April
Plate Full of Memories April 2008 Newsletter
______ All the News That’s Fit to Cook and Write about_______
Announcements:
Coming this May there will be a few changes to www.platefullofmemories.com.There will be a blog where you can share your ideas and experiences of writing your own cookbook. If there is a lot of interest it may become a forum. Time will tell. I will be adding my own insights that are not part of the newsletter. I have a hard time deciding each month which of the great things I learn should be in the newsletter and which should wait another month. I hope you will join in the discussion starting May 5th!
My soapbox:
Close is good enough
It was a joy reading Alex Witchel’s article, “Missing Ingredient, Gone for Good,” in the New York Times’ “Dining In” section. If you know anything about me, you know that just because of the title I had to read the article. Witchel was trying to recreate his paternal grandmother’s kreplachs. These are a traditional Jewish pocket food, a pastry filled with meat. They are very similar to wontons but, as the article explains, these are not wontons. I have had them only in soup but Witchel grew up eating them fried. He was working with Arthur Schwartz, author of six cookbooks, who had his own recipe for the kreplachs which had been served in soup. The bottom line was that Witchel would never be able to recreate the tastes of his memories. The memory elevated the actual taste of the product.
Some people have asked me the same question about the memory of my grandmother’s crepes and have insisted that I would never be able to recreate them and that it would be impossible. I am now coming to the same conclusion but I will continue to try to find the recipe with the hope that I really can recreate the pleasant taste of my youth.
Witchel shared a story, one that I have heard before, and I thought that I would share it with you because it outlines an idea that comes up in my classes. “There was a man whose wife died. After a long time he remarried. His new wife cooked every night and knocked herself out to make the meals as pleasing as his first wife’s. And every night the husband would taste them, shake his head and say, ‘Not as good.’ One night, the new wife was on the phone talking to her friend and the dinner burned. “Who cares?” she thought bleakly. ‘What does it matter?’ She served the burned food and her husband was ecstatic. ‘Finally!’ he exulted. “Now it’s as good.” The story is a perfect example of how our memories of food and the realities can be totally different. Our minds play games with us and we remember the tastes differently than they actually tasted.
There can be another problem in recreating an heirloom recipe and that is that the ingredients can be “improved.” Some products are not even available that were here 100 years ago. Take extra care when using ingredients that may have been improved over the years, like self-rising flour. My ancestors would have used yeast in their coffee cake rather than self-rising flour. Dairy products have changed so that butter and milk may have different water-to-fat content. Some products may contain emulsifiers to stabilize them so that they have a longer shelf life. Some of our fruits and vegetables have less taste since they are picked before they are ripe and left to ripen in our stores. All these things have an effect on the recipes. It just means that we need to actually prepare them, evaluate the taste and make our best judgment to add things to make the taste as close as possible to our memory of it.
Hopefully I have not discouraged you in the effort of recording your family recipes. The food may not be exactly like your relatives made it, but it will be close. And those kids of tomorrow will never have tasted the original, so close is good enough.
Hot off the web:
New Video Recipes Offer a FunTtwist on Every Meal
PR Web (press release) - Ferndale, WA, USA
Le Mars, Iowa (PRWE
March 28, 2008 -- Discover new recipe ideas by
watching a cooking demonstration in your home. With a new video recipe every month, ...
Lulu Creator has Cookbooks coming out
PR Newswire (press release) - New York, NY, USA
"Glamour in the Kitchen" is the first in a series of four cookbooks that will be published on Lulu.com in 2009
Author fills cookbook with stories of Italy
Author fills pages with stories and recipes from Italy
The Register-Guard - Eugene, OR, USA
The book has many recipes with casual amounts and directions tucked into
the stories. One describes a gratin dish of peppers -- including long, green, ...
Kids Unite to create fund raising cookbook
Great Falls Tribune - Great Falls, MT, USA
When you stir the two together for a good cause you get a little gem of a
cookbook. Students from the Fairhaven Colony joined forces with the kids and ...
Finding-sumptuous-cooking-recipes
By Author
A lot of people find that the majority of their cooking recipes come from family members such as their grandmother or mother. But for some people, this just is not the case or they would like to build their own collection. ...
Newly released cookbook contains more than recipes
Tyler Morning Telegraph - Tyler, TX, USA
If you are looking for that inspiration, take a glimpse inside the pages of
these cookbooks. You can find them at your local bookstore. ...
Delicious-gluten-free-recipes
SheKnows.com - Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Gluten-free recipes can be just as satisfying - and even more so, because
you won't be plagued with gastrointestinal distress. These are just three of the ...
Bilingual cookbook is trying to get kids to eat healthy
Bilingual cookbook aims to encourage youngsters to eat healthily
Farmers Guardian - Preston, England, UK
SCHOOLCHILDREN in Cardiff helped unveil Hybu Cig Cymru Meat Promotion Wales' first bilingual cookbook exclusively for youngsters. Children from Ysgol Pencae ...
Recipes-came-about-by-evolution
Recipes came about by evolution
New Scientist (subscription) - UK
Yet evolutionary mechanisms may well be reflected in recipes for these tried-and-tested dishes. Physicist Antonio Roque of the University of São Paulo in ...
Biblical foods theme for cookbook Biblical foods the theme for new clever cookbook
Munster Times - Munster, IN, USA
Every Easter season, I always watch the Cecille B. DeMille 1956 film
classic "The Ten Commandments" on television with my parents. ...
A look at some historical cookbooks
We don't take enough time to use cookbooks
Edwardsburg Argus - MI, USA
Homemakers of the 19th century had few cookbooks. Not like today when you
go into a Barnes and Noble and see shelves of cookbooks. Earlier women cooked from ...
Some diabetes Recipes
Author and diabetes group team up on cookbook
Houston Chronicle - United States
Diabetic Cookbook: Stove-Top and Oven Recipes -- for Everyone! (Good Books, $15.95). Part of the popular Fix-It series, this cookbook specializes in meals ...
Cookbook-mess- You are not alone,
By Ed
While we don't exactly have a huge library of cookbooks and stuff, there is a pretty good amount of them around here. It's not just cookbooks either. There'sa whole stack of Rachael Ray's magazine and loads of other magazines, ...
Healthy Recipe Make Overs
For Thought: Healthy recipe makeover tips
Gaston Gazette - Gastonia, NC, USA
A great place to start is with the recipes and meal ideas you use on a regular basis. Reducing extra fat and calories in the foods you prepare at home can ...
What will they think of next...
Pandigital cooks up kitchen digital frame/HDTV/recipe display
By Nino Marchetti
Pandigital has revealed a hybrid HDTV, digital cookbook and picture frame for those who never want to leave their kitchens. It is called, aptly enough, the Pandigital Kitchen HDTV/Digital Cookbook/Digital Photo Frame and pricing is set ...
Hella is a member of:
Association of Personal Historians
www.personalhistorians.org
Gotstories
www.gotstories.org
The Legacy Center
www.ethicalwills.org
Meet Minneaolis
www.meetminneapolis.com
If you would like to receive your own copy of the free monthly newsletter just email me at memorycookbooks@gmail.com Newsletters posted here will always be a month old so that subscribers get them first.
______ All the News That’s Fit to Cook and Write about_______
Announcements:
Coming this May there will be a few changes to www.platefullofmemories.com.There will be a blog where you can share your ideas and experiences of writing your own cookbook. If there is a lot of interest it may become a forum. Time will tell. I will be adding my own insights that are not part of the newsletter. I have a hard time deciding each month which of the great things I learn should be in the newsletter and which should wait another month. I hope you will join in the discussion starting May 5th!
My soapbox:
Close is good enough
It was a joy reading Alex Witchel’s article, “Missing Ingredient, Gone for Good,” in the New York Times’ “Dining In” section. If you know anything about me, you know that just because of the title I had to read the article. Witchel was trying to recreate his paternal grandmother’s kreplachs. These are a traditional Jewish pocket food, a pastry filled with meat. They are very similar to wontons but, as the article explains, these are not wontons. I have had them only in soup but Witchel grew up eating them fried. He was working with Arthur Schwartz, author of six cookbooks, who had his own recipe for the kreplachs which had been served in soup. The bottom line was that Witchel would never be able to recreate the tastes of his memories. The memory elevated the actual taste of the product.
Some people have asked me the same question about the memory of my grandmother’s crepes and have insisted that I would never be able to recreate them and that it would be impossible. I am now coming to the same conclusion but I will continue to try to find the recipe with the hope that I really can recreate the pleasant taste of my youth.
Witchel shared a story, one that I have heard before, and I thought that I would share it with you because it outlines an idea that comes up in my classes. “There was a man whose wife died. After a long time he remarried. His new wife cooked every night and knocked herself out to make the meals as pleasing as his first wife’s. And every night the husband would taste them, shake his head and say, ‘Not as good.’ One night, the new wife was on the phone talking to her friend and the dinner burned. “Who cares?” she thought bleakly. ‘What does it matter?’ She served the burned food and her husband was ecstatic. ‘Finally!’ he exulted. “Now it’s as good.” The story is a perfect example of how our memories of food and the realities can be totally different. Our minds play games with us and we remember the tastes differently than they actually tasted.
There can be another problem in recreating an heirloom recipe and that is that the ingredients can be “improved.” Some products are not even available that were here 100 years ago. Take extra care when using ingredients that may have been improved over the years, like self-rising flour. My ancestors would have used yeast in their coffee cake rather than self-rising flour. Dairy products have changed so that butter and milk may have different water-to-fat content. Some products may contain emulsifiers to stabilize them so that they have a longer shelf life. Some of our fruits and vegetables have less taste since they are picked before they are ripe and left to ripen in our stores. All these things have an effect on the recipes. It just means that we need to actually prepare them, evaluate the taste and make our best judgment to add things to make the taste as close as possible to our memory of it.
Hopefully I have not discouraged you in the effort of recording your family recipes. The food may not be exactly like your relatives made it, but it will be close. And those kids of tomorrow will never have tasted the original, so close is good enough.
Hot off the web:
New Video Recipes Offer a FunTtwist on Every Meal
PR Web (press release) - Ferndale, WA, USA
Le Mars, Iowa (PRWE
March 28, 2008 -- Discover new recipe ideas bywatching a cooking demonstration in your home. With a new video recipe every month, ...
Lulu Creator has Cookbooks coming out
PR Newswire (press release) - New York, NY, USA
"Glamour in the Kitchen" is the first in a series of four cookbooks that will be published on Lulu.com in 2009
Author fills cookbook with stories of Italy
Author fills pages with stories and recipes from Italy
The Register-Guard - Eugene, OR, USA
The book has many recipes with casual amounts and directions tucked into
the stories. One describes a gratin dish of peppers -- including long, green, ...
Kids Unite to create fund raising cookbook
Great Falls Tribune - Great Falls, MT, USA
When you stir the two together for a good cause you get a little gem of a
cookbook. Students from the Fairhaven Colony joined forces with the kids and ...
Finding-sumptuous-cooking-recipes
By Author
A lot of people find that the majority of their cooking recipes come from family members such as their grandmother or mother. But for some people, this just is not the case or they would like to build their own collection. ...
Newly released cookbook contains more than recipes
Tyler Morning Telegraph - Tyler, TX, USA
If you are looking for that inspiration, take a glimpse inside the pages of
these cookbooks. You can find them at your local bookstore. ...
Delicious-gluten-free-recipes
SheKnows.com - Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Gluten-free recipes can be just as satisfying - and even more so, because
you won't be plagued with gastrointestinal distress. These are just three of the ...
Bilingual cookbook is trying to get kids to eat healthy
Bilingual cookbook aims to encourage youngsters to eat healthily
Farmers Guardian - Preston, England, UK
SCHOOLCHILDREN in Cardiff helped unveil Hybu Cig Cymru Meat Promotion Wales' first bilingual cookbook exclusively for youngsters. Children from Ysgol Pencae ...
Recipes-came-about-by-evolution
Recipes came about by evolution
New Scientist (subscription) - UK
Yet evolutionary mechanisms may well be reflected in recipes for these tried-and-tested dishes. Physicist Antonio Roque of the University of São Paulo in ...
Biblical foods theme for cookbook Biblical foods the theme for new clever cookbook
Munster Times - Munster, IN, USA
Every Easter season, I always watch the Cecille B. DeMille 1956 film
classic "The Ten Commandments" on television with my parents. ...
A look at some historical cookbooks
We don't take enough time to use cookbooks
Edwardsburg Argus - MI, USA
Homemakers of the 19th century had few cookbooks. Not like today when you
go into a Barnes and Noble and see shelves of cookbooks. Earlier women cooked from ...
Some diabetes Recipes
Author and diabetes group team up on cookbook
Houston Chronicle - United States
Diabetic Cookbook: Stove-Top and Oven Recipes -- for Everyone! (Good Books, $15.95). Part of the popular Fix-It series, this cookbook specializes in meals ...
Cookbook-mess- You are not alone,
By Ed
While we don't exactly have a huge library of cookbooks and stuff, there is a pretty good amount of them around here. It's not just cookbooks either. There'sa whole stack of Rachael Ray's magazine and loads of other magazines, ...
Healthy Recipe Make Overs
For Thought: Healthy recipe makeover tips
Gaston Gazette - Gastonia, NC, USA
A great place to start is with the recipes and meal ideas you use on a regular basis. Reducing extra fat and calories in the foods you prepare at home can ...
What will they think of next...
Pandigital cooks up kitchen digital frame/HDTV/recipe display
By Nino Marchetti
Pandigital has revealed a hybrid HDTV, digital cookbook and picture frame for those who never want to leave their kitchens. It is called, aptly enough, the Pandigital Kitchen HDTV/Digital Cookbook/Digital Photo Frame and pricing is set ...
Hella is a member of:
Association of Personal Historians
www.personalhistorians.org
Gotstories
www.gotstories.org
The Legacy Center
www.ethicalwills.org
Meet Minneaolis
www.meetminneapolis.com
If you would like to receive your own copy of the free monthly newsletter just email me at memorycookbooks@gmail.com Newsletters posted here will always be a month old so that subscribers get them first.
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