Wish I could remember what it was called.

17 years ago

When we had the shank end of a home cured smoked ham left, grandmother always boiled it for seemingly hours, filling the house with the most delicious aroma. She later put in quite a lot of dried apples which we dried from our own trees and simmered it again for perhaps an hour. I really don't remember the timing but then maybe 15 or 20 minutes before serving she made dumplings and they simmered in the apple, ham broth. They weren't the really light airy dumpling like she served with chicken but a little heavier ones and very flavorful. Seems to me it had a German name although neither grandparent was German by descent. It was incomparably delicious. Granddads request for his birthday dinner.

One of my favorite desserts was a cobbler made from dried apricots, served with cream that was so thick you just cut chunks of it and laid it on the dessert. Yes, they were home dried apricots. Farms back then were very self sufficient, they had to be. The goal was to raise enough to feed your family and have enoough to sell to buy the few extras you had to have.

Something else she used to make occasionly when we brought a huge hubbard squash from the root cellar was a dish that I never heard her call it by any name. Grandad would take the axe to the hubbard squash and we would have baked squash for a meal but then grandma would grate the raw flesh of a chunk of the squash and blend it with lots of eggs and good portion of our heavy cream and it would go in the old wood burning kitchen range oven, but it sat in a water bath. It wasn't very sweet and don't remember it being served for dessert but as a side dish. It was wonderful however. Don't recall it tasting anything like pumpkin but then 70+ years tends to blur ones memory.

This came up yesterday when Leone mentioned that their standard evening fare was mush and milk one night and potato soup the next with a bean soup once in a while. We essentially had about the same menu for the evening meal. The big meal was at noon but the breakfasts were enormous too. Everything was cooked in lard and bacon grease was the flavoring of choice for eggs and sometimes even a little on a piece of home made bread. Grandad made it to 96 so guess the cholesterol factor didn't make much difference if you worked hard enough

Really would like to know what the ham, dried apple, dumpling thing was called. Would like to try to duplicate it.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

sylviatexas1
17 years ago
Maybe post on the Cooking Forum?

betcha somebody over there will know.

That apricot cobbler sounds heavenly!
in a sort of earthly-delight way...

My grandmother's peach cobbler was the best I ever had.

She used fresh peaches in season & home-canned peaches in the winter, & the crust wasn't like the overly-sweet (probably high-fructose corn syrup-laden) things we have today, it was something like a slightly sweet biscuit dough, with a little sugar & maybe cinnamon sprinkled lightly on the top.

I could make 3 meals a day off that cobbler.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Cooking Forum
mwoods
17 years ago
Gandle,my FIL used to make that and he called it "schnitz and nep" or something like that.I don't speak nor read German nor can I spell it. If DH were here he might know. I'll ask him when he gets back.
Related Discussions
mistakes I have made and wish I could take back
Q
Comments (5)
Don't worry too much about it, learn from your mistake and make sure to not do the same thing again. I could have been worse, and it is just one customer. You can never, no matter how hard you try, make every single customer happy every time. Not to say you shouldn't try, just do not drive yourself crazy doing so. I had a bad similar experience my first year selling, it was I think the second or third time we ever sold at market. Because I work in the mornings I am not able to go to Saturday morning market, so my mom and husband sell. Something happened on that day and (not sure who started it) they started selling things for way cheaper than the prices we had decided to sell them for. When I realized this I was so angry, since especially my mom knew how I felt about doing such a thing. Anyhow after I blew up, I calmed down and told them just to forget about it and never do it again. I was so worried that people would expect to bargain with them. I do not know if any of those people came back expecting lower prices, since I am sure they would not have told me if anyone did. I have had people get huffy about the price of something, and I ended up dropping the price to the point which it is not cheaper anywhere else and they still do not like it. It is just not worth it to get worried about. If they do not like my prices then they can go to someone else who is cheaper and buy it from them. Chances are it will not be as good a quality and they probably will not have the unusual things that I have, but that is their choice.
...See More
Hey - Mr. I wish I could show you guys my cleaning aisle! Faron!
Q
Comments (17)
Ack! dlm, I forgot to post back. First, my gray is a Dove Gray (light). In darker areas it's a mid-level, maybe a battleship gray? Charlie's soap powder form, diluted in water, scrubbed, let it sit, scrubbed again, wiped. Probably got it up to 60%. Then I did a different section with diluted Charlie's soap and Oxyclean scrubbed in on top of that. Let sit maybe 20 min, scrubbed, 'rinsed'. Much better. Not 100% like the light Dove gray at outer perimeters of floor, but easily 80 to 85%. Close enough you have to really be staring at it to see the difference. (Can't get a pic to show it well, shadows from vanity are throwing off grout.) So I'll clean it good that way & immediately seal, and I'll be happy. :) If you want to check it out, I don't know how close this is to you, but if I'm downtown & need some CS I get it Be By Baby (Wrigleyville area). Easy metered parking on side street (I always find a spot - a miracle!). Or you can go to CS website, maybe there's a dealer near you. (Not me, it's either downtown or mail.) I also get through Amazon. Free super saver shipping + $11.50 or so is a good price. (Think it's about $14 at Be By Baby). I wasn't impressed with their bottled spot treatment. For the price I just put a scoop (abt 1TB) of powder in a spray bottle, make my own, works just as well.
...See More
Products I wish I could find in the srocery store
Q
Comments (22)
Like Cheryl, I have a "stock bag" in the freezer. I actually have three. One has chicken parts, carcasses, wing tips, etc. One has beef bones, trimmings and such. One has vegetables. I freeze all the carrot tips, the celery leaves, the "rubbery" outside onion layers, whatever bits and pieces that we don't use or eat. When I have a bag full I make chicken or beef stock. I freeze herbs from my herb garden, grind them in the food processor, add enough olive oil to make a past and freeze them in "plops" on a sheet pan. I do the same thing with tomato paste. I have tomato/herb sauce canned in pints and I just buy a pound of butter in quarters/sticks and freeze them, take one out when I need it. I do the same with yeast, I open one package and keep it in the fridge for daily/regular use and the other goes into the freezer. Somehow, I never seem to have celery or onions go stale or bad, I use them a LOT. It seems like nearly everything I make starts with onions and celery, sometimes garlic and carrots, sautÃ¯Â¿Â½ed and then on to step two, whether it's a sauce, soup, chili, whatever. I do have a problem with peppers going soft quickly, so I cut those into strips and freeze them in ziplock bags, when I want a stir fry I just take a bag out and toss it in the pan. It's going to get all soft and limp anyway when cooked, although they are not good for eating raw after freezer. I also freeze cheese and eggs when I'm getting a lot of them. Just beat them up and freeze in two egg portions, they're fine for baking when the holidays roll around. Cheese, though, you have to be careful how you thaw, it can get crumbly. As cynic mentions, I have no intention of paying a premium so I can get a smaller amount if I can just divide it into portions and freeze it myself for future use. What do I wish I could buy in smaller quantities? Specialty flours like whole wheat pastry flour or cake flour. I use them so seldom and when I need them I have to buy 5 pounds or a box, you'd think I could get a 1 pound bag without going on line and paying more in shipping than I would for the 5 pound bag in the first place. Annie
...See More
I Wish I Could....
Q
Comments (11)
There's no doubt I'm deficient in many ways in the kitchen but the only things I can think of offhand: I get mixed results with dinner rolls, especially if I don't use the breadmaker to mix it up. Biscuits? Forget it. Although I haven't found a biscuit recipe I really like anyway. I do *not* like those baking powder biscuits. They taste about the same as throwing a fistful of flour in your mouth. No thanks. Not even buried in ketchup! LOL I actually *like* the whack-a-mole tube buttermilk biscuits when you put some real butter on them. I've wished I could recreate my mother's dinner rolls but can't. I have had mixed success with other recipes though, but it's the principle of it. I spent a lot of mornings keeping her company while she labored over those golden goodies. And getting 2 or 3 of them hot from the oven and the jar of peanut butter... dang, thems was good eats! One thing took me years to master and it's such a simple thing. Boiling potatoes! They'd either be mush or they'd be undercooked. I never could get the thing timed out. Then, finally, I was careful about the size of the chunks, stood over it and constantly checked and okey dokey, finally mastered one of the simplest of kitchen items. But I come by honestly at least (or so I claim - that's my story and I'm sticking to it). My great-uncle was a lifelong bachelor and one of his favorite dishes was boiled potatoes! My aunt (his niece) always laughed about it. "What *easier* thing is there to make but boiled potatoes?" she's ask. I didn't tell her that (at the time) I couldn't make them either! One other thing, I can't carve very well either but I don't really care! Chop the meat off the bones and dish it up. Other people may "eat with their eyes" but I use my mouth, ergo my tastebuds come into play and foo-foo plated food does not impress me. Usually it's more spaced out so you have less food (therefore less cost which equals more profit) to the restaurant.
...See More
lilod
17 years ago
So sorry - here I am German by birth and I don't know what it is, either. Don't remember ever having eaten it. City girl here missed a lot of good country eating
calliope
17 years ago
My ex's mother, who was of German descent made a dish she just called "Glas". It was a way to use up the "drippings" from fried meats instead of making them into gravy. I was just thinking of this a few days ago as I was hungry for it, and trying to remember exactly how it went, as I haven't made it in years. I may have written it down, but I doubt it. When you mentioned heavy dumplings, that was what zoomed into my mind. Mostly I remember her making it after a squirrel meal, or maybe chicken. She used boiled potatoes, cubed up and diced onions turned into the skillet of fat and then added those wonderful little klunker dumplings and the whole mess was fried. I'm just smiling, as they lived on an eighty acre "subsistance" farm and big breakfasts were necessary to stoke you up for your day ahead. You needed those calories and nobody got fat off of them. I can only remember eating this when it was cold outside. The dumplings were not meant to puff up and be airy. You had to chew them good. LOL.

Now, my g'ma who was English made her puddings boiled in muslin wraps. My father was especially hungry for apple dumplings and one day I attempted to duplicate Grandma's. What a blinking chore to make the pastry and then wrap them. It takes an act of faith to boil a pudding, and it has more to do with being an old receipt than being English. In the old days, it was just easier to wrap them in muslin and boil them on the stove than to take to steaming in those uncertain wood stoked ovens, and she generally cooked for a small army. So, this is how I make my Plum Pudding. My English son in law just raises he eyebrows, because that isn't the way his mother makes her plum pudding. Why? Because my pudding is made the same way it was made by my family a hundred years ago and then some. His mother shared with me she doesn't even make her own anymore. LOL. She buys them. This year I am not making minced meat. I have some still I canned a few years ago and some in my freezer. I still use suet and beef in mine, and that is also something you don't see much anymore. It makes a huge stoneware crock-full and costs a small fortune to steep up a batch. But, when you bite into it, you know you are eating something special.

No,to make a long story short I don't know what you call your dish. But, it's so wonderful to resurrect those old dishes now and again and enjoy them. It should be a hint to anyone who still cooks old family dishes to write it down for posterity. You just never know what generation down the road might want to try it someday.
mwoods
17 years ago
Ok..I googled what I remember it being called and finally found this. It sure sounds like what you are talking about.

schnitz un knepp

[SHNIHTS uhn NEHP] A Pennslyvania Dutch dish of dried apples that are soaked in water before being cooked in that liquid with ham. Spoonfuls of batter are added to the cooking liquid to make dumplings.
gandle
Original Author
17 years ago
Thats it. There was a family that lived about a mile from us that had a very German name. Bet grandma got the recipe from Mrs. Vogel. Going to try to duplicate that recipe. Don't have any idea where you could get a shank ham end like the old home cured ones. Thanks, Marda.
meldy_nva
17 years ago
Gandle, try to get 'smoke-cured' rather than 'salt-cured' for the best flavor. No doubt it's regionalism, but I think a real 'Smithfield' ham (and the bone from it) has more down-home flavor than any other brand available...

I remember eating schnitz undt knepp when I was very small, but I hadn't any memory of what its name was, thanks Marda!
mwoods
17 years ago
Well,truth be told I didn't like it and by word association remembered the name. It was kind of a family joke.

Wish I could remember what it was called.

Comments (8)

sylviatexas1

mwoods

Related Discussions

lilod

calliope

mwoods

gandle
Original Author

meldy_nva

mwoods

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Wish I could remember what it was called.

Comments (8)

sylviatexas1

mwoods

Related Discussions

lilod

calliope

mwoods

gandleOriginal Author

meldy_nva

mwoods

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

gandle
Original Author