Take this as a public service announcement: pass on your family food traditions now. Don't wait. I say this because my mother was this close to giving away our family's long-held tradition of making apple butter, including my great-grandmother's battered enamel pans, my grandmother's trusty food mill, and the family recipe itself. Her response when I squawked in protest: "I didn't think you were interested!"
The fault was really mine. I had just assumed that when my mother grew tired of hosting the annual apple butter production, she would pass on the tradition and its related equipment to either me or my brother. Just as my grandmother did in her day.
For my mother's part, she assumed that because neither my brother or I spoke up, we weren't interested. It was a classic case of all of us making our own assumptions and never talking about it with each other.
It's not so much that the recipe is secret or that I feel like this tradition has to stay in the family. It's that this is one of the few physical connections that I have with my family's history. It's that the smell of apple butter cooking always triggers feelings of warmth, love, and happy anticipation. And it's that I remember how much I yearned to be a part of this group of mothers, aunts, and grandmothers when I was too young to hold a knife, and how proud I was when I was finally handed one.
I never realized that my mother didn't know how much this meant to me. And I'm so glad that she knows now.
The moral of the story is that if you have a tradition like this in your family, don't wait for a young family member to speak up or for an older family member to ask you to take it on. Whichever side of the scenario you are on, start talking now.
Do you have a food tradition in your family?
Related: Homemade Sauerkraut: A Century-Old Family Tradition
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My mom's side of the family always makes Yorkshire Pudding for Thanksgiving and Christmas. There are two pans that my grandmother and mother have that were passed down through the years. Someday I'll get one of them. I'm sure I could make it in a pan I already have but there is definitely something special about making it in one of those two highly seasoned ones.
My grandmother makes Jamaican black cake (aka rum cake) every Christmas and for the life of me I can't get her to show me how to do it.
My dad's sisters make aloo chap - an amazing Indian spiced meat and potato cake that is todiefor. It was a special treat when they made it for our massive family and I've posted the recipe here (with gluten-free substitutions).
http://www.freshnessgf.com/aloo-chap-spiced-meat-and-potato-cakes/
For years my brother and I have helped make our family's Christmas breakfast rice pudding for years, and as my grandma's health has declined a little over the years, we've taken over most of it ourselves, asking questions along the way. Luckily we kind of wrote it down, but since it's such a feel thing (add eggs if it feels like it needs it... etc) I'm worried that we won't pick it up ourselves and it won't be the same when we take over completely!
@waterlily - I totally agree. A huge part of the special-ness comes from using the same pans that your relatives have been using for decades!
We have a stuffing recipe from at least my great-great grandmother. I had to pratically beg/force my grandmother to teach me. I've actually now gone back and taught my mom the recipe. So yummy and a great connection to the past!
I just started to do this with my grandmother! She used to cook all the major holidays for our extended family but we've taken those on as she has gotten older. It was really hard to pick one recipe to start with, but we decided on her famous matzoh ball soup. The recipe turned out to be pretty lengthy but doing it together was such a joy.
My mom has made the same cranberry relish for Thanksgiving since she was seven or eight; it was a recipe she was given to write down as a handwriting exercise in school and she's made it every year since then. I hosted Thanksgiving at my house for several years and she always brought it, even when she had to sneak it on the plane.
The secret to getting the texture right is putting the cranberries through a meat grinder; she tried it in a food processor one year but it wasn't the same. Maybe eventually I will inherit her old, leaky meat grinder that's only been used for cranberries so I can make it myself.
We have a Portuguese dressing recipe passed down over the years. The best part about it is three generations of women in the family get together to make it. Ground beef, pork, and chourico make it a meal in itself with all the Portuguese bread and our blend of secret spices. I look forward to that at Thanksgiving more than anything else we serve.
We have Nicaraugan cheese soup every year on Good Friday. We save some of the cheese patties to eat with simple syrup or honey/maple syrup.
My grandmother is Czech and every holiday we spend together she usually makes a strudel, one with apple and one with either chocolate or poppy seed filling, similar to this recipe: http://www.bisousatoi.com/2010/06/mohnstrudel.html.
Her's is a bit more simple, with cocoa powder or poppy seed mixed with sugar and butter in lieu of the nuts as the filling, and no rum, honey, or lemon peel.
In addition to these desserts, she's also shown me how to my poppy seed kolaches (the ingredients on the inside).
Yum!
The weekend before Thanksgiving, my Mom and I (and now my wife) have always made Easter Sausage. It was a recipe passed down to her from my Paternal Grandmother. It's a traditional Croatian specialty (according to family legend). We cut up a few loaves of bread into cubes and toss it with cubed ham, thyme, sage, salt and pepper and some other tasty secrets, then roll them into cheese cloth and boil them for an hour. It's just a tasty loaf of deliciousness.
I always make donuts with my children on fat tuesday - they call it donut day and look forward to it all day long. Every October my family makes wine by foot (only the women get in the grapes - here is an article in yankee magazine on it:http://www.yankeemagazine.com/issues/2008-09/food/winemaking-gloucester-ma )
This is now one of my children's listed "favorite holidays" right after christmas.
Our favorite tradition is making "Cheese Torte" for Christmas (and some other events). It's made in a spring form pan lined and topped with a mixture of bread crumbs, sugar, cinnamon and melted butter. The cheese used is not cream cheese, but riced cottage cheese.
My grandmother passed it on to my mother, then I took over after my moms passing. Everyone in the family looks forward this delightful torte and the few times I didn't make it they were truly disappointed.
Last year my niece, Stephanie (a Kitchn Team member) made it for the first time and it came out perfecty. I'm so happy that she can carry on the tradition. Maybe one day she will post the recipe???
We make apple butter in a copper kettle over an open fire. Apples + sugar + cinnamon oil +10-12 hours stirring constantly = apple butter
My mom and I have made two quiche — one spinach and cheese, one ham and cheese— every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember. It's the perfect way to begin a long day of cooking, eating, and drinking lots of mimosas!
The tradition my grandpa and I still keep to this day is his famous Kasturi Lime Juice cordial. We make it every time the local kasturi limes are in excess (which is usually once in 2 years or so). It a whole day working with syrup and juice but the end results can be stored for a whole year or so. Although, I have modified his recipe a little making it slightly healthier. =D
This is another one where my entire family used to be involved in making 'Achar', which is like a spicy pickled vegetable relish. My late grandma used to lead the entire kitchen when it was almost Chinese New Year and everyone including the kids would have a different thing to do. Think of it like the Disney Fantasia scene but with basins full of vegetables making it's way into a cauldron. The end product is an unsurpassable Achar that to this day, people still talk about.
Come to think about, my family never did anything small scale! Excess always makes good gifts.
Every major family event, including cousins, aunts, and uncles, we all make Italian spedini. It's a long process so it really forces the whole family to help prepare. We have the raisin cutters, the parsley snippers, the meat tenderizers, the bread crumb makers, the bay leaf placer, the toothpick putter... everyone has a job, and I'm sure it's what makes the meal more enjoyable!
My great grandmother was from Austria and our family tradition is Leberknoedel. It's Liver dumpling soup. We make it every year the weekend after thanksgiving.
maybe it is finally time for my lefse [paper thin norwegian pancakes made from mashed potato] initiation. I'm a little intimidated, but how else will I teach my little girl?
fennpepper, that sounds like a very interesting dish. How is it made?