We asked readers for the oldest recipe that they still cook today. Here’s what you told us, lightly edited for clarity:
“Years ago in the Sun-Times, I was featured in a food story about making povitica, a sweet nut-filled bread. Povitica is the central Croatian name for this bread, and it is known by other names in Eastern European countries. I first made this bread with my grandmother when I was 4. I am still making it 75 years later.”
— Janice Sachen
“Hungarian chicken paprikash with dumpling. [It] was passed down from my Hungarian grandmother to my mother and then to me. My grandmother immigrated from Hungary in the early 1900s, settled in Chicago, married and had five children. My mother married my grandmother’s son in 1935, and was taught how to cook Hungarian. … I’ve been cooking this recipe for almost 60 years.”
— Laura Pergola
“My grandmother was a master cookie baker and a culinary artist. … She passed down a hand-written recipe for ‘The Hundred Year Old Cookie.’ It is a very simple cookie, but so good. You can keep it simple or fancy it up with decoration or sandwich it with a filling. … I have never encountered the cookie anywhere but at family gatherings, but it is fun to bring to non-family events because everyone loves this unique cookie, which I have been baking for many years.”
— Loretta Namovic
“Among the many recipes from my mom … is one that I am making again this week. I’ve been making this recipe at least yearly for over 55 years. Mom called it ‘Fried Spinach.’ It’s very simple — a pound of lean ground beef cooked with a lot of garlic. A package of thawed frozen chopped spinach is added and then four beaten eggs. The dish is topped with Parmesan cheese.”
— Amy Jackson
“I still make my yiayia’s pastitsio (Greek lasagna), which she learned from her mother in their tiny Greek village in the 1930s. I got the recipe by writing down what I saw her making from memory without measurements. Before Yiayia passed, I was able to make it for her and she told me it was the best pastitsio she had ever tasted — of course it was her version. … It helps me stay connected to my Greek heritage.”
— Elizabeth Niarchos Neukirch
“The oldest recipe I still use is for steak Diane. I got it from a coworker whose husband was a working chef. I was (of course) sworn to secrecy. The backstory is I had the dish at a fine dining restaurant and wanted to make it at home. … I mentioned it at work, and my coworker offered the recipe after checking with her husband.”
— Karen Nothacker