What Is One Of Your Mom's or Grandmother's Recipes You Can't Seem To Duplicate?

Not so much "can't duplicate" because I don't know the exact recipe. My grandmother used to make what she called flour bread.

It was AP flour, Crisco, and salt. I'm not sure there was anything else in it, i.e., baking soda or baking powder. It didn't really rise like cornbread. She would pour the batter into a cast iron pan and cook until it browned on both sides. She would then slice it into pie wedges and serve it with molasses. It was absolutely heavenly. I've tried to find a recipe online but no luck.

It’s the Crisco, OP. It has a different texture than butter or oil. You could try looking on allrecipes.com, they have a lot of old fashioned recipes. Also try the Crisco website, a lot of midcentury “homemade” recipes are actually from the label on the can.

About the Corelle, Corelle themselves advise people not to use old vintage Corelle dinnerware with patterns. The patterns are all high lead content and not safe to use. They are all far above the legal safe limits of today. Same with vintage Pyrex with painted on patterns. Don’t use any of it. If you want to use Corelle, use new plain white with no color.

You can’t tell people this because they want to collect mid century dinnerware and kitchenware and they want to be told they’re doing something clever, but in reality it’s not safe to eat off any of it, because the painted patterns flake off and they’re high lead content. They aren’t even advisable to have in your house, because flaking lead paint creates lead dust you can breathe in. But people don’t want to hear that because they’ve spent a fortune on toxic waste collectibles.

Sorry, R2 Crisco comment was meant for R1.

On the Crisco website, there’s some recipes for biscuits. I wonder if she was using a simplified version of this with the extra ingredients left out.

Crisco is poison, so lovely artherosclerosis you will be having for desert.

My mother wasn’t a very good cook so I don’t have this problem.

Marcella Hazan’s cooking closely mirrors my Italian grandmother’s cooking so that works even better for me. Ultimately you have to make these things your own.

Also my Italian family published two cookbooks so I have everyone’s recipes.

Cod with prunes.

[quote] Crisco is poison, so lovely artherosclerosis you will be having for desert.

Oh, [italic]dear.[/italic]

I don't know what happened to the recipe but it was one of my mom's special desserts. It was a layered refrigerator dessert in a rectangular pan. Crushed tri-color wafers on the bottom. A thin layer of whipped egg whites carefully applied on the wafers. Then a butter/sugar layer, a layer of sliced peaches and then a layer of strawberries, then the top layer was the crushed wafers again. I think there were more layers of the egg whites to glue the layers together. Then it was refrigerated over night and that was it....at least I think it was. I remember it was very time-consuming.

Thank you, R2. I also remember her using ice cold water. The recipes are close but her flour bread was flat so no baking soda.

My mom made the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. I suspect she used Crisco, but I've kicked myself for years for never getting the exact recipe from her.

For the Southerners on here. I just found this lady. Looks like nearly everything my mom cooked. Yes, greens and dumplings. I just ate the dumplings. Mom also added slimy green onions.

Whenever we had leg of lamb, my Mom would have stuffed peppers with them, and I cannot duplicate the peppers. They were green peppers stuffed with a mixture of the innards of the peppers, breadcrumbs (?), parmesan cheese, and tomato sauce perhaps. She would bake them, and the pepper itself would be soft, but the inside would be red and crusty on top but so chewy inside. Absolutely delicious. I loved the leftovers next day as a sandwich with a slice of Swiss or American cheese. Heaven!

DataLoungers, Help!!!

I've never been able to get my grandmother's butterscotch pie exactly right.

Explain to me, r2, how these Pyrex bowls would be remotely dangerous to use.

My Italian grandmother's "chicken cutlets", essentially chicken parm but several layers of it in a Pyrex dish, like a lasagna. I've never been able to get the flavors and texture (not too crispy, not too soggy) just right.

My grandmother's chocolate icing. No one can reproduce it.

OP: My grandmother made the best of what you're calling GIAMBOTTA, but she called hers GIAMBLUTT(spelling? who knows?) Ratatouille type ingredients: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, onions maybe eggplant and green beans. It did have a thin-ish sauce but was thickened slightly with the addition of grated cheese(Parmesan, Locatelli, whatever was at hand) and a few eggs beaten together, stirred in at the last minute. It rounded out all the flavors, made it more cohesive and gave the dish a great mouthfeel. Occasionally she'd cut up a few hotdogs and add them(no snark please, I loved this as a kid)

It wasn't a soup and it wasn't exactly a stew, so I don't know what type of dish to call it. Try the egg/cheese thing and see if that is the missing element.

My grandparents made a meatloaf that can't be replicated. Because my grandmother would start it, hand it off to grandfather for "taste this and and what's missing" and he would add until it was "right" then give it back for cooking.

They also made meatballs this way.

My mother's chocolate chip cookies. They were the perfect mix between a cake, and cookie.

My grandfather's chocolate babka. I have yet to find one that matched the way he made it.

My grandmother's boneless stuffed chicken. It was the skin stuffed with all the ground meat from chicken, onions, garlic, bread crumb, egg, tomato puree and some spice mix I can never seem to figure out what it was. The skin was very crispy like a rotisserie chicken. She was Kurdish, so lord only knows what she used. I know the base was cumin, but the rest I can not figure out. It was by far my most cherished, and favorite food.

R14, in your picture, the bowls are stacked inside each other. You can see for yourself that the outside of each bowl is in the inside of the next sized bowl.

Anyone who’s ever dealt with lead paint knows that lead paint sheds in very small pieces. It’s not falling off in huge peels. For example, think of those old drinking glasses fast food places like McDonalds used to give out, they were collectibles. They had painted designs on them. One set I remember were Peanuts drinking glasses.

All of those designs were painted on with lead paint. If you grew up with those types of glasses, maybe you remember the designs wearing off around the edges or becoming fainter. That’s lead paint rubbing off on your hands and falling into your food. Ingesting lead paint is the most toxic way to be exposed to it.

Every person that collects Pyrex or drinking glasses or other sources of lead paint, always gets mad as hell if you tell them it’s dangerous. But it is. It’s not harmless to eat off lead painted dinnerware or serving ware. You touch it with your hands, you put it on the dinner table, your food is in it. Heated leaded ceramics or glass leaches lead into food. Anything that gets hot can potentially leach lead. People need to be very careful about any container that gets heated with food in it. Also, dishwashers really aggressively wear off painted designs.

Midcentury glass often had lead in the glass itself. Most old milk glass, colored glass or crystal has a lot of lead in it. It’s likely the white interior of the Pyrex in the picture also contains lead. The only midcentury glass that might be safe in some cases is molded clear glass, with mold marks on the sides. Anything with color has lead exposure. The only mid century glass I know of that’s been tested as safe is Wexford pattern clear glass. Even old clear glass with a faint bluish or lavender tint in the glass may not be safe, because it’s a different formula and likely to have lead. Anything advertised as “soda glass,” which sometimes has a faint yellowish tint, is probably ok.

R12, how did you turn a stuffed pepper into a sandwich?

Seems kind of trivial but cheese omelettes. I dont how she does it but they always come out extra fluffy, yet crispy (but not burnt) and extremely cheesy.

Same here, R16. My grandmother Bakers Bittersweet Chocolate. I have tried several times and either get something so thick it's like mashed potatoes or so thin it's a ganache. I can't get the sugar amount right either.

My grandmother never followed a recipe and was one of the best cooks ever. She made the most fantastic yeast roles, pillowy, and to die for. My aunts, my mother mother and even I cannot duplicate it no matter how we try.

r22, you may want to look into the American omelette vs. the French omelette. The Americans are the crusty ones.

Fairy toast.

Their cooking tasted like shit!

You would know, fag!

It's fired on, r20, you would have to work very hard to scrape it off. You're being alarmist about some of these pieces. The character glasses and exterior Pyrex patterns only became worn when they went through the dishwasher too many times.

Was Pyrex with paint on it dishwasher- and microwave-safe? I was never a collector. I just had the four-bowl set, which my grandmother told me never to put in the dishwasher, and my mother said not to put in the microwave.

Why are we entertaining the Corelle troll again?

My grandmother's fried shrimp - She fried her shrimp with the lightest batter I've ever eaten, not at all bready. The closest I've ever tried was tempura shrimp. I know she put ice cubes in the batter, but that's all I remember.

I've but the bowls in the microwave, r30. They're Pyrex, they can withstand heat. I don't know if it affects the outer glaze/paint. The thing with Pyrex is that the glass is tempered and if you drop it, it *shatters*

My mother’s Matzo Brei. It’s a simple dish with simple ingredients, but I cannot equal it.

I had to look that up, r34. Once, while high, I added saltines to the end of scrambled eggs and it was great! Made like an egg pastry.

R25 Oh I know. I much prefer the American ones. I prefer nearly everything french except the omelletes, they always seem raw and just too buttery.

It's trickier than it looks, r34.

[quote] When I would ask my mom and grandmother how to make certain things, they would always say (like most older Italian women) you just "put a little of this and a little of that" until it's done.

And they would be thinking (like most older Italian women), "Dio mio! This one's gayer than the Cinque Terre coastline!"

I've never been able to replicate my Mom's Sauerbraten.

R34, are you using schmaltz, and onions? You have to also make sure your matzot are just moist enough to not crumb when you mix the egg in. You also have to ensure the schmaltz is super hot. This way you get a nice crust, and tender matzo brei.

My grandma made a new take on boxed helpers. She called it Tabby Shit after my mom Tabitha. It was any hamburger helper plus a can of le sur peas.

OK for a split second I actually thought "no it couldn't be Crisco. Could it?

There was just something about the way she made it's still one of my favorite dishes. I can't wait until I can pick all the vegetables from my garden and make it with everything I've grown myself for the first time.

She also made a lot of layered refrigerator desserts R8. Which I've been making more of lately with cutting out sugar. Totally satisfying. Icebox cake, layered gelatin with fruit and Cool Whip. So there's some sugar in CW and the graham crackers, lady fingers, etc. My grandfather was diabetic, but healthy and lived into his 90s so she had made a lot of sugar free recipes and did write those down in her recipe box. But just those few and a sweet & low chart she made to replace sugar with S&L.

My mother made the best stuffed peppers and also used lamb R12. She was a great cook too, but didn't master all of my grandmother's recipes, but she did a lot and some were even better.

My mother was Italian and my father Greek. She seemed to take a lot of Greek recipes and make something otherworldly. She always made her stuffed peppers the day after she made lamb and rice and would add it into to how my grandmother made her stuffed peppers. The Greek bitches hated my mother, especially the horrendous woman who pushed out my father.

Just as you described about it being crusty and chewy. The lamb gives such a great taste and I think the hint of cinnamon is perfect.

Exactly R15. Your grandmother's cutlets sound like my grandmother's. She always knew I couldn't wait until the chicken parm was done and would make a few extra and we would sit and eat them plain with fresh squeezed lemon and they stayed a bit crispy even with the lemon and even sauce. So delicious. She always had a large brown shopping bags filled with rolls and Italian bread drying out for bread crumbs, which I always helped grate them with her. Maybe it was the different bread and the sesame seeds from the bread that helped with being crispy.

Oh yes, I think I forgot to mention the onion, she did add that too R17. But never eggplant or peppers. My grandmother's was a little bit spicy so she always had fresh Scali bread on the table and it seemed to thicken only after dipping a few pieces in the sauce. I don't think she added egg and never hot dogs. I would have probably liked that as a kid and surprised my mother never tried that. My grandmother on the other hand believed hot dogs were only for cook outs. I won't even go into my grandmother's reaction the time my mother bought Chef Boyardee for me and my sister.

Of all of their dishes I got the trivial omelette. Mine come out like that R22. Little bit of milk, not water and beat those eggs and cook on a lower heat and cover so the egg isn't soggy. I add the filling/cheese (except broccoli) once it cooks a bit.

I'm not the Corelle troll R31 but saw those threads and offered opinion on that absolute shit.

Of course they knew I was a little fag, R38. I would also sit and talk about their friends antiques, my grandmother's gorgeous wedding gown and shoes and how they should get similar antique furniture for my sister's doll house, which they always saw me playing with and they couldn't have cared less.

My mother never used schmaltz R40. The onions were lightly browned in vegetable oil. She soaked the matzo in the beaten eggs, then added them to the onions in the frying pan. Served with apple sauce. It was so, so good. I can’t even come close.

r4 Crisco is trans fat free and has been for a while, stop shooting off your mouth when you don't know what you're talking about bitch.

R44 DL is fertile ground for those who shoot off at the mouth despite being ignorant.

My mom's egg dumplings that made saurkraut and dumplings so wonderful. They were chewy and so damn tasty, but she never wrote down how she mixed her special recipe.

My dad's biscuits and gravy and his potato soup. I crave that soup and can still picture him in our old kitchen making a huge pot. He loved to feed people. The more people the better.

some frenchie is butthurt and thinks the are superior. quelle surprise.

My dad made lasagna with his feet. It was delicious

I love r41. Laughing my fucking ass off!

R40 & R43 Another Matzo Brie fan here! (fried matzo for the uninitiated) I always thought my bubbie made the best, until I moved to America, and had a friend's mum use Egg & Onion Manischewitz Matzos. Hers was extraordinarily richer, and she did not soak the matzo in water first, only the beaten eggs. Of course she used schmaltz, and plenty of kosher salt as well. Mama Susan was from St. Louis.

r24 Perhaps your grandmother made a fairly sticky dough, that's one of the keys to making a lighter product. More flour, i.e. a drier dough, makes a bread-ier, tougher product.

When you divide the dough up into balls and place then in a deep sided pan(very much recommended), have the rolls just NOT touching. This way when they bake they will have more of a "kissing crust" and provide support for the other rolls, yielding a softer product.

Try to underbake them a bit, that way they'll be left with more internal moisture. Bake them in the lower third of the oven, the higher in the oven they are placed the more the top will brown before the roll is baked sufficiently.

See if putting a pan of hot water in the oven when the rolls are baking will give you what you're looking for.

Slather the baked rolls with butter as soon as they come out of the oven, this softens the crust and gives a better mouthfeel.

r42 Just think of hotdogs as the smaller cousin of mortadella, without all the visible chunks of fat. 😉

Once a cook passes away, the unique taste of their food is pretty much gone forever. I cook a lot and I have tried to alter the usual flavor of the foods that I make and it is damn near impossible to do, for some reason...Sometime back when I was in college I had the accidental good sense one afternoon to ask my mother (who was one of those genius cooks) how she made quite a few different things, and I wrote down what she told me. She's gone now, and I was lucky to have saved a lot of the big family recipes that day (e.g. dressing for a Thanksgiving turkey), which no one else in my family had ever bothered to inquire about before she died.

It sounds so simple, but my grandmother made the BEST fried eggs on toast I have ever eaten. I can never get it to taste anything like it. Mum said the real secret was she was frying them in an entire pan full of butter, so perhaps that's why.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - the best I’ve ever had were from a neighbor who baked them for me regularly and said the recipe was a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. When my neighbor went away, I tried looking up the recipe only to learn Cook’s Illustrated has multiple chocolate chip cookie recipes. I’ve yet to land on the right one.

Stuffed Peppers - I have a good recipe. It’s made with ground beef, tomato sauce, rice, onions, - maybe even Campbell’s tomato soup.

I think our affection to grandmothers intensifies our memories of their food. My own made amazing Toll House Cookies, but from a standard recipe on the bag of chocolate chips. She may have added an extra pinch of salt. These were always crisp and their flavor was complex, really satisfying.

That said, there really was some strange alchemy to her pie dough. No one has ever make it as light and delicate as our Grandmother did. And she did it by eye. We used to watch her making it, and she was pretty rough handling it. It was amazing to see her in action. A really great, tough, loving lady, so many happy memories of her. Thank you for this thread.

R55, the chocolate chip cookie recipe is probably the one with browned butter - “perfect chocolate chip cookies.”

R39

Try adding Gingersnap Cookies. Sounds crazy, I know, but my cousin made her Sauerbraten using some cookies in the gravy and it was excellent. Almost as good as my grandmother's and since she's dead, I'll never know how she made it.

Now I'm thinking I'm going to make it this weekend. Or, try to. I've managed to duplicate my grandmother's spaetzle, which is pretty basic, and which we usually had with Sauerbraten.

And I'll never get my grandmother's Kartoffelkloesse (potato balls) right.

Gingersnaps in sauerbraten is a standard part of the recipe, the gingery the better. -R53

R59

Oh. Had never seen that. I knew my grandmother never used them so I didn't think it was standard.

Thanks!

My mother used to make a FABULOUS Sour Cherry Crumb Cake- I've never been able to find that recipe amongst her old cookbooks and recipes she cut out of newspapers and magazines- oh well. I suppose I could take a chance on Martha Stewart's recipe for Sour Cherry Crumb Cake though I doubt it would be as good as my mother's was.

My insane Jewish mother , born in the Bronx,made the best fried chicken in a huge cast iron pan. When she wasn't going off the wall at us, she had to be one of the best “mom” cooks.

My grandmother also made the best cheese and eggs scramble. She used "gov'ment cheese" bought in the huge rectangle and shaved it herself. Yes, it was greasy but it was also delicious and filling. If you ate it at 10 am, you weren't hungry until at least 8 pm.

My late husband’s mother made scalloped oysters for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I looked forward to it every year.

My own mother preferred coffee and cigarettes.

Unbelievably moist pound cake with a sort of crumbly, dry “crust.” It was unreal. No one could replicate it even when she was alive and gave them the recipe. She just had a knack, and the pans and oven and water of the kitchen she’d lived in since the 1930’s in Alabama might have had something to do with it. I still think about that pound cake.

I always thought my mom made the best gumbo. It was thick and delicious. As an adult I tried a dozen complicated Emeril recipes and could never come close. Finally I asked her and she described exactly what I was already doing and then she said "and then I add a box of pre-made gumbo mix and water to the pot".

🙄

LOL^^^^^^^

R65, My uncle, also in Alabama, used to refer to mysteries like that as someone having "the magic touch."

The milkshake that brings all the boys to the yard.

I wish my mother had any dishes that were worth trying to replicate.

My Mother in Law makes amazing beans and rice (my hubby is Puerto Rican). Although he makes great beans and rice, there's something missing.

r65 Consider the following:

Try a poundcake recipe that includes cream cheese.

Try a cold oven recipe.

Make sure you're measuring the ingredients accurately. Too much flour will give you a dense, dry cake.

Butter these days has more water in it than it did in grandma's time. Add a bit extra to compensate.

Ensure the eggs are whisked thoroughly. Since there are usually no leavening agents, other than the eggs, you have to beat the eggs thoroughly to incorporate enough air so the cake will rise, but not unduly so. You can try adding a bit of baking powder, and see if that does the trick.

Granma's water supply wouldn't have had anything to do with the cake, since water isn't among the ingredients.

Don't overbake. If you wait until the cake has pulled away from the sides of the pan, it's been in the oven too long.

Any substandard pound cake can be rescued by slicing it thickly, and spooning over some stewed blackberries. Vanilla ice cream is optional but recommended.

Boston fish chowder. I think it was just scrod, browned onion, salt, pepper, paprika(?), diced potato, and half & half.

But I have no idea of the proportions or method. And those ingredients may be off.

R64 Scalloped Oysters! Our grandmother made them on New Year’s Eve. I remember some topping of common cracker with butter and black pepper, and the oysters were just heated through, and the cracker meal formed a savory crumble that tasted like the ocean. I’d like that recipe. So good!

I've seen numerous varieties of flour bread. Most of them end up looking more like a cross between a pancake and an English muffin when served.

South American cuisine uses it a lot and so do some cultures in the Southwestern US.

Ohhhh pound cake. I do have that recipe. Maybe I'll make it now.

R73 That sounds about right. New England recipes are minimalist like this one. I think the paprika gave a tinge of pink around the edges of the bowl and spoon spoon when you ate a spoonful of it. I remember soups like this in Boston when I was a small kid, also along the coast of Maine and New Hampshire. You can find similar recipes sometimes in older cookbooks sold as fundraisers by churches and schools. They have recipes for things like this fish chowder, Indian Pudding, Blueberry Buckle, and different forms of baked beans.

Both my grandmothers were dead. I have no idea what it's like to have a grandmother or eat their food. This shold have come with a trigger warning.

Better Than Sex Cake

I doubt that even she would be able to duplicate the recipe OP if she merely tossed in a bit of this and a bit of that, as it would never be the same twice.

The "taste" you remember is a combination of an imprecise memory and a type of placebo effect of it being your grandmother's special recipe.

Tabby Shit

My mom was a great cook, she made everything taste good - but after about 45 or 50 she stopped cooking almost entirely. My dad did all the cooking for them after that (he was very good - but not in her league). The thing I wish I could duplicate is her pork chops. Any kind, baised on the stovetop. My mouth waters just thinking about them.

*braised

She also made great date nut bread - it was dark and moist. And a few other simple baked things - tarts, cinnamon rolls, apple pie - that were perfect. But she stopped baking even earlier than she stopped cooking - she really hated it and used to cite it as one of her least favorite things to do in the kitchen.

My grandmothers' home made chocolate cupcakes from scratch - no box mixes. She didn't frost them either, just waited until they were completely cooled and dusted them with powdered sugar. I have the written recipe and tried several times following it to the letter, but they never come out tasting as intensely chocolatey as hers did. She used cake flour for them and one of the interesting steps was to add boiling water to the mix, I guess for leavening.

Some people can do things without a roadmap or step by step directions believe it or not. Their dishes always tasted exactly the same. I've come to perfect a few things like my pizza, a spinach pie that is similar to my grandmother's recipe, but I made it my own. I don't follow a recipe. The closest I've ever come to duplicating any of these recipes is when I just stood over the stove and made it without thinking too much about what to put in and how much. My tomato sauce and meatballs come out exactly the same every time. I add the ingredients by eye and don't follow any directions whatsoever.

The memory is not imprecise, and it is not a placebo anything. On top of their home cooking, my family owned several restaurants before I was even born. My mother also owned two restaurants where she and my grandmother did most of the cooking, other than breakfast. People came from all over for my mom's meatballs, chicken pot pie, scampi and my grandmother's spinach pie and lasagna, and more, because the food was excellent and was always the same. I really doubt that was a placebo effect on the customers. All those were made from their memory and love of good foods.

[quote] My grandmothers' home made chocolate cupcakes from scratch - no box mixes. She didn't frost them either, just waited until they were completely cooled and dusted them with powdered sugar. I have the written recipe and tried several times following it to the letter, but they never come out tasting as intensely chocolatey as hers did. She used cake flour for them and one of the interesting steps was to add boiling water to the mix, I guess for leavening.

Why is hot water used in chocolate cake?

When cocoa powder is “bloomed” it's mixed with a hot liquid, stirred well to break up any lumps, and then left to sit for a minute or two. The cocoa powder dissolves, which thickens the liquid and releases flavor particles within the powder.

Here's the first Google hit I got for flour bread (a.k.a. biscuit bread or hoecake bread). This recipe calls for flour, bacon grease, butter, and buttermilk.

Here's another recipe that calls for just flour, milk, and vegetable oil.

And here's a third recipe with shortening that's a little more involved than the first two.

R88, R89, and R90, thank you!! I couldn't open the link at R90, but the deepsouth looks the most like my Grandmother's Flour Bread. She baked on the stove and served it with molasses. If I were MUCH thinner, I might try it but I can't risk it since I'm single and live alone. Plus, I'm not eating carbs right now.

My mother, the Jewish fried chicken queen of Long Island, also kept a jar of schmaltz in the fridge as a few other mentioned here.

I hated “Jewish” food, which was mostly heavy eastern European stuff but her homemade potato latkes were outstanding..light and crisp, never greasy.. Then potatoes and onion were always grated by hand and fried in her huge old cast iron pan.. I guess, because she was so sick mentally, the only way she could show she cared for us was by cooking fabulous but simple “mom” meals

My grandma hated food. She was a loon who got high anxiety any time family and meals were around. My mom, unsurprisingly, was a horrible cook. My dad and I sometimes would beg her not to cook dinner so we had a chance to eat something much better in a restaurant or take out.

I paid attention when my Mom made pot roast but I still can't duplicate it. I gave up and use a different recipe.

I got her roast chicken down, though.

R14, If I recall correctly Pyrex changed the manufacturing process/ingredients to make their cookware years ago. It's been known to sometimes completely shatter into tiny pieces when taking a dish out of the oven. It's only happened to me once, but it made a huge mess.

[quote]My mother was Italian and my father Greek.

I'm the exact opposite.

[quote]It wasn't a soup and it wasn't exactly a stew, so I don't know what type of dish to call it.

It's a STOUP!

Grandma ‘s cooking always reminded me of feces

My nana’s blintzes served with grape jelly and/or powdered sugar.