What food does your mom/dad make better than anybody

[irisblue]

Stolen from a reddit forum....What food does your mom make better than anybody who has ever existed in the history of the universe?

My mom makes Chicken in White Sauce over Rice and Chocolate Pudding Cake.

Over all my years, there was only one meal all 5 of us complained about, I did a google for the recipe, it is with great cheer I report I couldn't find it online, so it stays buried in the 60s

[redstatebluegirl]

1. My Mom has been gone since I was still in my teens but she made the best cornbeef and cabbage ever!

[Rorey]

2. My mom made the best apple pie

I wish I had asked her how she did it.

[Chainfire]

3. My mother made a killer peanut butter/chocolate fudge.

The recipe died with her.

[no_hypocrisy]

59. Reminds me of a post on DU years ago:

[The Polack MSgt]

4. My Mom had many great attributes but cooking was not one of them

And her Mom was even worse to be honest.

But Mom made a buttered potato soup that is still haunting me.

Can't for the life of me figure it out & neither can my wife who also loved it - and she is a fantastic cook.

But other than that soup the menu was always brownish meat (well done or more), mashed potatoes, white bread and overboiled vegetables.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. My mom's pie crusts were the best ever.

My grandmother's Julekake was the best ever.
My great aunt's sugar cookies were the best ever.

I have never been able to duplicate these things even using the same recipes. My cooking in general tends to be the worst ever.

[Demsrule86]

66. My oldest daugther has asked me to write down recipes for her of the things I make. I did so...

but realized that it is impossible to write it all down...for example if a batter is to thin or to thick or maybe a little more of this spice after tasting so I have started taping, "Mom's cooking show" where they can see what it looks like and how I do it. My Mom's recipes were never quite right probably for the same reason, mine weren't. Now I have been told I cook like my Grandmother and her recipes come out exactly as she cooked them...my oldest Aunt asked me to send her a dark fruitcake she had been working on for years that Grandma made every year...somehow I cook as she did. And I look like her too.

[Ocelot II]

70. The recipe for Grandma's Julekake, which is at least 100 years old, is very imprecise,

especially as to quantities. The dough is really sticky unless you use enough flour, but if you use too much the texture is wrong. It's a lot of trial and error. Some times it works better than others.

[Blue_playwright]

73. You should post the recipe!

[Faygo Kid]

6. Mom is long gone, but I loved her Swedish meatballs

The lutefisk, not so much.

[PJMcK]

7. My mom had a delicious German recipe for pork chops

She would put the chops in a covered electric frying pan along with her marinade. I forget the temperature she used but it was relatively low because you want to really cook the meat till it's nearly falling off the bone. For the last 30 minutes or so, she'd put a thick slice of onion and a think slice of tomato on each chop.

She'd serve these with either mashed potatoes or sauerkraut but sometimes she'd make potato pancakes which were my favorite.

My mom was a terrific and adventurous cook and she had many fine recipes but this one was most memorable.

[Cracklin Charlie]

8. Iced tea and cornbread.

I could drink a gallon of her sweet tea.

[Cicada]

21. Yes, my mom was from Mississippi, sweet tea and cornbread were staples

Also fried chicken. My dad was in the Army. In the fifties in a four apartment building one wife was from Germany, one from Japan, one Italian heritage from Boston, and my mom. All us kids in the building regularly got classics of each cuisine as the wives shared meals constantly. I loved the vegetables fried in a tempura batter, spaghetti and meatballs, dumplings, fried chicken with cornbread (not sweet!).

[Cracklin Charlie]

27. Sweet cornbread...yuck.

That’s cake. We pretty much had cornbread every night.

I would have loved growing up in your building.

[blm]

36. How wonderful to experience that type of sharing.

[MANative]

9. My mom is a decent cook, but my dad was an impresario in the kitchen

He made the most amazing New England Clam Chowder ever prepared in the entire universe. I have his recipe, made it with him many times, and I get close-ish, but it's never, ever as good as his was.

His prime rib was also legendary. Just about everything he cooked was amazing. Boy, do I miss being in the kitchen with him!

[irisblue]

11. I updated the thread title. Shame on me for being limited.

I do not remember my father cooking anything. I do remember my father buying and heating Detroit Style Pizza and we all freaking loved that pizza

[MANative]

14. Hey, I know some guys (and ladies) who could barely even manage that!

He made sure you were fed, right?!

[bamagal62]

40. My Dad made the best fried chicken.

[Demsrule86]

45. How does Detroit style Pizza differ from New York pizza?

[irisblue]

47. Detroit Deep Dish Pizza is a rectangular most often topped with Wisconsin Brick Cheese

Where NYC is thin crust and Chicago is deep dish but round.

"Detroit-style pizza is a rectangular pizza with a thick crust that is crispy and chewy. It is traditionally topped with Wisconsin brick cheese, then tomato sauce layered on top of the other toppings (rather than directly onto the dough). This style of pizza is often baked in rectangular steel trays designed for use as automotive drip pans or to hold small industrial parts in factories. The style was developed during the mid-twentieth century in Detroit before spreading to other parts of the United States in the 2010s. The dish is one of Detroit's iconic local foods."

[Ferrets are Cool]

29. I have a similar story

My grandmother was a great cook, but my grandfather was the King of the Kitchen. He was famous for his cornbread (it was like eating cake), his homemade ice cream (man, I wish I had some of it), and his bbq was to die for. I will never eat bbq as good as his was.

[Demsrule86]

46. Most good cooks use taste to finish a recipe...thus a written down recipe is never the same.

[Arne]

10. A New Rochelle Italian, she made Lasagna.

[elleng]

12. Dad made the best pancakes.

[ploppy]

54. So did my dad!

Loved it when he made them. He also baked bread every Saturday morning.

[elleng]

55. WOW, fresh BREAD!

Dad also made French Toast, didn't bake bread but wanted FRESH rolls regularly, so regular visits to the bakery department @ grocery store happened. (Grandpa, whom I never met, ran a deli in NYC, family lived above it, so lots of food 'habits' developed.)

[Demsrule86]

67. My Dad made donuts...he fried them up...we loved them and ate so many we were often sick

afterward!

[elleng]

69. WOW!

Dad also made French Toast, but NOT donuts!

[alwaysinasnit]

13. Mom made hand-made flour tortillas. We used to line up waiting for them to come off the

griddle.

[blm]

35. Fresh are so yum.

[hydrolastic]

15. kidney bean beef stew

Lots of things actually but one of the ones i remember. Big 1" cubes, carrots and potatoes red grease floating on top. I loved it.

[FM123]

16. Oh my, somehow it feels like everything she ever made was the best thing ever....

As a kid, I loved her fried chicken the best!

[DURHAM D]

17. Mom's bierocks

jftr - She was not Volga German (also called Russian-German) but she learned to make them from her best friend who was.

[irisblue]

23. Ok, I looked that up...

From wiki& there is a lot more there...
Bierock is a yeast dough pastry pocket sandwich with savory filling,[1] originating in Eastern Europe, possibly in Russia. The dish is common among the Volga German community in the United States and Argentina.

Bierock is filled with cooked and seasoned ground beef, shredded cabbage[1] and onions, then oven baked until the dough is golden brown. Some variants include grated carrots.

[DURHAM D]

26. Interesting recipe in that

it calls for ground beef. Not ours - sausage only.

[El Supremo]

18. Potato Salad

She's been gone for over 12 years but she gave me all her recipes and I have been making her potato salad several times a year. It has red potatoes, onions, celery, celery seed, hard boiled eggs, black olives and Hellman's mayonnaise.

[irisblue]

24. Hellmans forever!

Unless I make my own again.

[zeusdogmom]

19. Rice Krispie Bars

Everything else was mediocre or worse. Generally the latter - she was not a happy camper in the kitchen

[NotASurfer]

20. Mom, anything she wanted to make

Except lemon merengue pie. That was grandma's bailiwick

Dad...I only remember getting food poisoning a couple times when he was in charge, could've been worse I guess

[iamateacher]

22. Apple cake, but

I believe I sent you the recipe, but I found a better one since then.
My Mother had high cholesterol in her family, a lot of heart issues. She made me conscious of these issues and I have been a vegetarian for 45 years. Better than a recipe.

[OregonBlue]

25. My mom made pies like no one I have ever know.

Apple, rhubarb, lemon merengue, coconut cream, pineapple cream, pecan, raisin cream, fresh strawberry, peach, apricot...she was of course southern but also Czech so great pastries too.

She had 3 daughters and we have been on diets our whole lives.

[blm]

34. 😍

Last edited Tue Jan 26, 2021, 09:14 PM - Edit history (2)

My grandmother was Czechoslovakian. Best pies, homemade noodles, and her Sunday soup.

[bamagal62]

41. Czech pastries, yum!

[OregonBlue]

57. Yes, kolache, poppy seed cake, strudel, and on and on.

[bamagal62]

61. My son was born in Prague.

He loved kolaches!

[OregonBlue]

62. Anyone who has lived in Prague KNOWS great pastries!! Kolache is the best.

My mom made poppy seed, apricot and plum every holiday. All were delicious.

[bamagal62]

63. I bet!! What were the pastries made with hazelnuts?

We’re those also called Kolache? Or, do they have a different name? I also miss the sopsky salad! Yum.

[Ferrets are Cool]

28. Coconut cake

made with freshly cracked coconut. It was fabulous.

[blm]

32. Love great coconut cake. Most are dry, sadly.

But when you taste a great one....holy cow!

[bamagal62]

38. OMG. My grandmother made the

Best coconut cake. It’s always been my favorite. But, sadly no one comes close. It actually was her maid’s recipe. She worked back when most women didn’t. So, she had a housekeeper for years before she retired. (And, we’re talking full time work in the 20s-60s.)

[Ferrets are Cool]

42. Yeah, her "secret" was using the coconut juice

I'm sure there was more to it that just that, but it's the part I remember.

[LakeArenal]

30. All of the above and more. She was a great cook.

And a great “homemaker”. She could get spots out of anything and used to iron towels and underwear.

[blm]

31. Sunday soup. A beef and vegetable soup that was addictive to anyone

who tasted it. It was my Slovak grandmother’s recipe.

[jtb653]

33. I miss her stuffing at Thanksgiving.

She's still with us but in no shape to cook.

[bamagal62]

37. Green beans, cornbread dressing,

Mac and cheese, and caramel cake. Oh, and gumbo.
I really could list a million things.

[The Blue Flower]

39. To-die- for cheese blintzes

She passed in 1975, sadly. I'll never forget how she had four little crepe pans going on the stove at once, and this was long before teflon. She filled them with farmer's cheese mixed with egg and a little sugar, then fried them in butter.

[JustAnotherGen]

43. Roast beef / pot roast

My mom's is the best.

My dad made the best ribs with homemade barbecue sauce and collards.

[Demsrule86]

44. My Mom made the best fried chicken with white gravy. (and sausage gravy) She also made a delicious

beef soup; she used a tomato based broths,loads of vegetables and bone in round steak. It had both Potatoes and Macaroni in it. If I use past these days I add it to portions of the soup so it doesn't absorb all the liquid.

My Dad made beef tips. He would broil pieces of a sirloin tip roast he had cut up under the broiler. He taught me to cut the meat against the grain so as to make it very tender. It was really good. On my birthday, my Mother made me a homemade devils food chocolate cake every year.

[Freddie]

48. Mom made the best cheesecake ever

Had both cream cheese and cottage cheese in it. She got the recipe from the Philly Inquirer in the 60s. I have the recipe and made it a couple times but it wasn’t quite the same. I think cottage cheese may be different now. I’ll try again.

[Luciferous]

49. My mom is not much of a cook, but she makes the best stuffing

[Retrograde]

50. My mother was not a good cook

but she made great pancakes. Her secret method, which I've never heard of anyone else using, was to wrap a handful of salt in an old towel and wipe it on a very hot griddle. No butter or grease. I have not been able to make this work.

My grandmother, OTOH, was generally a good cook but could not make half-way decent pancakes.

[Wawannabe]

51. Carrot cake with cream cheese icing

She even tried to market it. Didn’t go well but that cake was addicting!

[Trailrider1951]

52. My mom made the best biscuits

She would take a large bowl of self-rising flour and add a couple of huge dollops of bacon grease. Then she would take her fingers and work that fat into the flour. When she got the texture she wanted, she would pour in some milk or buttermilk, whatever she had on hand. Then she would work that into the mix, adding more flour if necessary. She would then shape the biscuits by hand and put them into a greased cast iron skillet and bake them. She never measured the ingredients, and the biscuits always turned out light and fluffy and would melt in your mouth. My biscuits? HA! No matter what recipe I used, they always turned out to be hard, crunchy rancid little hockey pucks.

[Lars39]

60. That's the way my mil made them.

It’s truly a dying art. My grandmother would make tea cakes by adding sugar to that method.

[PennyK]

53. My dad's baked clams!

They were made from clams he gathered himself. He would cut away all the tough parts before chopping. Packed the mixture into big shells and topped each with a piece of bacon before baking. They were made for parties and I would wait to consume the leftovers.
I do have the recipe, and tried it once with store-bought clams, but the results were not very good -- I need to try again, now that I have a nearby source for fresh clams.
He also made clam chowder and clam fritters, but the baked clams were sheer ambrosia.

[mitch96]

56. Growing up Mom made the best stuffed cabbage I ever tasted.... Very simple and we would

roll the cabbage rolls together in the kitchen... good times. Problem is we would eat'em all up quick. It was nothing for my Pop's and I to eat 4 or 5 at a sitting. When my old man was home from a trip, the pot of stuffed cabbage sat on the back burner of the stove and you could just help your self when hungry.
Mom was Slovak/Hungarian/Ukrainian (long story) and we called them Holupkie. Some call them Glumpkie. Other names??
First time I saw cabbage rolls in a restaurant I freaked out at the price!!
m

[OregonBlue]

58. Yes, those slav are great cooks. Mine was.

[yellowdogintexas]

64. my dad did not cook. My mother had some specialties though

Pie crust! She made wonderful pie and cobbler. Her cobbler was the two crust variety, with lots of crust in the corners of the pan.

Welsh Rarebit (pronounced 'rabbit' in our house) Extra sharp cheddar cheese, made into a thick sauce. We ate it on crackers with onion and pickles on top.

Lemon Pudding Cake: one of those things where the cake rises to the top and leaves a nice sauce underneath. She always made it in a rectangular 2 quart dish; I made it in a deep souffle dish because I did not have any other 2 quart baking dishes; I think it may be 3 quarts ..anyway if you bake it in the deeper dish,it comes out as a souffle. However you make it, everybody loves it and in our house it is known as 'the lemon thing'.

Cornbread. self rising white cornmeal with egg and buttermilk. No sugar. Delicious. Baked in a hot iron skillet which gave it a nice crusty bottom

[trof]

65. Grandpa made Sunday breakfast.

This was back in the 40s and early 50s.
My single (divorced) mom and I lived with my maternal grandparents from my age 4 till about 14.

Grandpa made most Sunday breakfasts and taught me how as well.
First he fry patty sausage.
Ziegler's "Seasoned to please". I'll never forget that.

Then he'd make "basted" sunny-side up eggs in the sausage grease.
He called them "sop eggs" because you sop up the yolks with toast.
The whites were always completely done, not runny.
The yolks had a thin opaque film.
The eggs had bit of sausage fond on them.
Ambrosia!

Sometime granny would bake biscuits.
An extra special treat.

[Demsrule86]

68. Yum

[inanna]

71. My Dad.

Makes a killer Creamed Shrimp on Toast.

And an awesome Clam Chowder, but the stuff is a heart attack in a bowl...he he

[Kali]

72. it wasn't so much particular recipes as care and attention to detail, presentation

my mom did things like spreading butter on toast perfectly - generously and even, and all the way to all edges. always setting the table, drawing little pictures on lunch bags. making a salad with evenly torn lettuce pieces, never needed to cut or slap salad dressing on your chin from a huge lettuce leaf. trimming meat so there was little to no gristle. she loved to entertain and parties were the best! she would lay out a beautiful buffet and everybody loved parties at our house.

[dem in texas]

74. So many Favorites - Here are two.

When I was young, my mother cooked for 9 people on a very limited budget. On Saturdays she'd make vegetable beef stew made with beef neck bones, tomatoes, onions, carrot, potatoes and lots of bay leaves. She'd bake a big iron skillet of buttermilk cornbread to go with the stew. We'd eat every bit, no left overs.

She loved to make cakes and when one of us had a birthday, we got to pick out the cake. I always wanted chocolate fudge cake with chocolate marshmallow icing. Oh, how i loved that cake!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

75. What's amazing is that every dish always tasted the same. Time after time

I miss that. Maybe we have too many options, too many ingredient choices, too many recipes? Consistency makes you fall in love.