my grandmother’s recipe book, part 2

From my Dad, on my Grandmother’s recipe notebook.   May we all see the wisdom in his words and her thoughts, and may we never, ever, consider ourselves bored nor aged.

Your grandmother’s recipe book, when I knew it, was  stuffed with bits
of paper, recipes she had copied or been given or curt from the paper
etc. She went to a number of lectures by notable cooks who came to town
so some of them were in her own shorthand. She said she would copy
them properly in a book, I’m sure she meant another more proper volume,
when she had time. Time is a commodity available to  the bored and
aged, and she considered herself neither.  She had learned from her
mother that a recipe was only for those who had not really learned to
cook or for something you cooked rarely and was especially tricky.
 

Your Great Grandmother seldom used a written recipe. The quantity she
cooked depended on  who she was to feed. She lacked refrigeration, as
we know it, to keep leftovers. Leftovers were not thrown away but were
used promptly. She would start a dish with the quality of ingredient
available and added what ever was necessary to produce a meal. She made
a bacon gravy that I loved but she was unable to tell my mother how to
make it. Mother was a very good cook but her bacon gravy just wasn’t
right. Both Mother and I had my watched Grandmother make bacon gravy
but were unable learn how to make it. One day as I watched I noticed
her add a pinch of salt from the salt dish. Several minutes later I
realized you wouldn’t add salt to bacon gravy and noticed that the salt
dish was next to the sugar bowl. Mother’s gravy was fine with a pinch
of sugar.
 

Love, Dad