Some of my favorite recipes for family gatherings and special occasions came from my grandmother. If food is love, then passing what you know about how to prepare it is passing on your love in way.
I ran across an article on Treehugger the other day, though, that argued the opposite. As our food choices have expanded {we have access to foods our grandparents wouldn’t have been able to get a hold of}, our interest in recreating those family recipes has waned. We’ve expanded our culinary prowess, and while our grandparents had to make do with what they had, what they could put up, and what would get them through potentially long choice-less winters at the local grocery stores, we don’t. We can get pretty much whatever, whenever. To a certain extent, I can see this argument, BUT,on the flip side, I think that just a couple of generations back, they cooked primarily from scratch. I know lots of people who don’t know how to make their own foods–as they have grown up almost entirely on store-bought pre-packaged foods. So, in that respect, having grandma’s recipes is like having her wisdom. In fact, my grandmother’s jello salad is one of my all time favorite recipes. When I make it, I think of her…every time. And yes, it’s not going to turn the heads of any chefs, but it always gets gobbled up, and it’s a part of my history.
So, while I see the appeal to expanding on grandma’s staple recipes, leaving them behind entirely seems sad to me. I hope to pass them on–like it will keep her alive forever, in a way.
How about YOU, do you have any family recipes that you still use? Are they an important part of your identity? Or, did you leave them all behind in favor for a different style of cooking?
~Mavis
Beks says
About two years ago, my parents put together a cookbook of recipes from my mom’s dad’s family, and his several siblings and their family’s (my grandpa had about ten siblings, so there were tons of recipes to be had). One of the recipes that ended up in the book was actually from my dad’s mom, for Macaroni Meatballs. We made it last weekend, and it was absolutely delicious, and comforting, and took me back to a potluck at my grandparents’ church when I was a kid. I love that old family recipes trigger a memory to helps you to stay close to those who’ve passed on. <3
Kathy says
My grandmother’s recipes are a staple in my house. They’re the go-to meals when I don’t know what to make. Since they also make enough to feed a small army, I’ve plenty of leftovers and freezer meals. We also try new to us recipes, sometimes keeprs, sometimes not. Hungarian lauer cabnage (sauerkraut, rice, pork and soir cream layered ) is nottjust for holidays in my family any more!
Tracy Sch says
Hungarian lauer cabnage sounds amazing! Can you please share the recipe?
Tracy Sch says
Both my Grandma and Mom’s recipes are cherished and used through out the year. Now that my Grandma doesn’t bake anymore, I started making the Christmas Treats she would always make and give to each family at Christmas when I was a kid. I bring them to our family Christmas gathering and we automatically start reminiscing about Christmas’ past. It’s comfort food at it’s best, and it feels like a hug. My Mom is no longer with us so it’s really special for my kids to have something that Grandma made for them. Of course they tell me “it’s good, but Grandma’s was better”, but I’m perfectly ok with that. It keeps her memory with us. There is a reason they call it “comfort food”, it’s the memories that a particular food evokes when you eat it. I will pass these recipes onto my kids as well as teach each of them to make blackberry jam like my Mom did, and Chocolate Zucchini Cake, like my Grandma did.
Kathy says
My grandmother’s recipes are a staple in my house. They’re the go-to meals when I don’t know what to make. Since they also make enough to feed a small army, I’ve plenty of leftovers and freezer meals. We also try new to us recipes, sometimes keeprs, sometimes not. Hungarian lauer cabnage (sauerkraut, rice, pork and soir cream layered ) is nottjust for holidays in my family any more!
oh goodness, I jist notoced typos! Hungarian layer cabbage. Drain sauerkraut but do not rimse it. Take a pork roast, any kind, cut into 1″ cubes, put in pan to brown off with diced onion, sprinkled with paprika and garlic powder. In a baking pan (like small roast pan), put a layer of sauerkraut then sprinkle rice (NOT minute rice), then pork. Spread sour cream on pork. Repeat
ayers, finishing with sauerkraut. Cover with water, put lid on and bake 350 degrees F until rice is done, about 2 hrs.
Tracy Sch says
Thank you!!
Cheryl @ Living Design says
Many of the family recipes I make are holiday specific, or other foods that my great-grandparents brought with them from “the old country” like borscht and rugelach. One of my favorite gifts that we received for our wedding was a book one of my aunts out together of family recipes. She reached out to both sides of my family, so I have all the recipes that older relatives thought worth passing down all in one place.
I do somewhat agree with the person who said we cook differently day to day though. For a regular weekday meal, I tend to cook with more seasonal, local ingredients — both of my grandmothers used canned veggies cooked until grey when my parents were growing up! Also many of the family recipes I have feed a horde, and there are only two of us in my house. When I made my family’s recipe for borscht earlier this winter, it cooked in a 5 gallon pot. We still have many portions in the freezer! It’s not practical to make that many leftovers all the time.
Patti says
I have both my mother’s and grandmother’s recipe books in addition to my grandmother’s 1950 Better Homes and Garden cookbook. I use all three all of the time. I plan to make copies and pass them onto my boys. I will have to explain what a few ingredients are i.e. sour milk.
Ramona says
My family recipes never got written down. My Grandmother couldn’t read or write much. She used her hands to measure and it was by how things looked and felt when baking. She made the best green chile and tortillas and biscochitos cookies. My Mom made stacked enchiladas, this is a New Mexican style. I have told people of stacked enchiladas and they never heard of them. Just last week I had friends over so they could taste a few of these foods. I tried to get my Aunt to show me how to make her tortillas and she did the same thing only hand measures. I was a young teenager when my grandma and mom died so at that time I never learned their recipes. My Dad did have a special “goulash” recipe everyone loved and it was his secret that he only gave to me and one other person. I have since only gave to my siblings. So I think family recipes are great to have and it brings back those feelings and tastes of childhood.
Victoria says
A holiday is not a holiday without my grandmother’s potato salad (which for some reason my mother can absolutely NOT make correctly!) Now that grandma is gone, I’m glad I can continue the tradition.
I love cooking from a heritage point of view, but I love trying new things, too. Like the song says, “Make new friends, and keep the old ones.”
BTW, your grandma’s Cherry Cola Jello Salad is so delicious! Reminded me of the super-complicated jello molds my grandfather used to make.
Tracy L. says
I am Italian, and food is VERY important to us. So much so, that on my dad’s death bed he asked us, who knows how to make “the sauce”? Meatballs? Etc. They are important to us, and will hopefully continue to be throughout our kids. As has been expressed, there hasn’t been a time that I’ve made “the meatballs”, and not thought about my dad. Warms my heart! So while we do grow, and experience new foods and cultures, we can still value our own roots, heritage, and recipes that warm our hearts and tummies!
Diana says
Our family has scanned and uploaded our Grandma’s handwritten recipes to a shared folder online. It is warm and comforting to pull up an image of one of her recipes and use it. Her ‘Dill Bread’ is one of my faves.
About cooking from scratch–my high school-age Little Sis in the BB/BS program and I have done a few group campouts, where she and I take a camp stove and cook our meals. While others roast hot dogs, we do something slightly more ‘gourmet’ like spaghetti and garlic bread. I learned last summer that she didn’t know you could make brownies from scratch. She thought they came from a box. *sigh* She loves science classes, so when I told her cooking and baking is basically chemistry, she signed up for a baking class last Fall, and ended up loving it.
Lynne says
I adore passed-along recipes, and they don’t have to come from family. Among my favorites is a shortbread cookie recipe from Miss Coleman, a sweet old lady who lived in a small apartment in my grandmother’s house in Brooklyn. I remember her so well – a true Edwardian, she always wore dresses down to her ankles, hair in a bun, and she had a real spinning wheel in her parlor. I think of her every time I make those cookies.
Jenn says
I have my Grandma’s recipe box and it is so important to me. It would be one of those things that I would run back in for if my house was on fire. However, the one thing that I am known for is my potato salad and it was my aunt that taught me to make it. There is no written recipe for it and it is done by taste. I can tell you what I put in it, but not how much. I hope and pray that one day I can pass these recipes down to my own children.
Rita says
When my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she was given 9 months to live. During that time, whenever she was able, we had her make our favorite dishes so we could put on paper these family recipes she only had in her head. Some things took several tries as we measured her pinch of this and handful of that. She also divided the heirloom Christmas things and made photograph albums for my sister and me. She died 2 years after her first surgery and that was 31 years ago today. Her recipes are more precious than gold to me.
Vickie says
My mother gave me recipe book just before she passed away. Grandma’s peanut butter cookie recipe was in it. They are so good. There is nothing like family recipes!
Lisa says
I make my mom-in-law’s cheesecake with sour cream topping, no one else in the family wants the recipe but they sure devour it if I make it. This year, I thought I had misplaced the zeroxed recipe she had given me and when I found it, I made 3 copies so that would never happen again. Altho, I’ve made it so much, I could probably go from memory : )
I love my grandma’s recipe book. It’s hard to read her writing and decipher some things in this time, but I absolutely treasure my dad’s scribbles inside.
Leanna T. says
This is my favorite recipe from my Great Aunt Arlean. She was the best baker and treat maker in our family.
http://livinginthemiddleakasandwich.blogspot.com/2014/11/thankfulness-thursday-week-47-of-2014.html
Patty L. says
My mom passed away just a few months ago. She loved to cook and share meals with the entire family. At her service my sister and I scanned some of her favorite recipes and had them in baskets for those that wanted a recipe to remember her by. She was an avide gardener as well so we had a huge vegetable display for her “Bounty of Life” celebration. It was a beautiful and warm way to remember a loving mother and friend. When I’m thinking of her I’ll haul out a recipe of hers and revel in memories of younger years while I make it. Food and recipes are such a loving gift to share!
Lilypad says
My paternal grandmother was so special to me, but she was not known for being a good cook. (My dad used to joke that he was skin and bones until he married my mom and finally had good food at home!) A specialty for her was Del Monte fruit cocktail (my grandfather worked at the Del Monte cannery in Yakima, WA for decades) in red Jello with bananas sliced on top—but the bananas always got brown and my sister and I thought that was so gross! But I always think of her when I cut up fresh strawberries because I remember her putting a big one on my squishy “shortbread” cake, a big one on my sister’s, a small one on mine, a small one on my sister’s, etc. She knew we could not argue over it that way! And she always let us put WAY TOO MUCH canned whip cream all over them. I love to cook and bake and definitely will pass my recipes on to my son—he’s going to be a great catch some day! 😉
Lilypad says
Make that “whipped” cream, it drives me crazy when people don’t say “whipped cream”. Although I’m sure it was actually “Reddi-Wip” or some other exciting convenience product we embraced in the 1970’s when I was a kid!
Nancy says
I actually made a cookbook with favorite family recipes for my sons for part of their christmas present of 2014. It included some recipes from my side (northern European) some from my hubby’s side (Italian) and some that we just used a lot while they were kids. For weddings in our family, we always have a recipe shower, where we give the new bride recipes and then some kind of kitchen something.
ConnieP says
It is an absolute cherished honor to have several wonderful recipes which were passed down to me from my Momma, my Grandma and other family members. Though I do enjoy trying new recipes (lots of exploring online), I’ll never stray from a few basic staple recipes (like cornbread) that were passed down. And I love to look through my paternal Grandma’s recipe cards … she hand wrote them all herself … she had such distinctive penmanship so, it’s always like holding her hand. Please consider that when you decide to pass on a recipe to someone you love. Your handwriting could bring a greater level of joy to the recipient.
Renay says
I have many recipes from now passed relatives in their own hand and they are, like someone else said, what I would run in for in case of fire!
I have my husbands grandmother’s cookbooks from 1914. It is a hoot! ‘Stoke the stove with enough wood for a moderate bake…’ or ‘go to the butcher and get a (piece of an animal that I have never heard of)’… I love old cookbooks – and have a bunch from WWII and WWI. I love cookbooks. I read them like books!
Gina says
My Mom passed on to my the recipes that belonged to my Grandmother’s Dad. At one point, he was a single man, raising kids, and would get recipes from the local ladies, to help him with taking care of his kids. These recipes are so different from what we have now. I love looking back at them, and seeing his writing makes me feel like I’m seeing a glimpse of his life, and I will pass these recipes on to my kids one day. I love that I an photo copy them, so my kids can see his unique handwriting, and maybe know a little of their heritage.
Elizabeth says
My grandpa was raised on a farm in Kansas, where they ate bread pudding as a frugal way to use old bread and cheap and plentiful eggs and milk. Now bread pudding is seen as more of a decadent dessert, and I think of my grandpa every time I make it!
Beth C says
Unfortunately, I don’t have many recipes from my family. I do remember some and try to make them myself. I found one recipe in my Mother’s handwriting. I copied that paper, and resized it so I would have a little piece of her (she died when I was young) and have it framed and on the wall in my kitchen. Whenever I want those cookies, I just reach up and take it from the wall for the making!
Lori says
My grandmother passed away several years age and my grandfather passed in 2010. Because I enjoy cooking, my mom and aunt gifted me with my grandmother’s recipe box. We cook from it all the time. My 13 yo daughter who is very sentimental loves to go through the box and pick out meals for the week. Some of her favorites are in there. And I made her pecan pie a 2-3 years ago for Thanksgiving for my husbands side of the family (he has 10 siblings, so think huge Thanksgiving) and her recipe won best desert! What a privilege it is to have inherited her favorite recipes.
Mavis says
That is so cool that you won using her recipe! It is such a privilege to have those recipes.
Laura says
Of course, we keep them and pass them on! The old recipes are full of love and usually, good for you foods. Older generations knew how to cook vegetables and stretch a food dollar. I am preparing a collection of our families’ recipes. Hopefully my kids will enjoy!