Food you Haven't Had Since your Grandmother(s) Died

[captainsousie]

One Grandma made us cook with her so I know all of the recipes and can make most nearly as well and some as good or better. The other grandma shared all her secrets but I still, 20 years later, miss going to her house and being greeted with a huge Tupperware filled with cookies and rice crispies treats. My sister has that Tupperware and it still smells like I remember.

Of course I'll never forget my grandma's (the first one) pasta sauce and salad dressing recipes. I'll share them even though they're secret. Heinz "catsup" (sic) and miracle whip respectively.

EDIT: Grandma's maultasche is a dish I love to make but I do it far too infrequently. Egg noodle dough wrapped around spiced potato and sauerkraut topped with butter is heaven on earth for me.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

My sister organized and reproduced all my Dad’s Mom’s recipes for the family and it’s my wife’s Mom who is gone on her side from whom she had a bunch of favorites. Our daughters already have all those and share with my wife frequently so pretty well set. We like to bake/cook!

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Not pirogi, perhaps, but the rest of that stuff? Death on a plate, especially kishke, which is Jewish haggis, or knishes, which if not done correctly can be fired out of cannons to demolish castle walls. I made pirogi with potatoes, sometimes with sauteed mushrooms, onions and a little garlic mixed with a little sour cream, or sometimes other ingredients. When I was in college I would make trays of them to bring to concert after parties. People would devour them like they were the last meal they would ever get.

Had it with venison years ago when the family hosting at their farm in Saskatchewan for some goose and duck hunting took us into town one night for a community dinner. Good stuff.

 

[OzPiper]

Both my Grandmothers were very good cooks. As was my mother

For them, it was doing everything from scratch.
If a dish asked for 2 tablespoons of rice flour, it was soaking the rice for a few hours, then grinding it up in a heavy granite mill.
If fish paste was required, it was filletting the fish, then chopping it up and pounding it in a mortar and pestle to get the right texture.
No short cuts, and no labour-saving electric devices.
Making a jam meant standing and stirring the pot continuously over a charcoal brazier until it was "done"
I miss ALL their cooking.
More so these days because few would be bothered to take the time or make the effort.

On a university vacation from Australia, my paternal Grandmother apologised that she couldn't afford to take me out for a (restaurant) meal. I told her that I'd take one of her home cooked meals over the fanciest restaurant dinner anytime.
And I meant it with all my heart.

 

[Flatfish]

From one grandmother I learned her take on corned beef hash, cawl and bread and butter pudding.
I still can't cook it as well as she did. Her roast dinners were the best.
That still is pretty much all I can cook.

 

[solideogloria86]

My dad's mother made the best cornbread I've ever had. It almost defies description, but it was a very light and spongy white cornbread, but it was also still crumbly like cornbread should be. Nice golden brown crust on the outside. All anyone knows that's still living is that she used Martha White all purpose flour, and baking powder. At the last family reunion I was at, my great aunt (her sister) brought cornbread, and I remember it being similar, and almost as good, but not quite. Truth of the matter is, the last time I ate my grandmother's cornbread, I was twelve years old. When I ate the cornbread at the reunion, I was almost 30. They could've been identical, and nostalgia would never let me believe Aunt Linda's cornbread was just as good. My mother's father's mother used to cook everything on a gas stove. I remember my grandpa (her son) always complaining that she couldn't cook since she got on a gas stove. He said she burned everything she cooked. I thought everything she made was amazing. Baked Mac and cheese, chicken pot pie, potato casserole. It was all perfect. Years later she needed looking after and moved in with a grandson. He had an electric stove and Nanny Waldrop's cooking really went down hill. No more crispy tops on the casseroles or Mac and cheese. My grandpa rejoiced and said his mother was finally able to cook again. That's when I realized he was crazy and didn't know what good cooking was.

P.S. I know that I use way too many commas.

 

[solideogloria86]

My mother gave her mom's recipe box to my wife. Along with cook books that have been edited and highlighted, and mason jars full of seeds she's saved over the years.
I've wondered how common it was for these things to get passed on.
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My mom has all of her paternal grandmother's recipes, and all of her mother's. No one bickered about the jewelery etc (there wasn't much anyway). But all of the ladies made sure they got to at least copy down whatever they couldn't keep out of the recipe boxes and books. It still amazes me how many recipes my grandmother's cut off the back of Betty crocker boxes, but never bothered to record the alterations that made them amazing.

 

[Winnipeger]

Yup. Perogies. I used to eat them by the dozen. My favourite ones contained cottage cheese, but my (Polish) grandma also made them with potato/cheddar, and sauerkraut, and bathed them in salted butter. I can make them, but I'm gluten and dairy intolerant now, so life pretty much sucks. I have made them with gluten free dough, but not in a long while. It's not quite the same unfortunately. I still make cabbage rolls from time to time though. If I make a huge batch, I can pretty much live off of them for a week. My grandmother would layer them with tomato juice and bacon fat before cooking them slowly all day. I learned a lot about cooking from my maternal grandmother. She liked her food salty, and made hundreds of different kinds of pastry, and lived to the age of 94 with very few health problems. I used to hang out in the kitchen with her when all the men were watching football in the living room. What a boring game. Now I know how to cook, and my dad and brother only know how to microwave frozen tv dinners. I definitely miss my grandmother. My own mother never liked cooking. Go figure. I think her mom used to kick her out of the kitchen when she was a kid.

 

[OzPiper]

My mom has all of her paternal grandmother's recipes, and all of her mother's. No one bickered about the jewelery etc (there wasn't much anyway). But all of the ladies made sure they got to at least copy down whatever they couldn't keep out of the recipe boxes and books. It still amazes me how many recipes my grandmother's cut off the back of Betty crocker boxes, but never bothered to record the alterations that made them amazing.

Both my Grandmas couldn't read or write. So their recipes were all stored in their head.
Neither suffered from dementia, so their cooking was consistent to the end.
My sister inherited my Mum's recipe book. Amazing the lack of detail - very few exact measurements of salt, sugar, spices or herbs. It was all "to taste"

 

[obc83]

On my maternal, Italian side: stuffed red and green peppers, massive meatballs and pasta fagioli. My paternal Irish side: corned beef and cabbage. And by far my favorite, my crunchy mother's worst nightmare: bagels with cheese and bacon bits in the toaster oven. Both sides: drinks at lunch.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

She used to make these little tea biscuits, basically a cookie, with a dollop of chocolate on top. Everyone raved about how good they were when she'd make them. Kids would line up from the entire area. I never liked the dry damned things. We had to wash them, down with water from the hose on hot days. The hose water wasn't bad, but I don't miss the cookies as much as I miss her. The rest of the food she made, I can for myself now... except those damned tea biscuits. I have no desire to make those. But, my kin all talk about them like they were f'n fantastic or something.

She was Welsh, and I just assumed the things were British or something, since the "tea" biscuits. I just assumed the only way one could drink that hot tea mess was to wash it down with a godawful dry cookie thing. Blech.

 

[JOHN72]

I practically grew up at my grandmother's house. Homemade custard with very fine corn flour. The orange donuts. The salad of peppers, tomato, onion, eggplant, roasted in the oven. Apple pie, with apples from the home orchard. The croquettes, a typical dish called "cocido" was made, and then with the broth and some meat, the croquettes were made.In the 1980s

 

[tbradsim1]

My Grandmother, Fathers mother was 4 ft 10inchs, a dynamo in the field doing farm work, not a great cook, but I still see her trying to make me a snowball , ice cubes wrapped in a clean dish towel, whacking it with a hammer to crush it, then pouring it with a red syrup she had bought at country store with her egg money. That’s love Gentlemen!

 

[puff_not_snuff]

My own mother never liked cooking. Go figure. I think her mom used to kick her out of the kitchen when she was a kid.

This seems like a common scenario from my own experience.

 

[yanoJL]

My paternal grandmother (abuela) was Puerto Rican and wow could she cook. Caribbean Spanish cuisine that I still miss. One dish in particular we called "pasteles"; very similar to the Mexican Tamale but with Plantanos (bananas) instead of corn.
As she got older, she allowed me to participate and help out making the Pasteles. And so, I kinda sorta know how to do it. But it's just not the same when I do it. Hers were just special. And when she passed away, there was quite a heated discussion about who would inherit her iron skillet. I did not win.

 

[UB 40]

My grandma wasn’t much of a cook, but my grandpa was. I remember his sour pork kidneys “Saure Nierchen” with mash or noodles he served as i was a kid. We lived together in the same house, his house.

I tried several recipes later but never had that typical taste, he could provide. I don’t know why, because it seems to be done easy. The kidneys soaked n milk, bacon fat and chopped onions roasted in pan. The dried kidneys fried for a few minutes, some meal added, clear soup and red or white vinegar some sugar/ honey added, pepper salt, that’s it. But no, it’s not the same, it wasn’t that ordinary…

 

[El Capitán]

My grandmother on my dad's side made awesome fried chicken. She passed in 2020. My great aunt used to make the best zucchini bread. She now has sever dementia.

 

[sablebrush52]

My grandmother on my dad's side made awesome fried chicken. She passed in 2020. My great aunt used to make the best zucchini bread. She now has sever dementia.

My mother developed severe dementia in her late 80’s. It’s a terrible thing to watch a loved one disappear that way.

 

[alan73]

Rouladen. A German rolled meat

 

[El Capitán]

My mother developed severe dementia in her late 80’s. It’s a terrible thing to watch a loved one disappear that way.

My great aunt has gotten the more violent side of dementia. My grandmother had it too but she was mellow. She always remembered who I was. She said I was her favorite grandchild.