Description
Every family has its own tradition of heirloom recipes cherished dishes that make highly anticipated appearances at special occasions or favorite meals that serve as reliable weekday suppers. Passed down through generations, these recipes make up the aromas and the flavors of our childhoods, conjuring memories that sustain us through the course of our adult lives.Marilynn and Sheila Brass, authors of the acclaimed Heirloom Baking, are guardians of this universal tradition of home-cooked meals made with love. They have spent a lifetime scouring yard sales and used bookstores, collecting original, handwritten recipe books, known as "manuscript cookbooks," and loose handwritten recipes, known as "living recipes." Heirloom Cooking gathers 135 of the very best of these recipes, which represent nearly 100 years of delicious meals, updated for the modern kitchen. The recipes collected in Heirloom Cooking come from all over the United States and Canada, and include many different styles of home cooking. Every decade since the late 1800s and a variety of ethnic backgrounds are represented, as well as vegetarian dishes. The origins of the recipes and stories of the families from which they come are included, and each history is just as delicious as the food itself.The recipes are simple to make, and require ingredients found in any pantry. As they did in Heirloom Baking, the Brass Sisters share valuable cooking techniques, and, wherever practical, provide substitute ingredients for each recipe. They also encourage home cooks to begin collecting their own heirloom recipes in the lined pages and keepsake envelope at the back of the book.Photographs of the delicious dishes, as well as images of the original recipes and prized antique kitchenware from the Brass Sisters' personal collection, illustrate this one-of-a-kind family cookbook by two unique authors. Publishers Weekly The Brass sisters (Heirloom Baking) once again pore through their impressive collection of timeworn note cards, cookbooks and manuscripts to offer up an assemblage of culinary favorites from yesteryear. Those expecting a compilation of curiosities will be largely disappointed, as the duo focus on homemade dishes that have stood the test of time: Clam Chowder, Irish Lamb Stew, Meatloaf, Chicken Soup and Red Velvet Cake outnumber novelties like Candle Salad, a 1950s-era combo of lettuce, pineapple, bananas, green bell pepper, maraschino cherries and sour cream (or mayo). Recipes are straightforward and simple, and ingredients are easily sourced; this is the stuff of potlucks, church dinners and family get-togethers. The sisters' collection is remarkable, if not exactly showy, with recipes for Split Pea Soup and Blueberry Buckle that are more than a hundred years old. Food historians will appreciate the sisters' homey anecdotes (up to and including reproductions of original recipe cards). Though not definitive (and with no aspirations to be), this leisurely, nostalgic collection of homemade favorites brings a heaping portion of America's cooking traditions to the modern table. Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
