When I was growing up, my grandmother was friendly with another farming family who had orchards full of apples, pears, and stone fruits. It was a rite of fall for my mother and I to go to Schenks’ to buy apples, cider, and Italian plums for plum dumplings. We would walk past their farm stand to the apple cooler; its giant, maple-fronted steel door opened slowly, like a bank vault. Inside, the metallic fragrance of cold apples enveloped us, as […]
One of the original desserts of early American cooking was hasty pudding, or, as it was sometimes known, Indian pudding. (You may remember that hasty pudding is mentioned in the lyrics of the Revolutionary War song, “Yankee Doodle.”) Made with cornmeal, eggs, milk, and whatever spices a cook had on hand, it was sweetened with molasses or maple syrup. Later versions added ice cream, or candied fruit. This is my updated take on hasty pudding, based on recipes found in […]
When I was growing up, a succulent pork roast studded with caraway seeds was a regular occurrence in the cold weather months. In a family of Bohemian cooks, pork didn’t show up at the table without caraway seeds on it somewhere, usually accompanied by potato dumplings and sauerkraut. My grandmother was well known for this particular meal, and her friends used to come out to the farm – ostensibly to hunt pheasant each fall – when what they really wanted […]
These red hot cinnamon candy apples always remind me of Halloween, a carnival, or the state fair; they’re a great bit of twentieth century Americana, and easy to make if you have a candy thermometer and a box of cinnamon red hots. I added red food coloring and a tiny touch of black food coloring to get that go-to-hell shade of red. The tiny candy apples are similar to the tiny caramel apples I made last year: https://www.americas-table.com/recipes/mini-caramel-apples-2, or you […]
I love a good family recipe, and this one is just wonderful! Sweet potato pie is an all-American favorite, and this version from the Gaspard family is smooth, rich, and melt-in-your-mouth scrumptious. The dough is very crisp, and a nice contrast to the texture of the sweet potato, which has a custardy consistency that is just plain elegant. The garnish – a few coins of cooked sweet potato sprinkled with sugar and browned in the oven – add a toothsome […]
