Some people are after recipes. I’m after stories.

Some people are after recipes. I'm after stories. From generation to generation, we pass down food traditions, habits, recipes, cookbooks, and even utensils that carry with them historical details as unique as our genetic code, but many of us don't think to record that history because, after all, what's so interesting about something as quotidian as how you mash your potatoes? If there's any sure thing around here, it's that food traditions in the South tend to stick, and for good reason. Cookbooks are passed down from mothers and grandmothers, recipes are exchanged by word of mouth, techniques are taught by hand, and Southern food endures as a way of keeping the communities, stories, and memories alive.

Although we love creating new recipes in keeping with today's tastes and trends, there's something sweet about a vintage recipe that can still hold its own. From a traditional relish tray appetizer and a classic turkey tetrazzini dinner to shoofly pie for dessert, some vintage recipes are worth holding onto. These sometimes-forgotten foods span courses, decades, and seasons.

Food has always been intimately tied to local cultures. In the past, our agrarian ancestors constructed culinary traditions based on what the land provided and how the community came together to celebrate the abundance of the harvest. Inventive and resourceful grandmothers would find new ways to craft delicious and unique recipes from the staple crops that were cultivated from the soil that was tilled by hand. In this sense, food was an essential cultural element that bound people together, enforced a shared sense of identity, and strengthened the sense of community and belonging. Family recipes help us maintain a rootedness in our own cultural ancestry.

Similarly, old family recipes also help to maintain alive the memory of men and women who labored in the kitchen to feed the family. My parents come from a big southern family. For years, they had family dinner at my grandparent's house every Sunday night. My great grandmother managed to get 11 grandkids, mostly in their teens, to enthusiastically reject time with their friends in order to have dinner with the family. I’m not saying they only came for the macaroni pie- but it definitely had its role.

Cookbooks, old food magazines, and recipe boxes are like historical time capsules. If you're lucky enough to flip through them with their original owners, the handwritten notes or dog-eared pages might elicit a memory of where a dish came from or a special occasion when it was served. Photo albums often hold pictures of birthday or wedding cakes, barbecues, potlucks, or reunions that can give clues to your past. Food can help answer the bigger questions about what your ancestors valued and how they viewed their place in the world.

Maintaining family recipes is more than simply a nostalgic habit. Rather, it helps us to maintain a sense of connection to our ancestors and to the places that shaped their lives and thus continue to shape our own as well. Food is love, and right now, my bowl is full.