Heirloom Cooking with the Brass Sisters

By JULIETTE ROSSANT The Brass Sisters - Marilynn and Sheila - are collectors of manuscript cookbooks, the kind of homemade and community-made recipe collections that record social history, relationships, and talents of American families. Heirloom Cooking with the Brass Sisters (Black Dog & Leventhal 2008) is a follow up book to their immensely interesting Heirloom Baking (See Super Chef review). This is a book for anyone who enjoys the stories behind great recipes – the kind you ask for from your friend's great aunt, or remembers the flavors of a childhood meal. It is a cookbook filled with comforting food. The Brass Sister's add their own tweaks to update the recipes - with their own enthusiasm. It is important to celebrate the heirloom kitchen in our own home kitchens by recreating those meals and memories and honoring that commitment. We want to preserve the flavor, taste, and value of heirloom recipes, but we must listen to the stories of the people who created them. If you have ever been tempted to buy a loose-leaf binder of old recipes at a yard sale – this is the book for you. The photos by Andy Ryan capture not only the home cooking, but also the dishes, utensils and pots and pans the Brass Sisters have collected. It is like walking into the kitchen of a 1940s housewife who has fixed up her best dish from her kitchen garden just for you. Maybe it’s a plate of Mrs. Yaffee's Pierogi (p. 42) with a pastry made from chicken fat and a filling of potatoes and beef. Or perhaps you get a circa 1900 Helen's Fried Cheese Balls with Chili Mayonnaise (p. 54) The mayonnaise is a Brass Sisters addition that gives the fried cheddar cheese balls a kick. But maybe you are taken back to Ohio and you get Corn Pancakes with Sour Cream and Chives (p. 56) from "a handwritten recipe on a faded index card in the file of The Church Lady of Mansfield Ohio." The Brass Sisters updated the recipe by making smaller pancakes and serving them with sour cream and chives. You might want to get Heirloom Cooking for the soup recipes alone. You could make a pot of Scotch Broth (p. 112) from a recipe dating back to 1880. What about a rib-sticking 1920s Portuguese Red Kidney Bean Soup (p. 122) rich with beef? Then there is Auntie Rose's Vegetable Beef Soup (p. 127) from the 1930s that comes from Rose Levy, the Brass Sister's mother's best friend. Throughout the book are cooking tips and discussions of ingredients. You may find yourself when the weather gets warmer searching out garage sales and antique stores for the kind of cookie cutters, stew pots and wonderful dishes that give Heirloom Cooking such character. But don't wait until the spring to start cooking. Previous articles: The Brass Sisters: Queens of Comfort Food Heirloom Baking with the Brass Sisters [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging --> back to Super Chef