Museum Foodies: The Lynchburg Museum System Shares Our Favorite Food Traditions, Part Four
We think the holidays are a good time to reflect on something that connects people from all walks of life -- food. Read this series to discover a grandmother’s biscuit recipe, a dog’s favorite treat, and other food memories we treasure.
History is not just stories from long ago. We believe traditions are a kind of present-day history, so we would love to hear your favorite food traditions, too. Comment below or tag us on social media. How are you making local history?
Just (Family) Desserts
By Emily Kubota, Curator
Like Emily K’s family table, the desserts in this Lynchburg Parks and Recreation pie eating contest are seemingly never-ending
When I think of family food traditions, my thoughts always go towards desserts. Every holiday celebrated with my maternal family involves cakes, pies, cookies, and everything in between. It’s an unspoken rule that store-bought goodies are never allowed and everything must be made from scratch, otherwise the sarcastic comments will haunt you for years to come. My mom and her siblings are usually the ones who prepare the many, many desserts. One year, they served a chocolate cake that had several pounds of white chocolate in the icing alone! I shudder to think about the amount of sugar in the cake’s entirety. There have been some true masterpieces, like the immaculate squash pie, or the famous fruit “pizza” (sugar cookie crust, with a layer of sugary cream cheese and strawberry glaze, then topped by mountains of fruit) that is served all day, every day. But the most entertaining desserts have been created by mistakes.
For example, one Thanksgiving it was up to my sister and cousin to make the pumpkin ice cream pie. Making a frozen pie from scratch comes with some obstacles, as the ice cream filling and crust have very different timelines; the ice cream is created but not frozen until the crust is ready. The crust must be baked and then cooled enough to pour in the ice cream. Once everything is assembled, the pie needs to have time to freeze before being served. Something in my sister’s and cousin’s schedules did not add up, and when the pie was set on the table, hilarity ensued. A piece of pie would be cut and removed, and slowly but surely the remaining ice cream (not yet frozen) would fill up the empty space. It was a pie that never ended! That pie was made over 20 years ago and not a Thanksgiving goes by without someone longing for the days of the miracle pie.
Cardamom and the Confluence of Traditions
By Amy & Bailey Marshall, Museum Volunteers
The Marshall family “fatigman” cookie cutter
The tang of cardamom, the sweetness of lefse, these are some of our memories growing up in Minnesota, which is a very long way from Virginia. But the scent of the right spices brings back our German grandmother (and great-grandmother) Rose, as she clips back the hair of her grandchildren with the never ending supply of clips in her pocket, before letting them help. We all carry these memories, the smells and tastes of childhood.
Our family has grown up in three different states, Minnesota, Ohio and for the last ten years in Virginia, and we’ve learned that food is magic when it comes to bringing people together. For example, in Virginia we learned to love corn pudding at Thanksgiving.
But we also have our own traditions. In our house we love lefse, a flat Norwegian potato bread that is smeared with butter and sugar then rolled. It can be tricky to find it in Virginia. (Food Of All Nations in the freezer section, sometimes.) It is possible to make, but you have to have the right touch and a special rolling pin, neither of which we have, so most years our Minnesota family ships us some.
While we may not make our own lefse we do make “fatigman,” a Norwegian cardamom cookie rolled with a special cutter. But our very favorite are “pfeffernusse,” a German cookie with lots of spices and even more cardamom. The dough sits for two weeks (yes -- weeks) to let them cure before baking. They taste amazing, especially with coffee in the morning. But one of the best parts of joining new communities is adding to our collection of food memories. So if we add a little peach brandy, thanks to our neighbor, to our coffee to have with that pfeffernusse, it only makes it that much better.