Old Recipes, a Rant of sorts

[kaiser715]

For thanksgiving, and again, today, for Christmas, I pulled out my mom's old handwitten recipe books. She was a home-ec teacher starting in 1951. I wanted to pick some things that were traditional in our family and try to recreate them.

First, my most major disappointment is that stores no longer have the red spiced apple rings. I asked at Food Lion and Lowes, and got that blank stare like I had three heads. I used to could eat a whole jar in one sitting.

Second, so many recipes from the 50's start with "2 spoons of bacon grease" or "a scoop of lard", or "a pound of Crisco". That's not a complaint, that's some good tasting food!

Third, I have had to think like a 1950's/1960's grocery store... I'm fixing a casserole today that calls for "1 c. cheesecrackers, crushed". What the hell is a cheesecracker? As I looked over the several-hundred cracker varieties at Food Lion last night, I was thinking, old grocery stores pretty much sold 3 crackers. Ritz, saltines, and Cheez-its. Let's hope that I picked right.

Anybody else pull out the old recipes?

 

[R Q]

Funny you mention this. I got my mother's recipe file after she passed and keep it in my safe. This year for Christmas I copied each one starting with hand written, and then typed, and then ones cut out from Crisco labels and magazines and made a book to give to my brother, sister, niece, and nephew, and my son. It turned out to be 43 pages with many pages having 2-4 per page. I also did a glossary in the front.

 

[ckruzer]

For thanksgiving, and again, today, for Christmas, I pulled out my mom's old handwitten recipe books. She was a home-ec teacher starting in 1951. I wanted to pick some things that were traditional in our family and try to recreate them.

First, my most major disappointment is that stores no longer have the red spiced apple rings. I asked at Food Lion and Lowes, and got that blank stare like I had three heads. I used to could eat a whole jar in one sitting.

Second, so many recipes from the 50's start with "2 spoons of bacon grease" or "a scoop of lard", or "a pound of Crisco". That's not a complaint, that's some good tasting food!

Third, I have had to think like a 1950's/1960's grocery store... I'm fixing a casserole today that calls for "1 c. cheesecrackers, crushed". What the hell is a cheesecracker? As I looked over the several-hundred cracker varieties at Food Lion last night, I was thinking, old grocery stores pretty much sold 3 crackers. Ritz, saltines, and Cheez-its. Let's hope that I picked right.

Anybody else pull out the old recipes?

A scoop of lard is about 1/2 cup
Cheese-Its and Cheese Nips were the cheese crackers of choice back then iirc
Also context here - if the recipe isnt a cheesy meal? consider that Ritz crackers where commonly referred to cheese crackers - crackers meant for cheese whip
There was a brand in the 60s, called Daisys which were baked cheese crackers - literally baked cheese

 

[kaiser715]

Also context here - if the recipe isnt a cheesy meal? consider that Ritz crackers where commonly referred to cheese crackers - crackers meant for cheese whip

It's got a cup of grated sharp cheddar over the top. I have enough to make 2 casseroles of it, so going to do one in cheez-its, and one in Ritz. See which one gets gone first.

 

[awheelterd]

My mom has a recipe book from our church that was compiled in the 50's or 60's. One of the recipes is for Robin pie. The first line says something like get your husband or son to shoot a mess of robins and clean. Times must have been mighty lean back then to be eating robins!

 

[JSJJ388]

My mom has a recipe book from our church that was compiled in the 50's or 60's. One of the recipes is for Robin pie. The first line says something like get your husband or son to shoot a mess of robins and clean. Times must have been mighty lean back then to be eating robins!

They actually ain't bad!

 

[kaiser715]

Darn it, did my cooking tonight and forgot to take pics before packing it into the fridge. Maybe I'll remember tomorrow.

Ended up making a rice-mushroom casserole, a broccoli casserole, and a pineapple pie.

Kinda pissed, I had to improvise on the rice casserole. Bought a screw-top carton of chicken stock at Food Lion yesterday. When I went to use it tonight, saw it was open, foil seal broke, and about 1/4 of it gone. Did somebody use some, then return it? Or take a few swigs in the store?