The Art of Family History & Recipes in Cookbooks

Family History & Personal Connections via Food - Extra Food Chat with Kath

Welcome to another Heirloom Recipe on Extra Food Chat with Kath!

Since my weekly newsletter, Friday Food Chat with Kath has been cookbook heavy of late, I thought it might be nice to continue the cookbook chat over here too, and link it with what I talk about over here on Extra Food Chat with Kath a lot, heirloom recipes and personal connections.

I think one of the reasons I wanted to go through my Grandma’s handwritten recipes and cook my way through them was to continue feeling a connection to her. Food and cooking was something we had in common, and it has remained so even after her death.

Those of us that like cooking and baking, and also appreciate the connection a family recipe can bring, will probably feel the same. Baking the recipes a loved one used to make, finding something in their handwriting that you can try anew, or remembering the time you spent to together in the kitchen making the recipe they taught you is a way of connecting with that person and those memories even after they are no longer with us.

Sometimes its a way of recording things that might have otherwise been lost, or remembering how life used to be. For me, sometimes I think going through my Grandma’s recipes is a means of connecting with her in way I didn’t have so much of when she was alive. It’s like creating new memories together, even though she has been gone 11 years.

Grandma and I on my birthday in 2010

Based on the number of books that draw on personal/family/cultural history via recipes, I know we aren’t the only ones who feel a connection to and interest in remembering the past and people through food.

Some cookbooks create a sense of personal connection with their reader by connecting us to a place, culture or religion (or all three), that means something to them and their family. Sometimes these types of cookbooks interweave heirloom recipes with those inspired by their family recipes or the particular place or culture that weaves through their families personal food stories.