write out her "Simple Simon Chicken" recipe in her own handwriting (one copy for each boy's book). When we visited their Great-Grandma, we took extensive photos and notes while they learned lobster spaghetti and gnocchis from her. Now that one son has a digital camera, we'll have to take more food photos to add to the books because it helps a lot to know what something is supposed to look like!
That reminds me--I need to get my mom to contribute a "signature dish" for the books...

Best of luck BB. I'm about to turn 60 and my Mom's in her 80's. I began to think about this around the same time you did. Trouble is, I went to her and said, "Hey Ma, can I get the recipe for that ____ you cooked when I was a kid that I loved so much?" and she replied, "What _____?" Mom doesn't have Alzheimer's or anything. I fact she's very sharp. She just never thought the recipes I liked were any big deal and she's pretty much foregotten them. I think my sister, who is more sentimental than I, has gone through Mom's old written recipes and copied over the stuff she liked but the ones only I enjoyed are gone.

That's the problem BT the ones we remember and loved so much, my Mom could make a wonderful Yorkshire Pudding, are now gone. Thanks for the best wishes and good luck on your 60th.

BB (Kevin)

My mom saved all my Nana's recipes as well as some of her other relatives, in their own hand in a huge file cabinet. I went through a few years ago and put them all into scrapbooks and photoalbums, and out of my 2000 plus cookbook collection, these gems are the ones I most often run to.

Originally posted by redtressed

My mom saved all my Nana's recipes as well as some of her other relatives, in their own hand in a huge file cabinet. I went through a few years ago and put them all into scrapbooks and photoalbums, and out of my 2000 plus cookbook collection, these gems are the ones I most often run to.
[2000 plus cookbooks! And I thought I had a big collection. My favorites are mostly church,clubs etc, especially the ones where the people put their name by their recipe. Which ones do you like best?

mbrookes, like you, I'd have to say all the civic organizations, church and such are my favorite. I also love the southern living annual editions, and collections in general. My bread bible is called "The Village Baker" and features bread recipes from around the world, and I haven't had one fail yet.