30 grandma recipes

Old-fashioned prune and pecan spice cake with buttermilk, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, topped with a hot buttermilk icing poured on while still baking.

Fresh raspberry pie with a cinnamon-laced double crust made from butter and shortening. Cornstarch thickens the bubbling berry juice into glossy filling, brightened with lemon zest.

A from-scratch black bean soup: dried beans simmered with smoky ham hocks, then a cumin-scented sofrito of peppers and onions, tomatoes, and a bright splash of red wine vinegar. Deep, hearty, and soulful.

Grandma's split pea soup with bacon and homemade butter-fried French bread croutons. Simmered until creamy with bits of pea still visible, served with crisp sourdough croutons floated on top.

The sauce was too much like spagetti sauce. I cooked the pork chops in the sauce for hours and it was tender, but the pork flavor was diminished; I would prefer to taste the pork more.

Pork shoulder chili with pinto beans, green olives, and olive juice for a briny twist. Slow-simmered with chili powder, paprika, celery seed, and Tabasco.

Homemade vegetable stock simmers cold-water vegetables with up to six herbs for 30 to 45 minutes. The flexible base recipe for soups, risottos, and braises.

Loaded oatmeal cookies with whole wheat flour, coconut, pecans, chocolate chips, and butterscotch chips. Vanilla pudding mix is the secret to extra-soft cookies.

Crock-made crystal sweet pickles brined for 2 weeks, then dressed in a cinnamon and clove vinegar syrup over 5 days. A labor of love from grandma's kitchen that yields jars of glass-clear, spiced pickles.

Old-fashioned Southern tea cakes made with buttermilk, vanilla, and self-rising flour. Soft, lightly sweet rolled cookies that taste like Grandma's kitchen. A big-batch heritage recipe.

Banana bread with a twist: chocolate chips, maraschino cherries, and plenty of nuts folded into a moist, mashed banana batter. Not your grandma's loaf, but she'd approve.

Turn stale bread into chewy, cinnamon-spiced cookies packed with plump raisins and crunchy nuts. Breadcrumb cookies are a clever zero-waste baking trick your grandma probably knew.

A heirloom three-layer chocolate cake with bloomed cocoa, brown sugar for caramel depth, and tangy buttermilk. Old-school Sunday dinner cake, tender enough to live up to grandma's reputation.

Classic bread and butter pickles with that sweet-tangy crunch you remember from grandma's kitchen. Cucumbers, onions, and bell peppers cured in a spiced vinegar brine with mustard seed, turmeric, and celery seed.