[Sca-cooks] traditional recipes

[Marilyn Traber]

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That's how I got the recipe for my german Nanny's apfelkuchen...she was half
senile, but by damn she could cook when you put her into the kitchen. I sat
there several weekends running and 'helped' her make kuchen...memorizing
amounts and tricks. For the life of her, she couldn't have told you what was
in any particular dish, but she could still cook all of them by rote ;-)

margali
~
1 teacup with a rose on it of warm water - 7 oz, measured out on the sly -
my brother inherited the cup ;-(
1 package yeast proofed in the water
1 pinch salt - the large grained kosher salt, not the fine ground iodized
stuff.
3 wooden spoons of sugar - about 1/4 cup, measured out on the sly

Enough all purpose flour to make a nice resiliant dough, think bread or
pizza dough.
Let rise until doubled and punch down. Knead briefly and spread out into
kuchen pan. Think jelly roll pan of about 8"x20" - odd size, never saw one
that size anywhere else. She brought it with her in 1923 when she came over
to work for my grandmother.

Slice 8 or 9 good tart apples and soak in lemon water with a shot of kir.
Arrange on top of the dough closely together.

Mix a fairly traditional streusel topping of butter, sugar, flour and finely
chopped nuts [ exact proportions varied due to relative humidity and what
she had onhand ;-)] and freshly grated cinnamon with a dusting of allspice.
Top the apples with the mix.

Bake at about 425* f for about 25 minutes or until crust pouffy, and golden
at teh edges and the top is nicely bubbly and carmelizing around the edges.
the quote starts here:
Traditional recipes also get caught up in the oral
culture of cookery that is passed from grandmothers
to daughters to granddaughters where a written recipe
is never used and the ingredients are just ladled out.
If you have had to stand at someone's elbow and record
measurements as they explain the recipe, that's traditional.

Johnna Holloway   Johnnae llyn Lewis
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