Recipes of the past

Cooking and food are a part of lives, both today and in the past. Recipes from the past help to provide a link from those living today to those living long ago. Lodi residents were asked to provide their favorite old-time recipes along with their connections to the past. An array of recipes were submitted including cookies, bread and main dishes along with a touch of history from each.

Chris Glass's Christmas crumb cake

Dave Glass said his wife, Chris, got this recipe from her grandmother, who died in 1983 at the age of 98. Originally, the recipe came to her grandmother from some earlier family members. Glass said the recipe is a family tradition and is prepared every Christmas for breakfast along with bacon and eggs.

2 cups flour

2 cups brown sugar

2/3 cup shortening

1/2 teaspoon salt

Rub together the ingredients until crumbly

Take out 1/2 cup of the crumbs to sprinkle over the top and add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and a few chopped nuts (I use about 1/2 cup of walnuts).

To the remainder of the flour mixture add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 2 teaspoons baking powder. Beat 1/2 teaspoon baking soda with one cup sour milk (or buttermilk). (You can make sour milk by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to one cup of milk and allow it to stand for 5 minutes.)

Mix with 2 eggs beaten. Stir into dry mixture.

Spread into two well-greased pans (9X13 baking dish or two-greased cake pans).

Sprinkle the reserved crumb/nut mixture over the top of the crumb cake.

Bake in hot oven (425-degree oven) for first 10 minutes or until crumbs are set. Then lower heat to 300 degrees and bake for approximately 15 minutes longer (time depends on size of pan.)

Renee Galantine's Grandma Tjepke's Chocolate Chip Cookies and Grandma Galantine's Portuguese Sweet Bread

Galantine said her grandmother always enjoyed making cookies and pies. Her husband's grandmother enjoyed making fruit cakes but she and her husband always enjoyed her recipe for sweet bread. Galantine said she has been on a mission to archive all recipes from her grandmother and great-grandmother and well as her husband's family to preserve them for their families to come.

Grandma Tjepke's Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 cups butter

3 eggs pinch of salt

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup crushed corn flakes

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups chocolate chips

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup nuts (optional) flour, enough to make soft dough (3 to 3 1/2 cups)

Mix sugars and butter together, beat eggs and add to sugars. Add oatmeal, corn flakes and mix well. Add chocolate chips, vanilla, nuts and flour to make soft dough. Add soda, baking powder, salt and mix. Bake at 350 degrees until done.

Grandma Galantine's Portuguese sweet bread

2 cups milk

1 cup sugar

1/4 pound butter

(these should be pretty warm)

8 egg yolks - well beaten (add to milk mixture)

4 to 5 cakes yeast ( 2 teaspoons = 1 cake yeast)

6 to 7 cups flour

1 tablespoon salt

1/4 cup orange juice

1 lemon, grated

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 tablespoons lemon extract

Mix together, knead and let rise until doubled in size. Punch down then divide and twist into pie pans (makes 2 loaves) Let rise again. When doubled, bake in slow oven at about 350 or 325 degrees until done, between 45 minutes to an hour. Once removed from oven brush with melted butter.

John Vatsula's holubky

Vatsula said his is how both of his grandmothers and mother prepared stuffed cabbage rolls (holubky). He said the annual sauerkraut supper hosted by the Slovak, Polish and German women of St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church was the best attended social function of the year in his hometown. He added that versions of this recipe can be found in the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association Cookbook, established in 1892.

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon oleo

1 pound ground beef

1 pound ground pork

1/2 pound rice

1 large can sauerkraut

1 can tomato soup

Loose cabbage leaves

Saute onion in 1 tablespoon of oleo. Mix beef, pork, rice, salt and pepper to taste and the sauteed onion. Mix well. Cook separated cabbage leaves in boiling water until flexible. Allow to cool.

Place 1 tablespoon of meat mixture on each leaf and roll up. Put half of the sauerkraut in bottom of pan, then the cabbage rolls in layers. Cover with the rest of the sauerkraut. Pour the can of tomato soup and enough water to cover. Cook slowly in a covered pan.

Trudy Roehrich's old-fashioned raisin bread

Roehrich said when she was a child, her grandmother made this recipe all the time.

5 cups flour

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 cups raisins

1tablespoon baking powder

2 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two loaf pans or 1 bundt pan. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

Cut in butter until mixture resembles course crumbs, stir in raisins.

Add buttermilk and egg to mixture, mixing only until flour is moistened.

Pour into prepared pan(s). Bake for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until toothpick in the middle comes out clean.

Connie Pueblo's Clara's mayonnaise cake

Pueblo said this recipe is from her mother-in-law who made it in the 1940s when fresh eggs were not available.

1 cup nuts

1 cup raisins

1 teaspoon baking soda

Soak the above in 1 cup hot water for 10 minutes. Then add 1 cup sugar and

1 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Mix together and bake for 45 minutes at 325 degrees in a bread pan. Let cool before taking out of the pan.

Genie Gilman's Boston brown bread

Gilman said her heritage comes from Bangor, Maine. While growing up, Gilman said her family had a lot of boiled dinners and this bread with them. She thinks this recipe came from the 1950s.

1 cup flour

1 cup corn meal

1 cup graham flour

2 teaspoons soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup sweet milk

1 cup sour milk

1 cup molasses

Mix together, and steam all day.

Merna Davis's mince meat

Davis said this recipe came from her husband's aunt from the year 1911. he recipe was published in The Ladies' Aid Society of the Christian Tabernacle of Palisade, Colo.

2 pounds lean fresh beef

1 pound beef suet

5 pounds apples, chopped fine

3 pounds raisins, chopped fine

1/2 pound citron

2 pounds currents

2 1/2 pounds brown sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

1 tablespoon each of cloves, alspice and fine salt

1 nutmeg

1 quart cider or more

1 pint molasses

Mix and cook until apples are tender.

Patricia Ballard's Watson goulash and lemon meringue pie

Ballard said he Watson goulash has been passed down in her family since World War II when a relative received i from a USO worker. Her family then added the name Watson to it. The lemon meringue pie was from her great-grandmother's cookbook. Ballard said she, herself, is now a great-grandmother.

Watson Goulash

1 pound ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 pound cooked elbow macaroni

1 4-ounce can tomato soup

1 4-ounce can mushroom pieces

1 can whole kernal corn (drained)

1 can green peas (drained)

1 pound cheddar cheese, shredded

1 tablespoon chili powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Saute ground beef, garlic and onions; drain excess grease. Mix all ingredients. Place in ovenproof casserole dish Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until hot.

Hint: Refrigeration for a few hours or overnight enhances flavor.

Lemon meringue pie

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Grated rind of lemon

2 teaspoons butter

4 tablespoons flour

2 egg yolks

1 egg

1 1/2 cups boiling water

Mix the sugar and flour in top of double boiler, add the water, stirring constantly. Cook over boiling water until thick, add butter, beaten egg yolks, eggs, lemon rind and lemon juice. Stir constantly and quickly with this addition. Stir constantly and cook until thickened.

Pour into baked pie crust. Make meringue using the two egg whites and cover pie. Bake on top rack for a few minutes until lightly brown.

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