As a child I loved Chicken and Dumplings. I helped Aunt Hen roll out the dumpling dough on her small kitchen table and I could hardly wait until it was time for dinner. Now my children ask for Chicken and Dumplings too. A favorite, across the miles and the generations, my grandmother’s recipe still satisfies a hungry family.

Chicken and Dumplings in a Courier and Ives Ironstone Bowl with a white covered dish shaped like a nesting chicken in the background.

Treasures Found Among the Scraps

Several years ago, I realized that I had, in my possession, many precious family heirlooms. These heirlooms are not the kind that relatives seek to inherit and they aren’t items that would be featured on Antiques Roadshow.The truth is, they don’t look like much and might easily be discarded or forgotten.

These cherished bits and pieces, lovingly shared over the years, have been scratched onto note cards or torn from newspapers or magazines. They are now stuck between the pages of cookbooks and tucked in folders that make up my kitchen files. These heirlooms could be mistaken for trash by almost anyone.

It occurred to me that, in their present form, I might be the only one who knew how special these treasures really were. Because of their appearance, others might not recognize them as cherished formulas. They may not realize that, when followed, these instructions produce a tonic for the soul.

In fact, familiar family recipes have the power to transport me to the kitchens of my past. Rich in sensory data, these familiar dishes invite me back to the table of family and friends I haven’t seen in years. Unfortunately many may not understand the warm and wonderful family alchemy that can be practiced using the recipes in my collection.

Old cookbooks, community cookbooks, letters and recipes jotted on scraps of paper are all good source material for an heirloom cookbook.

Cleaning Up My Files

In the hope of protecting these special recipes, I began to gather them into a Family Heirloom Cookbook. My first step was to clean up my files. Determined to preserve the treasures recorded on those scraps of paper, I began to sort through my family’s food lore. In the process I revisited the recipes I’d saved for so long. They were often carefully handwritten on note paper, note cards, even the back of a bank deposit slip. The medium they were conveyed on mattered less than the secret they shared.

To the same end, I reread cherished letters from my grandmother and my aunts. They wrote to me as a young newlywed, when I first moved away from home. They often told me about the harvest from their garden or included a new recipe they had tried. These letters are also heirlooms I cherish.

After sorting through the scraps I had in my possession, I expanded my search. I dug up vintage recipes for dinner entrees I was fond of as a child. I also looked for unique regional or ethnic dishes that were served regularly at my family’s table. Local cookbooks from churches and associations in the area where I grew up provided valuable information. They were a good source for recipes that were local favorites. Some even included recipes contributed by members of my family.

Revisiting the Past

Next, I combed through the memoirs of my great great uncle Hal. Born in the late 1800’s, he was a bachelor for many years. He cooked for himself while establishing a farm in Minnesota. Though he had only a third grade formal education, he wrote lyrically about the hills of southern Indiana. He also offered vivid descriptions of harvest season and helping his mother make peach butter and apple butter in autumn.

Finally I reached out to my extended family. I talked to aunts and cousins and neighbors, to learn what food related memories came to their mind and made them smile. In turn, they shared recipes that had been passed down to them.

I also asked for recipes they would like to share on their own page in my cookbook, whether recipes they grew up with or ones they hoped to share with future generations. Several of my relatives shared personal memories of my grandmother, who died before I was born. They also offered recipes for local specialties, like Cincinnati Chili, that their families came to treasure as my grandmother’s descendants moved around the country. All this, and more, added breadth and depth to the cookbook I was making.

Creating a Family Heirloom

It was a great experience. The stories and recipes I found warmed my heart. Sometimes they even made my mouth water. It was wonderful to discover how easy it is to reestablish connections on the basis of shared food memories. My brother and I spent hours remembering our favorite breakfast cereals and snacks. Then we reminisced about the things we had learned to cook from his copy of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls. I also had great conversations by phone, letter and email with other family members, some I hadn’t talked to in years. Food was a great conversation starter. On that topic we reconnected as if we were never parted.

A page from my Family Heirloom Cookbook including photos, a letter, a vintage recipe and memories shared by family members.

Through this process of cleaning up my files, digging into the past and talking things over with my relatives, the cookbook took shape. I took the information I collected and used scrapbooking supplies and techniques to create a durable homemade cookbook. The finished product reflects my effort to weave the shared memories, written words, recipes and photos from my family’s past, into a coherent whole. It is my hope that it represents the traditions of my family and explores the way they fit into our current lives and can be carried forward.

An Heirloom Cookbook Takes Shape

The Family Heirloom Cookbook project was a success. The final product includes recipes and memories from five generations. It is also a wonderful collecting point for recipes I use frequently and memories of the beloved family member who first shared them with me.

Each page, created from recipes, comments and photos, is safely tucked into a scrapbook page protector. Whenever I open the book to find a recipe I want to use I see a member of my family, many who have now passed on, smiling back at me. From these pages they offer a recipe. Each is a method to reconnect with my history as I pass something warm and delicious on to the next generation in what we share around our kitchen table.

A page from my Family Heirloom Cookbook that includes my great grandmother, my grandmother, her chickens and her recipe for Chicken and Dumplings as told by two of her daughters.

One Special Page

If I had to choose one pivotal recipe from my Family Heirloom Cookbook it would be my paternal grandmother’s recipe for Chicken and Dumplings. It is a dish I loved as a child. I helped Aunt Hen roll out the dough for the dumplings on her small kitchen table. Then we cut the dumplings and I watched her carefully drop them into the boiling broth. I could hardly wait for dinner time.

It wasn’t until I moved away from home and asked for the recipe that I learned it wasn’t written down anywhere. Aunt Hen simply made it the way she had learned from my grandmother. When I asked her to share the recipe she shrugged. Then she told me what I needed to know and I added it to the red handwritten cookbook she gave me as a wedding present.

Later I learned that my cousins also loved Chicken and Dumplings. I’m not sure that we ever ate it together but they too, had worked out the recipe. Like Aunt Hen, Aunt Mary, their mother, made Chicken and Dumplings for her family. She made it for dinner and brought it to them when they were sick. Later, they asked Aunt Mary for the recipe. They wanted to make it in their own kitchen and share it with their growing families.

Now my children ask for it too. My youngest son asks for me to make Chicken and Dumplings often. In fact, it is one of his favorite dinners. And though my extended family is spread across the country, this recipe, with a few personal variations, is a thread that binds us, a special tradition that we have discovered we all share in common.

Enjoy!