FIVE GENERATIONS OF

PLATH  FAMILY  RECIPES


The Plath family crest is the symbol for a vineyard (grapes and leaves), and the name "Plath" has two meanings: "world of madness" (poet Sylvia Plath comes to mind) and "from the Plath swamp," an actual place near Poznan, Poland in an area that used to be part of the German Empire. My father's side of the family came from Poznan and Stettin, Germany (Plaths) and from Norway and Belschwitz, Germany (Ericksens); my mother's side of the family came from Hanover, Germany (Kuesters) and Austria (Mossers). So the food tended towards the Germanic, the Austrian, and the Polish. Every family has favorite recipes or foods that members were known for preparing, ones that have stood the test of time. Below are ours, with the actual wording of the original recipes preserved whenever possible:

If you're interested, in addition to the recipes you might check out "Plath Family Recipes: Recording American Culinary History," an interview that was published by Fast Recipes in February, 2010.


FIFTH GENERATION RECIPES


Great Great-Grandma Stein's Specialties:

BLUTWURST & GRISTWURST

Photographs show Louise Koslowski Stein, who came to the U.S. from Belschwitz, Germany in the late 1881, to be a stern woman who always kept her hair in a bun and wore long peasant-style house dresses. Family legend has it that she used to work in the potato fields in the old country and returned to the fields three hours after giving birth. She and her husband, Friedrich Stein, a laborer, worked hard enough to own a three-flat brownstone on Chicago's Near-North Side. All of her cooking happened before my time, but my grandmother told me that making sausage was a family tradition for the women, and a kind of rite of passage for young girls. Grandma, as a teenager, was taught how to cut properly, how to work with casings, how to function in the kitchen as part of a "team." Sausage-making was an all-day project that began the night before and resumed at first light, three generations working together. Those recipes are offered mostly as a historical artifact, since many of the ingredients are hard to find and they're not exactly "wellness" foods. Then too, directions were never written down. Only passed on orally. Other recipes below are more easily duplicated and have been family favorites for years.


Great Great-Grandma Stein's

SWEET SOUR RED CABBAGE


Great Great-Grandma Stein's

LEBKUCHEN


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FOURTH GENERATION RECIPES


Great-Grandma Mosser's Specialty:

KROPPAH (Potato Dumplings)

Great-Grandma Elizabeth Zwitter Mosser was born in Austria on 13 November 1884 and married in Iron Mountain, Michigan in 1903. She and husband John Mosser, a laborer, settled in Milwaukee where they raised ten children. One of my earliest childhood memories is of Great Grandma cooking her specialty in the kitchen of her northside bungalow--a dumpling so special that none of her children even attempted to make it until years after she had died in 1977. This short, devout Catholic Roman with stocky legs would shoo everyone out of the kitchen and preside over great pots of cooking potatoes and frying bacon. When she was done, the kroppah was brought into the dining room for all of the generations to savor. When Great Grandma made kroppah, it felt like a holiday, though the dumplings were really simple, hearty Austrian fare. The leftover dumplings were sliced and fried golden brown in butter the next day for breakfast--a way some preferred them. It can be a dinner in itself, or a potato substitute with a pork roast or another German favorite, sauerbraten. Kroppah is still a big favorite with my children.


Great-Grandma Ericksen's

STUFFED PORK TENDERLOIN

Great-Grandma Minnie Stein Ericksen worked in one of Chicago's sewing sweatshops until her eyes went bad, and then she did intricate embroidery by touch. Born 3 April 1876 in Belschwitz, Germany, she was typical of women on the block who cooked for blue-collar men that more often than not came home drunk and demanded to be served first. What was left was given to the children, who ate separately, and what was left after that could be eaten by the woman who cooked it. Shopping was all done with metal pullcarts, the women walking blocks to get to the butcher's and baker's and produce markets. These recipes were written in her daughter's hand, attributed to "mother." Her husband, Alfred "Jim" Ericksen, was a tailor then a painter who, according to family lore, never touched a drop until he fell ill and a doctor prescribed a glass of wine per day. After that day, be became like most of the other men in the neighborhood. Holidays and special meals, as a kind of oasis, became even more special.


Great-Grandma Ericksen's

DANISH PETALS


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THIRD GENERATION RECIPES


Grandma Plath's Specialty:

OX-TAIL SOUP

Grandma Edna Ericksen Plath was born 6 March 1903 in Chicago, a third-generation American who was a devout Lutheran with a great sense of humor. Her faith was her amazing quality, while her husband, Arthur Plath, was amazing because he worked for Commonwealth Edison for 50 years. When they bought their northside home in Chicago there was nothing but fields, and they could see the downtown skyline from their porch. Grandma's kitchen was a small one on the top floor of a two-flat. My family occupied the lower flat. As long as I can remember, Grandma Plath was known for her ox-tail soup. It's a traditional German recipe passed down to her by her mother, but modified with frozen instead of fresh vegetables. Until she died in 1987, she continued to make this specialty whenever someone requested it.


Grandma Plath's

RICE PUDDING


Grandma Plath's

RUSSIAN FLUFF


Grandma Kuester's

GERMAN POTATO SALAD

Grandma Marie Mosser Kuester was born in Milwaukee on 23 March 1904, and married the man who turned out to be the big practical joker in our family, Edwin Gottfried Joseph Kuester.As a young man, Grandpa Kuester used to wear full-head masks while driving in downtown Chicago's rush-hour traffic, and once shot off the rungs of a ladder his brother was climbing, one by one, forcing his brother to scamper up to the rooftop (where he became stranded). Grandpa Kuester's family came from Hanover, Germany, and it's no surprise that one of his (and everyone else's) favorites was Grandma's German-style potato salad. It's still a big family favorite, especially at summer picnics or with cooked sausage.


Grandma Kuester's

BLITZ TORTE


Grandma Kuester's

KOLATCHSKIS


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SECOND GENERATION RECIPES


Mom Plath's Specialties:

HOLIDAY SNOWBALLS

Born 3 July 1928, my mother, Audrey Kuester Plath, grew up in a house near Chicago's fabled Riverview Amusement Park. Still a big kid, she now lives near Disney World and goes there at least every two weeks. She managed the household and worked as a manufacturer's rep, while my father, Norman Plath, put in incredible hours managing a lumber yard. My mother's generation got many recipes from cookbooks and magazines and friends, who got them from cookbooks and magazines and friends. "Family" recipes often had their roots in versions published by product manufacturers like Kraft, Pillsbury and Jell-O. Nevertheless, certain recipes became specialties that, no matter how many times anyone else tried to duplicate them, they never turned out the same. My mom made two things that fell into this category: a dessert called "snowballs" and an apple pan coffee cake no one but her could ever seem to get right. Apple cake was a year-round breakfast and snack request, but as the name implies, snowballs were strictly seasonal--as much a part of our Christmas and New Years celebrations as decorated trees and Guy Lombardo. Be forewarned: the snowballs must be prepared 4-5 days in advance!


Mom Plath's

APPLE CAKE


Mom Plath's

PARMESAN CHICKEN

This one I suspect originated from Campbell's soups but made it to my mother's kitchen via a nameless friend. But from the day she made it, this quick and easy casserole-style chicken dish became such a favorite that my own children still request it. Don't be misled by the name. The only thing "parmesan" about it is the sprinkle on top of the casserole.


Mom Plath's

SWEET-SOUR CUCUMBER SALAD

A great complement to the German potato salad and picnic fare, but also a good side dish with pork roasts--and a family favorite. How much simpler can a recipe be?


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FIRST GENERATION RECIPES


My specialty:

SCALLOPS ALA DEGENER

There's more than enough James Plath bio on this site, but for the sake of consistency I'll include a Christmas photo of me as a little tyke that should make antique toy collectors drool. My own specialty, one frequently requested by my children and one which won the Main Dish category in the Oconomowoc (Wis.) Bake-Off one year and made it into the Wisconsin Mensa Cookbook that same year, is a recipe I modified from an original creation. The basic premise of combining pork and macaroni and scallops came from Dr. Degener, an old Latin professor I had at Utah State University. I added spices over the years and played with the concept until it seemed to work well. People who normally don't eat scallops rave about it.

My version of the Plath family

TURKEY STUFFING

Because I've changed it enough, and because no one's sure where it came from or how long it's been a family tradition, I'm including the family stuffing recipe here. Chicago Cubs announcer Steve Stone once said that "Puns are like children. You love your own, but can't stand anyone else's." Sometimes stuffings are the same way, and our family has a strict allegiance to this one.

SPICY MEAT LOAF

SHRIMP DIP

My wife's specialties:

ZARINA'S PRIZE-WINNING PUMPKIN APPLE BREAD

Zarina Mullan Plath married into the family in August of 1995. In addition to being a great poet (Zarina was one of two graduate students nationwide awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship for 1996), she is also a great cook. Zarina's mother, Linda Osborne, comes from an American family with an English ancestry, while her father, Sohrab Mullan, comes from India. It's no surprise that Zarina's cooking tends to reflect that mixed heritage. The pumpkin apple bread also reflects Zarina's tendency to cut the fat out of her cooking. It won first prize in the Twin City Community News Reader's Holiday Bests Recipe Contest one year:

ZARINA'S PUMPKIN & APPLE BREAD
                   
                 ingredients:


ZARINA'S VEGGIE SAMOSAS & CHUTNEY DIP


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