BS: Grammas Recipes

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.