At our family’s Christmas dinner, you will find a combination of old favorites and new recipes we are trying out for the first time. Some of our favorites come to us from generations long gone now, and have stood the test of time. But it seems each year the cooks in the family try out new things and we very much enjoy the additions. Sometimes we find one that’s a keeper and we will see it next year.
Pull out those tattered, faded favorites and share them with us, as well as the newly discovered dishes you want to try.
I am grateful especially at this time of year for the women who taught me to cook so long ago, my wonderful mother in law, as well as my husband’s paternal grandmother and aunt. I had no idea at the time that they were teaching me a skill that would nourish family and friends in ways other than eating.
Love these recipe threads.
Mine is a ‘what to do with that big leftover ham?’ tip. The next day, put it in the slow cooker (or oven, covered at 250) with a cup of broth, apple juice, or whatever. Add a bit more liquid if needed and cook it on low until it is just falling off the bone. Now it can be shredded like pulled pork and used anyway you like. Pulled ham is an old southern way to use it up or freeze it.
I’m going to try yours!
We take leftover ham and make my Grandad’s hamloaf…basic meatloaf but with ham instead of pork, onion, green pepper, ketchup, etc. Great cold on sandwiches the next day.
Our boys can devour an entire pan.
that sounds good im going to try that
I make quiches, pot pies, casseroles, especially breakfast casseroles with hash browns and eggs, and big luscious pots of beans. Mmmm, 15 bean soup or pintos and cornbread!
Love all your ideas here!
Comfort food I was raised on.
Y’all are making me hungry!!!
Also, we have ham with this sometimes on Christmas morning.
https://www.chef-in-training.com/overnight-blueberry-french-toast/
So many uses for leftover ham, right? Hoppin John, Ham Pineapple and Cheddar casserole is anther good one but my favorite way is to put ham into red beans and rice.
Or dried big lima beans! Just had lentil soup with leftover ham. And is there anything better than fresh turnip greens with ham? We had one pot meals. The dogs ate what we ate and lived long. It makes me sad to feel we have lost those wonderful times when we, as a Nation, were so positive and looked forward to a bright future.
I make a similar recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction website…no cream cheese. It has a crumb topping which I omit because I prefer to drizzle it with pure Maple syrup….there is no acceptable substitute. Sorry, I’m a native New Englander…it’s in my blood.
https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/unbelievable-blueberry-french-toast-casserole/
Cooking ham in apple juice sounds wonderful! For my family it was more like a combo of ham with a side of pineapple and mashed potatoes.
My grandmother cooked her ham dressed up with fresh pineapple rings and cloves to hold them in place. Her family lived in Florida so fresh pineapple was easy to get.
My dad used to use a hand grinder to mix pickles and bologna into a sandwich spread. I tried it with ham, using a food processor instead of his antique grinder. It tastes great. Add mayo or salad dressing to taste.
yes ham salad is the best. This year I made zucchini relish which is just like sweet pickle relish. That’s what I use in my ham salad.
Smithfield used to make a ham spread. Not sure what all was in it but was good stuff.
Unfortunately Smithfield brand is owned by China now instead of its original Virginia origin. The hogs were fed peanuts back in the day making an excellent flavored ham.
The oldest of Southern traditions in our area is that the Christmas Ham bone and remnants are reserved for the New Years day supper. That supper is most often very slow cooked black eyed peas with the hambone in the pot with them.
Variants for some are great northerns or pintos instead of the black eyes. Greens such as turnip, kale, mustard and collard or a mix are usually also New years day evening fare. Add cornbread and you have ultimate comfort food meal.
For a real change of pace get a smoked and salt cured ham. These are preserved and you recognize them by the fact they’re not fresh or frozen.
Proper preparation is key! They must be soaked and the rinse water changed a couple times over a 12 plus hour period before baking them.
Leftover ham or chicken around our house (that which is not frozen sliced) is pulled and mixed with Mount Olive sweet pickle relish and Dukes mayo for sandwich spread.
Living in FL now, but was raised on the other side of the James River Bridge from Smithfield. I’ve fixed ‘country’ ham all my life. Absolutely love the ham salad you just described. As a child we had ham and turckey every Christmas. Thanks for the memories. Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to you Pam
You are speaking my language, friend. Country ham is a family tradition. Crab Norfork was the best thing my mother cooked at Christmas time and we devoured it greedily.
I never bought another product from Smithfield after it was sold. Edward’s is still American and has a good country ham.
Kites is really good around here.
https://www.kiteshams.com/
Good to know, about edwards
Only Duke’s mayo!!
Been there, done that, well, my mama did. You just brought back some serious flashbacks of my mom soaking and rinsing the ham. You are right, it is a MUST. So good on tea biscuits.
Oh yeah. First few days after Christmas is for ham biscuits. My grandmother made the absolute best scratch biscuits, fried apple pies or apple pies.
Smithfield owns COOKS HAM…available only in NE. I HAD A LONG DISCUSSION with Smithfield about their hams and was told they DO NOT get their hams from China…ALL the processing is done in the USA. AND that the Cooks Brand and Smithfield are all processed alike….HERE
The profits go back to China.
I do the same. Left over ham ground up with sweet gherkin pickles, stir in mayo or Miracle Whip and wha-la–ham salad.
When I was working I made it with turkey ham so my Jewish co-workers could have some too. Great on crackers or in a sandwich. My Grama taught me how to make it.
You just made a memory of my mother pop into my head. She had an old metal meat grinder that clamped onto the table and I remember her grinding up leftover ham for ham salad. We loved it and I have not had that memory cross my mind in a long time.
Pea Soup! The leftover ham makes some awesome pea soup!
Absolutely!
There used to be a restaurant nearby called ‘Bill Knapps’. They had the best ham croquettes. I found the closest to these in my grandmother’s old plaid Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. They are a family favorite.
Now I want some homemade ham salad.
I make pulled ham with beer, mustard and rosemary, but I want to try this one that’s smoked with a mustard coating, brown sugar spice rub and finished with a pineapple orange glaze.
https://www.bonappeteach.com/smoked-pulled-ham-recipe/
Great thread, Menagerie!
Thank you and may you and yours have a very Blessed and Merry Christmas 🎄🎁
God Bless Us, Everyone 🙏🏼❤️
My mom’s name is Minnie. God rest her soul!
So Merry Christmas to you!
Merry Christmas, Patriot!
God rest the souls of the faithfully departed, they are at Peace in the presence of the Lord.
🌹
In the days leading up to Christmas … I would travel with my 90yo Swedish great grandmother to The Nordic House in Oakland … when it was still quite safe to visit Oakland in the mid-60’s … to buy fresh Herring. We would then pickle our own Herring (well, Yerda would) … I developed quite a taste for the acidic, vinegar cured raw herring as a child (I suspect most kids, today, would turn up their noses at the raw fish). The meat is actually quite sweet and the sour vinegar is a perfect counterpoint. Yes, I can sit and gorge myself with pickled herring. Wherein the appetizer is my meal 😜😂🤦♂️
This man’s recipe is pretty close to Yerda’s
My mouth is literally watering reading about pickled herring! I’m of Swedish heritage……I think the love of pickled herring is part of our DNA!!
I’m mostly Swedish and French … so I’ll eat literally … anything … prepared properly
Pickled herring in wine sauce on wasa is very good. The wife and I enjoy it with a martini on Saturday afternoons.
Martini and Herring … a match made in heaven
The brand of pickled herring I find in New England is Vita and was a staple on my Polish/Prussian mother’s Christmas appetizer table. The idea of having that with a martini will be a new adventure in my long cold Maine winter. thank you for the suggestion!!!!!
Vita is our favorite! The onions in it are sublime. I hope you enjoy the combo as much as we do.
My MIL, who immigrated (LEGALLY) from Norway, was famous for her delicious open faced sandwiches (Traditional koldtbord or Smörgåsbord ). One of her most popular was the one made of chopped hard boiled eggs, mixed with a small amount of mayonnaise, sweet beets, and finely chopped pickled herring. People absolutely loved them but she would never tell anyone what was in them until AFTER they had eaten several…and then they were usually shocked! (But they would also sheepishly admit they were delicious!)
sneaky, sneaky … brilliant!!
My husband’s family has Danish ancestry and every Christmas it was pickled herring and aquavit…great memories
Oh my! Aquavit! and Herring … Now THAT deserves a try …
My German grandfather introduced me to pickled herring … I sincerely tried to enjoy it, but it’s not for me. I just happen to like sushi better! But it was worth giving a try.
In the Old Dominion it’s fresh Rock’afella or fried Chesapeake Bay oysters for appetizers during the holidays.
They’re okay but I usually opt for some kippered herring (out of a tin, lol) and crackers also.
Our daughter attended Washington & Lee and I got the privilege to spend 4 years hauling possessions to & fro Texas on I-40&81 In visiting with some locals around Jefferson Pools they told me that the Scots Irish immigrated up south from GA & the Germans down from Philly. They met at Monterey VA. North of there are only german churches, to the south are Presbyterians. Needless to say, we enjoyed the crab cakes from Richmond to Smithfield station up to Chincoteague. Also offered our daughter the option to go to college in Texas and we’d move to VA for 4 years.
Pickled herring and creamed herring are both old favorites. Germans love it too!
I know there are a lot of jokes about fruitcake, however my late mother made excellent fruitcake at this time of year. My brother has the recipe, and I hope he’s making some this year, as we’ll be converging on his house for Christmas this year.
Another staple we have on Christmas Eve is the Seven Fishes, and my favourite that I like to make is linguine and clam sauce. Like most rustic Italian dishes, it’s simple to make: garlic, olive oil, minced clams (better fresh, but we normally get canned) a bottle of clam juice and chopped Italian parsley. After heating the oil, add the garlic until it starts to turn colour, then the clams, juice and parsley. Bring to light boil. While doing that, follow instructions for linguine, make sure it’s al dente (no! It’s not the name of my Italian dentist…old family joke).
Drain linguine and add the clam sauce. Good with Italian bread to “zoop” up the remaining sauce, or as we call it “the juice”. We heard from the vecchi (old ones) back in the day regarding the sauce, and we repeat it nowadays, “you like-a the juice? The juice is-a good!”
If you don’t like parsley, you can sub spinach. My mom had done that, and it’s delicious!
Buon appetito, y’all!
yes to everything on your table!
“zoop” … dredge my crusty french bread in the “gravy” as they called it in The Godfather. Yum.
We called “tomato sauce” gravy as well.
Now I want tomato gravy, not sauce, but gravy. So good on a hot biscuit.
Linguine with white clam sauce … Awesome!!! 🙂
My late mother made fruitcakes this time of year, as well. They were nothing to joke about either as all were delicious.
Two family favorites were Lemon Pecan fruitcake and Orange Slice fruitcake(made with those orange slice candies).
If I could dig up her recipes I my try making one myself.
Could you please post your 2 fruitcake recipes? Thanks
My mother made the orange slice fruitcake and an icebox fruitcake at Christmas. I love them both.
Our joke…..Get Even, Give Fruitcake.
This is my favorite bread pudding recipe!
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Bread pudding
2 cups half and half
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
1 cup (packed) plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 cups 1/2-inch cubes bread (challah or egg bread works well)
1/2 cup golden raisins
¼ cup chopped pecans
Caramel sauce
1 1/4 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup whipping cream
Bread pudding:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk half and half, pumpkin, dark brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and vanilla extract in large bowl to blend. Fold in bread cubes. Stir in golden raisins. Transfer mixture to 11×7-inch baking dish, sprinkle with chopped pecans. Let stand 15 minutes. Bake pudding until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.
Caramel sauce:
Whisk brown sugar and butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Whisk in cream and stir until sugar dissolves and sauce is smooth, about 3 minutes.
Serve warm with caramel sauce.
Sounds really nice! 🙂
Any favorite Christmas Ketogenic favorites (high fat, low carb)?
I haven’t tried this, but saved it some time ago.
https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/keto-stuffing/
I also saved this, and it just looks so good for a dessert.
https://fitmomjourney.com/keto-shortbread-caramel-hazelnut/
Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole. No fussing with rolling up the chicken, just lay cooked chicken breasts on the bottom and top with sliced ham. Pour over the sauce and top with sliced Swiss. Bake at 350 until bubbly and hot, about 30 minutes. Totally keto without the crumbs and you can brown the cheese under the broiler in a minute or two. Lots of sauce recipes on the web. Make it, refrigerate it, and bake it later -just takes a bit longer in the oven when it’s cold.
Thinking of doing this instead of my usual sweet potato casserole.
https://therecipecritic.com/cranberry-pecan-sweet-potato-wild-rice-pilaf/
Your new recipe sounds really cool to me … by some miracle, all the ingredients are on the “good” list of my restricted diet! 🙂
Everyone in our family enjoys this shrimp appetizer. Merry Christmas.
Boiled Shrimp
4 cans beer
3 Tbsp. White Vinegar
3 Tbsp. Salt
3 Tbsp. Ground Black Pepper
3 Tbsp. Ground Red Pepper
3 Tbsp. White Pepper
3 Tbsp. garlic powder
3 Tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning
3 Tbsp. Celery Seed
2 to 5 Lbs. frozen shrimp 11-15 or 16 to 21 size shells on deveined frozen
Directions:
Add 3 cans of beer plus 1 tsp. to a large pot. Add the rest of the ingredients. Just cover the shrimp with water.
Bring the frozen shrimp and seasonings up to a boil. Boil 3 minutes. Remove from heat and drain immediately. (If you add the frozen shrimp to the boiling seasonings, the shells won’t peel off easily.)
Serve with Cocktail Sauce.
Cocktail sauce recipe:
One jar Horseradish (Hell of a good) is what I can get here.
Equal amount of ketchup
Add Salt and Pepper, Stir
Bet those shrimp go pretty fast. I know they would in my family … 🙂
Getting 5 pounds of fresh from the boat Key West Pinks tomorrow. Going to have a side of large Stone Crab claws to go with.
I get off at 5. I’ll bring the beer.
We’ve got about 20# of gulf shrimp in our garage freezer. This’ll be a good addition to our dinner.
Will give our Shrimp man a good order to replenish after the new year.
Thanks
Mrs. Velzy’s Puffy Christmas Cookies
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 and ¼ cups butter
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
5 cups flour
Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well.
Sift flour with cream of tartar and baking soda. Add alternately to creamed mixture with milk. If mixture is too sticky, add up to ½ cup more flour.
Chill dough at least 3 hours. Roll dough between 1/8 and ¼ inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters.
Place on lightly greased cookie sheets. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes. Don’t let cookies get too brown.
Remove from sheets and cool. Frost and trim with colored sugar, jimmies, sprinkles, or silver dragees.
NOTE: Here’s the frosting Grandma used: She mixed the following three ingredients together in a bowl: confectioner’s sugar, butter, and water.
Oh, I was hoping there would be recipe thread! I have found some good recipes on these threads. Thanks!
Hubby’s mother made “Carrot Pudding with Butter Sauce” every Christmas. The first time I tasted it, I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. It grew on me, year by year. Before she died in 2021, at age 98, she gifted me her hand-written recipe. It’s a heavy pudding, served hot, with hot butter sauce over it. She just kept it steaming on the stove until the day was over. It can’t be overcooked.
Carrot Pudding: Mix all ingredients together and steam for 3 hours. She used a round jello-mold-type metal pan inside a lidded metal pot to create the steaming technique. Ingredients: 2 TSP salt, 2 TSP baking soda, 2 TSP baking powder, 2 cups grated potatoes, 2 cups grated carrots, 1 ¾ chopped suet (Yes! Suet; ask your butcher for it.) 2 cups sugar. 2 cups flour. 1 cup raisins.
Butter Sauce: 3 Cups Sugar, 3 heaping TBLS flour, 3 rounded TSP nutmeg, ½ lb. butter, 1 ½ pints boiling water. No instructions! Ha! I guess she just mixed it all together and left it to simmer on the stove. In today’s world, a small crock pot would be a great way to keep it warm.
Oh my! what’s the baking time and temp please?
It sounds like it is steamed on the stove top for three hours using a bundt pan inside of a larger lidded pot.
OMG! Some of my recipes look like the picture! All beautiful memories! I think that’s why I never typed them…
A dear friend who passed away some years ago always brought a wonderful dish for dinner. It was simple but delicious. She would take several pomegranates and seed them. She would whip a 1 cup container of heavy whipping cream, lightly sweetened, and mix in the pomegranate seeds and refrigerate it.
I am in my 60’s and this recipe is one that my Grandmother found in a Ford magazine years ago. If it is not made at the holidays-Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving there is and up roar from family members!! It is a cheesecake unlike others.
It is for an 8x8x2 pan, but we always double it for a 9×13. Depending how many are attending, sometimes 2-9×13 are made.
Crust: 3/4 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tablespoons melted butter
Line pan with 3/4 of crumb mixture-I spread butter from stick on bottom & sides so it sticks -Reserve the rest
Filling: Separate 2 eggs [reserve whites] Beat yolks slightly in a sauce pan. Blend in 1/2 c. sugar. 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup ale-I use beer any beer. Cook slowly until custard like consistency, stirring constantly. Combine 1/4 c. water, Juice of 1 lemon-2 tablespoons-I use bottled lemon juice because I forget to buy a lemon-add 1 package unflavored gelatin. Add to warm custard. Let sit about 20 minutes.
Add 3/4 pound [12 oz.] cream cheese & 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Beat all until light and fluffy. [I have a clean towel ready to hold around the bowl so it does not splatter everywhere.]
Whip 1/2 pint heavy cream [whipping cream]
Whip egg whites.
Fold cream then eggs into custard mixture.
Pour into crumb lined pan, sprinkle remaining crumbs over top. Refrigerate until set-5 to 6 hours.
For double recipe use 3-8 oz cream cheese and 2 1/2 pints whipping cream.
Enjoy!! Merry Christmas to all!!
I first made this recipe when we moved to NC 20 years ago. It was in Southern Living magazine. Our daughter gave me a subscription to introduce me to southern food and living articles. This is one of the recipes that I loved and still consider it a special Christmas treat. I serve with ginger snaps.
Cranberry Ambrosia – Cream Cheese Spread
2 8 oz packages cream cheese – softened
¼ c powdered sugar
6 oz sweetened dried cranberries, divided (craisins)
15 ½ oz can crushed pineapple
11 oz can mandarin oranges
3 ½ oz can shredded coconut, divided
1 Cup chopped pecans, toasted
8 Pecan halves, toasted
Stir together cream cheese and sugar until blended. Add cranberries, reserving ¼ cup cranberries. Drain pineapple and oranges; pat dry between layers of paper towels. Set oranges aside. Stir pineapple and coconut in cream cheese mixture reserving ¼ cup coconut. Stir in chopped pecans. Spoon mixture into a serving bowl. Sprinkle reserved cranberries around edges of bowl. Arrange oranges sections around inside edge of cranberries. Sprinkle reserved 1.4 cup coconut in center and top with pecan halves. Serve with ginger pound cake or gingersnaps.
Enjoy!
God bless you all. Merry Christmas
Thank you all! So many fabulous recipes that I do not know which to try first!
God Bless You, Menagerie, for setting this up!
Our Traditional Christmas Breakfast
Southern style biscuits with butter, sour cream and peach preserves
If you want can side with sausage patties, bacon and/or ham (leftover and heated from dinner the night before)
Who knows where my Mother got this cookie recipe… Always in demand for the Holidays…
Walnut Bar Cookies
Beat Together (in largest bowl):
Sift Together (in another bowl):
Add sifted ingredients to beaten egg and brown sugar. Add to Mix and stir or beat in:
See instructions below:
Pre-heat 9″ x 12′ pan by melting 1/3 cube butter in oven. When melted, drop cookie mixture in pan by spoonfuls on top of melted butter.
Bake at 350 degrees 10-12 minutes or (sometimes a bit longer) until crusty brown on top.
Sprinkle Powdered Sugar on top just out of the oven. Cool before cutting.
(Double the recipe to have more than “enough.”)
Menagerie I just love your recipes & Christmas & Easter postings. You have the spirit of God in you. God bless you & your family. Thank you for inspiring postings on CTH.
I would post my wife’s family’s Chocolate Krinkles recipe(I dont eat cookies, but these are absolutely magical), but have to gauge the interest… This is TS-SCI stuff here…
I saw this recipe this evening, cranberry and ham, sounds good.
https://recipes.foodlion.com/recipes/241472/cranberry-glazed-ham-steaks?utm_medium=email&utm_source=SC&utm_campaign=20231221_FL_WeeklyRecipe_Targeted_WeeklyRecipe&utm_term=Recipe_Audience_Prism&utm_content=FL_WeeklyRecipe_Recipe2_Text
This looks good, and simple to prepare!
I just tried an apple cider recipe that worked out well which might have to become a tradition.
Quarter 8-10 apples (no need to core), put them in a slow cooker with 14 cups water and approximate amounts of the following:
Cinnamon (1 tablespoon)
Ginger (a couple tablespoons freshly grated)
Orange (or a few drops of edible orange essential oil)
Sugar (a cup or so, depending on taste and which kind of apples you used, of cane sugar or brown sugar)
Cook on high for 4 hours, then mash everything and cook for another hour or so. Strain out solids, serve the cider hot and throw away the solids if you have money to waste, or give them to your chickens if you don’t have money to waste, or eat the solids because it looks and tastes like applesauce except for little details like apple stems.
Made 8 loaves of Greek Bread and cookies from my Grandmothers recipes . My husband has been gone 10 years but every year I have the Tea Party patriots and others to my house .Sad I am alone but I want to keep tradition going . Have a Merry Christmas!
This was my mother’s recipe for making Mounds Balls each Christmas.
For the balls:
4 & 2/3 cups powered sugar
1/4 pound melted butter
1 package flaked coconut (14 oz)
1 can Eagle Brand condensed milk
1 cup finely chopped nuts
mounds balls covering – 1 large package of chocolate chips
1/2 bar of paraffin wax
Mix and roll the mounds balls ingredients into small balls, place on wax paper,
and refrigerate for several hours.
Melt the chocolate chips and parafin in a double boiler, then dip the balls into this
and refrigerate.
Will keep indefinitely in a covered dish in the fridge.
My mom had that same recipe. She would leave out the nuts and form the coconut mixture into Mounds bar shapes. Half would be dipped in semi sweet chocolate, the rest dipped in milk chocolate and topped with a whole almond.
My maternal grandmother was Czech and her sisters were wonderful bakers. They would make kolaches when they visited. My favorite was the poppy seed filling ones. There is a great recipe for poppy seed cake on the can of Solo brand poppy seed filling. I can post Baba’s recipe for kolaces if anybody wants to give it a try. Note – kolaces are NOT pastry wrapped around meat of any kind, like they sell in Texas hill country.
I have a recipe for bread I usually make at Christmas time. It came from a young man who had a Czech grandmother. She had a special menu of foods she served on Christmas Eve, and this bread was one of them. He did not know how to spell the name correctly, but said she pronounced it Longoushi.
It has rye and potato and wheat flours in it, and potato water. It’s topped with cheese. It also has caraway seed in it. I have searched for information on this bread, trying multiple spellings, googling things like “traditional Czechoslovakian Christmas Eve meals” or any other things I could think of. I’ve never found anything close.
I’m so curious about this wonderful and unusual bread. So different from any other bread I’ve ever tasted. It’s a very dense and heavy bread. Anyhow, I guess I will never learn more about it, but I’ll continue to make it.
Is this bread fried?
I wondered about that too, because of the cheese topping, but langos (langosh) doesn’t have rye flour or caraway.
No, it’s baked in loaf pans.
If your recipe calls for making a starter dough and letting it rest and then mixing it with a second dough made with potatoes and caraway then that almost sounds like chleba to me or a close variation of it.
Yes – Zitny Chleb – I don’t have the fonts for Czech language. it means rye bread
My Polish neighbor makes it. Dense but very soft with a crisp crust. She gets sourdough starter from me when she makes it.
Nope, no starter dough. Yeast is added to warm water for a few minutes, then mixed in to the flours with the potato water.
Well at least I get the first loser award 😃
Menagerie, this sounds like what’s now known as Czech Republic bread. The cheese on top could be a local or a family custom. Bread baked in one small village could be very different from bread baked in another village 25 miles away.
Here’s a recipe for Czech Republic bread (scroll down to the 10th comment by Jan: http://www.myczechrepublic.com/boards/threads/recipe-for-czech-republic-bread.1912/
Thanks, I’ll check it out!
Maybe I found something in a Czech cook book I bought in Libuse, La., where my grandmother grew up. Does this list of ingredients look familiar?
1 cup cake yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 cups potato water
3 cups rye flour
2 TBS melted lard
2 TBS caraway seed
3 cups additional rye flour
1 cup white flour
1 TBS salt
That’s pretty close. The recipe I have has potato flour as well, but only a small amount. Thank you!
That recipe came from a Czech lady in Cedar Rapids, Iowa who said they had no white bread when she lived in Czechoslovakia, only rye bread. She called it Zitny Chleb – Bohemian rye bread.
Please share Baba’s recipe.
I have a scan of the handwritten recipe, but don’t know how to post an image of it here. Do you know how, or can suggest an alternate file transfer technique?
I don’t see how to post an image, so I transcribed it. Sorry, but there is no temperature given for baking. Any pie filling will work. See if you can find Solo brand poppy seed filling. Albertson’s used to carry it, if they’re still around.
Kolaces
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1 stick margarine
2 eggs
1 package yeast
1/2 cup sugar
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla
4 or 5 cups of flour – Gold Medal
Take 1/2 of the milk and put in yeast to rise.
Cream margarine and sugar and beat together with eggs,
then the rest of the milk and salt, vanilla and flour to make a stiff dough.
Let the dough rise till doubled, then make into balls and put unto greased cookie sheet.
Let it rise for 1/2 hour.
Make a well, or indentation in the middle of the balls of dough and put the filling in.
Brush with beaten eggs and bake 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.
I’d be interested in that recipe. I have two different recipes for kolaches, one is 1/2# butter, 1/2# cream cheese, 4 C. flour, mix, roll, cut into squares, fill and fold. Also known as lekvar (fruit butter) cookies. The other is a yeast dough that’s formed into small buns, indented in the center the filled with lekvar.
My aunt worked at Marshall Fields in Chicago and while visiting her we ate at the restaurant in the basement. I think there was also a food store in the basement where we bought fresh lekvar (apricot) and poppy seed filling. Delicious, and we made kolaches the next day.
This didn’t work, can it be deleted?
Posting this again, without the recipe. It didn’t post correctly before.
In my family we make a Potato Cake during the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday time. It resembles Banana Bread but not as sweet. We love it, it has cloves, nutmeg,
cocoa and mashed potatoes. But the best part about it is our story of it. When my maternal grandparents got married, they discovered that both families had this recipe
in their family. Both families had German and Irish heritage, although both families came to this country before the American Revolution.
For years we thought it was German recipe, but several years ago, my sister found an Irish cookbook from before 1700 and it had basically the same recipe.
We have since found similar recipes posted online and everyone claims it is from their Irish grandmothers and great grandmothers. So now we think it is actually Irish.
It is still amazing that both my grandmother and my grandfather’s families had the recipe. When we smell it cooking, it means the holidays have started.
Nothing as tasty as a slice of warmed potato cake for breakfast. Yum!
Potato Cake
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons cocoa
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cloves
1 cup of left over mashed potatoes (can be instant or real)
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups of pecans, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream butter & sugar. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, cocoa, nutmeg & cloves.
In a third bowl, beat the eggs until mixed.
Alternately, add dry & wet ingredients to the creamed sugar.
Add potatoes, vanilla and pecans.
Mix well.
Pour into a greased pan (either one Bundt pan or two loaf pans)
Bake at 350 degrees or 50 minutes. Check with toothpick, keep adding minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
Allow to cool some on a rack before removing from pans.
Enjoy a slice while warm.
Later, just warm a slice at a time for 20 seconds in microwave.
Tastes good at room temperature too, but my favorite is when it is warm.