We had dinner with friends last week and one of the dishes was a wonderful casserole of dried eggplant with a walnut sauce. I asked the cook about the origins and he said that he came across the recipe in an old Armenian cookbook. He got the cookbook as he realized that Armenia had a climate similar to ours and grew many of the staples that do well around here. I have read a Polish cookbook and found the same thing. The Poles grew turnips, cabbage, beets and potatoes and raised a lot of pork. We do the same. It seems like having a couple of good, old time cooking guides from those Eastern European countries with long, cold winters and temperate summers might be a good plan. The recipes don’t call for anything not local except for a few spices and none require picky techniques. Martha Stewart would not be impressed maybe but I am.
I also had a long conversation with a photagrapher on Friday about recreating beers, breads and pickles from recipes from long ago and far away. I had no idea that beers were flavored with all kinds of herbs like rosemary and sweet woodruff. He’s also the only person I know besides my good friend, Leni, who uses his must from wines and beers to make unique sourdough breads. Although he was taking pictures outdoors and I was only wearing a sweater and vest (I was freezing) the converstion was so warm I hated to go inside. This gentleman is writing a book on the Shakers which is how we got started talking about old food. He’s also a big fan of really old cookbooks form the Easterm European countries.
We have so much to learn from our elders. I never really knew my grandparents; one set had died before I was born and the other lived in Texas and we seldom visisted with them. I do however, know a lot of very old people right here in my neighborhood. Maybe it’s time to start picking their brains (and recipe files!) Whenever I hear someone say that we can’t live without the inputs from a technology based culture, I remeber that families lived in my house during the civil war. They didn’t have indoor plumbing, electricity, central heat or a municipal water system. Somehow they managed to eat and dance and write and enjoy their lives. We can too.
December 20, 2010 at 8:02 am
I hadn’t thought of the eastern European cookbooks! I gave no thought to the fact that their climate was like ours. I have a lot of old “ladies aid”/church cookbooks with common sense recipes from New England that I use.
I was lucky that it was my grandmother and mother in law that taught me to cook! They shared so much about the depression.
December 20, 2010 at 11:23 am
There’s a book out called sacred and healing herbal brews that has a lot of fascinating beer recipes. I bought it for my dad last Christmas; don’t know if he’s made anything out of it, but it was certainly fascinating! I think he’ll probably look at it as more interesting info than actually brew any, but we shall see. I’m gradually tugging my parents down the path to sustainability and nature, at least as best I can from the opposite coast.
December 20, 2010 at 11:47 am
I have enjoyed “Shephardic Flavors, Jewish Cooking of the Mediterranean”, by Joyce Goldstein, for interesting Kosher Portuguese and Spanish recipes, with beautiful photography.
December 20, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Good call on the cookbooks – I think I have a Polish one, and some of my medieval recipes are pretty adaptable too, if not already suited to MA. Hm…..
Older folks can be willing to share knowledge, but sometimes I think they don’t believe you really want to know this ‘old stuff’, or it’s been put on the back shelf in their memories, as it were. Sometimes we’ll be doing something on the farm, and trying out older ways of doing things (esp. during a power outage), and then my MIL and I get to talking about how she used to do things, or things her MIL did back in the day. A conversation isn’t always a fast way to learn things, but it’s often the most effective, plus you get to spend a pleasant time with someone who may not feel they’re terribly useful or needed anymore, so it’s all good!
December 20, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Sorry, I forgot! I have some sweet woodruff in my garden – not a whole lot, but I try to keep a variety of herbs growing in the gardens, just in case… and some of them even get used once in a while
December 20, 2010 at 8:25 pm
I enjoyed Darra Goldstein’s “The Vegetarian Hearth” — cooking hearty Northern European/Russian peasant food in winter. I checked it out of the library on a chilly day. Donna
December 20, 2010 at 8:39 pm
One of my very favorite recipe books is called “Please to the Table: A Russian Cookbook” (or something close to that) and I found the same things to be true. Lots of roots, cabbage and hardy staples.
Hey kathy, I think I’m heading east, btw.
December 20, 2010 at 9:29 pm
Where I live there’s a large population of mennonites and people who came from Ukraine. We do have a perogie and cabbage roll sale once month but neither group seems to have a restaurant, sadly. I would really, really love a Mennonite treasury cookbook, lots of tradition there. I also like this blog, which has some of the old mennonite recipes. http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/
December 21, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Kathy,
Have you ever heard of Doris Jantzen Longacre? She was a Mennonite lady who wrote several books on simple living. I highly recommend her cookbook called “Cooking More with Less”. Here is the link to it at Amaazon.
More-With-Less Cookbook (World Community Cookbook)
The food is not gourmet but it is real food- KWIM? Sadly, she died at a young age from uterine cancer. However, the books are still relevant . I believe they were written in the early 1970′s.
Trafal
December 21, 2010 at 4:59 pm
I’ve found I’m leaning more and more towards Eastern European and Scandinavian foods/recipes and away from the ever popular Italian and Mediterranean simply because the fresh ingredients needed are only available here (in the UK) for a couple of months. I mean, I still love pizza, but it’s more likely to be potato, anchovy and rosemary now, rather than zucchini and aubergine.
With regards to the beer, I love Heather Ale. It’s an ancient Scottish Ale, so no hops, but heather (obviously!) and herbs like sweet gale. It has a distinctive taste, but I really enjoy it, and I love the fact I’m drinking something so historical. http://www.williamsbrosbrew.com/historicales.php
I have no idea whether it’s easy/possible to make your own, even if you had access to the heather!
December 24, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Kathy–
I would be pleased to have a copy of the dried eggplant with walnut sauce recipe. We typically harvest A LOT of eggplant and are always looking for ways to prepare it.
Thanks!!
Wendy
December 25, 2010 at 5:32 pm
You do want to use some care in learning from your elderly relatives. My sister in law told me that her grandmother refused to teach her to can because Michelle (my SIL) was menstruating at the time! Grandmother firmly believed that being on your cycle would spoil the canning.
December 27, 2010 at 1:02 am
After Christmas dinner, I had a wonderful discussion with an older lady we know. She was telling me about eating during food rationing and how she learned to love the “nasty bits” like tongue and kidney and brain. When she first married, she was making some pressed tongue and her husband wanted to know what on earth she was doing. She said she told him “If you want sliced meat for your sandwiches, this is how it’s made.” She told me how to make it – now I want to find some beef tongue!