Tasteful Memories

Memory remains a mystery to psychologists, who debate where in the brain memory resides, what phenomena engrave memories in our minds and what processes make memories accessible years — even decades — later.

A job researching old recipes has shown me that a lot of memory must be connected to taste, for I hear from people who cannot forget dishes eaten long ago.
By Ron Mikulak
rmikulak@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal


Their nostalgia for recipes their grandmother made in the '50s that they now want to make for their grandchildren prompts them to write in the hope that records of these hard-to-forget dishes have been preserved.

Since 1989, recipes printed in The Courier-Journal Food section have been archived on computer files. For recipes older than that, I have to search through the card files meticulously organized by my predecessors.

When a reader's gustatory nostalgia brings me to a cracked, yellowing clipping glued on a 3-by-5 card, I make a new photocopy, one that I hope will remain readable some decades hence, but hundreds of other recipes, some dating to the early Cissy Gregg years of the 1940s, continue to age and decay.

At least two such recipes will now be added to the computer archives. Kathy McHugh's taste buds conjured up a memory of "President Eisenhower's favorite barbecued chicken," a recipe published in the Feb. 2, 1958, issue of The Courier-Journal's old Sunday magazine.

Richard Cryder e-mailed from Pelham, Ala., asking for another celebrity-connected recipe, Katharine Hepburn's brownies, a recipe he has lost since moving from Louisville. This gustatory memory is only 20 years old; the recipe dates to February 1986.

Both recipes connect to an era when politicians and movie stars admitted to homey tastes.

The President's Choice barbecued chicken
· 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
· 1 3- to 3½-pound chicken, cut up
· 1 onion, peeled and chopped
· ½ cup celery, strings removed and chopped
· 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
· 2 tablespoons brown sugar
· ¼ cup lemon juice
· 1 cup ketchup
· 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
· ½ tablespoon yellow mustard
· Salt to taste
· Dash of red pepper flakes

In a large skillet, heat the oil. Brown the pieces of chicken, in batches if necessary to avoid crowding the skillet. When nicely browned on all sides, remove chicken, drain briefly and place in a large ovenproof casserole dish.

Add the chopped onion and celery to the oil remaining in the skillet. Cook until vegetables soften, 5 to 8 minutes. Add vinegar, brown sugar, lemon juice, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, prepared mustard and 1 cup water. Taste, and add salt to your preference. Add hot red pepper flakes to taste. Simmer the sauce 30 minutes to blend flavors.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Pour sauce over browned chicken in the casserole dish. Cover casserole with foil, and bake for about an hour.

Serves 6 to 8.

Katharine Hepburn's raspberry brownies
· 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
· ¼ pound (1 stick) unsalted butter plus 1 tablespoon melted
· ¼ teaspoon salt
· ½ teaspoon vanilla
· 1 cup sugar
· 2 large eggs
· ¼ cup unsifted all-purpose flour
· Generous 1 cup walnuts or pecans, broken into medium-sized pieces
· 1/3 cup seedless red raspberry preserves

Line an 8-by-8-by-2-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, smoothed down as much as possible. Brush the foil with 1 tablespoon melted butter. Set aside.

Melt chocolate and rest of butter together over low heat (or in a double boiler), stirring frequently until melted. Remove from heat. Stir in salt, vanilla, sugar and the eggs, 1 at a time, stirring well to blend. Add the flour. Stir until batter is smooth. Fold in the nuts.

Pour half of the batter, about 1¼ cups, into the prepared pan, and smooth the surface. Place pan in the freezer for about 30 minutes or until the batter is firm enough to spread on a layer of raspberry preserves.

Spread a very thin layer of preserves over the frozen brownie batter layer. Then drop on spoonfuls of the rest of the batter, smoothing it carefully over the raspberry layer. Let stand at room temperature until frozen layer melts.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust rack 1/3 up from bottom. Bake brownies for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick tests clean.

Cool to room temperature, then freeze until cake is very firm. Cover pan with a cutting board, turn pan over to release the cake. Remove the aluminum foil, and turn cake right-side up.

Cut into 16 squares.



Sometimes readers' nostalgia for dishes eaten long ago sends me hunting through the newspaper's recipe files. Often I am surprised by the specificity of recall ("I'm pretty sure it was printed in the summer of 1952 or '53") or the degree of longing expressed.

Avalon's hoppin' John with cod
· 1 cup dried black-eyed peas
· 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
· 1 onion, peeled and diced
· 1 cup country ham, diced
· 3 cups chicken or ham stock
· Kosher salt and cracked black pepper to taste
· 1 bay leaf
· 1 teaspoon salt
· 1 cup jasmine rice
· 8 ounces fresh cod fillet
· 3 ounces stone-ground mustard sauce (see recipe)

Soak the dried peas overnight in water to cover by 2 inches. Before cooking, drain well.

In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat, then add onions and country ham. Cook until onion is softened and ham begins to brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Add the stock, drained beans, salt and pepper and bay leaf. Cook over low heat for about 1 hour or until peas are tender. Remove and discard bay leaf. Remove from heat.

Bring 3 cups water to a boil. Add 1 teaspoon salt. Add the jasmine rice, lower heat to simmer and cook rice until done, about 15 minutes. Drain and reserve.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Season cod fillet with salt and pepper, and place on a small baking sheet. Bake in heated oven for about 10 minutes or until fish is cooked through. Place jasmine rice on the bottom of a plate, top with black-eyed peas. Place the cod fillet over the pea mixture, and drizzle with the stone-ground mustard sauce.

Serves 2.

Stone ground mustard sauce
· 1 tablespoon olive oil
· 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
· 2 cups heavy cream
· 4 tablespoons stone-ground mustard
· Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Heat a pan over medium heat a few minutes, then add olive oil and garlic. Cook until garlic becomes fragrant and softens but does not brown. Add cream, mustard and salt and pepper, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper. Serve over cod.


BrownsboroEatery sunflower chicken
6 6-ounce boneless, skinless chicken breasts

½ cup blue cheese salad dressing

1 cup toasted breadcrumbs

½ cup unsalted sunflower seeds

1 teaspoon paprika

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

¼ teaspoon onion powder

Pound chicken breasts between plastic wrap until they are an even ½-inch thick. Coat them with blue cheese dressing and marinate for 2 to 6 hours in the refrigerator.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with vegetable spray. Mix together the breadcrumbs, sunflower seeds and spices. Coat chicken on both sides in breadcrumb mixture. Place on baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, turning once.

Chicken is done when coating is browned and crisped, and chicken is barely pink in the middle (it will continue to cook after it's removed from the oven). Slice into one breast to check doneness.

Serves 6.


Station House white chocolate bread pudding
1 baguette, about 8 cups bread, cubed

1¼ pounds white chocolate

7 eggs

1 pint half-and-half

1 quart heavy cream

Butter bourbon sauce:

1¼ cups bourbon (the Station House uses Maker's Mark)

3 tablespoons brown sugar

4 tablespoons (½ stick) butter

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Spread bread cubes in an 8½- by-11-inch pan.

Melt white chocolate in a double broiler. Meanwhile, break eggs into a bowl and beat lightly until smooth. Add beaten eggs to the melted chocolate, then the half-and-half and cream. Stir well over the heat until the batter thickens and is smooth and flows easily off the spatula, about 10 minutes.

Pour the chocolate mixture evenly over the bread in the pan. Use about half the custard at first, letting it soak into the bread before you add the rest, in 2 or 3 additions, if necessary. Cover with foil. Bake 45 minutes.

To make bourbon sauce: Put bourbon in a sauce pan, bring to simmer over medium heat and reduce by half. Or, if you are braver, carefully flame the bourbon in the pan, letting it burn until the flame burns off. (This will take a few minutes with this much alcohol.)

Add brown sugar and butter. After butter is melted, add condensed milk. Cook on low, stirring, until thickened to pouring consistency, 5 minutes or a bit longer.

To serve, cut into squares and place on serving plates. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired. Pass bourbon sauce to pour over top. Best when served hot.

Serves 10.


This message was edited Oct 22, 2006 8:31 PM