Yes! The potatoes /eggs/ bacon...canned pork n beans/bacon/onions...greenbeans/bacon/onion..really good! Those I remember!

Another one: Salmon cakes made with canned salmon.

Tuna casserole.

Cheesy potato soup.

My grandmother's chicken and dumplings. She made the lightest dumplings and a thin white sauce that almost was soup. I don't know if I would like it today, but I remember it fondly.

My mother and I collected all of the family heritage recipes we could. We printed and bound them and distributed them to family members.

My mom cooked a variety of things likely common to middle American homes in the 1950's, nothing too specific to one heritage (mixed European) that I can think of. Spaghetti with red meat sauce, corned beef and cabbage on St Patrick's day. Meat and potatoes meals, pot roast, sirloin tip roast, pork roast, ham, chicken fixed many ways, liver and onions, mac and cheese. I liked them all.

One thing that not everyone else had was home canned razor clams. My grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins all went to the ocean and rented little cabins each year. Everyone dug razor clams, the women cleaned and ground them up and canned them right there in the cabins. In water bath canners! For hours boiling on the stoves. We had many quarts to eat all winter; she'd make clam patties with the drained clams mixed with eggs and saltine crackers and fried in butter. And fabulous clam chowder. She would boil them after opening a jar to kill ?? potential botulism I suppose. I loved drinkng the boiled and cooled clam nectar.

I think it's some kind of miracle none of us ever died.

We had 5 Italan prune trees and she canned quarts and quarts for winter eating. Some of my favorite breakfast memories are of eating a bowl of canned prunes and their beautiful ruby colored sauce.

My heritage foods are Middle Eastern or Russian Jewish (though they were from Prussia and Lithuania). When I was a kid, Chumus (not "hum-us") and Pitot (plural pita) were looked at suspiciously by our peers. 😝 I can make felafel but don't enjoy it--great from a good felafel stand. That's another that has progressed from the weird to the mainstream--I guess popularized by vegans. More people in general ate lamb, but that--especially kebabs--was also considered weird. On the Euro side, it was cooked spinach served with sour cream and chopped egg (so good!), blintzes (used to be easy--now I have to make the cheese), borscht (beet soup) and tschav (sorrel soup). And stuffed cabbage, but I think many people make it similarly. Oh, and pirushki (fried meat pockets), but I never learned to make them. My more Cental European grandmother made kugels and gefilte fish. The former were okay but the latter was rave worthy. Unfortunately, just the fumes of cooking fish gives me allergic reaction, though I can eat a little if it's cold. No one in the family makes it anymore. And one of the keys is the abolute freshness of the right fish, and I'd be clueless even if I could cook it.

What fun to read these childhood food memories. My father’s side of family was French & Irish, my mom’s side German, French & Norwegian. Our food was a trip around the world at holiday time! My mom was a terrific cook and baker. She was very creative and had to be to feed us on a strict and low budget. Oly is right that it’s some kind of miracle none of us died - if not from food processing issues then from really clogged arteries at a very young age! 😁 But gosh food tasted good then didn’t it?

Lithuanian Catholic and Jewish heritage here - my grandma made cheese dumplings with sour cream and butter called 'vitynes'(sp?) and potato kugels, and potato pancakes were always served with sour cream - no applesauce. We also had lots of matzoh ball soup, gefilte fish, and sweet noodle kugels I would pick the raisins out of.

I remember my mom often made sweet & sour red cabbage, salmon croquettes with canned salmon, stuffed cabbage and boiled tongue too. We had beets with orange sauce - or in borscht.

My mom's stuffed cabbage was sweet and sour and not a fave. I also recall eating lots of fish sticks - always with vinegar.

Frozen TV dinners were a special treat for us back then 😄

And we made 'fried' bologna by broiling it in the toaster oven - mayo is a must, for sure 🙂

I don't remember any grandmother's meals. I'm sure I had some, but they died when I was quite young. My mother was the best cook and even took cooking lessons when she was first married. She was the perfect 50s housewife with a homecooked meal every day of the week, but we did go out for dinner after church on Sunday. There was a lot of pork and sauerkraut and pot roast, but the best dinner she ever made was her homemade chicken and waffles. Roasted chicken with gravy, or you could have maple syrup on the homemade waffles. She had the iron right beside our table and kept making them throughout dinner.

I agree it is a miracle none of us died. Both of my parents worked, and I came home to an empty house after school starting about 10 years old. I think they would consider that child abuse today.

I remember Harvard beets. So yummy! I put a splash of vinegar on mine.

Chicken and biscuits was my favorite. It was like a chicken gravy with peas and carrots over biscuits.

Lots of tuna noodle casserole, meatloaf (ick! that was peanut butter sandwich night for me), spaghetti, and other pretty mundane stuff. My dad got home about an hour earlier than my mom, and he almost always made/ started dinner. He was the cook during the week, mom did weekends. Dad was better. He made a really, really good apple pie too, crust from scratch and all.

Both my parents emigrated from England to Canada.

Roast beef with one pan Yorkshire pudding, pork and lamb with mint sauce, chicken with bread sauce, cream crackers with sliced ice cold butter, steak and kidney pie, trifle, fish paste sandwiches. My mother made her version of pizza using cheddar cheese and tinned tomatoes. I’m not sure where that came from but it was really good.

And chocolates….lots of chocolates at anytime.

Every piece of bread had to have butter on it…..sandwiches, no matter what kind, hotdog buns, hamburger buns….if it was bread, it had butter on it.

All grandparents died before I was 5, so I don't remember eating at their houses. But my Mom and my aunts kept some traditions of their mom. Sunday was always fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, coleslaw and home canned green beans. I once asked why we never ate with or invited aunts families over for Sunday dinner. She laughed and said "they are all making the same Sunday dinner."

I remember Mom and my aunts talking about Grandma frying 3 chickens for Sunday dinner, and then sending left over fried chicken in all the kids lunches on Mondays and Tuesdays. No refrigeration for lunches back then. How did no one get sick?

Early US settlers here - eventually made their way west to Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri -

"heritage" meals: white beans and cornbread with a slice of onion; fried catfish with hushpuppies and a slice of onion; anything from the garden: tomatoes, green beans, peas; buttered white bread with a side of garden veggies. Very little meat.

oooo....I remember the white beans over cornbread. Served with diced onion and a splash of vinegar.

I never gave it much thought but I guess heritage dishes from my ancestry had pretty much faded away by my parents' generation. The "regulars" on the dinner table were typical broadly American, non-regional foods of the time. My mother subscribed to several magazines that had recipes in them (among other things) and between those and the recipes in the newspaper that she would keep an eye out for, that was what supplemented her and our favorites at home.

She was an adventurous eater who liked variety and so I think we tended to eat a more diverse list of things than other families did. Pretty regularly, her pursuit of variety involved our going to a restaurant. I think that was because doing so was easier for her than taking the trouble to learn how to do different preparations herself.

No regular daily rotations, no repeating holiday dishes other than turkey for Thanksgiving.

My mother's interest and enjoyment of eating a wide diversity of foods was passed along to us kids and I appreciate that. We did the same with our kids.

My maternal grandparents were Scandinavian and paternal were Welsh. I don’t have much memory of good cooking from either with the exception of my maternal grandmother’s pies. I do recall some pretty weird Norwegian items my grandparents would eat. Not much of that appealed to me. My mom, OTOH, was a very good basic cook. I loved things like her stews, pot roasts, ribs and lots of casseroles. She made something called City Chicken that was actually breaded pork on skewers. Also, her Scandinavian egg coffee was good. I think of her cooking as somewhat typical Midwestern being from Nebraska. LOL, I do remember lots of Jell-O salads.

I forgot about the ubitquitous jello salads - at every single gathering no matter the season or the location! The aspic salads were a close relative to jello salads. I steered clear of both - I couldn’t tolerate the texture or the look of them let alone their jiggly states. When I was old enough to learn what gelatin is made of I had more even reasons to strictly avoid that food!

" I do recall some pretty weird Norwegian items my grandparents would eat "

Ah yes. My parents had close friends who were immigrants from Sweden. During the holiday season (but not Xmas eve or day), we'd go to their home for a traditional dinner. It was always Lutefisk! With boiled potatoes and some kind of berry sauce. I did come to like it, it was different.

I loved my grandmother's chopped liver, and she'd send me home with my own dixie cup full. I grew up in a small midwestern town, but my mom was from New Orleans and she did her best to replicate some of the foods with what was available in the stores. She made Oysters Rockefeller using tinned oysters, in shells that she washed and re-used. When she could get artichokes, she made them with bread stuffing (still my favorite.) My favorite sandwich, I learned from my dad -- plain bread with good aged cheddar and a slice of sweet raw onion. I recently found out that a Russian friend eats the same kind of sandwich, so maybe my dad learned it from his dad.

My parents were also British immigrants so I grew up with many of the same foods as did roxsolid. I only encountered midwestern/dust bowl/heartland food after marrying DH with his Missouri childhood and his midwestern family. First time I encountered grits, fried catfish, lots of casseroles.

“It was always Lutefisk!”

Yes, I remember it well, along with the brown cheese (Brunost) that was always on the table. No thanks.

Oh, yes! The Jell-o salads! Ubiquitous! My one auntie who rarely hosted or cooked (when she did, I don't know how much was her own effort) regularly made and brought a really delicious mold, the recipe for which she took to her grave, but she could make it giant to serve the whole clan. It was pretty, too, not the clear, bright colored plastic-looking whith chunky floaters you'd see in the advertisements.

My mother's special clan-sized one was cole slaw just held together with Jell-o. The unsweetened kind, She did add a little sweet--a lot of people use something sweet in cole slaw anyway--but it was minimal. This was a great boon to our buffets. Far less drip than other dressed salads, and even so drips could often be lifted, being gelled, rather than becoming wet messes. It didn't roll off the plate or drip into the other food. And people LOVED it! She kept buying bigger molds and bigger serving trays, the last of which only fit in the cupboard over an oven, so my father engineered a sling with bungees and hooks to the bottom of the shelf, taking advantage of the headroom while not giving over the storage space. The cole slaw mold was tangy and refreshing and went with a surprising variety of meals. I made it once, in miniature, for a lunch I made for friends from an organization. It came out just like from my childhood. They pushed it around politely. I guess it's an acquired taste. 😂 The family sure acquired the taste for it!

But there were other Jell-o salads that were good, and pretty, and nice on a buffet. They get forgotten in the over-sugared day-glo monstrosities of their bretheren.

“I guess it's an acquired taste. 😂”

Could be! I admit to really liking a couple versions my mom made often. My favorite was with frozen raspberries, apple sauce and raspberry Jell-O. The other was the viral one then with strawberry Jell-O, strawberries and a sour cream layer in the middle. LOL, I’m tempted now to make the raspberry one again. Been a long time!

I liked the jello mold my mom made with mandarin oranges.

What I miss the most is my mom's pan fried chicken cooked in an electric skillet. I gave up trying to duplicate it and just use the deep fryer now.

LJ, yes, my mom made one with them, too. I think there were endless versions of Jell-O. I recall one with, I think, lime Jell-O that was creamy with cottage cheese in it.

I’m a tiny bit sorry I seem to have started the trip down the jell-o memory lane since I’m traveling back with you as I read. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣 But, LoneJack’s mention of his mom’s fried chicken in the electric skillet brought some really yummy memories of my mom’s creations using her electric skillet. That has to be the most useful kitchen utensil ever invented! I don’t have one now but I did in my early marriage cooking days.

My mom made fried fish with matzoh meal in an electric skillet. My fave treat was the fritters she's make from the leftover meal and eggs.

Her meatloaf specialty, and a family fave, was to make it in a bombe form in a large shallow pan and surround it with rice, which would absorb all the juices and get nice and crispy.

My dad's family was from England, so tea and imported biscuits in large tins were a big part of our diet too. Those empty tins were a big part of life as well, we kept them and stored all kinds of things in them.

Our meals were always meat and three (fried meat) except on Sunday we had pot roast cooked with potatoes and carrots, rice on the side. Sunday supper was what Dad called hash. Brown onions, add the leftover dinner, chopped, and add Woostershire sauce. Every meal had those dinner rolls in a paper tray.

My maternal grandmother lived just outside Mobile and we had shrimp, oysters, and blue crab when we visited. She always roasted the turkey for Thanksgiving and Christmas and made oyster dressing.

Jello was made with fruit cocktail and served with Cool Whip.

Every Sunday we watched Disney, whatever 30 minute show in the middle, and Bonanza.

ETA: I was 15 before I had anything Italian, pizza, and a couple years after that before Mexican. Married and in Huntsville before Chinese, lol.

Oh yes, carol. We had all kinds of tins from biscuits. One (a smaller one) was full of buttons. We had a huge blue one, with a scene of Trafalgar Square on the lid that my mother put homemade cookies in.

Another thing that I remember is that cereal had to be hot. We ate a lot of porridge and shredded wheat which were called Muffets.

The funny thing, though, was that my mother carried the hot milk on cereal over to boxed cereal. I was at a sleepover at a friends house, and we had Rice Krispies for breakfast and had it with cold milk. Well!!!, that was an eye opening experience when I discovered that they really did snap, crackle and pop

This is my mom’s old button box. I think it was from some kind of candy. It’s still a great little box to keep pins and thread and needles in.

Wew! Different heritage foods, but the same Jell-o and button box memories. :) My mother's tin might have been from candies or dried fruit or something--it's exceedingly beautiful, patterned and embossed. The kitchen bandaids have always been in a Swee-touch-nee tin. :)

Sharps were famous for toffee. They no longer exist.

We had the Trafalgar Square biscuit tin too. We didn't get tins of biscuits at home. Far too expensive. But I think that one came from a school staffroom. We only had packets. And not many of them.

Mother's favorite summer dinner, when Dad was away, was crisp bacon, lima beans, summer tomatoes and corn bread. He wasn't a fan, but he traveled fairly often on business, so this was for Mother and the kids.

Mom's parents had passed before I was old enough to know them, and I don't recall ever eating at Dad's parents house. Mom was an excellent cook, though she didn't make pies that i recall. She always said that her mother made excellent pies (her father's favourite dessert) but not cakes, and Mom made cake but not pies. Her go-to was German chocolate cake, which I was so tired of that on my birthday I always wanted a white cake with white icing :-D I'm still not terribly fond of chocolate cake.

The thing I remember most (beside Christmas cookies) was leftover spaghetti for lunch, which she heated up in a frying pan. I loved it, and I've never really successfully replicated it.

My grandma could throw together a from-scratch pie in minutes, and her crusts were always perfect - I think she used Crisco or similar.

That's the expertise that comes from experience. Pie really is easy as pie once you know how to make pie. :)

There is a substantial blackberry thicket nearby. It's a little early yet, but Im gearing up!

“My grandma could throw together a from-scratch pie in minutes…”

Mine too and her crusts were so flaky and good. She used lard which was more about the texture but they really did taste good. I remember she called it ”Hot Water Pie Crust.” DH still talks about her pies. The strawberry/rhubarb was especially killer.

The strawberry/rhubarb was especially killer.

You might want to reword that in this day of killer produce :-) LOL

LoneJack - 😄 Well done.

As long as her name isn't Taylor, I'd eat it. 😆

Hot water crust is a very easy pastry which only involves melting the fat in water. No rubbing in. It is hard to roll but can be molded like putty. I use it for deep savoury pies. For shallow pies I use short crust which takes a bit longer as it needs rubbing in and can be rolled out.

“You might want to reword that in this day of killer produce.”

Good point!🤭

I use different crusts for different pies, but only easy ones. The FP crust from a KF friend is always perfect, right sized for my pie plates,, easy to handle and tastes good. For a thin crust (my preference always) it can be flaky or not depending on the flour. I have a fairly similar FP recipe for whole grain wheat, which is delicious, especially with sweeter, heavier fillings like fig. And I have Stella from Searious Eats no equipment recipe where you squish the butter like popping bubble wrap rather than using a pastry blender (I keep mine as an object of derision) or rubbing in. It's larger and well suited to fluted edges, appliqués made from the trimmings, etc. And only recipes measuring and a butter knife. And it's really good. The larger pieces of butter make for flakier flakes.

Something I've read up on is making a laminated pie crust. That's where the pastry flakes up in sheets, like a laminated biscuit. It's easy enough. Butter fold and turn like for any laminated dough, but it gets a lot of handling, so I think it also requires pastry flour. Too much bother for "easy as pie" but not actually hard, just fussy.

Filling: clean fruit. Cut if needed. Roll in sugar--a little or a lot, your choice. Add a little tapioca flour (or cornstarch or arrowroot if you don't have tapioca) to gel the juice. Add some spices, zest, whatever flavoring you like, but go easy. For custard think quiche and add sugar to taste (you can zap a spoonful to taste the mix). For chocolate, use your favorite recipe for pudding, mousse, firm ganache or fudge. Or heat chips or broken up chocolate in the blind baked pie shell until just soft, spread evenly in the shll, and fill with chocolate whipped cream. I also have a good recipe for chocolate pie crust, which is easy to make with premium cocoa powder. But really, the filling is just fun. Most will work.

All my pie crusts are the Crisco recipe. I tried lard one time and hated the taste. It tasted like barbecue pork!

I think that laminated pie crust is similar to what we'd call rough puff pastry.

I don't own a FP or a pastry blender so for short crust I rub the fat into the flour by hand.

Floral, I hate using a pastry blender and mine is one of the "good" wire ones. Rubbing in is tried and true and always works. The Stella recipe, however, with the bubble wrap pinch, is a heck of a lot more fun if you're using butter. ;)

ETA: I've never fully understood rough puff, but it sounds like regular pie crust, which I know it is not. Laminated pie dough, in my ken, is regular pie dough that is rolled, dots of butter scattered, folded, rolled, repeat. Puff is laminated dough, as is croissant. It's basicanny lywood where butter is the glue, ;)

I love my pastry blender!

I made a mistake. Your laminated pastry sounds like puff pastry where butter is dotted on the surface. In rough puff you rub the butter in but leave it a bit lumpy. The lamination is achieved by turning and rolling the dough a few times. Personally I don't make either since they contain twice as much fat as short crust.

But pie is different from puff. The latter starts with a block of butter in the middle. And the dots of butter are tiny, just to make more puckets between the folds. Lumpy butter is more like the Stella. I'll have to do some more research. :) I've only ever done butter crusts. I don't like the flavor of vegetable shortening, and lard just isn't in my repertoire.

My favorite crust recipes above use 6-8 TBSP butter to about a cup of flour. American butter--82% butterfat. The higher water content helps the flaky as it steams. Stella's uses more.

I make pâte brisée mostly, and sometimes sub olive oil for half - or all - the butter.

Pâte brisé is known as short crust pastry here. It's my default for pies too and I usually use butter. The proportions are half the weight of fat to flour.

Puff and rough puff pastry are different. They use equal weights of fat and flour.

I’ve used Martha Stewart’s pâte brisée for years for both sweet and savory pies. I’ve sometimes made it with part butter/part shortening. I tend to use Ina G’s all butter crust for crostatas/galettes (the one in her Apple Crostata recipe).