Culture & Food

This is the eleventh post in my family culinary history series. To start from the beginning, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes post. Lady Baltimore Cake 1/2 cup of butter scant1 ½ cups of gran sugar sift1 cup of cold water3 even cups of flourSift 3 times before measure2 rounded teasp B.… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #11: A Not So Classy Lady Baltimore Cake

This is the tenth post in my family culinary history series. To start from the beginning, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes post. Delicious Pickles Wash and cut 1 inch long chunks to fill 4 quart jars. To each jar add 3 or 4 onion slices, 2 celery stalks and 2 bunches… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #10: Pickles – A Lesson in Humility in the Kitchen

This is the ninth post in my family culinary history series. To start from the beginning, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes post. Doughnuts 1 qt. flour1 egg½ cup of sugar1 cup of milk (sweet)6 tablespoons of lard2 tablespoons of baking powderNutmeg to taste Doughnuts (good) ½ cups of sugar1 cup of… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #9: I Doughnut Know What I’m Doing

This is the seventh post in my family culinary history series. To start from the beginning, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes post. A Misguided Séance I had really hoped that making these three recipes would somehow evoke the spirit of Irene and would have engendered in me some deep connection with… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #7: Reflecting on Communing With My Great-Grandmother Assignment

This is the fifth post in my family culinary history series. To start from the beginning, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes post. Pork Cake1 pound of fat pork, chopped fine1 pt. of boiling water2 cups of molasses2 cups of brown sugar1 pound of raisins1 pound of currants1 tablespoons of cinnamon1 tablespoons… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #5: Pork Cake: Communing With My Great-Grandmother Through Her Recipes

This is the sixth post in my family culinary history series. To start from the beginning, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes post. Copied from Mother’s Recipe Lemon PieGrate the rind of one lemonSqueeze the juice. 1 cup of sugarYolks of 3 eggs, four tablespoons of water, two tablespoons of flourFrost with… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #6: Lemon Pie: Communing With My Great-Grandmother Through Her Recipes

This is the fourth post in my family culinary history series. To start from the beginning, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes post. Graham Bread1 coffee cup sour milk2 tablespoons of molasses½ teaspoon of salt1 teaspoon of sodaFlour to make batter thick enough to dropSept 28th, 1902 Sylvester Graham Graham bread (and… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #4: Graham Bread: Communing With My Great-Grandmother Through Her Recipes

This is the eighth post in my family culinary history series. To start from the beginning, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes post. Original Recipe Molasses Cookies1 ½ c. N.O. Molasses1 c Lard(Boil this together) Let cool3 eggs½ cup white sugarCinnamon 1 teasp1 teasp ginger4 cups flour1 teasp sodaMix all this together… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #8: Irene Caron’s Molasses Cookies

This is the second post in my family culinary history series. To start from the beginning, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes post. Who Am I? One of my favorite quotes comes from the book Midnight’s Children by Salam Rushdie where the main character is telling the reader that his story… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #2: Researching my Culinary Family Tree

I recently completed my first class in a gastronomy studies program, the subject of which was the critical analysis of historical cookbooks.  Throughout the class, we’d deconstruct cookbooks to see what things like the ingredients, spill patterns, cultural references, structure and layout, and much more could tell us about the people who made them and… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #1: Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes

This is the third installment in my family culinary history series. The following and the next few posts are part of an assignment I completed for my Cookbooks and History class for the Boston University. To start from the beginning of my culinary history journey, please see my Connecting with my Ancestors through their Recipes… Read more: Irene’s Recipes #3: A Concerto of Pork, Flour, Lard: Communing With My Great-Grandmother Through Her Recipes