A Few of Our Favorite Things

   There was a time when recipes were handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth with few, if any, written recipes.   Until the 20^th century, people the world over relied on what they produced, or at least what was produced locally for all their needs.  Lacking refrigeration, food was dried, salted or smoked to preserve it.  Pork was the staple meat through the winter.  The hams and shoulders were preserved with salt, sugar and pepper.  Most of the rest of the hog was ground into sausage.  It would be cooked then packed into jars with grease while hot to seal out bacteria.   Mom’s dad often killed hogs on Thanksgiving Day so there would be enough people there to process all of it.  She recalls how tired she was one year when he killed four hogs and all had to be ground into sausage and cooked.

   Chickens were allowed to run free and while some were fed, some found their own food.  It was often a search to find their nest in the weeds to get eggs.  Chickens made up much of their other meat.  Milk was more important than beef since beef could not be preserved.   A few people raised cattle to sell, most only kept one or two for milk.  Dad’s mom would sell butter and then give them the milk (real buttermilk).  When a cow was killed it would be sold or shared with the community.  That all changed when the electrification of America allowed refrigeration.    

   People from cultures from all over the world brought familiar recipes with them.  Americans now travel the world over experiencing new tastes and new textures from every continent.