Heirloom Recipes

[Heather]

Thanksgiving is coming up, and it seems to be the holiday that demands tradition. In light of that here's one of my family recipes.

My paternal grandmother, Ruth Denny Johnson, was born in Pawhuska, Oklahoma Territory, 100 years ago this week. Grandma Ruth was five feet tall with red hair, an incandescently profane Irish temper, and a fearless outlook on life (her first job was lookout for my great-grandfather's rumrunning during Prohibition). Her cooking was downhome and unpretentious and her specialities were chicken-fried steak, ham with red-eye gravy, Indian corn pudding, and biscuits. I inherited many of her recipes, along with her temper and a love of very hot coffee. Here's one in her honor, just as she wrote it out for me:

Corn Pudding

1 (#2) can corn, be sure to drain it

1 (#2) can creamed corn

1/2 cup yellow corn meal

1/4 cup melted bacon grease

2 beaten eggs

1 cup milk

Mix everything and pour into a greased baking dish. Bake in a medium oven (350 degrees) for 40-45 minutes until browned. Serve with molasses if you like it sweet.

This was always on the table at Thanksgiving. You could use fresh corn, or butter instead of the bacon fat, but if you do, it won't taste like my Grandma's.

[zoramargolis]

Corn Pudding

1 (#2) can corn, be sure to drain it

1 (#2) can creamed corn

1/2 cup yellow corn meal

1/4 cup melted bacon grease

2 beaten eggs

1 cup milk

Mix everything and pour into a greased baking dish. Bake in a medium oven (350 degrees) for 40-45 minutes until browned. Serve with molasses if you like it sweet.

This was always on the table at Thanksgiving. You could use fresh corn, or butter instead of the bacon fat, but if you do, it won't taste like my Grandma's.

Jonathan LOVES corn pudding, and this recipe sounds like just the ticket! I'm not waiting for Thanksgiving to make it--just the next time a mood stabilizer is indicated.

[Heather]

Thanks Zora, I just love it - especially the bacon "grease". That wasn't a bad word back then.

Do you have a recipe you'd like to post?

[Pat]

Most of our family recipes weren't written down. I wish I had written some of them down, but I always thought I would remember how they were made. One thing I really regret was throwing away my mother's recipe for beef vegetable soup when I was a vegetarian. I threw away a lot of recipes because I was sure, at 20ish, I would never eat meat again . Stupid kids. I can do a fair approximation of it remembering how she (and my grandmother) made it, but I really wish I hadn't thrown the recipe away .

This is one family recipe I do have. I make them almost every year, unless I'm really swamped and don't bake cookies at all. As I recall, the recipe originally dated to a sister-in-law of my grandmother's and may be Pennsylvania Dutch.

These are the cookies my grandmother, then my aunt, then I would make every year for Christmas - well, actually, from Thanksgiving through New Years. For some of the Christmas batches I decorate them with red and green sugar crystals instead of the sugar-cinnamon-nut. They are a lot of work but are just wonderful. I remember my aunt one year complaining that she had spent almost a whole day making these and then the entire batch was gone by the time whatever football game people were watching was over (The recipe makes a *lot* of cookies. I've never counted.)

Sand Tarts

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tablespoon water

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 cups flour, sifted

Combine all ingredients and work into a dough. Roll thin and cut with cookie

cutters. Brush with egg white, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon; press nut in

center. Bake in preheated 375° oven for 8-10 minutes.

[Heather]

And one from the other side of my family. My maternal grandmother Laverne Gonia Hanover was the daughter of immigrants from Chemnitz Germany, and grew up in the German neighborhood in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After she married my grandfather in 1946 and moved to his hometown of Boston she reinvented herself as a proper New Englander, and spoke only reluctantly about her ethnic roots. I never met my great-grandmother, and I have only some embroidery (she was a sought-after seamstress) and two recipes as her legacy. Here's one I will be making this weekend:

Sylvia's Warmer Kartoffelsalat

2 lb. small white potatoes

1 t. salt

1/2 c. diced bacon

1/2 c. minced onion

1-1/2 T. flour

4 t. sugar

1 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1/4-1/3 c. cider vinegar

1/2 c. water

1/4 c. minced onion

1/2 c. sliced radishes

Cook potatoes in their jackets with 1 t. salt about 35 min. Peel and cut into 1/4-inch slices.

In a small skillet, fry bacon until crisp. Add the 1/2 c. minced onion and fry just until tender (do not brown).

Meanwhile, mix flour, sugar, 1 t. salt, and pepper. Stir in vinegar and water until smooth. Add to bacon. Simmer, stirring, until slightly thickened.

Pour hot dressing over potatoes. Add 1/4 c. minced onion and radishes and toss. Serves 4-6.

[zoramargolis]

Do you have a recipe you'd like to post?

Well, yes and no. My mother was a passable cook, but in the 50's, many of her traditional Russian-Jewish recipes got "modernized" with garlic powder, canned soup, and bottled salad dressing. In some cases, I've eliminated her shortcuts, but there really aren't too many things I currently make that I ate when I was growing up.

Here are a couple:

Koteleten

1- 1 1/4 lbs. ground beef

1 egg

1/3 c. cracker or matzo meal

1/3 c. tomato juice

1 clove garlic, crushed

dash worcestershire sauce

1/8 tsp. salt & grind of black pepper

cracker or matzo meal for breading

shallow vegetable oil for frying

Mix meat and egg together, combine tomato juice and cracker meal until it forms a thick paste. Add to meat mixture along with garlic, worcestershire, S&P. Mix until thoroughly combined (I use my hands). Form oval, slightly flattened patties, roll in dry crumbs and fry in shallow oil until browned and cooked through. Serve with spicy ketchup.

Sweet and Sour Cabbage Borscht

1 large or 2 medium onions

5 or 6 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 small/ medium head green cabbage

2 stalks of celery (with leaves)

2 carrots

3 or 4 T. olive oil

Nice chunk of stewing beef (shank or chuck), bone-in

Large can of peeled tomatoes

3 or 4 bay leaves

Several stalks fresh thyme and Italian parsley

Salt and pepper

Honey or sugar to taste

Lemon juice, cider vinegar or citric acid to taste

Chop onions, carrots and celery. Brown meat in olive oil in a large, enameled cast iron pot. Remove meat and sweat the mirepoix in the oil, then add garlic. Chop cabbage into medium (spoon-sized) chunks. Add to pot, and saute briefly. Add canned tomatoes (chop them slightly if whole) and return meat to pot. Add enough water to cover everything well, add bay leaves, herbs and s&p. Simmer on stove top or put in oven on low heat for a couple of hours, adding hot water occasionally, as the soup reduces. When the meat is falling apart tender, add sweetening and sour elements gradually to taste, until it suits you. Cook for another half hour or so, to blend all the flavors. Remove the herb stalks.

Serve with a big dollop of sour cream in the bowl, and fresh rye bread and sweet butter on the side.

[jparrott]

Corn Pudding

Y'know, I've been looking for a memorizable method for making corn/Indian pudding, and this is just the ticket. It's my favorite fall dessert, and I hate having to look it up this time (which is to say, yes, I'd add molasses and some high-corn bourbon such as Old Forester).

(What size is a #2 can?)

[Heather]

A #2 can is, or was, about 20 ounces.

And I think I might make that borscht this weekend.

[The Hersch]

Serve with spicy ketchup.

Spicy ketchup?

[zoramargolis]

Spicy ketchup?

Ketchup mixed with hot sauce...

[Al Dente]

A recipe from my great great great grandaddy Deppity Bob (scroll down to the "Escape from Lincoln" segment):

Blazin' Saddles Fireside Beans

It's funny that ketchup was mentioned above. My mother made a navy bean soup with sausage which was terribly bland until one added a major shot of ketchup. The ketchup made it pretty damn tasty.

[rkduggins]

I'll add a recipe to the mix. An easy refrigerator dough that was a staple at all Lenderman (mother's kin) holiday tables, and now mine. My dad has requested these rolls during my Christmas visit. BTW who Mrs. Butler is has been lost to the ages.

Mrs. Butler's Rolls

5 T Wesson oil

1/2 c. sugar

1 t. salt

Pour over this 1 c. boiling water

Dissolve 1 package yeast in 1/2 c. warm water

When first mixture has cooled, add 2 beaten eggs and yeast then 5 c. flour. Mix well. Place in greased bowl, cover tightly and put in refrigerator. Use as needed. (Pinch off desired amounts, place in greased pan, let rise 1 hour and bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.

Another Lenderman family gem...

Brown Sugar Pound Cake

1/2 lb butter

1/2 c Crisco (solid vegetable shortening)

1 box plus 1 c. brown sugar

5 eggs

1 c. milk

3 1/2 c. flour

1/2 t. baking powder

1 1/4 t. vanilla

Cream butter, Crisco and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat thouroughly. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk. Add vanilla.

Pour into well greased and floured tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.

[Heather]

Thanks Rachel. How long will the dough keep in the fridge?

[rkduggins]

The dough will keep for a few days, growing all the while. It is important to keep it well oiled to avoid its drying out.

[Pat]

This isn't a family heirloom, but I've been making it for many years, and it always seems to be expected in the Thanksgiving--New Year's time frame. I got it quite a few years ago from a package of cranberries, and Ocean Spray doesn't have it on their web site. I thought I had posted it somewhere but couldn't dig it up when I looked. I was getting rather nervous about finding it again. I thought I'd lost my copy of the recipe but just located it (fortunately), so here it is. It's a pretty standard recipe, but I rely on it because it always comes out just right.

I generally use walnuts, and when I'm feeling lazy, I'll omit or reduce the amount of orange peel

Cranberry Fruit-Nut Bread

from Ocean Spray fresh cranberries package, n.d.

(makes 1 loaf)

1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, coarsely chopped

½ cup chopped nuts

1 Tbsp. grated orange peel

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. baking soda

2 Tbsp. shortening

¾ cup orange juice

1 egg, well-beaten

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Generously grease and lightly flour a 9”x5”x3” loaf pan. Prepare cranberries, nuts, and orange peel. Set aside. In a bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and soda. Cut in shortening. Stir in orange juice, egg, and orange peel, mixing just to moisten. Fold in cranberries and nuts. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake 60 minutes or until wooden pick in center comes out clean. Cool on a rack 15 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely. Wrap and store overnight

[goldenticket]

Spicy ketchup?

My grandma used it on top of her meatloaf - although it looks like Heinz has glammed up the product and it now has Tabasco in it. The 70s version looked much like a regular old ketchup bottle, but was called Spicy Ketchup. (and no, I don't have that meatloaf recipe, but it was always good ). I will try to find my other grandmother's cinnamon roll recipe and post it.

[beezy]

Slightly off-topic, but has anyone thought of compiling family recipes into a book, selling it and giving the proceeds to charity? Self-publishing is easy these days, and there's lots of print on demand sites, like Lulu - http://www.lulu.com/

[Heather]

Slightly off-topic, but has anyone thought of compiling family recipes into a book, selling it and giving the proceeds to charity? Self-publishing is easy these days, and there's lots of print on demand sites, like Lulu - http://www.lulu.com/

I have collected recipes and used a similar service as a school fundraiser. It is very easy.

Maybe one day we could do a DR.com collection and give the proceeds to charity. I'd buy it.

[Pat]

One thing I really regret was throwing away my mother's recipe for beef vegetable soup when I was a vegetarian. I threw away a lot of recipes because I was sure, at 20ish, I would never eat meat again . Stupid kids. I can do a fair approximation of it remembering how she (and my grandmother) made it, but I really wish I hadn't thrown the recipe away .

I didn't throw it away! I'm so happy

Searching through endless boxes of old recipes and clippings to organize the mess, I found it. It's is my handwriting, not hers. I thought she had written it out, but it's in pencil in my youthful handwriting and is so faded I can barely read it. Either I copied it from something she had written down or she dictated it. I'm leaning towards the latter from the way I've recorded it. It's rather cryptic and isn't even titled. I don't remember it using celery, and I don't put that in. The only meat bones I remember her using were a package of short ribs.

Beef Vegetable Soup

1 1 /2 quarts water

1 can tomatoes

1/4 cup barley (extra)

salt and pepper

celery

onion

parsley flakes

meat bone

Simmer one hour.

5 potatoes, diced

3 carrots

Cook another 1/2 hour

1/2 pkg. limas, peas, cut corn, cut green beans (mixed vegetables)

[hillvalley]

After a recent visit with my 91 year old grandmother I've been thinking about heirloom recipes lately. One of her many specialties is mandle bread, aka kamish bread. (When I was diagnosed with my learning disability in the mid-90's I suddenly discovered I had been hearing a number of words wrong my whole life. Included in the list was kaNish bread. But I digress.) It is the Jewish version of biscotti, although my grandmother's version is much softer an always includes chunks of chocolate.

Over the years I have made it a few times with my grandmother, but I'm not a baker nor do I own the machinery needed to make the dough. I don't want to contemplate the disaster a solo attempt would become. My aunt makes it once in a while but even she admits that it is not as good as her mother's. Recently I asked my mother who would make her grandchildren kanish bread and she just laughed.

Which leaves this hillvalley family staple hanging on for as long as grandma is able to stand a hot kitchen. She's not going anywhere any time soon, but thinking about grandma's kanish bread makes me wonder what other recipes the family has lost along the way? One is shmaltz with grated radish.

I hate these type of questions but, what recipes do you remember that are no longer around? Have you ever revived one?

[pax]

I noticed a funny thing when my Grandmother died. Christmas holidays were held at her house, and she did most of the cooking. The year following her death, my step-mum and my aunts divided up Grandma's recipes. It was soothing, to see the things materialize under my aunts' hands. Sadly, my family is now very far flung, but I understand that those back home still stick to the recipes they "inherited". I've collected them all so I can put them on the table for my family, but they are definitely missing something.

[DanCole42]

Luckily, all of my family's heirloom recipes are available through Amazon.com.

http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?showtopic=9392

[Sthitch]

I noticed a funny thing when my Grandmother died. Christmas holidays were held at her house, and she did most of the cooking. The year following her death, my step-mum and my aunts divided up Grandma's recipes. It was soothing, to see the things materialize under my aunts' hands. Sadly, my family is now very far flung, but I understand that those back home still stick to the recipes they "inherited". I've collected them all so I can put them on the table for my family, but they are definitely missing something.

When my wife's grandmother was too debilitated by Alzheimer’s to continue to Christmas morning culinary rituals my wife took over the duties. She still uses the same recipes as her grandmother and since she learned how to make all of the cakes and savory bits from her long before that horrible condition first manifested itself at least the food on Christmas morning tastes the same even if it is not accompanied by her grandmother's infectious smile and laugh.

[zoramargolis]

Once in a very blue moon, I make blintzes the way my mother taught me. My husband is very fond of kotleten, Russian-style pan-fried ground beef cakes-- that recipe is many generations old. And I also make a family variant of that dish with ground veal, Kotelet Pojarsky, a more refined version. And I still make meatloaf with Campbell's Vegetable Soup the way she did in the 50's--not sure that one qualifies as an heirloom recipe however. My mom makes dessert knishes with sour cream and sugar in the dough and a filling of sweetened farmer cheese and crushed pineapple that she probably adapted from her grandmother, who was supposed to have been a good cook. It's not at all like an archetypal New York potato knish--the dough is rolled out into a large rectangle, the filling is spread on and it is rolled up and sliced and then baked, the way that rugelach are. I've never made them--kind of time consuming and while they are good, especially with sour cream on the side, there are other desserts I prefer.

Other traditional foods my parents occasionally ate--like black radish and schmaltz that hillvalley mentioned, were strictly nostalgic for them. And kishka goes in that category. Not things I ever liked or would consider making. Other family favorites--chopped chicken liver, farmer salad with cottage cheese and sour cream, bananas and sour cream, chopped eggplant, chopped herring --maybe.

[bookluvingbabe]

My grandmother's kamish bread, which I recall had vanilla instead of almond and she made without nuts because I hated nuts as a child. No other details remain though I think she used a recipe from a cookbook for Jewish Hospital in St. Louis or one of the local temples.

And her coffee cake, which took an entire Saturday to make, and as she got older, only made when she had received both a cortisone shot for her knee and a B-12 shot....

Somehow I don't think I would like my mother's mac and cheese with Cheese Wiz today but in the first years after she died, I longed for a recipe for it.

Oh, and the proportions to make luchen (?) and cheese--cottage cheese with egg noodles...

Sighing....

[Pat]

Oh, and the proportions to make luchen (?) and cheese--cottage cheese with egg noodles...

Sighing....

I have Armenian recipes for something like this. My MIL's uses cottage cheese, but I have one from a cookbook using feta. Does the recipe use eggs?