I keep trying to make the dishes I loved when growing up, but I can never get them to turn out quite like I remembered. Recently all of my siblings and I got to talking about Gram’s homemade noodle recipe. We all had it, but none of us could get it to come out quite like hers. Obviously something was missing, but what?
My sisters had the ingredients. I remembered that Gram rolled them out on floured muslin and cut them into wide strips. My brother remembered that after they’d dried for a bit on the toweling, gram separated each noodle and hung them, not touching one another, over the back of muslin draped kitchen chairs. We had all remembered that Gram made the noddles in the morning and dried them all day, but only one of us remembered that she’d hung them to dry.
Changing that one little procedure made all the difference in the flavor and plumpness of my homemade noodles. Of course, unlike Gram I don’t hang the noodles over dishtowel draped kitchen chairs. My method involves sterilized wire racks. We’ve all learned too much about germs to be completely faithful to her techniques, but knowing them was crucial to perfecting the recipe.
We almost lost that family recipe and it took four of us to wholly recreate it. What recipes from your family might be in danger of fading away? Isn’t it time you made a family recipe book?
What a treasure to have 4 of you to search your memories and come up with Gram’s secret “ingredient.”
I have my grandmother’s recipe for Baked Alaska, but it has never come out right for me.
That’ so neat that everyone got together to figure it out
I love receiving little cooking tips from my grandpa who used to be a chef. I’d better write them down.