Recipes of Yesteryear

Chiot's Run had a post about heirloom recipes that I thought was an excellent idea.  I visit my 95 year old grandmother every Sunday.  She still lives in her home, but doesn't do her own baking or cooking anymore.  Having read the post about preserving family recipes, I realized I wanted to have some of the recipes I remember my grandmother making.  She rarely used a recipe for making meals or baking bread, those were from memory.  She did however have recipes for some of the things she baked, she is German and her recipes reflect that heritage. 

As a child I loved to eat Pfeffernusse cookies when I went to Grandma's house.  That was the only place I had tasted those cookies and to this day they remind me of her, I am so happy to now have her recipe.  If you can see in the picture, the recipe card calls the cookies Peppernut, that is because pfeffernusse translates to pepper nuts in German.  This name well describes these cookies as they are spicy and many of the recipes call for nuts and a small amount of black pepper.

My grandmother said she made this recipe for sauerkraut every year for many years.  She said homemade sauerkraut tastes so much better than store-bought.  She also remembers her mother making sauerkraut, never canning it, just making it in a big crock and letting it naturally ferment.  Grandma said she always canned her sauerkraut.

I was also able to get her recipe for kuchen, we all love her kuchen.  I wasn't able to get a good picture of the recipe, but hope to make it soon and take plenty of pictures then.  What surprised me about the recipe is that she used sour cream rather than sweet cream, I would never have guessed.