I have been thinking about the things we keep using because they work. A cast iron skillet. A recipe written in somebody's handwriting. They get better when we take care of them, and they carry a little history with them.
Miss Kathy got me
The cast iron video reached 29,403 views this week. Miss Kathy saw her chance and took it. Based on the comments, most of you gave the joke to her. Fair enough.
The part I liked was where the conversation went after the joke. One greenhorn uses cast iron every day. Another has had good results with flax oil. Somebody else uses leftover strained bacon fat. A few people warned about the smoke and said they heat the skillet outside. That is the useful part of sharing this stuff. I can show what I do, then people who have been doing it for years bring their own experience to the table.
This week on YouTube
The newest video is about why South Carolina still feels like home to me. The comments came in from South Carolina, Texas, Arizona, and Northern Ireland. People also brought up the heat, humidity, hurricanes, rising home prices, and the learning curve that comes with growing in the South. You can watch the whole video here.
Save the whole recipe
An old recipe card usually has more on it than ingredients and directions. There may be a name at the top, a change written in the margin, or one little instruction that everybody in the family already understood. Those details are part of the recipe.
Here is a simple way to preserve one before the card gets harder to read. Start with the title exactly as it was written. Copy every ingredient with its amount, even when the amount looks odd. Keep the steps in their original order. If the card says to cook something until it looks or feels a certain way, keep those words. That kind of cue can be more useful than a time from a clock.
Then read it once as if you had never eaten the dish. Look for the knowledge that lived in the cook's head. What size pan did they use. Was the oven already hot. Did they mean a level spoonful or a heaping one. Write those answers as notes when somebody in the family still remembers them. If nobody knows, leave the question with the recipe. A question is better than a made up answer.
Finally, keep the original card. A clean copy is useful in the kitchen. The handwriting, stains, crossed out words, and notes still belong together. Take a clear picture in good light so you have another copy if the paper gives out.
In the app
Garden-to-Table Companion can now scan a handwritten or printed recipe card. The title, ingredients, and steps go into the recipe editor, where you can check them and fill in the family details that a card may leave out. It saves the typing and still gives you a chance to make sure every amount and instruction came through correctly. You can get Garden-to-Table Companion here.
The app also holds the number one App Store search result for “garden to table.” Forty two people downloaded it this week. I am grateful that more greenhorns are finding it.
From the comments
One person asked, “How do you clean it after each use so that it leaves more seasoning?” That is a good question. The biggest thing is to clean the skillet while the mess is still manageable, dry it all the way, and give it a very thin coat of fat before it goes back on the shelf. If it looks greasy, there is too much. Heat helps finish the drying. Stay with the skillet while it is on the heat. One commenter shared a hard lesson after leaving a burner on for hours, and that story is worth remembering.
Last week I asked how many jars of marinara you put up. I do not have a reader count worth sharing yet, so I am leaving that question open.
This week, choose one family recipe card and preserve the whole thing, including the notes that only make sense to your family.