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Model35mech

(2,047 posts)
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 03:07 PM Aug 2023

To what extent is your "ancestry" part of your family's diet?

I suppose another way of asking this is what of your ancestors' diet has descended to you as a recipe you use on a somewhat regular basis?

I dug into that for myself and found almost nothing that is related directly to any of my predecessors from times near or far removed.

Apparently that isn't true in all families.



33 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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To what extent is your "ancestry" part of your family's diet? (Original Post) Model35mech Aug 2023 OP
chicken soup and cabbage borscht The Blue Flower Aug 2023 #1
I have been eating lots of watermelon all summer Walleye Aug 2023 #2
Next to no influence. Karadeniz Aug 2023 #3
I'm not unaware of it bucolic_frolic Aug 2023 #4
Mammoth Effete Snob Aug 2023 #5
Reportedly, my great-great grandfather brought Pop-Tarts from Europe. Sneederbunk Aug 2023 #6
None PJMcK Aug 2023 #7
cabbage rolls, perogie and borscht CANADIANBEAVER69 Aug 2023 #8
Everyday is taco Tuesday at our house, yet we hail from the British Isles. CrispyQ Aug 2023 #9
Not much Jilly_in_VA Aug 2023 #10
Nothing that I know of. Lunabell Aug 2023 #11
Very little my ancestry is mostly from the British Isles. I am more influenced by the Polish, doc03 Aug 2023 #12
Grandpa was pretty tasty. Xoan Aug 2023 #13
Learned to make knadles (German bread dumplings) MOMFUDSKI Aug 2023 #14
I still eat popcorn... 2naSalit Aug 2023 #15
I'm mostly Pennsylvania Dutch Freddie Aug 2023 #16
Portuguese sausage, or "linguica." Basic LA Aug 2023 #17
Granda had an apricot orchard. I occasionally make apricot pies. Liberty Belle Aug 2023 #18
My guess is about 15 % of diet is ancestry related. marked50 Aug 2023 #19
does your family or others around Lindsborg celebrate crayfish eating Model35mech Aug 2023 #20
Actually, not that I am aware of. marked50 Aug 2023 #21
Loads! spicysista Aug 2023 #22
My genealogy ---- my story doesn't fit here. I grew up thinking I was Irish/Itaalian. 3Hotdogs Aug 2023 #23
I would like to hear about your spaghetti Tetrachloride Aug 2023 #27
Costco Rao's is my favorite base. I add oregano, basil, garlic powder and onion powder. 3Hotdogs Aug 2023 #28
ty. Trying to convince a Middle East friend to be serious on spaghetti Tetrachloride Aug 2023 #29
Perogi from the Polish side Glamrock Aug 2023 #24
I am omnivorous. Probably goes to my Neanderthal ancestry. Beastly Boy Aug 2023 #25
not so much. My mother cooked a lot of southern, near southern dishes. I make a potato salad demigoddess Aug 2023 #26
I'm mostly Irish and Ukrainian Jew MistakenLamb Aug 2023 #30
This thread has taught me that many of us have little cultural food connections Model35mech Aug 2023 #31
Not so much cultural connections shanti Nov 2023 #32
I'm adopted. Dem2theMax Dec 2023 #33

bucolic_frolic

(46,611 posts)
4. I'm not unaware of it
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 03:14 PM
Aug 2023

Sometimes Old World traditions had basis in sound nutrition that was rejected by nutritionists and scientists for generations in America. Trans fats were one such aberration. Removing olive oil was not a benefit nutritionally. The retreat to non-fat dairy products was another. Cheeses and milk fat kept free-radicals from free-wheeling. Likewise yogurt, milk, ice cream. Before about 1970 we ate far less sugar, and no high fructose corn syrup. Now look at diabetes. Ditto removing tomato seeds and skins. Some doctors now claim that was a good thing Old World because they caused allergens - lectins - in the gut.

A regular basis. They're on my radar. I use them but not religiously. Avoiding the bad things is more important than what else you eat in my view.

CANADIANBEAVER69

(565 posts)
8. cabbage rolls, perogie and borscht
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 03:28 PM
Aug 2023

All recipes I learned from my mom, who learned from her Ukrainian mom/family. I learned the ones I loved as a kid.
I am native on my fathers side but I don't know anything about what nation. I am not sure I want the ancestry tests done.

CrispyQ

(38,052 posts)
9. Everyday is taco Tuesday at our house, yet we hail from the British Isles.
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 03:29 PM
Aug 2023
Burritos, rellenos, green chiles on everything. I grew up eating southwestern food. I don't even know what English food is. Fish & chips, I guess. And I think "chips" are actually French fries?

Jilly_in_VA

(10,806 posts)
10. Not much
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 03:31 PM
Aug 2023

My ancestry is disgustingly white-bread, mostly British Isles and Germanic. My diet is anything but.

Lunabell

(6,769 posts)
11. Nothing that I know of.
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 03:33 PM
Aug 2023

I'm almost 100% Scottish or from around the UK according to a dna test. My family came to the US in the 17th century and mostly settled in Virginia and Tennessee as farmers. We just have pretty much southern US cooking. Using whatever the land provided.

doc03

(36,527 posts)
12. Very little my ancestry is mostly from the British Isles. I am more influenced by the Polish,
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 03:43 PM
Aug 2023

Hungariian, Russian and Italian communities in the area. I will have corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's day and I like Guinness
sometimes. Give me cabbage rolls, pierogis, cabbage and noodles and spaghetti. I like Amish food, German or Dutch I guess.

 

MOMFUDSKI

(7,080 posts)
14. Learned to make knadles (German bread dumplings)
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 03:45 PM
Aug 2023

from my mom who learned from someone in my dad’s German family. Not sure of spelling. They are fabulous with lots of gravy. Being diabetic now I can’t eat them.

2naSalit

(92,042 posts)
15. I still eat popcorn...
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 03:50 PM
Aug 2023

But I make it in the microwave.

I don't think I have anything in my diet that correlates to my mom's cooking. She wasn't there when I learned to cook and I wasn't fond of her cooking, too much meat. I did learn a little about cooking meats but other than that, she wasn't there and we had no long term traditions that lasted.


Probably for the best since the teachers I did find were really f'ing great cooks, some true chefs, and they taught me more than my mom ever knew.

Freddie

(9,594 posts)
16. I'm mostly Pennsylvania Dutch
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 04:14 PM
Aug 2023

And still make some things my grandma made in York County when I was a kid like red beet eggs and potato filling (“stuffing” to the rest of you). I don’t do the “hardcore” stuff like scrapple or souse.

 

Basic LA

(2,047 posts)
17. Portuguese sausage, or "linguica."
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 04:28 PM
Aug 2023

I like it with eggs in the morning. Reminds me of the old days, growing up.

Liberty Belle

(9,604 posts)
18. Granda had an apricot orchard. I occasionally make apricot pies.
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 04:30 PM
Aug 2023

My other grandma made a cabbage soup that I loved; I used to make it but hubby doesn't like cabbage, so haven't done so in years. I'll occasionally indulge at a nearby Jewish deli that has a cabbage soup recipe that's similar.

Other than that, my diet is mostly different from my family's. Mom was from the South where too many foods were deep-fried. I have a much healthier diet overall.

marked50

(1,437 posts)
19. My guess is about 15 % of diet is ancestry related.
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 04:51 PM
Aug 2023

This includes both German and Swedish dishes. My Father came from a small town in Kansas that is known for it's Swedish heritage- they celebrate that connection continuosly. He left living there during WW2 but only lived a 3 hr drive away and returned to live there when he retired. Hence- lots of Swedish food for us kids. The town is called Lindsborg.

My wife's heritage comes from predominately German/French and hence we eat lots of German and French passed on to her from her Mother.

My Father and her Mother were 3rd and 4th generation immigrants respectively.

 

Model35mech

(2,047 posts)
20. does your family or others around Lindsborg celebrate crayfish eating
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 05:12 PM
Aug 2023

at the beginning of August.

My maternal grandmother's line is Swedish, we never celebrated it. But it seems like crayfish parties would be distinctive.

marked50

(1,437 posts)
21. Actually, not that I am aware of.
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 05:15 PM
Aug 2023

They hold a Swedish Festival every 2 years and I have attended many and never seen crayfish as a dish there (that I can remember)

spicysista

(1,723 posts)
22. Loads!
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 05:27 PM
Aug 2023

I still make gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, stuffed mirlitons, succotash, and many dishes from my ancestors. Every Thursday and Sunday my menu reflects old traditions going back several generations.

3Hotdogs

(13,327 posts)
23. My genealogy ---- my story doesn't fit here. I grew up thinking I was Irish/Itaalian.
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 05:37 PM
Aug 2023

Through 23 + and ancestry studies, I learned I am more German and Aryan than anything else. How Aryan got in there is beyond me.

I cook the best damn spaghetti and corned beef & cabbage/potatoes/carrots.

3Hotdogs

(13,327 posts)
28. Costco Rao's is my favorite base. I add oregano, basil, garlic powder and onion powder.
Wed Aug 9, 2023, 07:25 AM
Aug 2023

I'm always throwing other stuff in with the above, to try. Cumin, Berbere. or whatever. Most times, I go with the stuff in the title line. When I add Berbere or curry, it's more like Indian spaghetti (if there is such a thing).


Then there was my grandmother. In September, she would buy bushels of tomatoes, boil them, add basil and garlic and can it for winter. There would be four large pots boiling in the kitchen.


Sunday mornings -- Grandpa would break out a large, wooden square, take out flour, eggs and water. Mix that and then run the dough through a spaghetti machine. Drape the pasta over a long dowel and let it dry for a couple of hours. Muller's egg noodles is the closest to that.

demigoddess

(6,673 posts)
26. not so much. My mother cooked a lot of southern, near southern dishes. I make a potato salad
Tue Aug 8, 2023, 06:41 PM
Aug 2023

that people love and I heard once on a PBS show that it came from the Gullah people of the Chesapeake bay area and I thought What the Heck????

MistakenLamb

(784 posts)
30. I'm mostly Irish and Ukrainian Jew
Wed Aug 30, 2023, 05:36 PM
Aug 2023

With a smidge of German. And none. Due do family secrets and divorces, a vague history beyond a handul of generations almost entire ethnic identity was just "white, no real family recipes. I was raised to be adventurous in my food exploration so I make and eat a lot of different things, never considered Kosher eating. I'll make or take out some Ashkenaz style foods time to time to feel some connection to that but I get those recipes from a modern Jewish cookbook. My diet is more influenced from the places I grew up than where my family is from.

 

Model35mech

(2,047 posts)
31. This thread has taught me that many of us have little cultural food connections
Wed Aug 30, 2023, 06:26 PM
Aug 2023

It seems at least as common to have no food connections through ancestors as it is to have those food connections.



shanti

(21,706 posts)
32. Not so much cultural connections
Wed Nov 29, 2023, 01:56 AM
Nov 2023

but more regional connections. Mom's family was pretty much French/Irish, but we didn't really eat like that (although I love corned beef). Being raised in SoCal, Mexican food was always on the menu, and still is.

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