When my parents married, my mother knew how to cook absolutely nothing, as that is what her mother, not a stellar cook herself, had taught her.
Her mother-in-law stepped in and taught her Dad’s favorite foods, all German. Rouladen, kugelhopf, schnitzel and white asparagus with mayonnaise. I’m the eldest child of four so knew that grandmother for a few months after I was born.
After that, Mom was on her own, cooking-wise. Dad stepped in Sunday mornings to make pancakes and bacon, a family tradition. Mom did the traditional Campbell’s soup recipes until a friend sent her a subscription to Gourmet. Just as Betty Friedan lit a fire in women (including my mother), Gourmet lit a fire under her. The light bulb was on and it was not in an Easy Bake Oven. She cooked and went to college and graduated the same year I did. I made Deans’ List 5 out of 8 semesters. She was Summa Cum Laude.
But as a kid she put out three meals a day and dinner was always protein, starch, veg and handmade dessert. All done in a dress and heels with pouffed hair.
Rouladen was never one of my favorites. I always found the meat tough, being wrapped around a couple of carrots with no gravy to speak of. I’ve never made it in all my life. I did like her simple beef stew. Her first cheese souffle was a milestone in too many ways to speak of. It was my first souffle, elegant and tasty.
Mom’s roast chicken with simple bread stuffing was very tasty and I make it that way today. She went through many incarnations of the Thanksgiving turkey dinner, improving every time. She was the turkey and gravy lady and we did sides and desserts.
But where she broke the mold was getting away from turkey for Christmas and moving to prime rib with Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings. I’ve yet to cook a prime rib roast and at my age that’s a shame but once a year, it was always terrific. I won’t order it in a restaurant and haven’t had it at all for many years, well before she died.
As for desserts there are two that stand out above all others. Her cheesecake was made with cottage cheese, not cream cheese, and was delicious. Everyone who tried to make it failed, and she never left out a technique or ingredient. I’ve never tried it because I don’t make desserts. Letting kids turn Margaret Fox’s lemon ice cream in a hand-cranked apparatus and topping it with berries is as complicated as I get these days.
Her Viennese chocolate pecan torte was a masterpiece that she had to make five times a year for all birthdays. My sisters are the dessert experts and have made it before. I never have, don’t even have the recipe. It was a dense pecan cake with a light chocolate layer within and on the sides, then a silky dark chocolate swirl on top. Nothing has topped this cake in my memory for all my life.
There were many more dishes that are memorable, these are but a few I can recall at the moment. What are your earliest food memories? Think about it. The smell of Snickerdoodle cookies in the oven… Cheers, Dee
