# Old recipes on those 3x5 cards  - bust 'em out



## jd_1138 (Mar 15, 2018)

Wife dug this old recipe card for me to cook tonight (had the neighbor over).  It's labeled "Jessie's BBQ Isaly's Recipe".  Jessie is a friend from 30 years ago.  I could barely read the card it was so yellowed.

Pound of Isaly's chopped ham (have deli cut it super thin -- almost transparent) or another brand of chopped ham
jar of chili sauce
half cup of brown sugar
quarter cup vinegar
teaspoon yellow mustard

Combine all the ingredients except the ham in a pan and bring to a slight boil, then turn down the heat and let the sauce thicken for about 20 minutes, then add the ham (break it into small pieces as you drop into the sauce.  Then heat thoroughly about another 5 minutes.  Serve on fresh buns with a pickle on the side.







This Isaly's chopped ham is super popular around here in NE Ohio.  I think they had a chain of delis/convenience stores as well as their meats.  It was a treat to get one of these sandwiches and ice cream.  Wife remembers going there as a kid a lot. I am from out west, so I didn't grow up with this.  The Isaly's stores are closed but they still sell the meat.

The sandwiches are delicious. Yummy.






I guess this was the official recipe for this sandwich.  But they are very similar.


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## JustJoel (Mar 16, 2018)

jd_1138 said:


> Wife dug this old recipe card for me to cook tonight (had the neighbor over).  It's labeled "Jessie's BBQ Isaly's Recipe".  Jessie is a friend from 30 years ago.  I could barely read the card it was so yellowed.
> 
> Pound of Isaly's chopped ham (have deli cut it super thin -- almost transparent) or another brand of chopped ham
> jar of chili sauce
> ...


This is so cool! But adding paprika “for color?” How odd is that (probably not very, but I use paprika, sweet or smoked, for flavor, not color!)?


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## RPCookin (Mar 16, 2018)

JustJoel said:


> This is so cool! But adding paprika “for color?” How odd is that (probably not very, but I use paprika, sweet or smoked, for flavor, not color!)?



Adding paprika to dredging flour to get a richer golden color on fried foods is quite common.  A sprinkle on deviled eggs is also mostly for appearance.


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## blissful (Mar 16, 2018)

I picked up some fresh (to my spice selection) very finely ground paprika on Amazon. It has amazing color and my other paprika's don't. I use it in choriso and it makes the meat and oil a deep orange/red. I think it has to do with the type of paprika you find/make.

Dh doesn't do hot peppers so I made paprika from grinding pimento peppers which are not hot. It was great but didn't color food as strongly as the stuff I bought.


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## dragnlaw (Mar 16, 2018)

*Homestead Jellied Salad*

too funny! 

Last week I came across this in my old recipe box - I looked up the history trying to find "Mixed Vegetable Jelly Powder".  As near as I can figure it is from the 50's and 60'sl.   Recommend for curious minds to look up the history of 
Jell-O.  I found it an interesting read.


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## Kayelle (Mar 16, 2018)

JD, I also love exploring old recipes, and I have many from my family. I've posted this remarkable website before but you may not have seen it. If you really want to get lost in a rabbit hole of old recipes, check it out. 

RecipeCurio.com


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## Caslon (Mar 16, 2018)

I recently re-wrote down my recipes  on 3x5 index cards, then had them laminated at Office Depot. I don't have 100, more like 10.  Over the years they'd gotten stuff on them.


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## buckytom (Mar 16, 2018)

When one of my uncles passed away a few years ago, I was tasked with going to his apartment in Brooklyn to empty it out. While it was a bittersweet job, I was happy to find my aunt's (who had passed back in the 70s) old binder full of recipes: some clipped from magazines, some scribbled on index cards, and some beaurifully handwritten full pages as well.

I had hoped to find some really old family recipes from Ireland, Norway, and Scotland.

It was when I got home and finally got to look at a lot of the contents of the binder to find that most of the recipes were shortcut type instructions using canned this, and processed mixes of that. It was like it was written by Campbells, Knorr, and Best Foods/CPC.

When I asked my mom about Aunt Betty's cookbooks, she laughed and said that it was typical of the nuclear age family of the 50s and 60s, and Aunt Betty was not known for her culinary expertise.

So much for family heirlooms and handed down knowledge, although I will always cherish the memories of what a great aunt and uncle they were.


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## Andy M. (Mar 16, 2018)

My family didn't know what a written recipe was. As much as my mom was a great cook, she hated to cook.  If you wanted to learn a recipe, you watched her make it.

Mom taught my older sister her recipes.  Sis taught me.  Some I worked out on my own and with the help of some Armenian cookbooks.


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## larry_stewart (Mar 16, 2018)

My mom was in a charity organization ( and still is), and to raise money back in the day ( in the 70's), each member would give one of their favorite recipes.  They then made a cookbook filled with a recipe from each member ( or whoever decided to contribute).  I was young at the time, so I didn't really appreciate it much, but now when I look at it, I see lists of recipes from family members and old family friends ( many of whom are no longer with us).  So not only is it a trip down memory lane, its almost like a snapshot of that time in my life.


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## Kayelle (Mar 16, 2018)

buckytom said:


> When one of my uncles passed away a few years ago, I was tasked with going to his apartment in Brooklyn to empty it out. While it was a bittersweet job, I was happy to find my aunt's (who had passed back in the 70s) old binder full of recipes: some clipped from magazines, some scribbled on index cards, and some beaurifully handwritten full pages as well.
> 
> I had hoped to find some really old family recipes from Ireland, Norway, and Scotland.
> 
> ...



Bucky, I remember well how in the early '50's my grumbling Dad had to make room in his frozen food case to sell the new "Swanson's TV Dinners".
He was not happy, and I don't think he ever ate one. Remember for the fist time women were going outside the home to work and everything then was about shortcuts and convenience. After looking at so many recipes from that era, I'm convinced for the most part, the recipes of the day were almost always like Aunt Betty's.


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## Cooking Goddess (Mar 17, 2018)

JustJoel said:


> This is so cool! But adding paprika “for color?”...


We've always sprinkled a bit across the top of potato salad, egg salad, deviled eggs for color in my family as long as I can remember. In fact, I made potato salad Thursday night for Friday's supper...


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## dragnlaw (Mar 17, 2018)

Kayelle said:


> . If you really want to get lost in a rabbit hole of old recipes, check it out.
> 
> RecipeCurio.com



I finally woke from my tranced state and climbed out of the rabbit hole - don't know whether to say 'thanks' or 'tarnation'!


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## dragnlaw (Mar 17, 2018)

TV Dinners!     My mom actually bought a few, don't really remember why but with a family of 5 kids it wasn't economical nor practical.  

My brother would come home from school - heat up 3 of them and woof them down as a snack.  Don't think there was ever again any in the freezer!


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## buckytom (Mar 17, 2018)

Kayelle said:


> Bucky, I remember well how in the early '50's my grumbling Dad had to make room in his frozen food case to sell the new "Swanson's TV Dinners".
> He was not happy, and I don't think he ever ate one. Remember for the fist time women were going outside the home to work and everything then was about shortcuts and convenience. After looking at so many recipes from that era, I'm convinced for the most part, the recipes of the day were almost always like Aunt Betty's.




Interesting. I never thought of the working woman aspect. Aunt Betty was a full time labor/delivery nurse in Bay Ridge hospital. 
In fact, my mom was in labor all night with me, and she helped delivered me just after my dad had gone home to get my siblings off to school in the morning. She even started to fill out my birth certificate with the name Angus, a name she liked from her family in Scotland. When she called my dad to tell him the news, he raced back to the hospital and renamed me, lol.


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## Andy M. (Mar 17, 2018)

“BuckyAngus”. Kinda has a nice ring to it.


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## buckytom (Mar 17, 2018)

Lol, just be sure you remember the *G*.


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## Kayelle (Mar 17, 2018)

JustJoel said:


> This is so cool! But adding paprika “for color?” How odd is that (probably not very, but I use paprika, sweet or smoked, for flavor, not color!)?



Joel, before I came here the only reason I used paprika was for color on top of food. Like CG, I always use it on potato salads and deviled eggs, and it works visual browning wonders sprinkled on the topping of buttered Panko bread crumbs for a casserole, not to mention fish.
After visiting Hungary a few years ago I'm passionate about Chicken Paprikash. My recipe for it is somewhere around here. 

PS..looked up the recipe in case anyone is interested. I need to make this again soon.
http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f15/kayelles-chicken-paprikash-70254.html


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## RPCookin (Mar 17, 2018)

dragnlaw said:


> TV Dinners!     My mom actually bought a few, don't really remember why but with a family of 5 kids it wasn't economical nor practical.
> 
> My brother would come home from school - heat up 3 of them and woof them down as a snack.  Don't think there was ever again any in the freezer!



We didn't have the money for TV dinners on a regular basis, even though Mom had to work after my father took off and left us.  Most of the time we still had home cooking, albeit many such weekday evening meals were of the quickly prepared type.  For some meals I was old enough (age 10 when my father left, until 14 when Mom remarried, a much better husband and father the second time  ) to start some baked potatoes or other simple items so that Mom had a bit less to do when she got home.

But we did have Swanson's every now and then, and I saw that as a special occasion - a luxury.  For a hungry growing boy, being able to "cook" my own dinner (and for my younger brother and sister) on an evening when Mom was planning to be late was a maturing experience for me.  I'd probably not be as enamored of them now as I was back then, but I loved the fried chicken and the salisbury steak dinners.

The ultimate was when they started with the "man sized" dinners that added an extra piece of chicken to the fried chicken dinner.


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## Andy M. (Mar 17, 2018)

JustJoel said:


> This is so cool! But adding paprika “for color?” How odd is that (probably not very, but I use paprika, sweet or smoked, for flavor, not color!)?





Back in the 50s and 60s when cooking was simple and bland, that’s what paprika was used for. And it was always sweet paprika.


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## dragnlaw (Mar 17, 2018)

*Paprika's*

I have 3 paprika's  - Plain - smoked - and Hot Spanish 

May I assume the regular type at the grocer's as plain is the sweet paprika referred to?


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## Kayelle (Mar 17, 2018)

dragnlaw said:


> I have 3 paprika's  - Plain - smoked - and Hot Spanish
> 
> *May I assume the regular type at the grocer's as plain is the sweet paprika referred to?*



That was true in the old days, but I'm sure there are other options in the grocer's now. It's been so long since I've bought spices in the grocery store, I'm really just guessing.


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## RPCookin (Mar 17, 2018)

dragnlaw said:


> I have 3 paprika's  - Plain - smoked - and Hot Spanish
> 
> May I assume the regular type at the grocer's as plain is the sweet paprika referred to?



I get paprika from a specialty spice store now (Savory Spice Shop), and the sweet Hungarian is nothing like the Plain old stuff in the grocery store.  I also try to keep hot and smoked on hand as well.  I use it a lot in meat rubs.

When it comes right down to it, chili powder is basically Mexican paprika... It's just ground mild chiles with a few spices added.


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## CakePoet (Mar 17, 2018)

I have  pancake recipe I have yet to make, it fried in  a thumb joint of  butter and lard...


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## tinlizzie (Mar 17, 2018)

I grew up in NE Ohio and fondly remember Isaly's chip chop ham and especially skyscraper ice cream cones, scooped with an elongated dipper that made the dipped ice cream come to a point.  SNL's conehead people always reminded me of those Isaly treats.


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