Oser Communications Group

AROUND THE TABLE www.kitchenwarenews.com n SEPTEMBER 2018 n KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 1 1 Finding Wealth in a File Box was rearranging my spice cupboard the other day and came across a rust-spattered three-by-five-inch file box decorated with Pennsylvania Dutch motifs. Ah! In the f rantic unpacking after my move, I knew I'd stashed it somewhere but couldn't remember where. My mother's recipe collection, found at last! The little box houses her favorite recipes, spanning her years as a newlywed cook to the last years of her life. The earlier cards were carefully written out or were typed on the manual typewriter I can still see my mother using. As a bonus, some are written in the spidery hands of both her own mother and her mother-in-law, and many acknowledge the long-dead women whom I recognize as my Grandmother Mather's dearest f riends. As the years go on, the recipes are often clipped f rom newspapers or magazines and attached to the cards with tape or mucilage. (Does anyone even use mucilage anymore?) By far, the lion's share of the recipes are savory dishes, my mother never having had much of a sweet tooth. I treasure this little box less for the recipes than for the gustatory history it BY ROBIN MATHER Around the Table with Robin contains. It shows the evolution of a curious, dedicated cook, f rom the bride who needed a recipe for "Frank furters & String Beans" using canned potatoes, into a woman confident enough in the kitchen that the recipe for "Very Special Finnan Haddie" simply lists the ingredients and their quantities with no instructions – clearly, she knew how to proceed once she had the ratios correct. There's little likelihood that I'll ever cook "Broccoli Italienne" or calves' brains with f ried parsley or what looks like a recipe for braised tripe. But I do still rummage through the box for the heavily stained card with "Grandmother Emery's Corn Relish," an old-time version with shredded cabbage, sharp with dry mustard and mustard seed. Here, too, are the instructions on how to make "Chocolate Sunshine," an airy chocolate mousse that was a family favorite. Your customers probably save recipes in many ways, f rom scrapbooks to Pinterest. They also find recipes that appeal to them in many ways, f rom magazines to cookbooks to websites. Those recipes, however, don't offer the key component I'm discussing here: The family connection. Wouldn't a recipe collection with contributions from mothers and grandmothers and aunts and f riends make a marvelous holiday gift? Dads and grandfathers and uncles could contribute, too, if they're cooks. I think there may be enough time to offer such a class to your customers to help them create exactly such a collection for holiday giving. A parent-child class could be a lot of fun, and I can see the potential for multi-generational participation with older relatives, too. Thanksgiving offers an ideal time to collect these recipes, once your customers have settled on their favorite format. The format can vary, although I think that paper beats anything on disc or computer – as technology changes, we can be sure that paper will always be legible even if floppy discs and documents created in Word Perfect no longer are. Beyond that, paper allows contributors to handwrite their recipes – and having a bit of your relatives' handwriting can be a tremendous comfort when they're gone. I know it is for me. You, meanwhile, can be proud that you've connected good food to one of its primal sources: The family. KN

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