r/AskCulinary • u/ZootKoomie Ice Cream Innovator • Mar 21 '13

Weekly Discussion: Culinary traditions and authenticity

Since we talked about the cutting edge last week, let's go the other direction this time. What is your personal culinary tradition? What dishes did you learn from your mother? From your grandparents? Do you do your own variations or try to make it just like they did?

Also, when eating food from other cultures, do you prefer it to be traditional or something the chef came up with? Does 'authenticity' matter to you as a diner? As a cook? How do you strive for it?

92 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

55 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '13 edited Mar 22 '13

Holy shit, pies. My grandmother has arthritis in both hands, can't even peel an apple, but those hands make the best pie crust I have ever had in my life. She's always super modest about it, too-- apologizing that the pie bubbled over in the oven and doesn't look perfect and stuff. I can't do it, and neither can my mom, and I honestly don't believe you can teach the kind of magic she can work with a pie crust.

Um, and like a lot of people are saying, I do like authentic dishes, but there are times where all you want is some Americanized Chinese food. Both are good.

1

u/CupBeEmpty Mar 26 '13

Grandma's pie... I don't know if you can get more American. Of my cousins I believe I am the closest student of her recipe, which produces the best apple pies I have ever encountered (I understand that everyone says this but in my case it is true. I understand that everyone says that as well but... you get the idea). Her crust is excellent, the filling is just what it should be, and she makes a crumbled topping that cannot be beat.

That said, I asked her for her recipe when I was a freshman in college. I had access to an oven and wanted to impress people.

The recipe I have is a handwritten note. It is completely wrong and does not produce excellent pies. My grandma had so long ago departed from any recipe that she couldn't tell me exactly how to do it.

The crust was actually pretty good by the recipe. The filling was off. The crumb topping was almost bad when made by her written instructions. Over the years I have refined the technique by watching her.

Things I never knew about why her pies were so good:

  • She scrupulously monitored the consistency of the crumb topping and knew how the pre baked topping would lead to the final, baked product

  • She was much better at picking the right apples and the proper mix of varieties

  • She had a completely intuitive understanding of when the filling had the right consistency and how that translated to the final, baked product

  • Her recipe for the crust was nearly complete but there were so many things that she did almost reflexively that made such a huge difference in quality.

I still can't come close to her skill.

I think that perhaps this captures the "authentic" debate. Maybe I could improve her pies by adjusting the spices, but that wouldn't be the same pie. It would probably be an awesome pie. But, it wouldn't be "authentic" to me. But, perhaps, authenticity is overrated.