Your Family History in a Recipe

Did you know you can find your family history in a recipe?  It’s true.  Since a family history is just a family’s story, recipes, meals, traditions, and celebrations are part of that story.  From simple comfort food to fancy holiday dishes, you can find family history in a recipe.  Cookbooks and recipes are one fun, {creative way to share and enjoy your family’s story}.

My mother collected recipes from her mother and grandmother.  She compiled them several years ago, and it’s interesting to be able to go back now and see our family's history that way.  There are interesting “medicinal” recipes from the early 20th century. My great-grandmother had a recipe for ginger tea to calm an upset stomach.  My grandmother had a recipe for sugarless teething biscuits.  There are things I’ve never heard of like brown sugar seafoam candy and sauerkraut cake.  It helps me understand and appreciate what cooking (and what life) was like back then, and it also takes me home. {Nostalgia is nothing more than a way back home.}

A few years ago, I put together a family recipe book and asked each person in the family for their three favorite recipes.  The result is a great book that we can use for delicious recipes, of course, but it’s also both fun and useful to know what other people like to eat when they come to visit!  It's our CURRENT family history through recipes!  We all love it!

My grandma had a great, classic fudge recipe that I still use.  I love it because it’s not only delicious but it makes a lot so it’s perfect for giving away.  As my grandma’s niece said about this recipe, “If you’re going to make fudge, make fudge.”  And this does it!  So as a bonus for you today, here is Grandma's recipe:

Grandma Stott's Five Pounds of Fudge

enough fudge to sample yourself and give away, too

Ingredients

4 cups sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup milk

16 oz chocolate bar, broken in pieces

12 oz chocolate chips

1 pint marshmallow creme

1 tsp vanilla

1-2 cups chopped nuts optional

Instructions

In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, combine sugar, butter, and milk.  Bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add chocolate and marshmallow creme. Stir until combined, then stir in vanilla. Add nuts if desired. Stir well. Pour into a greased 9x13 pan for thick pieces of fudge or a jelly roll pan for thinner pieces of fudge. Let stand until cool.  Cut into squares.  Store covered.

{Click here for a great heirloom-quality publishing option.} 

What comfort food from your childhood do you enjoy?  What is a traditional food your family loves this time of year?  Have you recorded your traditions and favorites somewhere so they can be known and enjoyed for another generation?  Record your family's history through recipes, and you've got a timeless piece of your own story.

   

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This post was originally published at www.livegrowgive.org on December 1, 2017, by Jennifer Wise.  More #familyhistoryfriday posts can be found below by clicking the hashtag next to Labels.

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