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My Grandma was Mexican/Swedish...born in Mexico, Swedish parents. She used a variety of spices in her cooking, lots of cinnamon, cardamon, and white pepper. Always fresh sage, rosemary, cilantro, parsley. I don't even use as many spices as she did...but she was not much of an italian chef, never made pasta with red sauce...so she did not have basil in her cabinet, or any Asian spices...
and I bet you are a lot younger than me: I think what our parents used, even our grandparents probably depends on our age and yes, the region of their and our growing up. It sounds like she did use a great variety.
My grandmothers didn't even have chili powder in their kitchens. My mom used Gebhardt, and I use a custom blend from some place in New Mexico. I also have 5 different types of chilE powder in my pantry, from different varieties of chile peppers. This would have been unheard of in the previously mentioned ladies' kitchens. Hot was not an option.
My mom used cumin, my grandmothers didn't know it from Adam. I, of course, use it regularly.
Cilantro, achiote and epazote are all in my kitchen. They weren't aware of their existence.
I use many types of Mexican cheeses and pricy extra-sharp aged cheddars, the ladies all used boring mild cheeses.
Beef was always well-done in the family kitchens and BBQs. That stopped with me.
I never liked baked ham until I tasted Honeybaked. Sorry, ladies.
Coconut milk, garam masala and curry powders didn't show up in this family until I adopted them. Same goes for cooking with yogurt. They ate yogurt, I cook with it.
The ladies used three types of fat: bacon grease, vegetable oil and Crisco. I always have bacon grease on hand, but I also use oils such as grape seed, sunflower seed, California olive, peanut, avocado and sesame. I also use ghee and leaf lard.
They all used margarine. I won't go near the stuff.
I learned about "orange flower water" from a report on NPR. It sounded like just the right ingredient to add to my grandmother's Mandelbrot recipe. A perfect addition that I'm sure grandma didn't know about. I now use it in several of my baked goods.
An equally interesting question would be, "What did our parents eat that we do not (or would not)?"
wasn't there just one similar to that recently? I can think of a couple of thing: mom and dad loved pickled pigs feet: I never tried them and do not intend to start now. We did eat neck bones as a kid, I actually loved them, but I can assure you my kids and grandkids wouldn't touch them. My dad also raised rabbits for awhile, so Sunday dinner was rabbit quite often. I loved it but again, our kids would not even think of eating thumper. Daddly also ate a lot of things like squirrel and he did a lot of hiunting. I have never liked Venison and only had squirrel once. I was about 8 years old. Hamony was another thing mom and dad liked, I can't stand it.
wasn't there just one similar to that recently? I can think of a couple of thing: mom and dad loved pickled pigs feet: I never tried them and do not intend to start now. We did eat neck bones as a kid, I actually loved them, but I can assure you my kids and grandkids wouldn't touch them. My dad also raised rabbits for awhile, so Sunday dinner was rabbit quite often. I loved it but again, our kids would not even think of eating thumper. Daddly also ate a lot of things like squirrel and he did a lot of hiunting. I have never liked Venison and only had squirrel once. I was about 8 years old. Hamony was another thing mom and dad liked, I can't stand it.
I was at the Grand Rapids Public Museum this weekend and was looking at some of the menus from 75+ years ago.
They included, among others:
Braised Sweetbreads
Calves head - I would love to see THAT presentation
Tomato aspic
Both my father and MIL raised rabbits for food and profit. I had it once at my MIL. However, it was cooked beyond recognition. I might try that one later.
Some Gebhardt's chili powder, maybe some garlic, salt++, pepper, + some other things I didn't know about?
Never any fresh herbs like I use today: Basil, Oregano, Mint, Lime leaves, Galanga, Lemon grass, etc etc.
HW
us either, and pesto: I doubt my parents would know how to pronounce it? As I said, dad was a gourmet cook, but things were just different then. jlawrence mentions tomato aspic, I still love it, but no one in the family would touch it, so I will have to live with the memories.
I use Italian seasoning alot my mom never did. Othwerwise we pretty much use all of the same spices in our cooking.
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