324 traditional recipes

Quelites, a traditional New Mexican spinach and pinto bean side dish with bacon drippings, chili pepper, and hard-boiled egg. A 25-minute Southwestern classic.

Old-fashioned mincemeat with ground beef simmers beef, suet, apples, raisins, and warm spices for the traditional British holiday pie filling. Makes enough for dozens of mince pies or tarts.

Herman wheat and honey starter: a 5-day yeast-based friendship starter made with whole wheat flour, milk, and honey. Classic American bread-sharing tradition.

Pasteli me Fistikia, a traditional Greek candy with roasted pistachios set in a honey-sugar brittle. Four ingredients and a candy thermometer for an authentic Mediterranean sweet.

Kuchen, a traditional German yeast coffee cake with raisins and cinnamon, made from a rich egg dough that rises twice. A heritage recipe that makes two golden loaves.

Traditional New Mexico pinto beans slow-cooked with a meaty ham bone. Just 4 ingredients and old-school technique for creamy, unbroken beans in rich pot liquor.

Kutia, a traditional Polish Christmas pudding made with wheat berries, ground poppy seeds, honey, walnuts, almonds, figs, dates, and rum-soaked currants. A treasured holiday dessert.

Smiltsill is a traditional Swedish dish where salted herring fillets steam over boiling potatoes, then get drizzled with browned butter and garnished with parsley, radishes, and egg.

A traditional English fruit loaf where dried fruit soaks overnight in hot tea, then bakes low and slow with self-rising flour, mixed spice, nutmeg, and marmalade. No butter needed. Keeps brilliantly.

Golubtsi, traditional Russian cabbage rolls stuffed with millet, salt pork, carrots, and onion, simmered in a tangy sour cream and tomato sauce. Old-country comfort food with deep roots.

Dutch green split pea soup (erwtensoep) with kielbasa, leeks, celeriac, potatoes, and Canadian bacon. A thick, hearty traditional Dutch pea soup simmered low and slow.

Traditional mincemeat filling with beef, suet, green tomatoes, tart apples, raisins, and warm spices. Canned with brandy for holiday pies, makes 3 quarts.

A white meat based sausage made in Europe and Britain, wherever blood sausage (black pudding) tends to be made. It is usually associated with Christmas time in France. The traditional Boudin Blanc in France dates back to the middle-ages. White puddings are also traditional in Spain, Ireland and some parts of Britain.

Traditional Italian fig cookies (cucidati) with a sweet filling of dried figs, raisins, walnuts, and cinnamon wrapped in a buttery dough. A classic holiday cookie from Italian-American bakeries.

Old-fashioned rolled and cut oatmeal cookies with raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg. A spiced, crispy oat cookie made the traditional way with a cookie cutter.

New Zealand foil-poached salmon steaks chilled in their own jelled juices, then served cold under warm Hollandaise. Traditional Kiwi method with butter, lemon, and salt. Pairs with mint potatoes and peas.