Pearl's Recipe Box

I can't remember how I came to have

this box.

It belonged to my grandmother, Pearl and has been in my possession for years.

Pearl died died in 1986 when I was seventeen. Her husband, my grandfather, Fred, died when I was six. After that she married once and moved to Montréal from New York City for a brief time. When she returned, I remember her as being sad. During my high school years I had dinner with her once a week in her apartment on East 73rd Street. (I think it was Tuesday nights.) She always cooked for me. The meals were basic and delicious. One dish that stands out in my memory was something she called Chicken-in-a-Pot. Her salad bowl was wooden and before loading it up, she was in the habit of rubbing it's inside with a garlic clove. She had embossed green glass goblets that we drank our water out of and velvet upholstered dining chairs. She once showed me the scar from her mastectomy. My mother was furious, but it didn't bother me. I'm told I look like her.

I don't know exactly why I've let this box sit closed for so long or what compelled me to finally open it, but last weekend I did.

I knew it was her recipe box but I was unaware of exactly what treasures lay inside.

The papers were yellowed and musty and almost too brittle to unfold. The writing, familiar and foreign, only partially legible. Niall suggested that perhaps my father (her son) would be able to decipher the codes.

She collected recipes on little bits of clues about her life. One written on notepaper from The Hotel Webster Hall on Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh. I like to assume that she was visiting my father who went to college there. Another written on a page torn from a date book marked — Thursday, April 30, 1964. The year of my parents' marriage. Still more written on old checks and curious receipts. 

The recipes fall into three major categories: Jewish cooking, recipes passed along from friends and those cut out from newspapers. Some fall into multiple categories.

Among the Jewish recipes I found:

Easiest Potato Kugel
Cauliflower Pudding
Matzo Brie
Charoses For Seder and Kneidlach for a Meat Meal (New York Post Monday, April 1 1968)
Potatoe (this is how she spelled it) Soup
Potatoe Pancake
Sour Cream Pancake
Mother's Matzo Balls

Some of her friend's recipes:

Pot Roast - Miriam
Baked Chicken - Lois
Chocolate Cake - Ruth
Chicken Fricasse - Irma
Goulash - Mrs. Schaer
Veal Cutlet - Jenny
Veal Loaf - Esther
Cold Slaw - Faith (Faith, I suspect, is my mother)
Dip - Ruth
Cake - Edith

There were also multiple recipes for types of 'moulds' (also her spelling) including: Beet and Horseradish Mould, Apple Mould and Strawberry Mould. I vaguely remember these being all the rage in the seventies.

A list of recipes I hope to try one day:

Sunday Morning Coffee Cake
Cheese Cake
Chocolate Bar Cookies
Icebox Cookies
Banana Cake

(Notice a theme?)

Here is something she called

Cookies Charlotte

1/2 pound of butter
1/2 cup cream cheese
4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 egg yolks (put whites aside and brush on top of cookies)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Roll into shape of salami (Yes, that is exactly what it says. Salami.) in wax paper and chill for about two hours. Cut cookies. Brush on egg white and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar or chopped nuts.

I never did find the recipe for Chicken-in-a-Pot.

Thanks for visiting.

Comments

[Tara Thayer]

What a treasure trove! I love the pictures, too. That second one with the recipes spilled out is fantastic.
Lucky you, to have all of that family history in a box. Take care, tt

[christina]

Maybe you've done this before, and I missed it, but would you share with us one of your favorite jewish dinner recipes? I love traditional foods and since we had a baker in the family (and i'm not a baker) I have to get other peoples family recipes. :) I love old recipies.

[Sarah]

This is SO cool! What an amazing piece of history and family life that you have here. I love the recipe box in general, but add those hand-written recipes that fill it, and it's completely amazing! I'm jealous!

[Alexis]

Wow! That's amazing! You should make a little book out of them.

[jessica]

In high school, I would have lunch with Grammie once a week-her house was across the street from school. We'd have tuna and lots of cookies on the side. Great memories. What a treasure Pearl's recipe box is--Thanks for sharing the recipe, I can't wait to try it out.

[natalie]

Amy - that's so lovely! I decided a few years ago (probably longer because I think it was before Emma was born) to have a recipe box so that I could also collect people's handwritings. When we left greensboro, a bunch of girlfriends all wrote out their favorite recipes for me. I don't use most of them, but they still make me smile when I pass them in the box. My sister (florence, lawyer, bkln) swears by the computer, but it just seems too sterile to me. Can't wait to see more recipes from pearl.

[Sarah Jackson]

Oh wow!! That gave me goosebumps. What a treasure.

I grew up about a half mile from my grandma and still love visiting for her simple but really yummy food. I should make copies of her recipe box and her lovely handwriting.

And you're right - the dessert recipes are always the best. As are the ones that aren't written down, like chicken in a pot.

[Amy - Seven Stitches]

Amy, that is absolutely beautiful. I hope you get to try some of those recipes. Have you seen the recipe card apron in "Stitched in Time" these recipes would be just wonderful for it.

[Kathleen]

How amazing!
I love the notion of "little bits of clues about her life." I wonder what clues we're leaving behind... my recipes are on the computer, and so are all of my "letters." And the things that are written aren't nearly as beautiful as those my mother and grandmothers - and Pearl, I'm sure - wrote. I wish I had their penmanship!
Sure, I have the special events documented, but how will those everyday details, like Miriam's Pot Roast, be remembered?

[Amy @ parkcitygirl]

what an amazing treasure! I hope you are able to decode and enjoy them :)

[Niall]

My Dearest Amy, Your 'Pearl Project' reminded me of another effort to collect and redistribute 'lost' recipes - this time in post-Katrina New Orleans. The results are described in this NPR link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98098455

[Shalet]

That is an amazing treasure! Happy cooking!

[jacquie]

oh my...what a gift. i'm wondering what it felt like for you to go through this box...amazing!

[Stephanie]

My connection to my late grandmother Lula (ala Lula Photography) is beyond epic. I could FEEL your post. A few weeks ago, I was shuffling through a drawer full of old recipe books and ran into several she gave me when I started college and one she gave me just before I got married. The marriage one was a compilation of recipes from Brigham Young's wives! She had a wicked sense of humor. Each of them have a nice hand written note inside the cover. I think everyone should be forced to dream in her handwriting.

[elizabeth of course]

What a wonderful thing to have around, that connection to the past. So much history in one little box. All the recipes sound wonderful and I can't wait to hear what it's like to make them from her own notes.

[caroline thornewill]

Oh, that is amazingly fantastic! Gave me a bit of a tear. It's the handwriting. Wonderful!

[Laura]

Wow, what a wonderful treasure!

[V]

wow. that is so wonderful! I cherish things like that. I have framed favorite recipes hanging on my wall in the kitchen. And I collect recipe boxes, prefer with someones old recipes in them. I may not have known them, but you feel like you have a whole family in a box. The people the recipes feed, recipes shared with family and friends, and unknowns to be tried. Very special. thanks for sharing!

[Marty]

Oh my!! I have a box just like that in my possession. It was my mom's and is full of American and Irish recipes. She was a phenomenal cook and I hope to finish a cookbook someday of all those wonderful recipes. What a priceless treasure you have!

[Jill]

What a beautiful treasure (and beautiful photographs of it). I love handwriting, especially from someone you know. I wonder how many handwriting samples will be left from our generation and those that follow. I know my recipe book is a notebook filled with magazine swipes and printouts.

What an heirloom.

[Marnie]

oh, how achingly beautiful....
i held my breathe as i read about this discovery - that tantalizing connection to your past - you colour it so well....

[Anna]

Gorgeous post. Wow.

[Melissa]

My grandmother's 95th birthday would have been this week and this post brought a tear to my eye just remembering her and the many times we shared in her kitchen. I can smell her arroz con gandules just thinking about it. Thanks for this post.

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