How recipes change from generation to generation
Our family is a great believer in passing on recipes from generation to generation. As the recipes get passed down subtle changes are made, it is then often rewritten and passed down again. The recipe then seems to get slightly changed when it is passed down to the next generation again.
Recently, I have been pondering on why these recipes are changed and whether it is for the better!
For as long as I can remember my Grandma made Peanut butter cookies. Just like there is always a Yummy Fruit Slice in our house for John to take for his lunch, there was always a jar of peanut butter cookies at my grandma’s house, that my uncle would have with his coffee every morning.
We spent years helping to make them (ok… so maybe helping to lick out the bowl while pretending to make them). My grandma’s peanut butter cookies were definitely the best and I think there were two reasons for this. She used to roll the balls to an exact size and always used normal Weetabix and peanut butter. Mum’s are nice, but not as good as she uses organic peanut butter and organic weetabix which have more grains in them and she doesn’t roll them. My uncle now makes them himself and again they are not as good, as I don’t think they are made with as much love as my gran! My sisters are good, but again not quite as good as Grandma’s. Again I think it is partly because she doesn’t roll them into balls. I hadn’t made them for years as the Australian Weetbix are very different to the UK Weetabix and (Ithink) they don’t taste as good!! All this changed recently y when I found ‘UK Weetabix’ in the supermarket! I have since made 2 batches and they are good, butstill not quite as good as Grandma’s.
My grandma also made a Duke of Cambridge Tart every time we went to stay and then became my mum’s trademark dish and it has now it has become one of mine! When mum showed me how to cook it 2 years ago, we started chatting about how the recipe had changed so I dug out Grandma’s old recipe tin and it turns out that she used to put brandy in her version. For some reason mum never did and also changed the recipe. I have not tried making it with the brandy, but plan on doing so to see if it enhances it or not and if the recipe has indeed changed for the better!
Fish was another regular on the menu when we were growing up, as my Grandpa had a fish depot so we had plenty of access to wonderfully fresh seafood. My dad has always made an amazing Smoked Cod Kedgeree which we all love and cook regularly, but none of them taste the same! Dad adds lemon juice at the end and it tastes great. I did this one time as John said Dad’s was better, but it tasted awful, so I have gone back to my tried and tested version. My sisters is similar to mine but my brothers is very different and I think it may have something to do with the way the rice is cooked, the curry powder you use and the subtle changes we have all made to the recipe to make it our own.
Mum’s Cheese Straws are something that have definitely changed over the years. She claims they haven’t but when I dug out the original recipe from the “My Learn to Cook Book” it proved that she has certainly changed the recipe around. Every time I thought I had got it right she changed the size they should be or something else, to the point I could never get it right. She has now signed off on the final recipe which we all make and again all taste slightly different.
Do you have any recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation that have been changed along the way for better………. or for worse?
Happy cooking.
Rachel
