Just like Mom used to make

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Sentry18

Sentry18

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Whether it was your mom, your grandmother, you aunt, or someone else special in your life; pretty much all of us have some memory of a food that they used to make that no one else can seem to replicate. Maybe it was that little extra dash of love or some unknown secret ingredient that made the difference. Maybe it was just because 'she' made it.

My wife makes a killer chocolate cake with chocolate ganache frosting. It's so good that even my otherwise unshakable keto eating habits cannot resist having a small piece. People shower her with praise over it and plead with her to make one for them, including my boss who gets one every year on his birthday. But her dark secret is that it's my Mom's recipe and no matter how good of job she does making it, my Mom's version is just a little bit better (and it drives her crazy). And believe me, my wife has made 100+ of them trying to match the moistness, density, and decadence of my Mom's chocolate cake. As my Mom didn't raise any dumb kids I always tell my wife that her cake is every bit as good as Nana's cake, but then inevitably my Mom makes one and my wife gives me that look. Like she is accusing my of lying with her eyes. Regardless whenever I take a bite of either version, it takes me back to all of childhood birthdays.

How about you? What dish did Mom used to make that will always be with you?
 
My Grandmother’s chocolate chip cookies. Never was a match for them, ever.

Funny thing is? It was the recipe right off the back of the Nestle’s chocolate chip package! I kid you not, she passed the recipe down in her book to my mother and one of my sisters inherited it after that. It is taped right to a page, no notes or anything, just the cutout from the package. Mom made them, but they were not the same, at all. My sister is a baker and she has tired to dicker with the recipe to recreate them, never happened.

My Grandmother immigrated from Czechoslovakia, my Grandfather was Swiss. She had the recipes, but never used them that we could recall. She was one of those who just ‘whipped them up’. We can remember asking, before she passed, about another recipe. “How much butter was that?” “Ohhh…, about this much… Just enough so it looks right…add a little more maybe sometimes…” That kind of cook.
 
Actually a bit better. Yes. I bake.....a lot.
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My Mère Mère (Grandmother on Dad's side) made Sphagetti Soup. It was one of my favorites, especially with buttered Wonder Bread.

My Mom tried making it for me, but it was not quite the same.

My Mom does make Salmon Pie every Good Friday. I missed out on that tradition for a few years due to strained relationships, but with mended fences, I now look forward to it with an anticipation seldome rivaled by any particular food.
 
My wife makes the best potato salad ever.
At any family function, there are never any leftover and people always ask to make sure she will be bringing it.
Her secret is she always asks me to taste it and see what it needs. :D
Grandma made Chicken and Dumplings and nobody can recreate it, except one Aunt on the other side of the family.
My wife learn from Grandma before we got married and she is really close but it's just not the same.
Maybe because Grandma always butchered the chicken herself and she used the pieces she didn't normally fry like backs, wings, and necks.
When my Dad died we had a potluck dinner like most southern families have. My Aunt brought Chicken and Dumplings. All my cousins said it was just like Grandma's. They all thought the recipe had died with Grandma.
My Aunt actually gave them all a lesson the next week.
 
Ingredients are everything in recreating these dishes. I know the first thing my wife did to make her cake more like my Mom's was to stop using grocery story eggs and start using farm fresh eggs. The second thing was to add a scoop of freshly ground cocoa beans mixed with freshly ground coffee beans into the homemade cake mix. The coffee beans are not listed in the recipe, but I am pretty sure my Mom adds them too.
 
Horseradish soup, I figured it out after grandma died. Dad was amazed when he asked me one night what i was having for dinner. Had to give him the recipe. I would not recreate anything my mom cooked.
 
backlash said:
My wife makes the best potato salad ever.
At any family function, there are never any leftover and people always ask to make sure she will be bringing it.
Her secret is she always asks me to taste it and see what it needs. :D
Grandma made Chicken and Dumplings and nobody can recreate it, except one Aunt on the other side of the family.
My wife learn from Grandma before we got married and she is really close but it's just not the same.
Maybe because Grandma always butchered the chicken herself and she used the pieces she didn't normally fry like backs, wings, and necks.
When my Dad died we had a potluck dinner like most southern families have. My Aunt brought Chicken and Dumplings. All my cousins said it was just like Grandma's. They all thought the recipe had died with Grandma.
My Aunt actually gave them all a lesson the next week.
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Mrs t2 nailed Momma’s potato salad! She makes a awesome chicken and dumplings, but doesn’t quite get there compared to Momma.

Hey PO1, I’m Army so I’m not always good on the other branches... Aviation/Electronics?
 
One step mamaw made the BEST cream corn ever. I have an aunt that makes it too, but not nearly as good. Mamaw also make a coconut pie that was out of this world. My mom has her mamaws reciepe, and it's good but just not the same.
My mom's chicken an dumplins are one of my favorites of hers. And for my birthday she makes me a Mandrian Orange cake that is so tasty.
My wife is a really good cook, but is quite different in how shes goes about it. She wasn't raised as a country cook, measures almost everything by eye. She makes so much I enjoy it's hard to pick just one thing.
 
@Just Cliff those look good!
My Gma would make rishquilas which are a Portugese cookie. She was given the recipe by her mother-in-law, my great Gma. I loooovvve them! She has since shared the recipe with me but I think hers are still better:). Also, her home canned olives were out of this world! She has shared some of her tips with me and I hope someday to make some, but olive trees aren't the norm around here.
I cook more like @Woody 's Gma. I have recipes that are just a list of ingredients with no amounts so I don't forget to add something. Some things you go by smell, some things by how it mixes etc. My kids like my Swiss steak. Hubby likes my Oatmeal Monsters and Mediterranean Venison. I do have a recipe for the monsters - well sorta.
Oh, one more - a dear friend, like a Gma to me - homemade Irish cream. I have her recipe and made it with her several times (and drank it with her as well;))
 
My husband's grandma made a banana pudding, a lot like your cream pie. She'd make it just for him. We miss her.
My mom can't cook to save her life. Never could. She's a feminist, even at 86. Thinks cooking for a man would be an insult.
My cousin Irene (my best friend) makes an incredible turkey with clear gravy, and homemade bread rolls to die for. Her sister, my cousin Lydia makes the best cinnamon rolls I've ever had.
Had to teach my own self to cook when I met my husband, because he came from a family of excellent cooks.
His special thing he asks me to make is my chocolate cream pie.
I had a neighbor growing up that made the best chocolate chip cookies. They were hard, not soft baked, and I called them dog biscuit. I couldn't duplicate them for the life of me. I've realized that brands of flour can make a difference, and so can ovens, eggs, types of butter.
 
Sentry18 said:
Ingredients are everything in recreating these dishes.
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Sentry is absolutely right when it comes to dishes made by my grandmothers, their generation and older. It’s the ingredients… the single ingredient that made the biggest impact was lard… yep, good old-fashioned hog fat.

A few years ago I got a few good cooks of my generation to try lard… It took us all back to childhood. When I grew up everyone had a milk cow and chickens, throw in lard and you have southern cooking paradise.

Best dishes…

Great aunt Annie’s fried apple pies cooked in a cast iron skillet… The apples were harvested and dried by her. Come the holidays… heaven.

Grandma’s squirrel or chicken dumplings… I don’t know which was better but would go back for 3rds of either. I haven’t seen anything close since I was a kid.

Poor Aunt E… she always put waaay to much sage in dressing… small children would try to hide under the kids table. :eek: Only one person liked it that way, thankfully someone else would always bring another big dish of dressing for everyone else. :)

@phideaux I never liked calf slobber on nanner puddin, just sayin' ;)

Edited to add Biscuits... my grandmothers generation or older... no one made a bad biscuit... One of my great grandmothers was Queen of the biscuits...

Always had to have syrup with biscuits... this was the brand on all our tables, still in business today... it even changed in the 70's with corn fuctos...... what ever you call it... even the syrup doesn't taste the same...

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I was convinced my mother-in-law was incapable of cooking until one day she announced she was making french onion soup. Everyone got all excited while I sat there surprised she knew where the kitchen was. Sure enough she made french onion soup from scratch, complete with freshly made buttery crouton topped with gruyere cheese and broiled until it was golden brown. It was absolutely fantastic. Shockingly fantastic. I think I have had that soup about 3 times now spanning several years. Turns out it was my wife's grandmother's recipe and the only one her mom still made. My wife has the recipe but has never even tried to make it.
 
My mom makes the most delicious lamb stew I have ever had. I have tried to recreate it several times, even with her guidance, and it's just not the same. It's not even a complicated recipe. I was taught by her to cook and in my younger years worked in some really nice kitchens. Just can't make mine taste like hers.
 
phideaux said:
My mom passed away this July, and she was in the nursing home for 7 years with dementia,
Ok miss her so much,
Before she got bad she would make the best , from scratch, banana pudding.
She would occasionally make one just for me.

I've never had one like hers since.
Here's what hers looked like.
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Perfect.

Jim
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Jim that pudding looks exactly like what my mom makes. And yes it is soooooo good.
 
Sure to miss NH's turkey gravy in 2 weeks. He was the ace on that. I'll give it a shot and have a few jars of Heinz gravy on hand in case I #fail.
Mom's gazpacho, crab cakes, salmon patties, wheat rolls. I got her dressing balls "recipe" and have improved upon it so much, happy about that.
 
Sentry18 said:
Whether it was your mom, your grandmother, you aunt, or someone else special in your life; pretty much all of us have some memory of a food that they used to make that no one else can seem to replicate. Maybe it was that little extra dash of love or some unknown secret ingredient that made the difference. Maybe it was just because 'she' made it.
Click to expand...
My mom's pecan pie.
We made everything from the ground up, even the pie-shells. She taught me to sprinkle ice-water on the dough when you were rolling it out and it started sticking to the rolling-pin.
How to poke the bottom of the pie-shells when you got them made with a fork to keep them from tossing out the filling
I was her right-hand man:).
Maybe it was the hours of work picking up pecans, shelling them, cleaning them, and turning them into something awesome that made it so good.
There was an old dark-Karo syrup jar in the cabinet that had the recipe on it.
It was a lot of work, but when we got rolling, we'd make at least 4....
And we became everybody's best friend:D
 
Terri9630 said:
My Grandpas goulash. Its the only thing he would cook that didn't require a fire.
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My Dad makes a killer goulash. And it was also one of the few things he made in the kitchen instead of the grill. Must be a thing.
 
Sentry18 said:
My Dad makes a killer goulash. And it was also one of the few things he made in the kitchen instead of the grill. Must be a thing.
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I wish I knew what was in it. All I remember is ground beef and diced tomatoes.
 
Terri9630 said:
I wish I knew what was in it. All I remember is ground beef and diced tomatoes.
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My Dad used ground beef, onion, green pepper, green chiles, diced tomatoes, a little garlic, a little chili powder, salt, pepper, macaroni, and sweet corn. He made up everything sans the pasta and corn and let it simmer for a solid hour+ then he mixed in the cooked pasta and corn before serving.
 
My mother makes a traditional Norwegian treat called "kringla". It's kind of a cross between bread and cake, slightly sweet, light, and fluffy. She uses my great grandmother's recipe straight from the old country. Nobody can make it like her and nobody knows the secret, not even Pops. My grandma used to get so mad because Mom made it better than her...

And if you ever had it straight out of the oven, with butter melting on it, with a cup of hot black coffee, you'd know just a little bit of what heaven is like...;)
 
Spikedriver said:
My mother makes a traditional Norwegian treat called "kringla". It's kind of a cross between bread and cake, slightly sweet, light, and fluffy. She uses my great grandmother's recipe straight from the old country. Nobody can make it like her and nobody knows the secret, not even Pops. My grandma used to get so mad because Mom made it better than her...

And if you ever had it straight out of the oven, with butter melting on it, with a cup of hot black coffee, you'd know just a little bit of what heaven is like...;)
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Kringla! So delicious. So full of carbs. My Norwegian wife makes it every Christmas too. Doesn't last very long after the holiday guests arrive.
 
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