A shout-out to Jean Giesige, who mentioned my Aunt Kate last week in her weekly column, Calamity Kitchen. Her lighthearted, often touching and inspirational articles are featured in the Daily Standard. We look forward to reading them and having a little chuckle.
Last week’s piece reflected on sauerkraut and babies, and she ended it with my Aunt Kate’s Mango Kraut Recipe, which was published in the Mercer County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee Cookbook, about 1982.
Kate (Miller) Eichler
Aunt Kate (Miller) Eichler (1927-2016) and her four sisters were all very good cooks. I would recommend any of their recipes that you find in old local cookbooks.
And those cookbooks are still out there.
Churches often published cookbooks that featured the best recipes from the members of their women’s group. Other organizations, like the Mercer County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee, published cookbooks with local tried and true recipes.
When I was a teenager, I spent a day at Aunt Kate’s house and she taught me how to make her award-winning Swedish Tea Ring. Aunt Kate usually won a blue ribbon for her Swedish Tea Ring every year at the Mercer County Fair. It took the better part of a day to make the yeast bread and it was delicious. Her sugar cookies were delicious, too. So, I would imagine her Mango Kraut recipe would also be tasty.
I am not the cook my aunts were. I think I could be. I’m a decent cook and baker when I cook. I just don’t take the time to cook for a couple reasons. For one, cooking takes a lot of time and I prefer to do other things. Like genealogy research. Plus, it is easy and healthy to put a salad together. We are pretty creative with our lettuce salads and we try to eat light.
Even though I don’t cook much, I do have a collection of cookbooks, many from local churches. I pull them out when the family comes home and for family reunions. And when I feel like cooking a special meal.
Some people collect cookbooks. My mom was one of those people and she was also an excellent cook. She had a lot of cookbooks from a lot of places and a cookbook was always a good gift for her. A cookbook from Amish country or from another church was a good choice. I saved some cookbooks from my mom’s collection but gave many of them to my cousin Sharon.
But I saved the church cookbooks. Church cookbooks are the best. Women submitted their best recipes, the ones they knew were tasty and for the most part fool-proof. Some of these recipes have been in handed down in families for generations. It was often a difficult decision to pick which recipes to include. After all, these cookbooks would be around for along time.
Take for example:
St. John Lutheran Church, Hopewell Township, 1968 cookbook
This is A Book of Favorite Recipes from the Women of St. John’s Lutheran Church [Hopewell Township], 1968. Aunt Kate gave me this cookbook, from her church, as a bridal shower gift in 1973 and I have used this cookbook for over 50 years since.
Aunt Kate submitted about 18 of her favorite recipes for the book. She submitted a variety of recipes from appetizers, salads, vegetables, and main dishes, to cakes, cookies, and desserts. One of my favorite recipes that she submitted, which I haven’t made for years, is her recipe called Beef Porcupines. An easy, tasty recipe.
BEEF PORCUPINES
1 lb. ground beef
1 ½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. celery salt
1 Tbsp. grated onion
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
¼ – ½ c. uncooked rice
¼ tsp. pepper
2 Tbsp. chopped green pepper
4 c. tomato juice
1Tbsp. sugar
Mix together beef, rice, salt, pepper, celery salt, green pepper, and onion. Form into about 18 small meat balls. Pour tomato juice into a large skillet, add sauce and sugar. Add the meat balls, cover and simmer over low heat for about 1 hour or until rice is tender in the center of the meat balls. You can also add ¼ – ½ cup of uncooked rice to the tomato juice when you add the meat balls. Stir occasionally.
I can almost taste those meat balls. I may have to make this again soon.
No doubt about it, the church ladies are some of the best cooks and have the best recipes.
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How wonderful that your Aunt Kate was featured and her special kraut recipe reprinted! TY for sharing the porcupine recipe. I’ve made these meatballs in the past but not with sugar, which sounds like a great way to pique the flavor.
I’m with you regarding cooking. Enjoy cooking for company but would rather do other things than cook for just the 2 of us. I do enjoy reading cookbooks, a favorite is the Berne Mennonite one mom gave me 50 years ago. I chaired a cookbook project here 20 years ago for tge Springfield Symphony and we profited $19,000. Still a favorite.
Author
In addition, it is way too easy to eat out. My mom used to read through cookbooks and I find it interesting, too. I believe I have that Berne Mennonite cookbook around here. Your Springfield cookbook project was certainly successful! BTW, I ran into Carolyn Baker in Walmart the other day and we had a nice little visit. Thanks for writing!
Quelle adorable personne devait être tante Kate… Comme sont précieux les livres de cuisine que nous ont transmis nos grand-mères. Certains sont annotés par leurs soins pour améliorer les préparations. Elles consignaient à la plume, sur des cahiers d’écolier, leurs recettes. Comme Janet, ma grand-mère adorait lire les livres de cuisine. Elle était fine cuisinière et savait faire un délicieux festin avec quelques modestes ingrédients… Karen, tu ravives des souvenirs d’enfance chaleureux : Merci !
Author
How nice to hear from you Marie! I hope you have been well. And thank you for your kind words. My mom used to sit and read through cookbooks as well. Those old recipes that have been passed down are so special, whether written on a piece of paper or printed in a book. And as you mention, they often need a little tweaking by today’s standards. The old measurements do not always with correspond with those we use today. My grandmother and great-grandmother used lard. Lard is great for piecrust but the closest thing to lard I use is Crisco. I am happy to hear that my posts bring back memories. Thank you for writing.
Translation, per Google Translate: What an adorable person Aunt Kate must have been… Just as precious are the cookbooks that our grandmothers passed down to us. Some are annotated by them to improve the preparations. They wrote down their recipes in pen, in school notebooks. Like Janet, my grandmother loved to read cookbooks. She was a fine cook and knew how to make a delicious feast with a few modest ingredients… Karen, you bring back warm childhood memories: Thank you!
I have an old cook book from my grandmother. The pages are worn with use, love, and time and some of the pages are falling out yet it’s still cherished nevertheless.
Okay you have to publish the tea ring recipe….that has me very intrigued.
As always fascinating and delightful article and a good reminder that it’s the people and the lives that matter not the dates and places in our research. They lived amazing and yet ordinary lives yet helped to make us who we are.
Author
Love those old cookbooks! They are special. I will publish the tea ring recipe soon. Thanks for writing!
I love my old church cook books. I have one from Chatt Methodist church where we attended and one from the old Willshiire UB church where my grandmother attended. Mostly I like reading the names attached to the recipes & fondly remembering the ladies that I knew from my childhood.
Author
I like those same things about church cookbooks. I wonder if they are still as popular as they once were. Our church has made at least four over the years that I remember. That’s quite a few. Thanks for writing!