Passing down recipes from generation to generation

cupcakechef

cupcakechef

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I think cooking is such a part of our history and culture that it's important to do this.

My grandma passed away just recently, and she had grown up in Italy. Her cooking was phenomenal and it will be one of the things I'll miss most about her. That might sound crazy to some people, but to her, food was family, food was gathering together over good times, over bad times, food was educational, food showed a person that you care about them. So I don't think it's all bad when I say that I'll miss her food as one of the main things about her and her life.

Thankfully I have a lot of her recipes to remember her by.

Have you had recipes passed down to you, or have you passed down recipes to your children or grandchildren if you have them?

What does the passing down of recipes mean to you?
 
In our country, it is customary to hand down the recipes to the next generation. We call that inheritance. But in this modern times, some of the young are just searching in the internet for the recipes. And some others are revising the recipes of the grandparents by changing the ingredients. Maybe in the next generation the food will be different when it comes to traditional food.
 
I have been lucky enough to manage to squirrel my Grannie's recipes book and folder off my mother who had been given it (but would never use it or anything like that) and I have slowly been subjecting you all to some of her recipes! It means a lot to me that I have her recipe books and I think my mother knows that. In fact it means more to me that the jewellery that my grandfather gave me (of my Grannie's) about a year ago. My Grannie died just over 4 years ago now.
 
I remembered when my grandmother was still alive I always watched her when she is cooking. She is a great cook and no wonder my mother inherited this passion for cooking from her. All the recipes had been handed down to my mother which in turn my mother gave to me also. Since I love to cook also I tried cooking some of the recipes already and its great that I did it well.
 
@cupcakechef I'm sorry for your loss, and yours @SatNavSaysStraightOn, as well.

I lost my Nana way back in 1985, and I still miss her. She didn't do much cooking, but would make Sunday dinners (usually beef roasts) and occasionally, lemon meringue pies. She had 15 pregnancies, 12 of which survived, and my Mom was (and still is) her youngest. I think she didn't have much time for cooking, and her Mother lived with them and did the cooking until my Mom was around 15, when she died. I guess after that, the older siblings did the cooking, or everyone helped out.

My Mom did a lot of cooking, and once my Dad semi- and then fully-retired, he joined in, and they made quite a variety of foods. I wouldn't even know about homemade bread or noodles without them, and they also made homemade ice cream. Of those, I still haven't made the noodles, but I have made the others. I don't understand people who have no interest in cooking, especially from scratch, because the end products are so much better than store bought. I have some of my Mom's recipes, but they're scattered throughout the house, and I need to pull them all together. I wish I had my Nana's lemon meringue pie recipe, because it was the best I've ever tasted. Additionally, I have a few of my friends' family recipes, which I also treasure.
 
Corzhens said:
In our country, it is customary to hand down the recipes to the next generation. We call that inheritance. But in this modern times, some of the young are just searching in the internet for the recipes. And some others are revising the recipes of the grandparents by changing the ingredients. Maybe in the next generation the food will be different when it comes to traditional food.
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True in many ways - cooking and recipes change and evolve over time and in a way this is a good thing. As long as we don't end up all eating some bland international mush all will be well
 
@sidevalve you mentioned that evolution thing that is very evident in the dishes in this modern times. One noticeable change is the sauteing of food. In the traditional way, we fry the crushed garlic until brown before putting in the sliced onions. But now it is the sliced onion that fried first before the garlic. So that leaves the garlic white and not the traditional brown. With fresh vegetable salad, the vegetable leaves are not cut anymore like the Romaine lettuce is mixed in its long form. Truly there are changes with the times.
 
I think there is nothing better than a recipe passed from generation to generation. Most of what I make on a daily basis stems from a recipe that's gone through the generations. When my sister got married, she didn't want to have a traditional bridal shower and all the big hoopla. Instead, we threw her a Recipe Shower. Instead of gifts, we had everyone send us their favorite family recipes and we created a cookbook for her. For the actual party, we had guests bring one or two of the ingredients for the recipes they sent in, so she started out with a stocked pantry and a book full of awesome recipes.
 
It's not an option for me at the moment. I'm estranged from my immediate family so I won't get any passed down. And neither of my kids were really meant in a kitchen. So, maybe I'll have a daughter in law to pass them down to.
 
It is not an option for me either at this time as I am also estranged from my immediate family.
 
I recently got an old pioneer cookbook and have been collecting recipes that my mom and grandma shares. Most are delicious on their own, but I always have to add my own flair to them. That is how we evolve as cooks and how new foods are invented. People have to get creative in the kitchen or our food world would be quite dull.
 
When I try to get creative things tend to go very wrong. I have been successful a few times. But I tend to follow the recipe and and tweak it just a little everytime i cook it until I get it right.
 
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