BS: Grammas Recipes

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Sep 10 - 02:54 PM

CORN BREAD

2 cups stone-ground white or yellow corn meal (fine)
4 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups milk
1 large egg
4 tablespoons* cooking oil (Canola)
Large cast iron skillet (or cast iron corn stick pans)

Preheat oven 450 F
Add oil to skillet and put in oven until hot

Combine dry ingredients.
Combine milk and egg; add to dry ingredients. Stir until smooth.
Pour batter into pre-heated skillet
Bake 20-25 minutes.

For corn sticks, put 1/2 teaspoon in each cup of stick pans and put in 450 F oven.
Bake 15-20 minutes.

2 percent milk is OK. Be sure to use fine corn meal. The amount of cooking oil depends on size of pan; *use 2-3 tablespoons with 8-9 inch square pan.

Ideal with stews. May be buttered or used to sop up stew liquid.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 07:51 PM

Only recently started to sort recipes, many on pieces of paper stuck in old cookbooks.

Bert, I have added your shortbread recipe to the back of ours. My wife likes to make it in small batches over a period of time, but yours may save her time.

NEW YEAR'S EGGNOG

12 eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
1 bottle brandy
1 bottle bourbon, sour mash
3 quarts heavy cream
Freshly grated nutmeg.

Beat yolks and 1 cup sugar until light yellow and fluffy.
Gradually beat in brandy, bourbon and 2 quarts cream.

Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until they hold soft peaks.
Beat in 1 cup sugar, a tablespoon at a time. Beat until very firm.
Fold egg whites into remaining cream.

Stir lightly into liquor mixture. The recipe makes about 6 quarts.

Allow to stand in a cool place for 6 to 12 hours.

Serve in eggnog cups with grated nutmeg.

Old recipe, reprinted in Life Cookbook (1950s?) devoted to Christmas-New Years holidays. We used to make this every year; never found a better recipe.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 06:31 PM

BROCCOLI CASSEROLE

2-16oz. packs frozen broccoli
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
3/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1 large can French brand french fried dry onions

Thaw and drain broccoli.
Combine all, except 1/2 of onions.
Bake uncovered at 350 F. for 40 minutes.
Top with rest of onions and bake 5-10 minutes more, until onion is golden.

Several variants of this popular dish, which first appeared in Mickler, White Trash Cooking
Good to take to potluck suppers.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: GUEST,Bert
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 06:31 PM

I don't have any recipes from my Grandma but here is a very old traditional recipe for shortbread.

I make it every year. Last season I made 18 pounds of it.

One pound of sugar
two pounds of butter
three pounds of flour
two teaspoons of salt

Cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy
Fold in the flour and salt.

Roll out to about 1/4 inch thick
dock it well
cut into rectangles

bake at 325 until it just starts to turn golden at the edges.

And don't bother halving the recipe or you'll only find yourself making another batch.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: gnu
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 06:28 PM

Sound good Q!

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 06:13 PM

CHRIS' OATCAKE

1 cup flour
2 cups oatmeal (Scottish) Purity med. grind OK.
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter or other shortening
1 tablespoon butter

Mix dry ingredients and cut in shortening.
Add some hot water, enough to take to pastry consistency
Roll 1/4 inch thick and cut into pieces.
Bake at 325F for 15 minutes

Recipe brought from New Zealand.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:58 PM

Getting sloppy- Rhubarb cake baked at 350 F.

SCOTTISH SHORTCAKE
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour, sifted
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1/2 cup berry (fine) sugar

Heat oven to 275 F.
Sift first 4 dry ingredients together.
Blend softened butter and sugar thoroughly.
Gradually blend in about 3/4 of dry ingredients.
Add rest of dry ingredients by kneading into dough on floured board.
May have to add a touch more flour to make dough stiff enough to 'crack'.
Divide dough into two portions. Pat each into a 7-inch round (or shape by hand) and place on ungreased cookie sheets.
Crimp edges and prick a pattern on top with a fork.
Bake in a slow oven (about 275 F) for 50-55 minutes or until very delicately browned.
Cool on cake racks.
Store in closely covered container.

Our favorite of several we have used.
From Canadian The Star Weekly Magazine, Dec. 12, 1959.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 04:22 PM

STRAWBERRY CHIFFON PIE

1 1/2 cup strawberries
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon gelatin (we had brand called Knox)
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon salt
Optional- 1/2 cup heavy cream

Slice berries, cover with sugar and let stand 1 hour. Sprinkle gelatin on cold water, let stand 5 minutes, add boiling water and lemon juice; strain over berries.
Stir well and chill until mixture begins to thicken.
Fold in egg whites, and salt, beaten until just stiff.
Optional- Fold in heavy cream, beaten until stiff.
Pour into pie shell. I remember crumbled Scottish shortcake cookies (Biscuits) were those used by my mother.
Garnish- Whipped cream and sliced or a few whole berries.

Crust-
Mix crumbled biscuit with butter until well-mixed.
2 cups crumbs
1/3 cup butter, melted
Press into sides and bottom of 9-inch pie shell.
Bake about 8 minutes at 350 F.
When cooled, add the filling.

Should work with graham crackers, but I don't like them.

The above from my mother's favorite cookbook- The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, 8th ed. 1946.
My grandmother used an older one, prob. 1910 or so.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 03:42 PM

I made RHUBARB CAKE (recipe above) but had no sour cream. Used yogurt instead, with 1/2 teaspoon soda.
The cake was so good I ate two pieces as a bedtime snack and ended up with an angry stomach.
The yogurt had a raspberry flavor, but it doesn't make much difference.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: open mike
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 12:35 PM

i still have to find that recipe for strawberry fluff or chiffon pie!
I did see several that were like it, and one that used vanilla wafers for the crust instead of graham crackers...i will keep looking...it used evap milk instead of whipped cream, so had lower fat and calories
than something with whipped cream or cool whip. what is cool whip any way? does it even have any dairy in it? maybe dairy cow hooves when they are done giving milk??

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 11:37 AM

My grandma was Glasgow Irish. Not a good start. She then lost her sense of smell to an illness at the age of 16. Which didn't improve her cooking one little bit. She kept on cooking until she died of a heart attack at 96.

Her favourite was corned beef, carrots and cabbage, all boiled until it was well and truly dead and all three had the same texture, like a steaming jellyfish washed up on a beach.

He crowning achievement: sheep's head broth. Put sheep's head in a large pan on the fire. Go up to the attic for something. Forget about the pan until the air up in that attic gets too black with smoke to see anything. Get husband to redecorate entire house.

One day her husband complained once too often about her cooking. She told him to get out of the house and go live in the shed in the garden. That was where I remember him, subsisting mainly on tea with huge globs of condensed milk and only coming into the main house to do plumbing and wiring (which he was very good at). My cousin who grew up in the same house said that she got the idea as a child that all grandfathers lived in sheds. He died of a heart attack at 88.

Needless to say that was where my mother learned to cook. My father died of a heart attack at 64, dead before he hit the ground with all his coronary arteries clogged up with cholesterol

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Maryrrf
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 10:28 AM

Oh I can't wait to try that avocado pie - it sounds delicious. I have some Brazilian friends - they consider avocado to be an item for sweet things like milkshakes - so I can totally visualize an avocado lime pie. And it would have lots of vitamins, right????

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: JennieG
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 05:20 AM

My maternal grandmother made beautifully yummy pies....she was a wonderful cook. In those days we could go out in the bush and pick wild blackberries but now they have been declared a noxious weed so we can't (because the climate in Oz is such that they keep growing all year and take over wherever they are planted, our winter isn't severe enough to stop them). Nanna would make a pastry shell, put in the stewed blackberries or some jam (home made of course, frequently blackberry), decorate the top with leftover pastry strips, and bake it. She served it with cream. I can still taste it. Her apple pies were delicious too. And all cooked in a wood oven rather than a modern stove.

When her first marriage broke up - I am guessing in about 1920, she and her first husband were divorced which must have been a scandal in those days - she moved from the big city to a job as cook in a hospital in a country town. She met my grandfather when he was a patient in the hospital....so, in a sense, her cooking led to their being together. And to my mother and her brother being born. And then to me bring born......

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: open mike
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 01:26 AM

Our family gathered up recipes at one of our annual reunions. As luck would have it, in a near-by town there is a printing business that makes a living compiling cook books for groups, charities, families, etc. (Morris Press in Kearney, NE, http://www.morriscookbooks.com/)
so we bundled them all up and took them to the press along with some photos and some family tree information. This book has been a great
resource, and I often make updated genealogy pages to share with people who are at the annual reunion. (as people keep dying and giving birth, so new information keeps needing to be added--plus I keep finding more and more older generations as I continue my search for ancestors...so the tree is growing both "new" roots and new branches)

The recipe i submitted was actually not from my family, but from a neighbor who called it "everybody's grandma's favorite cobbler recipe"

it is like magic   i think i posted it in another recipe thread recently...here goes again..
1 stick butter
1 c flour
1 c sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 c milk
1 1/2 - 2 cups fruit (blackberries , blueberries, apricots, peaches)
in a 9 X 13 pan melt the butter
meanwhile stir the flour, sugar,, baking powder and milk together
add this batter to the butter in the pan..do not mix, just pour in
(i drizzle the batter back and forth and up and down cross wise)
then sprinkle fruit on top. bake at 350 form 20-40 minutes.
batter bubbles up to cover fruit, crust is crunchy. Brush your teeth!

i cannot find the recipe for the pie my mom used to make
that i used to like so much. I called it strawberry fluff..
it had a graham cracker crust and the filling was this sweet pink whipped concoction..it had evaporated milk that you put in the freezer until ice crystals formed, then whipped, and then your folkd in strawberry jello (made with half water and half ice cubes to cool it down) mixed with chopped slightly thawed frozen strawberries and
then you pile it all in the graham cracker crust. you need to keep it chilled until you eat it.

i also tried a similar pie recently...
believe it or not avocado cream pie is delicious.
(although probably no one's grandma would have tried this)

•       1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
•        8 ounces cream cheese
•        2 ripe avocados, peeled and pit removed
•        1/4 cup lime juice
•        1 teaspoon vanilla
•        1/8 teaspoon sea salt
•        1/2 cup coconut, toasted, for garnish

In a medium bowl, combine the condensed milk and cream cheese. Blend well with an electric mixer. Mash the avocados with the lime juice and add to the milk mixture. Add the vanilla and salt, and beat until smooth. Spoon into graham cracker crust. Garnish with the coconut, cover, and chill for 2 to 6 hours before serving.

some recipes call for egg yolk to thicken, but what with
salmonella poisoning ,and since this pie is not cooked,
i do not recommend including raw eggs.
some other recipes call for lime jello to be added...
to thicken the pie..this is not necessary.
some other recipes call for cool whip or whipped cream on top
but i think with condensed milk and cream cheese your dairy
requirement is already filled.
Some recipes say to slice pieces thin as it is quite rich.
this seems like a good idea.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Bobert
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 08:21 PM

The P-vine has three scrap books filled with recipes from every concievable source... Some from granma,,, sone from this aunt or that aunt... Some from church recipe books that are popular in the South...

Me??? Hey, I'm not allowed in her kitchen and I ain't got one of my own so...

... the eatin's is good and all I gotta do is wash up the pots and pans...

Works fir me...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 04:53 PM

RHUBARB CAKE

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
Cream together
Add- 2 cups chopped rhubarb

Topping
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon cinammon
1 cup brown sugar
mix

Bake in 9" x 13" pan for 50 minutes

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 08:15 PM

HASH? Memories of childhood during the depression years come back.

POOR MAN'S HASH

1 can Fray Bentos ('corned beef')
Two potatoes chopped
1 onion chopped
Fresh green chiles
Bacon grease

Put a bit of bacon grease in a heavy iron skillet (on hot eye)
Add corned beef
Mush up the corned beef, allowing it to *burn a bit
(Now gentrified to *caramelization).
Add salt and pepper
Add chopped onion and stir in well
Add chopped potatoes
Move skillet to a less hot eye
Mix well and let cook until potatoes are done.
Serve from skillet to plates
Add chopped medium-hot green chilies as garnish

That's as best as I remember it.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: gnu
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 06:17 PM

Mac and cheese can be fancied up many ways and tastes great. BUT, I like my mac and cheese like Gramma made it. Plain and simple and decadent. 2ml of mac to 1g of GOOD quality old cheddar. I use Cracker Barrel.

Acompanying, on the side, tomatoes, hot tea biscuits, fresh bread, sausages, molasses... whatever. But, mac and cheese is just that.

And pepper.

I personally don't have anything on the side except maybe fresh bread with COLD margerine and that is very seldom. To me, mac and cheese is like potatoe chips... once every month or two and enjoy the sheer decadence of it. Then, work at unclogging the arteries for a like time period.

Now.. did your Gramma burn stuff? Mine used to say that a hash had to be burned in an iron frying pan to bring out the taste. Of course, she used to burn a lot of stuff... that was the Irish Gramma.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 05:13 PM

Curried Chicken Thighs

2-3 pounds thighs, deboned, skinless
1 bottle Sherwood's Madras Curry
1 can good coconut milk
1 large onion
1/3 bottle white wine
Splash olive oil
1 cup long grain brown rice
--------
In a large thick-bottom pot, heat oil medium-medium high
Add chicken (one layer at a time) and brown
(put finished pieces on paper towel in bowl).
With a wooden spoon keep caramelizing dripping from sticking.
Add onions and lightly brown. Stir.
Put all of chicken back into pot.
If a little more moisture needed, pour in a little wine.
Add Sherwood's Curry Sauce. If more bite is desired, add a little Sherwood's hot curry powder. Keep stirring up bottom.
Add 1/2 can of coconut milk (rest can be frozen for next use).
Add rest of wine. Stir.
Turn heat to low and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Adjust liquid as needed.

In a separate pot, prepare rice according to directions.
Serve in separate bowls.
Mix rice and curry on plate and enjoy.
Garnish with dried cranberries, dried apricots, slivered almonds, dried currants (Corinthian raisins) as desired.

Salad-Sliced tomatoes, avocados, small zucchini or cuke (or what-have-you) and lettuce.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 02:15 PM

I don't know-
An excellent mac and cheese recipe. The secret is good ingredients plus imagination.

People don't like it because they think of the packaged stuff with a little packet of tasteless cheese, and dry macaroni which is slimy when cooked (Kraft, etc.). Blah!

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 01:52 PM

My sister still makes Gran's Cran (her cranberry sauce) evry Thanksgiving, but I don't know the recipe.

Granny was from Russia, and was Dad's mom.

My mom, from Hungary/the former Yugoslavia (depending on when you mean) makes everything delicious with either bacon grease or sour cream, or both. She is now a great-grandmother, so I guess her stuff would count as SOMEBODY's grandmother's recipes!

I will look up the recipe for Rocket Crumple, our childish pronunciation of Rokott Krumpli, Hungarian for sliced potatoes. It's best described by Tibor Kalman, the late great artist. It involces cold sliced boiled potatoes, sliced strong kolbasz or Hungarian spicy sausage, sliced hard-boiled eggs, layered with more sour cream and butter than you would normally use in a year in the States. As it cooks, the juices from the sausage and all that butter permeate the potatoes and the eggs and it is the best food in the universe.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: I don't know
Date: 13 Sep 10 - 08:09 AM

A simple pasta recipe that has been handed down through our family is for macaroni cheese. Even people who used to say they never liked it now eat this version.
There are no quantities for this recipe as such, it depends mainly on how large a casserole dish you use, number your making it for & how cheesy you like it.
This is for a large casserole serving 3/4 people.

Macaroni or any pasta
Olive Oil
salt
strong cheddar cheese
1/3 cup milk
English mustard powder
tomatoes

Heat a large saucepan of salted water with a tablespoon of Olive oil included to boiling point. Add 5 large handfuls of dry macaroni & return to boil, simmer gently for 10 minutes.
While the pasta is cooking grate a large amount of cheese on to a dinner plate.
When the macaroni has cooked drain well. Place a covering of cheese in the bottom of the casserole then cover with macaroni. Layer like this until the dish is full, finishing with a nice thick coating of cheese.
Mix 1/3 cup of milk with a heaped teaspoon of dried English mustard a pour over then add fresh chopped tomatoes/a large tinned (drained) tomatoes to taste.
Place on the middle shelf of a cold oven & turn the temperature to gas mark 5. (180f.?) for approx. 1hour 15mins. Serve hot when nice & crispy (not burnt) on top

I change this recipe by using Worcester Sauce shaken over each cheese layer instead of the mustard & sometimes I add precooked bacon/chicken pieces & depending on how many I am serving I cook some cauliflower/ garlic bread to serve with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 09:27 PM

Foolestroupe, almost as stinky as the old coal oil (ile).

One of my favorite cookbooks is White Trash Cooking, which has many ideas for 'make-do' recipes.

Here is a cheapie from the West that I remember.

BEEF BAKE

1-2 pounds ground beef
1-2 large onions
3-4 garlic segments
Large can tomatoes
2 small, or 1 large can green chile (hot if you can find it)
1 pound rat, Monterrey or other medium cheese, grated
Corn tortillas, slightly fried in oil (not too crisp)

Saute beef and onion. Add canned tomatoes and chiles.
Layer with corn tortillas and cheese.
Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes.
Add grated cheese.

Tortilla chips and sliced tomatoes or salad on the side.

Rat cheese, if I remember correctly, was cheap grade cheddar. It was orangy yellow; haven't thought of it for years.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 08:16 PM

"grease that could no longer be used in cooking"

One could stick a wick in it and have light, or heat it with caustic soda (NaOH) and make soap.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 08:12 PM

We find that much of the flavor in a beef stew, etc. comes from the browning of the meat and the bit of caramelized liquid at the bottom of the pot/skillet after browning of the meat. Only enough oil (and/or juice from the meat) is needed to keep the brown residue from sticking to the bottom of the pot. This flavorful residue remains in the pot when other ingredients are added, adding to their flavor.
We no longer use a skillet to brown the meat, but use a thick-bottomed pot- less spatter, and one less item to clean. We don't like non-stick substances, but use a splash of oil. A wooden spoon is used to scrape the bottom throughout the process to keep the caramelized material from the browning from sticking firmly to the pot, trapping the flavor. The meat may be removed to paper toweling while onion and garlic is also slightly browned in the pot, and then returned for continuation of the preparation.

Gramma did her roasts in the oven, browning in the roasting pan. It was a hot and tedious process, and I remember the strong cleaners used on the oven after several uses for roasts.
The back of the wood stove was reserved for warming, and storage of used grease. One can had bacon grease, another had grease that could no longer be used in cooking- dont remember what happened to this- perhaps put out at the back of the garden?

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: gnu
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 05:46 PM

Dan.

I expect Gramma's slow cooker was a cast iron pot on the rear of the wood stove? Heheheheee.

Just teasin... I am sure the recipe is deeeelicious.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: olddude
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 04:54 PM

Best pot roast you ever eaten serves 6

Ingredients:
3 pounds beef boneless chuck roast (I use rump roast)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped
1/2 cup sliced pitted Kalamata or ripe olives
1/2 cup beef broth
1/2 cup frozen pearl onions


Directions:

Spray 12-inch skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium-high heat. Cook beef in skillet about 5 minutes, turning once, until brown. Sprinkle with salt, Italian seasoning and garlic; remove from skillet.

Place beef, seasoned side up, in 4-to 5-quart slow cooker. Spread tomatoes and olives over roast. Add broth and onions.

Cover and cook on low heat setting 5 to 6 hours or until beef is tender.

Remove beef from slow cooker; cover and let stand 15 minutes. Slice beef; serve with beef juice and onions from slow cooker.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Penny S.
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 04:53 PM

There is some disagreement about the Sussex Pond Pudding my Nana made, but which my mother didn't. In a recipe collection Mum has marked one as being the one Nana made, but it had dried fruit in the suet crust, and I remember Mum telling me that Nana had said to her that "they might do that in Surrey, but it isn't a Sussex Pond Pudding".

Make suet crust to line and lid a pudding basin. Roll it out round about half an inch thick and cut out a quarter segment of it. Line a buttered basin. Put into it layers of softened butter and brown sugar part of the way up. Then take an unwaxed lemon and stab it with a fork. Put it on the butter sugar layers, and continue adding butter and sugar around and over the lemon. Shape the quarter of crust to fit as a lid and seal it to the lining. Cover with pleated greaseproof paper and tie that on with string. Cook by steaming for as long as it takes - about a hour and a half. Turn out on a dish and cut to reveal the brown sticky pond. Serve in small portions.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 04:40 PM

Stuff for camping, fishing, hiking, skiing.

FRUIT LEATHER
4 cups fruit (preferrably mixed), peeled and seeded
1 cup sugar

Puree fruit. Mix with sugar and spread on plastic sheets on cookie sheets. Thin layers, about 1/8 inch thick.
Bake in oven, about 150 F, until it is not sticky to touch.
Roll up like a log. Cut to size desired.

GRANOLA
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup wheat germ
2 cups cereal flakes (wheat, corn, etc.)
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cut nuts (of choice)
1 cup shelled sunflower seeds
Several cups other nuts, sesame or flax seeds.

Put dry ingredients in large bowl
Heat honey and oil and pour over dry ingredients; mix well.
Spread in pan and bake at 325 F for 15-20 minutes.
Turn heat off and mix, stirring frequently.
Cool and place in plastic containers or bags.

(Nowadays, packaged granola, e. g. Nature Valley, a lot less trouble, but if one has the ingredients and time, some very good mixes cn be made.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 12:37 AM

Take a beef heart and clean it of the membranes, etc.
Soak it overnight in milk, or for a couple of hours in salt water.
Slice it, bread it, and fry it in butter or bacon grease. Be careful, as there is little or no fat in the heart.
Make a milk gravy from the drippings in the pan and serve over the slices.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Seayaker
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 08:18 PM

I put a recipe for green tomato chutney in the Green Tomato thread but here is another recipe quoted straight from the book,

A Bullocks Heart Roasted.
Wash a bullocks heart in cold water and let it soak for an hour, and then place it in a saucepan of cold water slightly salted.
Bring to the boil and boil fast for ten minutes after which draw the saucepan on one side and let it simmer for two hours. Take out and set aside to cool.
Make a seasoning of bread crumbs (about half a pound) 2 oz of finely chopped suet and a small quantity of finely chopped parsley and thyme, pepper and salt to taste and mix with one egg.
Stuff the heart with the seasoning, shake a little flour over it and a small lump of cooking butter and put into a hot oven for an hour.
Serve with thickened gravy.

That sounds good. There are also lots of wine recipes made from root vegatables. I remember my Granmothers cellar being full of the old Havolene oil bottles (remember those?) full of a variety of home made wines.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Neighmond
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 03:15 PM

Milk can supper: (Charles James)

For a 40 Qt (10 gallon) milk can:

10 lbs of red potatoes, cut and quartered.
30 ears of sweet corn, cleaned.
5 lbs big carrots, cut into 5-6 inch pieces.
2 heads cabbage, cored and quartered
2 red onions, cut and quartered.
2 green peppers, cut and quartered with the seeds cleaned out.
2 lbs bacon.
1 head garlic, peeled and the cloves separated.
30 polish sausages, regular or spiced.
4-6 cans of beer.
1 1/2 Gallons water.


Line the bottom of the milk can with a single layer of corn shucks to prevent burning. Save one piece of potato, lay the rest in, then put the ears of corn in on end, or else break them in half and load like the potatoes. Next add the carrots, followed by the cabbage and onions, garlic, and peppers. the bacon goes in layers over the cabbage, then the polish sausages. Put your leftover piece of potato on top of the sausages. Pour in the beer and water, and lay the lid on lightly.

Put the milk pail over a charcoal or hardwood fire, and cook until the potato on top is done. Take off the lid and allow the steam to dissipate. Pour off fluid, drain the rest into a clean wash tub or wheelbarrow and serve.

If you don't have a lid for the can, heavy aluminum foil can be used. Old oven racks over blocks are a good way to put it over coals. Breaking the corn ears in half will make it easier to get them out of the can, and for some folks to eat.

Recipe can be halved or quartered. Cook time 1 1/2-2 hours. Feeds 30 people.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 03:02 PM

For babies, my great-great Aunt Tillie would make a "sugar tit": in the middle of a clean cloth she'd put a teaspoon of sugar and dampen it with a few drops of whiskey. Twist the corners together and let the baby suck...kid'd be asleep in no time.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 02:57 PM

Loving all the memories!
So many people's grandparents were from various European locations, and that's what makes a thread like this - for someone like me - especially fascinating.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 02:52 PM

Rhubarb
Cut rhubarb stalks into one inch segments, 3 cups or so.
Put in pot with 1/4 cup of water
Add sugar to taste
Stew until rhubarb soft.
Let cool.
Surplus 'sauce' can be frozen, also the cut-up stalks that were not used, they will keep in zip bags for a year and canned for years.
Be sure to cut up the stalks, once frozen they are hard to cut when thawed.

I like stewed rhubarb with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. Great! This will be my lunch today.
Stewed rhubarb makes great pies.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 01:07 AM

It's threads like this that I miss from when Rick Fielding was alive. He had such a knack for getting fabulous food threads going. You're doing Rick and the 'Cat proud!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: LadyJean
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 11:33 PM

OK, here's one, Betty McCallister and Annie Swann's fondant strawberries.

You will need about a pound of fondant, melted, and a couple of quarts of strawberries.

Clean the strawberries by wiping them with a paper towel. Don't wash them with water, or the fondant won't stick. Brush the leaves up, so you can get a good grip on them. You'll need it.

Melt the fondant in a double boiler, and dilute it with a tablespoon full of vanilla, more or less.

Now, dip the strawberries in the fondant, and place them on a plate covered in wax paper.

The end result doesn't last long, but they are delicious while they do.

Betty McCallister was my grandmother. She had her garden club dipping strawberries as a fund raiser. People used to line up in droves for the things!

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Emma B
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 07:41 PM

It's damson season - so prolific in this part of the country that the fruit has to be swept from the pavements

PICKLED DAMSONS - perfect with cold roast pork and Red Leicester cheese - are an old recipe from my great aunt with an optional 'modern twist'

4lbs damsons
3lbs Dem: sugar
1/2pt vinegar
1/4oz cinnamon
1/4oz cloves
small knob ginger, 1 dessertsp allspice berries, pared rind of a lemon optional

Tie the spices in a bit of muslin and boil in the vinegar 10 minutes then remove.
Fish the spices out allow the vinegar to cool somewhat and tip in the damsons until softened.

This is the tricky part as ideally the skins should not split, an odd one or two may but really they look much better whole

Pack the damsons into sterilized jars and add the sugar to the vinegar and boil to a thickish, syrupy consistency.
Pour the hot syrup over the damsons and seal with a vinegar proof lid.

Mature for at LEAST 6 months - they will keep a lot longer!

Oh! the 'modern twist'? - try using balsamic vinegar

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Sorcha
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 05:12 PM

Grandma Brooners Home Made Ice cream

4-6 raw eggs
1 can of evaporated milk--NOT sweetened condensed milk
16 oz granulated white sugar
Regular milk....your choice. Non fat, 1%, 2%, or regular

Beat the eggs, sugar, evap milk and about 2 cups of the regular milk very well. Scald (gran used the stovetop hob, I use the micro) until temp says 'scald'. Stir a LOT to keep the eggs from separating out.

Pour into a 1 gallon ice cream freezer and fill to the 'FILL' line with your reg. milk. Add 3-5 Tablespoons of pure vanilla and a pinch of salt.

Crank, with the usual layering of ice and salt.

Now, gran used to pull the cannister out when you couldn't crank anymore, re pack with pure ice and cover the whole shebangwith newspapers and rugs to let it 'ripen and harden'.

My husband skips that step. Pull the dasher out and serve.

PS---somehow the dasher is the best part...sort of like the cookie dough left in the bowl.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 04:32 PM

Beef and Vegetable Stew

3 pounds beef roast cut in bite-size cubes
Sprinkles of salt and pepper
Olive oil, enough to cover bottom of thick pan thinly
3-4 carrots, sliced or chopped
2 parsnips, sliced
3 (about) celery stalks
304 yellow onions
3 medium potatoes (if thin-skinned, do not peel)
1 medium sweet potato, peeled
1-2 turnips
2 pounds tomatoes (or 28 ounce can of tomatoes)
1/2 bottle red wine (my variant)
Beef stock, enough to cover solids (from store, low salt)
Bay leaves
Thyme, rosemary, plus oregano if desired.
(Green peas, red bell pepper, chives or green onions)
--------------------------------
Put a thick-bottomed pot on med-med high heat
Season beef with Hy's seasoning salt (my variant) or salt and pepper
Put olive oil in pot
Sear meat, one layer at a time; evenly brown, caramelization wanted.
Put meat back in pot and add half of vegetables (I put onion in first and slightly brown, then rest of half of vegetables)
Add tomatoes
Add wine and beef stock (or just beef stock) to cover solids.
Cook until meat tender (med, low-med) until meat tender.
Taste for seasoning
Add remaining vegetables, cook 1/2 hour or so (don't want these mushy).
Test for taste
Near end of cooking, add green peas, bell pepper, chives, green onions (whatever you have) for color and added taste.

Serve with corn bread or any fresh bread and butter.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 04:08 PM

Ursula's Oatmeal Cookies

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup butter
1 egg (or two)
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon soda
2 1/2 cups oatmeal
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

With wooden spoon, mix sugars with butter, egg; add flour and soda; add oatmeal.

Roll in balls, press down slightly, on cookie sheet.

Bake 350 F. for about 8 minutes.

Ursula was a German lady of our acquaintance, from what used to be called Danzig in Prussia.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 03:03 PM

Those butter and sugar sandwiches with brown sugar, and slightly toasted in the oven.

Two soda crackers with mocha icing as filling was one of my favorites.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Maryrrf
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 01:30 PM

Er, I don't think this thread is going to help Crow Sister with her weight loss diet....

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Maryrrf
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 01:27 PM

Oh yes, butter and sugar sandwiches! My great grandmother, Nanny Kelly, used to babysit me when I was very small - from about age 3 to 5. I still remember how heavenly those sandwiches were. Two slices of white bread, thickly buttered, liberally laced with sugar, She served them on a saucer with beautiful pink roses.

My grandmother Mary (we called her Grandmary) passed down this recipe from her German grandmother, who came over fron East Saxony when she was fourteen years old. She went to live with her brother, who was already in the US. He ran a saloon in North Carolina, and put her to work there. She got pregnant, and he threw her out. She married a much older man (I don't know if it was the baby's father or not) who mistreated her badly, but he finally died. When my grandmother's mother died in childbirth, Grandmother Martin took her in along with her four siblings (their dad was a ne'er do well). She raised her daughter's children with the help of her eldest daughter, who lived at home and never married. They were dressmakers, and very talented too. But I digress - here's Grandmother Martin's recipe for German potato salad:

Boil and slice several potatoes (peel if you wish)
In the meantime, fry up a generous amount of bacon. Remove the bacon from the frying pan when it's crispy, and add chopped onion to the bacon grease and fry a bit. When the onion is translucent, add vinegar to the pan, and some sugar. Add the sliced potatoes and season to taste with salt, pepper and celery seed. Crumble the bacon over the potato salad, and serve warm.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 10:02 AM

My Granny's recipe card is still in my mother's possession, but it will someday be mine. My mum remembers making these when she was small, I made them with both mum and Granny, and my daughter made them with me. Granny didn't know how far back in the family the recipe went, but changes were clearly made along the way. I suspect Crisco wasn't in the original recipe- probably lard? I use butter.
I don't remember a Christmas without these cookies!

AGE-OLD FAMILY CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Mix 2/3 c. Crisco or butter (or combo)
        1 ¼ c. sugar

Add 2 eggs, well-beaten

Mix together and add:
3 c. white flour
1 ½ tsp. salt
2 tsp baking powder

Add:
grated rind of one orange
1 Tbsp. orange juice

Chill for ½ hr or longer, cut into shapes.

Bake at 325 F 10-12 minutes


Ice with fairly thick mixture of powdered sugar and milk, colored with food coloring.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 06 Sep 10 - 09:35 AM

Thanks ClaireBear Grandma Sophie's Pineapple Upside Down cake sounds delicious especially with the rum I will make this as an alternative to Christmas pudding this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 10:58 PM

Cook sliced raw potatoes until they are cooked but firm; drain.

Heat up a skillet and put in a glob of bacon grease (left from streaky bacon, for you UK types). Cook some sliced onions in this, add the potatoes and a can of (drained) green beans. Salt and pepper to taste.

'Nother one from Grandma:

Fry up some good streaky bacon. While draining it on a paper towel, newspaper or whatever, soak slices of bread in the grease until they are slightly crisp. Serve with the bacon on top, and listen to your arteries slamming shut while eating.

For kids:

Sugar sprinkled on buttered (REAL butter!) bread (homemade is best).

As a bedtime snack, fill a glass with torn bread and add enough cold milk to make a very thick mush.

I'll see about some others when I get back home.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: gnu
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 07:46 PM

See? I told you Sorcha knows her elderberries.

Now, this isn't a recipe, but the best jam I have ever tasted is Partridgeberry (Lingonberry) jam. The best commercially made one I have ever tasted is here. I have never tasted their Bakeapple (Cloudberry) jam as I didn't like any of the Bakeapples I ever ate.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: ClaireBear
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 06:14 PM

Grandma Sophie's Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Grandma Sophie was from Missouri but was of French Canadian extraction. This cake is easy and very, very good -- and nothing at all like a cake-mix pineapple upside-down cake.

3 eggs, separated
1 C. white sugar
1 C. flour
1 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
3 tbs. pineapple juice

1/2 C. butter ( 1 cube)
Pineapple slices from a medium can (or fresh)
1 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. pineapple juice

Optional:
Pecan halves
Maraschino cherries
Dried apricot halves
Or what-have-you (prunes? figs? who knows?)

Beat egg whites until stiff. Add yolks and mix gently until well mixed. Add white sugar gradually, beating until thick and lemon colored. Sift remaining dry ingredients together and fold into egg mixture. Add 3 tbs. pineapple juice and blend. (Sometimes I add a teaspoon or two of dark rum to the batter at this point, but that probably wouldn't have been Grandma Sophie's style. Maybe bourbon...)

In a 9" cast-iron or other heavy, ovenproof skillet melt butter, brown sugar, and 1/4 C. pineapple juice together and simmer until syrupy. Lay pineapple slices in a nice pattern in the skillet (I like to cut some of them in half and put them on the sides, too). Decorate in and around the pineapple rings, if desired, with pecans and fruits.

Pour in the batter while sauce is bubbling hot. Pop into a 325 degree oven and cook 40 minutes near the top or until it tests done. (It will still be moist.) Remove from the oven and let it rest a couple of minutes to compose itself, but then be sure and flip pan onto a big platter while it's still hot, or it may be hard to remove from the pan. (If some fruit sticks to the pan, it's easy to rearrange on the cake at this point. Later, not so much.)

Delicieux!

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Sorcha
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 03:52 PM

Elderberry Jelly

Well, first, you need elderberries. The black ones, NOT the red ones. The darker, the better but not 'raisins'. Pick them by the entire 'umbrel'--stems and all. Be careful, it's very easy to pick more than you want to deal with.

Wash, remove leaves and animal 'protien'--aka bugs. Pack (stems and all) loosly into a heavy pan with a good tight lid. Put enough water in the pan that you can just see it thru the berries. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cover until the berries are clear or nearly so.

Lift out the big hanks of stems and berries with a spaghetti server. Strain the juice thru fine mesh or cloth. I use a 'spatter screen'. At this point, the juice can be frozen.

For Jelly
3 cups (US cups....8 oz) juice
1 box powdered pectin, such as Sure Jell
1 'dab' of butter, marg, etc (to reduce foaming)
1/4 cup lemon juice (bottled is fine)
4 1/2 cups granulated white sugar

Mix the pectin, juice, butter and lemon juice in a deep heavy pan. Stir til it comes to a full hard boil and dump in ALL THE SUGAR at once. (It should be pre measured into a bowl).

Bring back to a full rolling boil that can't be stirred down and boil exactly 1 minute. Pour into hot, sterile jars, seal as per usual when canning. No water bath needed.

Makes about 3-4 pints.

This isn't really a Grammas Recipe, it used to be in the SureJell box, but hubby's gran taught me to make it.

Be SURE you are using the right kind of elderberries.....check them in spring when they are in flower. If the flowers smell 'heavenly', you can use the berries. However, a variety of elder smells like cat piss. Sambuca nigella is the one you want.

If you don't know where to find elder, look in cattail swamps, etc. They like their feet wet.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 03:50 PM

I never met my grandmothers, but I have a couple of older friends who are very good cooks, and I have recipes I use from a cookbook compiled by a friend and coworker from when we were both at Ellis Island. He has lots of old fashioned recipes, some are not even cookable today because the ingredients are not available.

I'll poke around for something good.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Charmion
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 02:55 PM

This is a Depression-era recipe for Sunday dinner from my mother's mother, who usually had two or three jobs at any given time and never had either the time or the money to learn anything more than short-order cooking until she qualified for the Old Age Pension at age 65.

Four-legged chicken

Buy a small roasting chicken or a large fryer and a few chicken legs. Pull out and put aside the deposits of fat from the vent of the whole chicken. Cut up the whole chicken into serving pieces. Dredge the pieces and the extra legs in flour; shake off the excess. Grind black pepper over the lot.

Set the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take an onion, some garlic and three or four rashers of bacon. Chop the onion quite small, mince the garlic and cut the bacon into quarter-inch lardons. Fry the bacon with the reserved chicken fat in a large skillet until the pan is well greased; then brown the chicken pieces. Keep the heat down and don't let the onion and garlic scorch.

Put the browned chicken pieces in a flat roasting pan; scrape out the skillet and scatter the scrapings over the pieces. Add peeled potatoes to the pan, sprinkle the whole thing lightly with salt, and bake in the oven until the potatoes are done.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: gnu
Date: 05 Sep 10 - 02:24 PM

Here's the chow recipe(s) I talked about on the Green Tomatoes thread. Mum told me it's a simple recipe (it is) but there is a trick to it which can only be learned from someone with experience who can teach the trick over time. The trick is to be able to know how to adjust the quantities of onions, sugar, spice and vinegar according to the tomatoes. This can only be done when slicing the tomatoes due to the widely varying nature of green tomatoes. I asked Mum if she could describe the trick and she gave me that look and said, "No. You have to learn it and that could take years. Even then, sometimes you just don't know and have to hope it turns out."

Now, that may sound a little odd but Me Mere made chow for sale in her store. She had to make the best or lose business so she was very particular.

Here are my edited (shortened) versions of Me Mere's and Mum's recipes.

Me Mere's Chow

Soak 5# tomatoes sliced, 2# onions chopped, & 1 cup coarse salt in water to cover over night (4 hours is acceptable).

Drain and add 1 quart white vinegar and 4 tbsp pickling spice in cloth bag. Cook until tender. Add 1# white sugar and cook ten minutes.

Mum's Chow

6 quarts tomatoes, little less than 4 cups vinegar, 2.75 cups sugar. Same method.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: LadyJean
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 11:40 PM

I'll go look for some reciped. But I offer my Grandma's golden rule of cooking; If you can't put lemon in it, you can put onion or garlic in it.

Grandma died when I was 13. When I was 38, I did a first rate job of breaking my arm. I spent nine weeks living on canned beans, frozen dinners and take out food. I would have sold my soul to the devil for one of grandma's dinners then.

(Last year, I went to Cherokee, N.C. with a friend of mine for the Indian festival, and had a dinner cooked just like grandma would have, by some Cherokee ladies. I think grandma would have been please.)

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 09:26 PM

"If it makes a sticky spot on the counter"

So now it's behaving like my cats ....

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Melissa
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 08:00 PM

let the dog come in and eat it, Ft..it's easier than rolling noodles!

Or, you could mix it up, pulling in however much of the flour it takes to create a nice noodle texture. The extra flour on the counter is for rolling the dough.

If it makes a sticky spot on the counter, it's easier to let it dry and scrape it up than to try washing it with a wet wiper.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Melissa
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 07:57 PM

Another oral recipe.

Basic Bread has five ingredients (which is how I remembered what goes in it..and I don't know why I decided on 5 since there's actually 6)

Granny's Bread has
Flour
Yeast
a little bit of sugar to feed the yeast
a handful of grease
Salt
Water

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 07:50 PM

Ok Melissa, what do I do with this mess on the bench now?



:-P

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Melissa
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 07:40 PM

Noodles:
(mother's side of the family)

Put a pile of flour on the countertop, form a hollow in the flour and open an egg in it.
Use half of the eggshell as a measure for water.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: gnu
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 07:23 PM

This could be a good thread. May take some time to get going, but I hope it takes off.

If Sorcha is still around, I hope she shares her elderberry jam recipe. It is amazing. She sent me some and I was... amazed. Even though we had a falling out, I must say she is an amazing recipe-ist.

I also had preserves sent to me from other USers and Europers that were unreal. There are so many good old family recipes for so many diverse dishes.

I know there have been "similar" threads, but I hope this one stays with OLD and simple handed down family recipes.

Subject: RE: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 06:46 PM

A mildly sad note. My fella who loved his Nan and her pickles recently discovered that his Mum had thrown away his Nans old handwritten recipe for picalilli. Funny how such seemingly small things can matter. I'd have happily made his Nans Picallili for him if I had her recipe!

Subject: BS: Grammas Recipes
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 04 Sep 10 - 06:29 PM

On behest of Gnu, I thought I'd start this thread for "Grammas Recipes" or recipes handed down through the generations.

I only have one, or maybe two.. But I'll have to practice them first as they're not in writing. I almost put a FOLKLORE prefix to this thread because I think it might deserve it in view of it representing tradition.

So, what are the recipes your Mum or Grandma gave you that you treasure? Post them here! Or root around if you've misplaced them and restore some memories. Connected family heritage stories and anecdotes would be great too.