#93 - "Recipe" Its lineage and a recipe

Family Recipe

I have an entire blog devoted to family recipes. In it are my favorites, my husband’s favorites and ones from my mother’s and her ancestors.

But in my genealogy, the recipes won’t come from my paternal grandmother. Now, she could make a highball, light a cigarette, make a roast. But she grew up in a poor household in NYC, and her mother was self-taught in the kitchen.

So, carriers of recipes are the Hicks/Hawxhurst/and allied families on Long Island. It’s pretty typical that it is the maternal line which hands down the majority of recipes. I focus on Long Island, NY, where my maternal great grandmother, Bertha Hawxhurst (Tyson) was born. (The oldest recipe I have is from the early 1800s and is a cookie recipe, which my grandmother transcribed).

The English liked their baked goods. Moreover, in the north, baking was a way to incorporate fruit into easy-to-eat food (remember, dentistry came to be in the 20^th century).

My great grandmother made big batches of molasses cookies every fall. They were stored in large tins, placed in an unheated part of their very large house. They ate them throughout the winter.

She also made gingerbread (but there is no ginger in the recipe). She made it daily in cold weather in Pennsylvania (she moved to PA from Long Island, NY as a young bride). With 10 boys, 2 girls, a husband, a few hands to help in the orchard, visitors, and a daily local girl who helped her tidy the house, no doubt the finished the gingerbread every day.

Here is the recipe.

Gingerbread (no ginger)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Ingredients:
1 c unsulphured dark brown molasses

1 c brown sugar, packed
1/4 tsp salt *pinch*

1 c shortening (scant)

1 c buttermilk or 1 c sour milk (if you lack this, sub by adding 1 TBL apple cider vinegar to good milk)
2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs

2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
3 c flour

~ Soften shortening slightly (if too hard). Combine dry ingredients first. Then throw all into a bowl at once. Combine quickly. Do not mix too much! It should be lumpy.
~ Bake in a greased pan at 350 F for 30-50 minutes till cake-like consistency.

From Bertha Hawxhurst, wife of Chester Tyson & mother of 12 who brought it from her home in Westbury, New York. She got it from her mother, Marianna Hicks (Hawxhurst).