What’s an heirloom recipe?
“Heirlooms” of any type have a sentimental or intrinsic value greater than their assigned monetary figure. They are at times virtually irreplaceable, and because of this they are treasured and passed down from one generation to the next.
At Beekman 1802, we believe that the story behind anything is what makes it special. Whether it is in the preparation or the presentation, the food we eat , where it comes from and how it is consumed contributes to the narrative of our lives.
Every great family recipe has a story behind it, and Beekman 1802 wants to hear the story behind the recipe that means the most to your family.
Submit your recipe and why it means so much to you in the comment field below. We’ll choose our favorite food story and the winner will receive a Beekman Basics prize package worth over $150. Winners will be announced on Thanksgiving Day.
If you find one of the stories below moving, let us know. We’ll take that into consideration, too
The only time my mother would prepare this receipe was on special holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. If she made it any other time of the year, it was because my dad and I bugged her about it until she gave in. But she would never give me the receipe for it. Family secret she would always say. Well, about a year before she passed away, she finally gave in and told me how to make it so the tradition would go on. And it has:
In an oblong baking dish, crumble enough saltine crackers to thoroughly line the bottom.
Add one or two cans of long spear asparagus or fresh if you have it from your heirloom garden. Be sure to poor off the juice if using canned.
Add one or two cans of Cream of Mushroom Soup or use your own homemade if you have it.
Place in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes and remove.
Top with slices of Velveeta Cheese (or you might try Goat Cheese) and return to the oven for about 5 more minutes or until the cheese starts to bubble.
Enjoy!
Old World Florentine Biscotti
During the winter of 1941, with her husband serving in South East Asia and two very little girls at home (one was my mom), Mary (my grandmother) had grown very weary. She worked around the clock at two different jobs just to make ends meet, and longed for the day when her life would regain its former simplicity. On a cold December afternoon, she bumped into a new neighbor who had recently arrived from Florence. This woman was a baker and had just opened a little shop in the North End that offered all sorts of marvelous Italian goodies. Over a cup of coffee, the two exchanged pleasantries and stories of their Italian heritage. As a kind gesture, the baker offered Mary a bag of her delicious biscotti and explained that the recipe had been in her family for over 100 years. It was love at first bite! The cookies, infused with orange zest, cinnamon, cloves and almonds, seemed to have a magical effect on Mary, providing an immediate jolt of comfort. Upon seeing Mary’s delight, the baker decided to share the recipe with her and said that they were made with love and meant to be shared with others. Because many of the ingredients were either hard to come by or very costly because of wartime food rationing, my grandmother held on to the recipe until the war was over. She liked the cookies so much that she soon added them to her Christmas repertoire. The recipe has been passed down for several generations in my family, and now my daughters (4th generation) look forward to them on Christmas Eve!
Preheat oven to 350 degree F
Mix together in a mixer:
2 cups sugar
2 cups dark brown sugar
1 tsp cloves
4 tsp cinnamon (I use the fragrant Vietnamese variety)
4 eggs
2/3 cup canola oil
4 tsp baking powder
3-4 tbs water (depending on air humidity)
grated rind of 2 orange
2 additional eggs, beaten for egg wash
Add 5 1/2 cups flour until incorporated and then 6 cups raw almonds. At this point, dough will be pretty solid and may be easier to knead by hand. To prevent dough from sticking, line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and coat very lightly with oil (just a few drops). Rub a few drops of oil on hands and divide dough into 10 to 12-1 pound balls, then separate each ball into 2 and roll into logs. Using a pastry brush, coat the logs with egg wash and cook in oven about 15 minutes until they are shiny and golden brown. Let cool until just warm. Lower oven temp to 325 degree F. Cut biscotti logs on a bias into individual 1-inch cookies (a serrated bread knife works best) and toast on each side for 6 minutes. Let cool completely and then store in an airtight container. They also freeze beautifully!
A family tradition for Thanksgiving Pie was Cranberry-Raisin Pie along with the mincemeat and pumpkin. A recipe it seems none of my family members had kept. I was certain my Mother had written the instructions from my grandmother –but not to be found. After their passing, I tried every Thanksgiving and Charistmas to duplicate it but it just didn’t fit my memory.The recipe is special but the fact that my Mom had kept was more so. On January 23,2001 (32 years to the date of my mother’s death) it fell out of a book I had picked up. There it was on a piece of yellowed paper written in her handwriting. It brought tears to my eyes and a song in my heart.
Cranberry & Raisin Pie
3 Cups cranberries
1 Cup Raisins (Dark or Light)
2 Tbsp Flour
2 Cups granulated sugar
2 Cups water
1 tsp Vanilla
Grind cranberries and raisins. Combine Balance of
ingredients and coo until thickened.
Filling your favorite butter or lard pie crust with
misture. Bake at 425F for 30-35 minutes.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream. It is rich so
start with small cuts.
Hi guys–I am a casting director who is searching for families who have cherished family recipes & who celebrate their cultural history through food. We are especially hoping to hear from families who hail from two different backgrounds. For more info, please write to me at: culturaldishescasting[at]gmail.com
“Grandma Payne’s” Homemade Cranberry Sauce
1-1/2 Cups of Caster Sugar
1 Valencia Orange
1/2 Tsp. Grated Ginger
4 Cups Cape Cod Cranberries
1/2 Cup Fancy Thin Shell Pecans (toasted)
1/2 Cup Red Wine (optional)
Add sugar, ginger & grated orange peel to a large sauce pan then add the juice from the orange and wine (optional) and simmer on medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and mixture has thickened the add the cranberries and cook on same heat until you hear the cranberries pop then remove from heat and add the whole/chopped toasted pecans and let cool then serve.
My grandmother was born in the late 1800′s and grew up on a wine vinyard in Tennessee and later in life became a herbalist to keep her family healthy and this was one of her favorite recipes, every item in this dish has very healthy medicinal qualities and taste’s fantastic, even people who do not care for cranberry sauce admit that this recipe is very tasty & delightful and has been in our family for over 100 years now. She believed in only the finest ingredients and would accept no less, how many dishes can you say are elegant in show, extremely tasteful, naturally healthy & easy to prepare all in one dish?
This recipe is definately worth trying especially to those who do not really enjoy cranberry sauce, you may find a change of heart. I hope those who try this enjoy it as much as our family has over the years. BON APPETIT!
I attended the Taste of Home in Verona NY and had a chance to talk to Brent and get an autoghraphed copy of your book, I love it. I watch your show and can’t wait for the Christmas special. My niece entered your contest #140, this recipe is loved by everyone we make it for, from Boston, Utica NY to Florida. I hope you will try it.
SO- how do you choose from all these wonderful reciepes ?
One of my very first memories of my mamma is the day she took my blankie away. I think I was 4. Of course, I was hysterical. Trying to distract me, she had us make bread teddy bears using cloves for eyes. I remember kneeding the bread and playing with the kittens while it rose. I remember rolling out the balls for the ears and arms and legs and sticking the clove in the tummy for the belly button. It worked (food has always been great therapy for me). So, when I was racking my brain for a recipe that not only was an heirloom in our family, but important to me personally, I thought of the bread recipe.
This recipe comes from my Great Grandmother Schiele. It was given to my Grandmother because my Grandfather (Grandma Schiele’s son) told his wife that he wouldn’t eat ‘boughten bread.’ Wanting to please Grandpa, she made the recipe his mother was famous for. My Grandfather told my Grandmother that hers was good, but not as good as his mother’s. A few weeks later, his mother came for a visit, and with great trepidation, my Grandmother served the bread with dinner. She explained that she couldn’t quite get the recipe right and asked my Great Grandmother what she had done wrong. Great grandma Schiele then asked my grandmother what she had done different because her bread was much better…. Grandpa sure didn’t have much to say then!
For as long as I can remember this bread has been served every time the Schiele family gets together for a meal (which, unfortunately, isn’t too often these days). This recipe is the one my Grandma used to make to make the Christmas morning cinnamon rolls. We always saved the heel end of the loaves and dried them for the best stuffing and the tastiest bread pudding. Funny how a recipe can bring back so many memories….I think I’ll make it for my own family this Thanksgiving.
Grandma Schiele’s Bread Recipe
1/4 c luke warm water
2 Tablespoons dry yeast
4 Tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons salt
2 Tablespoons shortening
2 c milk, scalded
2 c cold water
11 c flour
Add yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar to 1/4 c water and let set until bubbly. Measure sugar and salt in large mixing bowl. Add scalded milk and shortening. Stir and add cold water and yeast mixture. Add flour gradually, mixing well, to make a soft but not sticky dough. Turn on floured cloth or surface and kneed until smooth and elastic, sprinkling with flour until not sticky to touch. Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise until double in bulk. Punch down and let rise again. Kneed lightly on floured cloth or surface, dividing into 4 equal protions. Shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans and let rise until double in bulk. Heat oven to 375 degrees and bake 45 minutes or until well browned. Dough can also be used for dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls or cinnamon bread.
# 158 — I was refering to recipe #133 Zimmerman Kettle Cook
Sounds good to me. Cooking/steaming it outside is even better during the hot summers. A group at our church roasts the items mentioned in the recipe but I think steaming it would be just as good or even better.
I have decided to enter my mother’s “Potato soup” in the Heirloom Recipe contest. No fancy name…just a delicious soup from my ancestors…hard working, garden tending, earth loving folk.
Just as Josh was raised growing and weeding a family vegetable garden, so was I. God bless my mother, she canned and froze enough to feed our family of 5 children and my parents. My brothers and sisters too were given our designated vegetable rows to weed but it was my mother who spent her entire summer preserving the bounty for winter. The following soup recipe was passed down from my polish grandparents on my father’s side to my mother. It is delicious and I enjoy using my garden bounty to make it today. I thank my parents, long since passed on, each time for making me weed that garden…for now I truly appreciate what I can grow and feed my family.
POTATO SOUP
2 quarts of water
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce (we used our home canned tomatoes)
1 large onion, (also grown at home)
2-3 stalks of celery with leaves ( one of the few things my mother bought at the grocery store, and would never be without.)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups carrots sliced, (home grown)
2 cups of potatoes cubed, (brought up from our root cellar)
1 stick butter ( 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup milk
4 tbsp flour
In a large sauce pan heat water, tomato sauce, onion, celery and leaves, salt and pepper. Cook slowly 2-3 hrs. Add carrots and potatoes and cook until tender. Add butter, shake milk and flour and add to broth slowly to prevent curdling. Enjoy with some warm homemade bread and butter. Enjoy!
Peg Shea’s Cheese Biscuits have been a part of every holiday in our family for over 20 years. Maybe that doesn’t qualify as an heirloom, but it’s headed there, and it certainly was one for Ms. Shea. According to the New York Times, where I found the recipe, Peg lived on the coast of Maine and made these to have with a vodka martini every afternoon at 5:30. First, how cool was she…and second, what control! She waited until 5:30!
There are many variations on these around now, but these are the best, and you can make the dough and keep it in the refrigerator for weeks…just slice off a few and bake.
1/2 c. unsalted buter at room temp.
2 c sharp Vermont cheddar, grated
1 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until well blended. Turn out onto a floured board and roll into two logs and 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap in saran an refrigerate at least one to two hours.
Preheat oven to 350. Cut each log into slices approximately 1/4 inch thick and place on ungreased cookie sheets so edgesare not touching. Bake for 5-10 minutes until browned at edges and dry in the middle. Serve immediately or store in a cookie tin until ready to serve.
Don’t forget the martini…perfect for watching the Beekman Boys on December 8! Can’t wait.
My recipe may not be truly “heirloom” per say but its got all my heart behind it. My family is small, most all of my grandparents and family passed before I was born. So my family has always really just been me and my parents. (Being a broken home at that) As the years pass and the smoke clears its me and a hand full of the ones I really truly love and appreciate.
Having children really changed everything for me. Although the recipes I share are new to my family they are sacred to me because this is the beginning. I strive to cook from scratch, and make great memorable family meals. I hope that someday my kids will have recipes and memories to pass on to their children and that maybe the memories I make today can be shared forever.
German Cake : (Kuchen)
1/2 cup butter (melted or soft this cake does not care!)
3/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
*zest of 1 lemon
Fruit: 4-5 plums, apples or pears, about 2 cups of cherries or berries
2 tablespoons sugar for sprinkling. (or 1 packet of vanilla sugar)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slightly spray/ grease one of the following, a standard cake pan, 9-11″ spring form pan or a single pie plate 9 to 11 inches in diameter.
combine butter with sugar and eggs stir until smooth. Add milk vanilla and salt. Combine flour and stir with a spoon be sure not to over mix. This cake is easy but too much mixing and it will not be a buttery delicate texture. Evenly spread mixture into your prepared pan.
Layer the fruit on top as you’d like in any pattern. Traditionally apples, pears, plums etc. are halved and placed on top plums, “pit side” up. Apples peeled, sometimes sliced core side down. You can brush the top gently with additional butter if you’d like, Sprinkle sugar on top and bake for 30-40 minutes. This depends on how moist your fruit is as well as your oven.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar or cinnamon …or both?.
http://neo-homesteading.blogspot.com/2010/03/german-plum-cake-zwetschgenkuchen.html
Gobs, also know as whoopie pies, are a regional favorite.
The history I post here, I found in a cookbook about similar desserts, however my grandma’s recipe is waaay better than any in that book.
These desserts are commonly found in the north eastern part of the United states, especially in CT,PA, NJ, and OH. The more northward you go, the more likely they will be called whoopie pies and the more southern, gobs. Not sure as to why they are called whoopie pies, since my family is from Pennsylvania, however I do have an idea where the name “gobs” possibly came from.
The Gobs were often carried in the packed lunches of coal miners and the desserts’ size and shape are thought to have reminded the miners of nuggets of coal also known as gobs.
I tend to think they got their name due to the copious amounts of filling between the subtly spiced layers of pumpkiny cake goodness.
My Grandmother has been making these wonderful little nuggets of cakey creamy goodness for many, many years. She is asked to bring them to all of the bake sales, boxing parties and other social/charity events that happen every autumn and winter.
When my partner and I purchased our Bed & Breakfast, it was a life long dream come true for me. My grandma spent most of her now 77 years as a waitress at high end resorts and steak houses, including the original Bedford Springs Resort in PA. When i was 5 years old or so, she and I would play bed & breakfast. I would take my markers and crayons and draw what the rooms looked like, make brochures for pretend guests and so on. Gram and I would make up menus and cook pancakes and bake other goodies together.
This recipe was one of our favorites to make and I am so happy that I have been able to put my own spin on the filling and can now serve them to our real guests for the past 3 1/2 years.
My Gram visits my husband Jeff and I at least once a season. Then I am lucky enough to check her into her room for real and we make her a scrumptious breakfast every morning, utilizing many other recipes she has given me the cooking confidence to create.
I am a very lucky man to have had a dream that started as mere imaginings at the age of 5 and has been nurtured into the most award winning B&B in our city and making so very many guests happy along the way.
Below I share the recipe that reminds me of such happy times in my childhood. A recipe that so very many guests have asked for and happily devoured time and again.
Enjoy these little nuggets of Autumnal heaven and Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
Pumpkin Gobs, inspired my a recipe given to me by my Grandma, Mae.
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspon baking soda
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
2 eggs
1 cups veg oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pumpkin Gob Filling (as shown below.)
Pumpkin Gob Filling (this will make enough for 2x recipe, but trust us, you will go through these in no time!)
Ingredients:
1 – 3 oz. box vanilla instant pudding
1 cup sugar (we used confectioners)
1 cup milk
1 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 oz cream cheese
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 ½ cups additional confectioners sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit.
Whisk flour, spices, baking soda and powder together. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat oil, eggs and sugar together until creamy. Add dry ingredients and mix well.
Drop by the teaspoon on a lightly greased cookie sheet, (or ungreased if using a silicone liner or parchment paper) and bake for 12-15 minutes.
While the cookie/cakes cool, place all of the filling ingredients into a bowl and beat together with a mixer.
Spread filling on one flat surface of a cookie, and sandwich it to a “mate”. Refrigerate until ready to eat. These can be frozen and thawed when needed.
Hope this recipe helps you to create not just great desserts to share, but as many fond memories as it has for me and my family.
Missing word In the previous Biscuits recipe:
In the liquid ingredients:
2/3 Cup of Vegetable Oil (canola or corn)
Josh and Brent,
I would like to share with you my Grandmother MAGUE’s WARM BISCUITS recipe!
This recipe has been in my family for more than 100 years, yeap, more than 100+ years, and these delicious biscuits are SO EASY to make and it only takes 20 mins.or less to make!
My grandmother used to make these delicious biscuits for my father and his siblings since they were kids when there were not many bakeries around where they lived.
My father’s family comes from Northern Mexico. My grandfather used to work at a gold mine in the State of Chihuahua, where he and my grandmother settled at the beginning of the turn of the past century. My grandmother loved cooking and until she passed away she made the best dishes ever…..
My grandmother used to tell us, her children and us her grandchildren, that she loved baking the biscuits her mother taught her to how to make since she was a young girl. My grandmother had to bake biscuits for dinner every night because there weren’t any bakeries at the mining town where my grandparents lived back in the early 1920′s. She said, that way, she could guarantee to have fresh bread at the table for the family every day. My grandmother had to manage to take care of 5 children (out of 9) that survived the harsh conditions they lived for many years and to also take care of her home activities, including preparing everyday meals from scratch (there was no other way at the time, I assume!) for the family. Those times were not easy for a young urban girl from an affluent family recently married to a young man sent to work in a rural/mining environment in northern Mexico. Well, she survived well raising a family in a mining environment and baking biscuits almost every day.
So, my grandmother passed this Biscuits recipe to my father, who still bakes them at home once or twice a week. My dad loves to make these biscuits for his children (us) and for his grandchildren, passing on my grandmother’s recipe and the family tradition to the new Escobedo generations.
It’s a pleasure to share this family recipe with Josh and Brent and all his fans from all over the world!
The recipe is as follows:
In a large bowl, mix -
3 1/2 cups of ALL PURPOSE FLOUR
3 tsps BAKING POWDER
2 tsps SALT
In the blender, mix -
1 1/4 Cups of Whole Milk (warm)
1 Egg
2/3 Vegetable Oil (canola or corn)
ADD the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients, all at once, and incorporate both with a wooden spoon until you get a very soft dough that does not stick to the bowl – this will take you not more than a minute to get a ball of soft dough.
Form small balls of dough, approx. 1 1/2″ diameter, with your hands and stretch them with your fingers creating an oblong shape biscuit.
Place the biscuits in a baking sheet, pressing them slightly to get them to approx. 1/2″ thick.
Bake at 350 F degrees for 20 minutes or until the biscuits are slightly golden brown.
Serve warm……. and enjoy.
A very simple but delicious recipe!
Notes:
a) You will get around a dozen biscuits from this dough.
b) Try not to handle the dough with your hands very much to obtain very silky and fluffy biscuits.
You can eat this biscuits with dinner or also for breakfast with butter and marmalade………….. WIth coffee or chocolate, they are delicious as well!
With all the love from the Escobedo family,
ENJOY!
Oh, and just one more thing. This isn’t an heirloom recipe, but maybe one day it could be? Let’s call it Oysters Rockin’Fella Blaak. Prepare Oysters Rockafeller with bits of thick-sliced, smoked country bacon sans rind (or spin it Italianate with pancetta) and use Blaak as your cheese. Serve with smoked Tabassco or another smokey dash of something special. Yeah, buddy.
No offense to Grandmother Steele (whose relish recipe sounds mighty good), but cranberries have a higher calling. At Thanksgiving, cranberries are for freezing! Parsons family cranberry sherbert, derived from a Darling family recipe, is as quintessentially Thanksgiving as anything can be. Served continuously at Parsons gatherings on Thanksgiving, and occasionally Christmas, since at least 1900, cranberry sherbert is actually a sorbet; the reasons why “sherbet” was preferred to “sorbet” are lost, but may, I speculate, have something to do with the fact that in 1900 the main Parsons family business was dairy farming, but I digress. Served as a palate cleanser (after oysters and before salads) this sweet-tart, boisterously pink delight is many Parsons’ favorite Thanksgiving tradition, and a fond, fond memory of many large holiday fetes at the Parsons Road homestead in Sharon. Grandchildren would contest mightly for the “honor” to turn the crank on the hand-powered, wooden bucket equipped ice cream maker, in hopes of getting the first taste! Great care was taken by a suitable elder to ensure that exactly the right snow or ice and rock salt slush was constantly maintained, to produce the optimum temperature for freezing the ingredient mixture just to the right degree of firmness over about an hour’s time.
In memory of my grandfather Dutch (Julius) and grandmother Pink (Lina Darling) Parsons, here’s the oh-so-simple recipe:
Ingredients
- Two twelve-ounce packages of fresh cranberries, the darker colored the better.
- Five cups of sugar.
- The juice of five to seven lemons.
Directions
- Boil the berries in one quart of water until their skins burst plus five minutes.
- Press and strain the cooked berries in cheesecloth until all juice is extracted.
- Blend the sugar with five cups of water and boil to make a simple syrup.
- Combine the berry juice and simple syrup, and add lemon juice to taste.
- Cool the liquid mixture in the refrigerator before freezing.
- Use an electric ice cream maker to freeze, or if you prefer an old-fashioned, hand-cranked ice cream maker, consult a Parsons over 50 about making the slush mixture.
- Makes one to two quarts of a sparkly, tingly treat that’s always better this year than last!