History

[gilana]

I'm getting ready to make the dough for my hamentaschen (I'm much more a cook than a baker, and making these is particularly annoying... but it wouldn't be Purim without them, and besides, I promised Kerri some, and you don't taunt a pregnant lady* like that.)

I have the recipe on my computer, but I wanted to check something, so I pulled out my grandmother's old copy of the American Jewish Cookbook (my family's other bible). My mother bought copies for each of us when we went off to college, but mine went missing somewhere over the years, so almost ten years ago now, when my grandmother died, I was the one to get her cookbook. My wonderful sister even went through and copied all of my mom's annotations in (how to make the hamentaschen parve, how to make the curried chicken without a double boiler). This edition is from 1952, and I'm having a wonderful timing looking at the dated black & white photos, seeing which pages have stains on them (looks like Grandma liked borscht -- or maybe Grandpa did), and just feeling a special moment of connection with the women in my family. It's a good thing.

*Surprise! She made the official announcement at Kilt & Corset night on her birthday, so I can finally say something. Exciting, no?

Comments

[rmd.livejournal.com]

eee! do extend my congratulations to kerri!

[jim-p.livejournal.com]

how to make the hamentaschen parve

Huh. The recipe I used called for milk and honey in the filling, and I thought there was something Deeply Significant about that...

[gilana]

Oh, there are a million variations on the filling. I've never actually heard of milk & honey before, although it certainly sounds like it's intended to be significant. My family's standard is lekvar (prune filling) and walnuts.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Oo, walnuts, I think I'll try that. I found a can of prune filling which I think I must've bought by accident once (it looks just like poppyseed, except, y'know, for the part about the prunes), and I am going to make some prune hamantaschen this year to use it up, and walnuts sound like just the thing.

I don't mind prune, it's just not my favorite. Usually I make the three traditional-in-my-mind ones: poppyseed, apricot, and cherry.

[gilana]

Yeah, pure prune alone doesn't do it for me either, but the (chopped) walnuts add a lot, for both texture and taste.

Also, in case anyone doesn't know this one: a trick for making filling easier. Put the filling in a plastic bag, cut the corner off, and pipe them in. Much easier than fighting with gloppy filling on spoons.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

OMG! Glad I heard about this before I come to see the show next weekend so I can squee properly in person. :) T@F Generation 2 FTW.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

oh, and, I think my grandma's parve hamentaschen recipe features orange juice--does your recipe have that?

*ponders whether she has enough time this weekend to make and freeze hamentaschen to take to Wednesday's Gondoliers rehearsal*

[gilana]

Yep, we generally sub OJ for the milk. (Although since I don't expect anyone to actually care if they're parve this time, and I don't have any OJ in the house, I may go with the milk; I don't have enough parve margarine, anyway.)

A list

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

1. Yay Kerri!

2. I love going through old cookbooks. Family ones are the best.

3. Now I want hamentaschen

[kelkyag]

Mmmm, hamentaschen. I may need to follow your wise example.

[aphrabehn.livejournal.com]

Oh yay to Kerri!!! And yum to baking!!!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Heh, I noticed "pregnancy" was mentioned in the captions to one of the facebook photos from K&CN, and I was all, "Who? WHO??" :-)

[gilana]

Actually, that one was Crystal, our makeup person!

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

My mom gave me her Modern Cooking Encyclopedia (copyright 1949) at Christmastime, because it is the source of many of the Family Cookie Recipes. I was so pleased to be making cookies with her this year.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

It's so cool to think of something published in 1949 as being modern. :-)

I picked up a copy of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (ca 1953) and had to ask my mother what "top milk" was....

[fnoxib.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmm! Hamentaschen!

Love 'em. Especially the apricot variety.

[shereminisces.livejournal.com]

Family tradition aside, would you objectively recommend the cookbook?

[gilana]

Hard to say -- it depends what you're looking for. I don't actually use cookbooks all that often, I mostly find recipes online. But if you're looking a collection of traditional Jewish recipes, this is certainly a good one.