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RINKER ON COLLECTIBLES — Column #1762
Copyright © Harry Rinker, LLC 2020 Mother's Recipe Boxes When cleaning out the Rinker family house at 55 West Depot Street in Hellertown, Pennsylvania, following my mother’s death on September 24, 1978, I found two metal recipe boxes filled with the recipes my mother used. My mother used these from the time she married my father Paul in October 1931 until her death. As I thumbed through the recipe cards, I remembered eating almost all of them, often on multiple occasions. I kept the two recipe boxes. Throughout the years, I have used one or more of the recipes whenever I needed a reminder of the good life that I had during my time growing up in Hellertown (1948-1962). I consulted my mother’s stewed rhubarb recipe several times this past summer. I no longer consult it. I memorized it. When asked about my parents, I tell people they were products of the Depression and World War II. I could easily add that they were basic. Although firmly middle-class, they led a conservative, traditional life. My father was a meat and potatoes man. He liked what he ate well cooked. I did not know it was possible to eat steak rare or medium rare until I entered college. Until the arrival of TV dinners, a concept my father found fascinating and my mother distasteful, and frozen food, my parents had a vegetable garden behind our house. Mother believed in “fresh.” Our house was a regular stop on Aunt Verna’s egg route. Aunt Verna and Uncle Kermit raised chickens and had a peach orchard located off Route 29 just south of the bridge over the Green Lane Reservoir on Route 663. Our meats came primarily from a local butcher whose “meat truck” made West Depot Street one of its weekly stops. Local farmers markets and farms supplemented our fruits and vegetables. Mother shopped the local Acme store more for household rather than food products. Mother was a canner. As fruits and vegetables came into season, mother purchased them by the bushel basket. I spent many hours cutting off the ends of string beans and shelling lima beans. The canning section of my mother’s recipe box contained recipes for canned beets, beans, corn relish, lima bean relish, fruit, and stewed tomatoes. Pickled string beans and cucumbers were a winter favorite. Two of the recipes contained a notation in the upper right corner “Mrs. Grube’s.” The Grubes were the parents of my Aunt Verna’s first husband. I own the Grube family tall case clock that was passed down to the eldest daughter on the day of her marriage. I will save that story for a later column. My mother had nine siblings, the oldest and youngest were sons with eight sisters (one of which was my mother, the second oldest) in between. Her mother Elsie Prosser (Grandma Prosser) was a fabulous cook. My family lived with Grandma and Grandpa Prosser at their home at 717 High Street from 1946 until we moved to Hellertown. My dad worked at Bethlehem Steel’s Sparrows Point Shipyard south of Dundalk, Maryland, during World War II. The family moved back to Bethlehem when the war ended. Do not let the name Prosser fool you. My grandfather was of Welsh descent. My grandmother Elsie Knoble Prosser was Pennsylvania German to the core. The High Street meals were textbook Pennsylvania German cooking – little wonder many of the Prosser family members trended toward the hefty side. Grandma Prosser made certain her daughters knew how to cook. Mother’s sisters were Vera, Ruth, Sue, Marie, Jeannette, Loretta, and Doris. All seven names appear in the upper right corner of recipes in my mother’s recipe box. Just thinking of Aunt Ruth’s and Aunt Jeanette’s macaroni and cheese recipe still makes me drool. Coming home from school to find a note from my mother stating my parents would be out and I was eating at Aunt Jeannette’s who had made macaroni and cheese for dinner was a trip to heaven. [Author’s Aside #1: My son Harry Jr. experienced my mother’s and Aunt Jeanette’s macaroni and cheese. I tried to cook it on several occasion but only came close. Harry Jr. worked on it until he got it exactly right. The key is the blend of cheeses that must be bought from a cheese shop or at a farmer’s market. No grocery store cheese cuts the mustard. When I visit Harry Jr. and he offers to cook, I always insist he make the family macaroni and cheese recipe.] My mother and father came from large nucleated families. I grew up with a wealth of great aunts (most of whom were great cooks) and uncles, second and third cousins, and extended family connections through marriage. On multiple occasions, I accompanied my cousin Dudley Kortright to his grandparents’ dairy farm located near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. We often stayed overnight. To claim we ate well is an understatement. We dined liked royalty. Farm to table in those days meant from The Farm to its own table. Although mother had a number of specialties, my favorite was her pies. Recipes ranged from the traditional Pennsylvania pies such as apple tart (Grandma Prosser’s recipe), custard pie, milk pie, and Shoo-fly (wet bottom only, please) to pumpkin chiffon, my favorite. Mother and her sisters rolled their own crust, using their Aunt Myrtie’s recipe. The crust was rolled thin and baked light and flakey. When I make a pie crust, I use the same recipe. It is an old fashion recipe calling for sifted flour. I still sift flour only because it seems the right thing to do. It has been a while since I turned to my mother’s recipe box to recreate some of my favorites. Linda and I are less than three weeks away from heading to our Altamonte Springs, Florida, condo for the winter. I am not taking my mother’s recipe boxes with me. I have made a note that when we return north to our Michigan home in late April, I am going to select a dozen of Mom’s recipes and make them. [Author’s Aside #2: Second thoughts just set in. Halloween and the holiday season are fast approaching. I put Aunt Myrtie’s pie crust recipe and Mother’s Pumpkin Chiffon filling recipe on the copier. I am taking them to Florida.] Should you wish to try your hand, here are the recipes. Aunt Myrtie’s Pie Crust (makes two large and one small pie crust) 3 cups sifted flour Sift flour with salt & baking powder. Cut 1/2 of shortening real find with blender and the other half of the shortening coarse. Take fork and add water. Keep stirring until in a lump. The less handling the better. Roll out on a floured pastry cloth. Mom’s Pumpkin Chiffon Pie Filling (1 pie) 1 envelope Knox Gelatin To slightly beaten egg yolks, add 1/2 cup sugar, pumpkin, milk, salt, and spices. Cook until thick on very low heat. Soften gelatin in cold water. Add to hot pumpkin mixture, mix thoroughly and cool. When it begins to thicken, fold stiffly beaten egg whites and the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Pour into previously baked pie shell. Chill thoroughly in refrigerator. If desired, add thin layer of whipped cream spread over pie before serving. “Rinker on Collectibles” usually is written in a stream of consciousness style. I have an idea, I start to write, and let the idea take me where it will. My original intent was to write about my holiday cookies experience, a rich family tradition involving my mother, her sisters, great aunts, and family friends. I shared this story in the past which is probably why this column took a somewhat different direction. It also explains why my favorite cookbooks are church, organization, and other types of fund-raising cookbooks featuring recipes submitted by individuals associated with the groups. If you ever encounter the eBay cookbook, you will find one of my favorite family recipes in it. What happened to your parent’s recipe book? Do you have a recipe box story you would like to share? Email me at harrylrinker@aol.com. PS: If you have your mother’s or grandmother’s recipe box and the kids do not the recipes, send them to me. I appreciate their value. Harry L. Rinker welcomes questions from readers about collectibles, those mass-produced items from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Selected letters will be answered in this column. Harry cannot provide personal answers. Photos and other material submitted cannot be returned. Send your questions to: Rinker on Collectibles, 5955 Mill Point Court SE, Kentwood, MI 49512. You also can e-mail your questions to harrylrinker@aol.com. Only e-mails containing a full name and mailing address will be considered.
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