I first saw this cookbook at the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, Iowa. The Norwegian Pioneer Cookbook, printed in 1969, is an excellent example of why we like community cookbooks; the recipes are the contributor’s best, their “reputation” recipe. They also mirror ethnic or regional cooking at its best, without any extra interpretation by an author. Our dad's mother immigrated from Norway as a young woman...and we grew up around many Norwegians in Minnesota...all good cooks.
Here are a couple of excellent recipes from this cookbook...
Lemon Custard Cups
Norwegian Butter Cookies - one of the best I've tried, with hard cooked egg yolks and liquid and no leavening.
The Lemon Custard Cups recipe is much the same as the Lemon Pudding recipe of my mother's - I loved it, and so do my children; we bake it in one larger dish though.
ReplyDeleteThe older recipe books are the best, with their classic techniques and wholesome, readily available ingredients - sometimes I think the art of cooking is being lost as people 'google' for recipes and don't have the kitchen experience to know how things should look in the preparation and result.
Simple cooking, beautifully done, is my goal.
[Valerie, NZ]
That's our goal too...good ingredients, well-prepared. Simple is better so you can really taste the good-quality real ingredients.
DeleteI think the lemon custard recipe is fairly common; this one worked well for us.
I love these kind of cookbooks. So interesting to look at the different recipes.
ReplyDelete