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

[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.