#oldpapers

”My Very Own Over-Two-Hundred-Year-Old Recipe”’

For years obtaining old family photos or recipes have always been elusive. Such items are only what other families had. To get my hands on somethin’ like that was like pulling teeth!

In fact, I remember one southern gal who was a great cook. She was such a good cook that she and her husband opened their own successful old-fashioned bakery and eatery. All of her recipes that she used were from her grandmothers in the past-great grandmothers, great great grandmothers and so on. I could not believe the legacy she had simply in recipes that were passed down amongst these women from one generation to another, plus the secrets of the chef in the baking. What a treasure!

Point in case, last summer I was at the Old Bluffton Farmer’s Market. There was a beautiful young woman about twenty-eight years old that was making a humongous pot of Chicken Gumbo. It was in a pot bigger than a boilin’ bath. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I watched her expertly add ‘a little of this’ and ‘a little of that’ to the soup, and oh my gosh! the smell was so delicious my mouth was just a waterin’!

I asked her where she learned to make this scrumptous gumbo, as the soup tantalized my tastebuds with the first bite.

She said it was an old family recipe that was passed down from one generation to another from her grandmothers, that in fact, her great great grandmother would make this special recipe for the “Big House” all the time, as it was the Masters’ favorite.

The young lady proceeded to tell me that today she added everything but the kitchen sink in her gumbo. As I continued to eat my bowlful, she went on to show me all the delectable goodies that made their way into her pot. The one that entertained me the most was the whole size crablegs that she stirred up to the surface, shell and all.

Eyes a sparklin’, I found myself endeared to her-kindred spirits indeed, and she loved sharing her story. Her older folk were sittin’ on strung-laced lawnchairs in the background restin’, watchin’ and smilin’ that she had taken over, happy to pass on the baton.

When I checked back at the end of the day I was not surprised to learn she had sold out of her entire pot of gumbo hours earlier.

I found myself wishin’ for the millionth time that I had a family recipe that was age-old to bake for my family. The closest thing I had was my Granny Lynch’s Banana Puddin’. Boy, how I loved that puddin’ when I was a little girl. When I grew up I made that recipe for my children. The girls loved it, but I’m tellin’ you, those six boys could not get enough! (I swear they had hollow legs!)

To this day, when I go visit my children who all have families of their own, they invariably ask me to make my “famous banana puddin’” and please teach their spouses how to make it. And yes, the baking always includes the story of Granny Lynch and my childhood of banana puddin’.

Of course, there are “secrets” in the baking that make it set apart and different from run-of-the-mill more modern recipes. The new recipes just have somethin’ missin’ that never matches the magic in my Granny’s old recipe.

In fact, one of my grown sons became an amazing chef and at one point in his life he was the supervisor over the entire University kitchen that fed all the students.

He called me one day while preparing the week’s menu and shopping list and asked me for Granny’s recipe. I carefully and meticulously gave him the recipe explaining the “secrets.”

He told me promptly that he would be taking shortcuts because he had to make a lot of puddin’ to feed the student body.

I responded that it was an old family recipe and he could not give it to someone else to make and the shortcuts wouldn’t taste as good.

He quickly said not to worry that he was coming into work early and making this dish himself because he wanted to keep the recipe under wraps. I was pleased.

He made the banana puddin’, and even with the shortcuts the dessert was a smashing success. Everyone wanted the recipe which he responded that it was an old family recipe and was not at liberty to give out. The dessert along with all the backups he made were completely sold out within the hour. Word-of-mouth had got around the campus and students came in all day asking for the pudding dessert.. and were turned away wanting.

Alas, imagine my total shock, amazement, then absolute excitement when I discovered this past week that my Banana Puddin’ recipe was actualy over a 200-year-old family recipe that had been handed down from one generation to another till it reached my Granny Lynch and then me! I squealed with delight when I found this source and since I was in the library, that of course, did not go over well! (Shhhhh!) Everyone wanted to know what happened and I told them. I shouldn’t have been surprised when they all insisted that I make the banana puddin’ and bring it into the library so they could all relish in its deliciousness. I found myself laughing out loud totally filled.

Thank you Granny Lynch and beyond-you beautful Grannies-you, for giving me this recipe!

The Find and Realization:

I was researching the Story line trying to prove the ancestry and discovered a family history that was written and published in the 1900s. The gentleman that wrote the book was born in the early 1900s and was at a Story Family Reunion in the 1940s. He discussed how he loved going to those reunions as boy, especially since he knew he must have the best southern cooks within the women of his family-ever! as the food was always sooooo delicious, he couldn’t wait. In parenthesis he added, (especially the banana puddin’)!

I could not believe my eyes when I read that! My mind’s process went something like this:

Wait a minute, MY family has a great banana puddin’ recipe, in fact, it came from my Granny Lynch-wait a sec-my Granny Lynch was a Story before she got married! Oh my gosh!

This means… Papa Story taught the recipe to Mama Story, (my great grandparents and parents of Granny Lynch). So this means…that Papa Story learned the recipe from his boyhood from his parents, my great great grandparents.

Papa’s father died the year or so after the War, the Civil War that is, but remembered this beloved dessert and passed it on.

The family history book I found with the reference descended from a James Alexander Story, who was a first cousin to Benjamin Wesley Story, my great great grandfather. This means those cousins’ fathers were brothers and they learned the recipe from their mother, my third great grandmother.