Lost recipes

[Rustyt1953]

Having grown up in war torn England and learning to make meals out of what was available my mother became a master of her kitchen and held dominion over it.

My sister needs GPS to find a stove but thankfully for me Ruthie and my two daughters learned their baking and cooking crafts from my mom.

Mom lives on in my dining room.

 

[LVSteve]

Former coworker said her ex-mother-in-law drove her crazy. There was something she did that made her Spanish rice perfect, but no matter how much my friend watched, she could never get her rice just right. We reckoned the MIL was a conjurer and slipping in some extra ingredient on the sly.

 

[mike4sigs]

My sisters Egg Rolls. I can get close, but Her's are just over the top better than any i can make. No matter how much TLC i give them.
She made them every year on New Years Day
R.I.P Otis

 

[Smeckler]

Anything my grandmother made. Everything from scratch, never saw a cookbook or recipe in her kitchen.

 

[Erich]

The old recipes (from my great-aunts and great-grandparents) are all about "to taste" anyhow . . . they'll die when you do - assuming your taste memory is still good enough to keep them going. (My mom's potato salad is the closest thing to Great Nana's, closer than her sister's (still delicious) or my Nana's, even. But no one can duplicate Zia Virginia's cake. Aunt Ginger came kinda close, but she's gone now, too.)

Let's face it: cooking (for deliciousness - not talking about in a mess hall or the cafeteria ladies . . . who actually did pretty darned well when I was a kid) is far more of an art than a science. Michelangelo may have written down how to carve marble, but nobody here is going to be replicating Davide. I think lihpster is right: when they're gone, a little light goes out of this world . . . and into the next.

And, as it underscores the importance of every individual soul, isn't that kind of wonderful?

 

[67tempest]

My mother in law's roast beef with gravy, best I ever had. I told my wife over and over again to write that recipe down, she always said I will, I will. My mother in law's health took a turn for the worse and she eventually ended up in a nursing home. The recipe was gone forever.

 

[Golddollar]

My mother's extended family decided to head off this situation. A family committee was set up and the committee accepted recipes from anybody in the family. My mother donated a boatload of her recipes and those of her late mother. It all got organized into one big beautiful cookbook that is shown here. The family had 500 copies of this cookbook and they SOLD EVERY ONE! You can't get one now for love or money. I think I have mine set to give my younger nephew under my will. As you can see, mine has got a lot of use.

 

[Ματθιας]

My dad was a great cook. In the years before he died, I tried to write everything down. When my dad was cooking, he'd have a little bowl to sample. I was right there with him. None of his ingredients were precise, it was more of an add to taste kind of thing.

My dad's been gone 10 years and it's been 11 since he made his posole, and this last year was the 1st time we, my mom and I, both agreed that we got it right. Now, the question is, can I duplicate it the next time around?

My mom is 93, and I cook or try do everything with her as much as I can when I can. My mom makes the best fruit salad it's just delicious! I tried to make it with her supervision but it just didn't taste right. My mom comes in and adds an extra scoop whipped cream and it tastes like it's supposed to! When I asked her why she added that scoop, she said it needed a scoop of love! I believe her!

 

[lihpster]

I just want to say, for those of you, like me, that my question brings up fond, happy memories, I'm glad. That was my intention.
If my question brings up less pleasant memories, I apologize for making you uncomfortable. that was NOT my intention. To you I wish peace, sooner than later.
Just wanted to make that clear.

Phil

 

[Bullet Bob]

Nothing tastes as good as a memory.

 

[Golddollar]

Nothing tastes as good as a memory.

And lasts as long. My brother and I used to be on the competitive chili cooking circuit. One year we won the North Carolina Salsa division and went to the International Chili Society World Championship in Omaha, NE. My brother and I were perusing the chili by other cooks. We came to one cook's tent, and when my brother and I tried a sample of the chili we both exclaimed, "This is Mom's chili!" Bear in mind that our mother had been dead for some 15 years, but there was no mistaking that the flavor of the competitor's chili matched the flavor of our mother's chili that we had as boys.

 

[Fredo Batali]

My grandmas fruit cake!! Best on the planet! Dark and spicy with Rasins, Dates, and a smidgen of candied fruit, soaked in dark rum. Four sisters and none of the winos thought to write it down!

De Oppresso Liber

 

[Bullet Bob]

Don't be sexist, Fredo, boys can write also.

 

[zeke]

This reminds me about having some of my grandmothers recipes that were rescued from old hutch in parents garage. Ought to check them out for her hog maw recipe. My grandmother was excellent old fashioned cook, mother not so much.

 

[Fredo Batali]

My momma raised seven kids and got one dummy. It was my brother. He was too busy getting high and drinking. I was helping Uncle Sam out of jam when grandma died, and my other brother had a wonderful wife and didn't need the recipe. We can write but you would think the girls would want to pass it along to their youngun's. Could be why they all went through multiple husbands

De Oppresso Liber