Family Recipe: Ruth's Beet Pickles

In the spirit of canning season, I wanted to share a recipe from our family's collection. I've typed it word-for-word as my Granny had it printed in her recipe notebook. I love how this recipe has absolutely no instructions for canning. Now, to learn to can, you have to either search out someone who can teach you or read stacks of books to feel even remotely confident enough to get started on your own. But back then, this was something people (ok, admittedly - women) just knew how to do. It was one more thing learned over mama's and grandmama's shoulders in the kitchen. No written directions needed. This is a tradition that skipped my mom's generation, but luckily, Paul's mom is a home preserver and passed the skill on to us.


I love beets about any way you can make them, and if they're canned, I like them especially spicy. So I think this recipe might benefit from the addition of peppers or pepper flakes of some kind. I haven't tried canning any beets yet, mainly because I haven't come across a really huge amount of them at the farmers' market. But the season for root vegetables is nearing its end, so a good deal may be just around the corner! If you have a great recipe for beets that you'd like to share, please send it my way. I'd love to give it a try!


Ruth’s Beet Pickles

2 c. sugar

1 T. whole allspice

1 ½ T. salt

2 sticks cinnamon

3 ½ c. vinegar

1 ½ c. water

Beats [sic], cooked

Heat all ingredients and pour over cooked beats [sic] in jar. Makes 7 pints.


P.S. That's a photo of radishes & swiss chard - not beets, but the closest photo I had in my farmers' market archives! 

Family Recipe: Brunswick Stew

This time every year, it's a common practice in the South to make Brunswick Stew. From weekend-long church fundraisers to giant iron pots of back-yard, home-cooked stew, it's a Southern staple that signals the advent of fall. 


I vividly remember the time when my best friend's family was cooking a batch over an outdoor fire, and their pet goat jumped into the pot and singed his poor little legs! And no, we didn't dump the whole pot out. Everyone figured that slow-cooking and high heat killed any germs that could have gotten in. (But that has since been referred to as the year of goat stew.)


A few weeks ago, my mom picked up her annual few quarts of stew for eating and freezing from one of the local churches. I happened to be home visiting as they were about to have lunch and it was a reminder of a tradition long-forgotten. 

For those too far from the Southern states to find their own church fundraiser to attend, I thought I'd share a family recipe for Brunswick Stew, in case you want to try to make your own. Here is the recipe exactly as it appears in my Granny's notebook of recipes. You'll have to do a little interpreting in places, as there are details left to tradition and never jotted down on paper.


Brunswick Stew

3 lb. hen

2 lb. chicken breast

1 lb. pork

2 lrg. onions

6 med. potatoes

2 lrg. cans tomato

2 cans corn

2 cans baby lima beans

Salt & pepper, to taste

½ lb. butter

Cook meat until tender. Cool and reserve broth. Cook onions, potatoes, and tomatoes on low; add meat and broth. Add corn, beans, salt & pepper, and butter, and cook a while more.


Photo: The house where my mom spent the earliest part of her childhood, living close to her other relatives on "Mill Hill" in Mt. Pleasant, NC.

Aileen's Graham Cracker Pie

When I was a little girl, spending my summers and time after school at “At-een’s” house, I saw her and Granny jot down numerous recipes onto scraps of paper pulled from notepads, purses, Granny’s address book, and Aileen’s end table mystery drawer. These scraps of paper then disappeared from my consciousness, and into my tummy went livermush, dumplings, cobbler, custards, and graham cracker pies.

I had forgotten about these scraps until Granny and Papa had passed and Aileen moved out of her house and into an assisted living home. This is when I discovered the recipe drawer and the history that these tiny torn papers held. Every sheet was like a page pulled from the annals of time, from our family’s own personal history book – reminding me of stories from my childhood and revealing things to me about the people I loved and their far-away lives – things that came long before me. There were layers to this drawer, to what I found on each of those cards and papers – meaning stacked liked a three-tiered German chocolate cake with coconut icing holding the middles together, and I was cutting down through it.

I spent a lot of time going through everything I pulled from that drawer and turned it all into a family recipe and recollection book several years ago. I'll share some of it with you here, starting with this recipe for Graham Cracker Pie.

Graham Cracker Pie is still my favorite. It’s really just a vanilla cream pie, but it came to be known as “Graham Cracker Pie” because, to me, that was what it was all about – the graham cracker crust. Aileen would make me extra graham cracker crumbs and sugar to eat with a spoon and have it ready for me when I got off the school bus at her house.

Me and Aileen

This is the recipe just as it was written...

CRUST

1 bx. craham crackers,crushed

¾ stick margarine, melted

½ c. sugar, more to taste

Bake crust at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

FILLING

1 lrg. can milk

3 egg yolks

1 c. sugar

2 T. flour

2 T. margarine, melted

2 t. vanilla

Cook until thick.

MERINGUE

2 T. sugar for each egg

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.