Jeanne, remember my idea that old recipes could be a form of food genealogy? Follow the recipes and you might find a time machine to the past? Stuffed in old cookbooks or notebooks, you might locate actual notes about family history?
Recently I found a recipe in my stash that came from my grandmother, Daisy. Many times I scoured her house, looking for clues to her past. I found them, too, in the form of a stack of letters written between Daisy and my future grandfather, Curtis. In the 1920s, if you were in love and not living in the same state, you waited for the trains to bring your messages of love, marriage and new cars with closed carriages. Daisy had saved many letters between herself and Curtis, as well as those from her parents (who were divorced, scandalous!) and her closest friends. I'll share a piece of one of those letters because it transports us to another time and feeling - and that is what food can do, given the chance. Daisy wrote to Curtis on Aug. 2, 1927, the following:
Mother brought me some huge elberta peaches from her tree. She is lamenting the fact that I don’t have some peach preserves she made just before she left Vernon.
Picnics! Aren’t they fun? Let’s do have some more steak fries. I have a longhandled frying pan with a “cool” handle that would just love to go a-picnicking up in the hills. You have to promise to clean it, though; because they’re awfully messy, frying pans are, when they are not kept clean. I like the little picnics best. The kind that one prepares for by standing over a hot stove, frying chickens, baking cakes and pies and spending hours making countless sandwiches. No, I’m not such a great enthusiast for those, because part of the picnickers are tired and cross, with reason, before they have a chance to start.
Tired as we were, we dropped into the funny little Crazy Theater last night to see Lillian Gish in “The Scarlet Letter.” There was a vaudeville bill but we didn’t stay for it. I was too sleepy. The night before in the Pullman, I’d had intermittent rounds with an intrusive mosquito that disturbed my otherwise rough train slumbers, at frequent intervals. I suppose you’ve gathered that I hadn’t such a pleasant trip down? I didn’t. But from now on – oh this is fine! It’s worth it too.
You should get this (letter) Friday. I’ll not be writing letters to you longer than a week more, will I? You’re going to like Texas. Crops seem fine, breezes blow, sun shines, life swings high-low for some, and just drowsily in between for others. For us – but that will soon be here, won’t it?"
Now here's the scrap of recipe that stirs up my memory of Daisy. It's written in that run-on style that was popular in yesteryear.
Hello Dolly
1 stick margarine
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup coconut
1 cup chocolate bits
1 cup butterscotch bits
1 cup chopped pecans
1 can Eagle brand
In a 9-inch square pan, melt a stick of margarine; then add a cup of graham cracker crumbs. Don't stir - just sprinkle the crumbs on top of the margarine smoothly; then a cup of coconut, spread on top of that; and on top of that spread a cup of chocolate bits (Nestle's - half of a large package or 1 small package) then a layer of butterscotch, a layer of chopped pecans; then open a can of Eagle Brand condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk, but condensed milk), and pour it smoothly over the top of the pecans. Cook at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack until room temperature. Cut in 1-inch squares. This is VERY rich and oh so good!
Daisy was the first to teach me all about bread, but that's another story.
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