Waking up to the smell of your mom’s family home-cooked meal is one of those favorite, intimate memories tucked away in the corner of your memories, yet fondly brought up each time someone mentions your mom. There is always this special link that most people connect between home-cooked meals and families heading up the preparation of a meal. It can be any family member conjuring up a warm, hearty meal over the stove. It can be the mom, dad, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, etc. The meals cooked can be just about anything, ranging from a family’s favorite meal or a meal that’s cooked from a generation to a generation passed down family recipe. Or, it can be a meal that’s native to the family’s lineage. Eleanor Gaccetta’s book Generations Of Good Food took us through a delightful and heartwarming journey of almost 200 recipes that survived six generations and the stories associated with each of those recipes. From pasta recipes to baking and making bread and cookies and many more, the book is quintessential to the value of family recipes and their benefits for the human soul.
Food and the Family
There is an undeniable intimacy between family and food. It all started as the first taste, the first palate a person develops in their infanthood. As the person grows into adulthood, their appreciation of food, its taste, and flavor continues to be influenced by those closest to them who do the cooking at home; in which case, a family member. Eating food is also described as an emotional experience, especially for family meals. When someone in the family celebrates their birthday, the mother, or even the grandmother, goes all-out slaving away in the kitchen for the birthday party meals. An exceptional meal or a special recipe is often cooked during birthdays, holidays, or happy occasions. But a meal is not only associated with a happy occasion. Specially cooked food also found its way during sad times, hence, the term “comfort food.”
Food in the family is also documentation of a family’s tradition. Coined as the family recipes, family recipes are described as a collection and a record of a family’s heritage regarding ingredients and the cooking process. These recipes are either unique recipes developed over the years as these were passed down from generation to generation, or they could be recipes recorded as the norm of cooking by society back then.
The Importance of Preserving Family Recipes
More than just the creamy, hot broth a family enjoys on a cold day, more than just the steaming vegetable dish served and plated artfully in the center of the dinner table that everyone enjoys or that nostalgic stuffed Turkey thanksgiving meal you looked forward to every year. There are many reasons why it is essential to preserve family recipes. Family recipes are a source of family heritage. These recipes often record events surrounding the creation of the recipe. Take, for instance, the Irish culture and why they’re linked with potatoes. Potatoes are the most suitable vegetation to grow on Irish soil. The nutritious, calorie-filled vegetable thrives naturally on Ireland’s damp climate and has been Ireland’s primary source of nutrition during Ireland’s Great Famine. Hence, a lot of potato recipes were created as a result. Creating these potato recipes is evident in how resilient man is to look for ways to survive during difficult times.
You heard the phrase “food for the soul” used repeatedly, but there is some truth to it when it’s referred to family recipes and how those recipes are “food for the soul.” Home-cooked family recipe meals are brimming with memories, something that’s inseparable from the human soul. These recipes are also a form of therapy. When a person moves to a new place, they would usually find themselves wistfully and longing for home, especially if they’re made to adjust to the staple meals found in the new place.
Family recipes also symbolize the family bond; those dinner meals and occasions spent with the family became a tradition. The cooking of these family recipes is one way to honor tradition and immortalize the memories spent together with the family. And when families get together over meals, not only do they preserve their heritage, they develop a bond that cannot be easily broken down through time.
A family’s recipe is a family’s heritage. It is not only the meals and their ingredients that are being passed down through generations; it is also the culture and the values inspired by the meals created that are also passed down. Family recipes and meals represent more than just looking forward to your mom’s or grandma’s food preparation. It is also about looking forward to feasting and celebrating your family’s heritage.
The Happy Hammock 