Become Competent at Making Traditional Foods
I recently had the opportunity to do an interview with Radio Canada’s Chris St. Pierre during which I was asked about how people can get started making traditional foods. Christmas is one of those times of the year when traditions abound and people may leave family and friend gatherings with the resolve that, this year, they’ll learn to make so-and-so’s famous dessert or meal or whatever. This might also be a time when people remember foods that have fallen out of practice and determine to bring it back.
You can catch that episode here: “nos repas traditionnels du temps des fêtes.”
When we talked, Chris asked for tips and tricks for getting started with these types of traditional food-related resolutions and I thought it’d be a good idea to expand on them in this first post of the year.
1. Talk to the people who are still making these foods
Talking to the people who make the food you love is one of the best ways to gain knowledge about the food, and, as importantly, to understand the people who have made the food and the context in which the tradition started.
For example, it wasn’t until I started doing research on my family’s traditional foods that I realized just how many traditions my Oma started when she came to Canada. I realized that the typical meal we eat at Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter, for example, is something that has evolved as the family got bigger (they used to eat duck instead of turkey). I also realized that some of my favourite desserts come from magazines my mother read when she was in your twenties.
So, my romantic assumption about our traditions having a long history that spanned multiple generations was often false. Through talking about the foods with the people who make them, I learnt a lot about the ways in which my grandparents and parents were raised, what food products were available to them, how food made moments special… The conversations are so important and so, when and if it’s possible, the best way to really learn about your food is to talk about it.
2. Apprentice in other people’s kitchens
Closely related to tip 1, I strongly recommend, when possible, that you go make the food with the person or people who make it. Getting instructions in writing or over the phone (or even via FaceTime) is one thing, but being in the space with the person is something completely different.
In her chapter “Foodmaking as Thoughtful Practice” in Cooking, Eating, Thinking: Transformative Philosophies of Food, Lisa Heldke reminds us that there is a big difference between “knowing” and “doing” when it comes to food. While one can know in theory what kneading looks like and what ingredients go in a cake, being able to make both happen successfully is very different. As she explains: “‘knowing’ retains separation between inquirer and inquired, while ‘doing’ breaches this separation… ‘[K]nowing’ aims at producing timeless truths about unchanging realities, whereas ‘doing’ is concerned with the transitory, the perishable, the changeable” (204).
People who have a lot of practice with a given recipe understand it. They know what to look for and can troubleshoot issues as they arise. For example, when I made my first tourtières, they turned out really dry and mealy. After talking to my mother and going to make some with her, I learnt that a good meat pie needs texture and that butchers around Christmas purposely grind some meat bigger so people can make their tourtières successfully. I also realized just how important the leanness of the meat, over mixing, and the water are for the success of the recipe.
So, if you are going to make traditional food that turns out, going to make the food with the “expert” is a great way to ensure success so you can learn both the theory and the practice, what Helke calls “thoughtful practice.”
*For more on this topic, also check out Kathy Neustadt’s Clambake: A History and Celebration of an American Tradition in which she analyses the difference between the theory and the practice of a clambake.
3. Not all cheating is bad
When I was interviewing for my PhD, I had one woman share with me that she would give anything to taste real butter again. When I asked her what that meant, she explained that “real” butter is the butter they made on the farm from the milk they got and churned from their own cows.
I use this story to remind myself and others that traditional foods exist when they can continue, but that authentically recreating foods is difficult, sometimes impossible. If we decide that we won’t continue a tradition because it doesn’t taste or look exactly the same, then traditions will die faster than they need to.
In our fast-paced, commercialized, and industrialized world, people get their ingredients from all over. Most people don’t live on farms. They aren’t butchering their own animals and making their own sausage or head cheese. People living in the city don’t have plots for growing the large amount of vegetables needed for canning or pickling.
So, if one needs to take a shortcut like buying a premade pie crust or picking up some already-made jam, I think we need to cut ourselves some slack. In the end, even if it doesn’t taste exactly the same, isn’t better that the food survives?
4. Don’t take yourself too seriously – making food requires some element of trial and error
My final tip plays on tip 3 in that while shortcuts and “cheats” absolutely exist and are often necessary, few things are rarely perfect the first time one tries them. Food making, as mentioned above, is an example of “thoughtful practice.” It requires trial and error and a bit of stamina and resilience and resolve.
So, if you wish you knew how to make your mother’s famous cake or your grandpa’s best pork chop, then try it out! And then try again and again and until you get it as right as you can.
I wanted to take a moment to thank Radio Canada’s support with my work! Here are some of the interviews I’ve done with Radio Canada over the years:
Have you tried any old family recipes and want to share your experience? I’d love to hear about your experiences!
I can be reached at franglischfoods@hotmail.com or on Instagram @franglisch_foods
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