To what extent is your "ancestry" part of your family's diet?

[Model35mech]

I suppose another way of asking this is what of your ancestors' diet has descended to you as a recipe you use on a somewhat regular basis?

I dug into that for myself and found almost nothing that is related directly to any of my predecessors from times near or far removed.

Apparently that isn't true in all families.

[The Blue Flower]

1. chicken soup and cabbage borscht

both my grandma's recipes

[Walleye]

2. I have been eating lots of watermelon all summer

[Karadeniz]

3. Next to no influence.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. I'm not unaware of it

Sometimes Old World traditions had basis in sound nutrition that was rejected by nutritionists and scientists for generations in America. Trans fats were one such aberration. Removing olive oil was not a benefit nutritionally. The retreat to non-fat dairy products was another. Cheeses and milk fat kept free-radicals from free-wheeling. Likewise yogurt, milk, ice cream. Before about 1970 we ate far less sugar, and no high fructose corn syrup. Now look at diabetes. Ditto removing tomato seeds and skins. Some doctors now claim that was a good thing Old World because they caused allergens - lectins - in the gut.

A regular basis. They're on my radar. I use them but not religiously. Avoiding the bad things is more important than what else you eat in my view.

[Effete Snob]

5. Mammoth

Really hard to find.

[Sneederbunk]

6. Reportedly, my great-great grandfather brought Pop-Tarts from Europe.

[PJMcK]

7. None

We’ll eat almost anything!

[CANADIANBEAVER69]

8. cabbage rolls, perogie and borscht

All recipes I learned from my mom, who learned from her Ukrainian mom/family. I learned the ones I loved as a kid.
I am native on my fathers side but I don't know anything about what nation. I am not sure I want the ancestry tests done.

[CrispyQ]

9. Everyday is taco Tuesday at our house, yet we hail from the British Isles.

Burritos, rellenos, green chiles on everything. I grew up eating southwestern food. I don't even know what English food is. Fish & chips, I guess. And I think "chips" are actually French fries?

[Jilly_in_VA]

10. Not much

My ancestry is disgustingly white-bread, mostly British Isles and Germanic. My diet is anything but.

[Lunabell]

11. Nothing that I know of.

I'm almost 100% Scottish or from around the UK according to a dna test. My family came to the US in the 17th century and mostly settled in Virginia and Tennessee as farmers. We just have pretty much southern US cooking. Using whatever the land provided.

[doc03]

12. Very little my ancestry is mostly from the British Isles. I am more influenced by the Polish,

Hungariian, Russian and Italian communities in the area. I will have corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's day and I like Guinness
sometimes. Give me cabbage rolls, pierogis, cabbage and noodles and spaghetti. I like Amish food, German or Dutch I guess.

[Xoan]

13. Grandpa was pretty tasty.

[MOMFUDSKI]

14. Learned to make knadles (German bread dumplings)

from my mom who learned from someone in my dad’s German family. Not sure of spelling. They are fabulous with lots of gravy. Being diabetic now I can’t eat them.

[2naSalit]

15. I still eat popcorn...

But I make it in the microwave.

I don't think I have anything in my diet that correlates to my mom's cooking. She wasn't there when I learned to cook and I wasn't fond of her cooking, too much meat. I did learn a little about cooking meats but other than that, she wasn't there and we had no long term traditions that lasted.


Probably for the best since the teachers I did find were really f'ing great cooks, some true chefs, and they taught me more than my mom ever knew.

[Freddie]

16. I'm mostly Pennsylvania Dutch

And still make some things my grandma made in York County when I was a kid like red beet eggs and potato filling (“stuffing” to the rest of you). I don’t do the “hardcore” stuff like scrapple or souse.

[Basic LA]

17. Portuguese sausage, or "linguica."

I like it with eggs in the morning. Reminds me of the old days, growing up.

[Liberty Belle]

18. Granda had an apricot orchard. I occasionally make apricot pies.

My other grandma made a cabbage soup that I loved; I used to make it but hubby doesn't like cabbage, so haven't done so in years. I'll occasionally indulge at a nearby Jewish deli that has a cabbage soup recipe that's similar.

Other than that, my diet is mostly different from my family's. Mom was from the South where too many foods were deep-fried. I have a much healthier diet overall.

[marked50]

19. My guess is about 15 % of diet is ancestry related.

This includes both German and Swedish dishes. My Father came from a small town in Kansas that is known for it's Swedish heritage- they celebrate that connection continuosly. He left living there during WW2 but only lived a 3 hr drive away and returned to live there when he retired. Hence- lots of Swedish food for us kids. The town is called Lindsborg.

My wife's heritage comes from predominately German/French and hence we eat lots of German and French passed on to her from her Mother.

My Father and her Mother were 3rd and 4th generation immigrants respectively.

[Model35mech]

20. does your family or others around Lindsborg celebrate crayfish eating

at the beginning of August.

My maternal grandmother's line is Swedish, we never celebrated it. But it seems like crayfish parties would be distinctive.

[marked50]

21. Actually, not that I am aware of.

They hold a Swedish Festival every 2 years and I have attended many and never seen crayfish as a dish there (that I can remember)

[spicysista]

22. Loads!

I still make gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, stuffed mirlitons, succotash, and many dishes from my ancestors. Every Thursday and Sunday my menu reflects old traditions going back several generations.

[3Hotdogs]

23. My genealogy ---- my story doesn't fit here. I grew up thinking I was Irish/Itaalian.

Through 23 + and ancestry studies, I learned I am more German and Aryan than anything else. How Aryan got in there is beyond me.

I cook the best damn spaghetti and corned beef & cabbage/potatoes/carrots.

[Tetrachloride]

27. I would like to hear about your spaghetti

[3Hotdogs]

28. Costco Rao's is my favorite base. I add oregano, basil, garlic powder and onion powder.

I'm always throwing other stuff in with the above, to try. Cumin, Berbere. or whatever. Most times, I go with the stuff in the title line. When I add Berbere or curry, it's more like Indian spaghetti (if there is such a thing).


Then there was my grandmother. In September, she would buy bushels of tomatoes, boil them, add basil and garlic and can it for winter. There would be four large pots boiling in the kitchen.


Sunday mornings -- Grandpa would break out a large, wooden square, take out flour, eggs and water. Mix that and then run the dough through a spaghetti machine. Drape the pasta over a long dowel and let it dry for a couple of hours. Muller's egg noodles is the closest to that.

[Tetrachloride]

29. ty. Trying to convince a Middle East friend to be serious on spaghetti

[Glamrock]

24. Perogi from the Polish side

Nothing from the Irish side….thank god. 🤣

[Beastly Boy]

25. I am omnivorous. Probably goes to my Neanderthal ancestry.

[demigoddess]

26. not so much. My mother cooked a lot of southern, near southern dishes. I make a potato salad

that people love and I heard once on a PBS show that it came from the Gullah people of the Chesapeake bay area and I thought What the Heck????

[MistakenLamb]

30. I'm mostly Irish and Ukrainian Jew

With a smidge of German. And none. Due do family secrets and divorces, a vague history beyond a handul of generations almost entire ethnic identity was just "white, no real family recipes. I was raised to be adventurous in my food exploration so I make and eat a lot of different things, never considered Kosher eating. I'll make or take out some Ashkenaz style foods time to time to feel some connection to that but I get those recipes from a modern Jewish cookbook. My diet is more influenced from the places I grew up than where my family is from.

[Model35mech]

31. This thread has taught me that many of us have little cultural food connections

It seems at least as common to have no food connections through ancestors as it is to have those food connections.

[shanti]

32. Not so much cultural connections

but more regional connections. Mom's family was pretty much French/Irish, but we didn't really eat like that (although I love corned beef). Being raised in SoCal, Mexican food was always on the menu, and still is.

[Dem2theMax]

33. I'm adopted.

So, none. 😢😢😢