A dash of this, a pinch of that: Cooking up some family history

I've written some of my Danish and German heritage. I've written less about the Irish and Czech heritage that I married into.

One of the many great joys of this merging of cultures is food-related. My wife is one of a lengthy line of great cooks of Bohemian food. The recipe card pictured with this post comes from her collection. It's a recipe for dumplings that she got from her aunt Caroline. It's allegedly the same recipe used at Omaha's fabled Bohemian Cafe. While I can't vouch for the authenticity of the recipe's lineage, you can probably tell from the stains on the card that it's a family favorite.

We reveal a good deal of our heritage through food. Indeed, many family cookbooks are laced with details of a family's history. In some cases, it's all a family has to connect it to its past. I suppose that's why I'm such a big fan of potluck dinners. I've always found it fascinating to see what others eat. While many non-Iowans see our state as a white bread, meat-and-potatoes place, that's definitely not the case. You're just as likely to find pud thai, empenadas or biryani at a Des Moines potluck as lime Jell-o or deviled eggs. There's a story behind every dish.

Here's the story behind 94-year-old David Eyre's pancakes, a recipe that's being passed down through the family and recently found its way to the pages of the New York Times magazine.

Think of the effect food has had on your life. How special it was to get an orange at Christmas. Those Fourth of July picnics. Wedding receptions. Family reunions. What are the stories behind your favorite recipes?

Author Larry Lehmer's book about Dick Clark and American Bandstand --  Bandstandland: How Dancing Teenagers Took Over America and Dick Clark Took Over Rock & Roll --is available from Sunbury Press. His book about the last tour of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens -- The Day the Music Died -- is available at Amazon.

Comments

[Jay Couey]

Nice. An unstained recipe is an unused recipe, Larry.

Can't write more. I have a sudden urge for a pancake.

Jay/fosco

[Larry Lehmer]

Thanks for the comment, Jay. Most of my cookbooks have pages that are stuck together by bits of soy sauce, catsup and other remnants of dishes prepared by caring cooks. I wouldn't have it any other way.