[dfxm12]

She's upset that the recipes are different

If she's like my mother, she probably thinks of these recipes as a connection to her parents and grandparents. The importance is not in the finished dish, but in the history of this specific artifact, including: the hand writing, the original index cards, the references to the bowls she remembers as a little girl. I understand this. When I see my grandmother's recipes, hand-written in broken English, it makes me smile, because I can't not read it in my grandmother's voice. Ok, these aren't cakes and cookies, so there's no need to be precise, so I do the recipe updates in my head anyway.

When updating the recipe, consider this. If you're laying it out on paper, at least keep a reference to the original recipe, a photo, etc. I have a professional cookbook like this. It has excerpts from journals from the 18th or 19th century with the original recipe, and also recontexualizes them for today's ingredients, tools and techniques. You get both the history and the dish.

[js2]

> When I see my grandmother's recipes, hand-written in broken English, it makes me smile, because I can't not read it in my grandmother's voice.

You might enjoy listening to this when you have 10 minutes:

"The Last Batch of Fudge" – by Michael Imber

https://themoth.org/stories/the-last-batch-of-fudge

The Moth's web site is really slow so here's another link to that story in the episode:

https://overcast.fm/+mknK1k/38:45

[bb88]

That's one of the things I enjoy about Cook's Country on PBS. They like to dig into the historical contexts of dishes. Sometimes by researching in the past, they discover insights.

I was thinking of biscuit recipes where mixing was often done by feel of the dough, rather than exact amounts. Grandmas could just "feel" the amounts needed for their biscuits.

[pcl]

I have a professional cookbook like this

Do tell -- what's it called? Sounds like a great read.

[wscott]

Indeed. When I entered "grandma's cookies" into the shared family instance is 'mealie' I was sure to include a copy of the "original" index card. (surely a copy) https://imgur.com/KMSuUhz

That card was has several fun comments and lots of history to my siblings who added to the crustiness of this card.

The original card I remember said to use lard or you can use margarine if you "haven't slaughtered a hog recently".

The recipe in mealie was modernized and tested more.

[Dylan16807]

Going through the same process with the same ingredients is also important to the personal connection. More important to me than the original wording. The note cards are great for looking at but I'm not going to work directly off them.

[arethuza]

I really wish I had kept a note of what my parents called "neeps and tatties" soup - which was served with thick oatcakes from the local baker.

I do see recipes for it online but they look very different (spices? cream?).

[unsnap_biceps]

https://www.tinnedtomatoes.com/2013/09/scottish-tattie-neep-... is a stew recipe that looks similar to something I would have growing up. I think it was a basic stew with whatever was ready to eat, so we never had a specific recipe for it.