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Grandma's Recipe Tin typed up from her cards, stains and all Bierocks  |  Chicken and Noodles  |  Molasses Cookies  |  Rhubarb Custard Pie

A few words first. These are the four recipes people asked for most at her funeral lunch. There are about sixty more cards in the tin and I'll add them as I get time. The measurements are Aunt Carol Jean's real ones, not Grandma's "green cup" ones, so they should work in your kitchen. Grandma's own notes from the cards are in italics. My notes are in [brackets].

Bierocks Makes about 18. For the harvest crew, double it. Twice. [These are beef-and-cabbage buns that the German families in Kansas have made forever. Up in Nebraska they call them runzas. Grandma learned them from her mother-in-law, and she made them every summer for the wheat harvest crews so the men could eat them in the truck.] Dough: 1 package dry yeast 1/4 cup warm water 1 cup milk, scalded and cooled to lukewarm 1/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 cup shortening, melted 1 egg, beaten about 4 cups flour Filling: 1 1/2 pounds ground beef 1 medium onion, chopped 1/2 head cabbage, shredded fine (about 4 cups) salt and pepper to taste butter for the tops Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Stir in the milk, sugar, salt, shortening and egg. Add flour a cup at a time until you have a soft dough that isn't sticky. Knead about 5 minutes. Put in a greased bowl, cover with a towel and let rise until double, about an hour. While it rises, brown the beef and onion and pour off the grease. Add the cabbage, put the lid on and let it cook down about 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until the cabbage is soft. Salt and pepper it good. Let it cool. Punch the dough down and roll it out 1/4 inch thick. Cut into squares about 5 inches across. Put a heaping 1/3 cup of filling in the middle of each one, pull the four corners up and pinch all the seams shut. Set them seam side down on a greased pan and let them rise 20 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown. Brush the tops with butter as soon as they come out. Pinch them good or they leak. Don't skimp on the pepper. [Some of the family put a slice of American cheese in with the filling. Grandma thought this was wrong but allowed it.]

Chicken and Homemade Noodles Serves 6, or 4 Obermeyers. Chicken and broth: 1 stewing hen or a large fryer (3 to 4 pounds), cut up water to cover 1 onion, quartered 2 stalks celery with the leaves 2 teaspoons salt pepper Noodles: 2 eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons milk about 1 1/2 cups flour Put the chicken, onion, celery and salt in a big kettle and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then turn it down and simmer until the meat falls off the bones, an hour or so for a fryer, closer to two hours for a hen. Take the chicken out, strain the broth, and pick the meat off the bones. For the noodles, beat the eggs, salt and milk together and work in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Roll it out on a floured board as thin as you possibly can. Let it dry about an hour, turning once. Roll it up loosely like a jelly roll and slice into thin strips. Shake them apart and let them dry a while longer. Bring the broth to a boil and drop the noodles in a handful at a time, stirring. Cook about 15 to 20 minutes, until tender. The flour on them will thicken the broth. Put the chicken back in and heat through. Serve over mashed potatoes. [Yes, noodles on potatoes. That is how it's done in Kansas. Don't write to me about it.]

Soft Molasses Cookies About 4 dozen. The cookie jar was never empty, and now we know why. 3/4 cup shortening 1 cup sugar, plus more for rolling 1 egg 1/4 cup molasses 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger Cream the shortening and sugar. Beat in the egg and the molasses. Sift the flour, soda, salt and spices together and stir them in. Chill the dough about an hour so it's easier to handle. Roll into balls about the size of a walnut and roll each one in sugar. Set them 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. They'll puff up and then crackle on top. Take them out while they still look a little soft in the middle. Grease your cup before you measure the molasses and it slides right out.

Rhubarb Custard Pie The first pie of spring. Pastry for a 9-inch double crust. 3 eggs 3 tablespoons milk 2 cups sugar 1/4 cup flour 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg 4 cups rhubarb, cut in 1/2-inch pieces 1 tablespoon butter Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line your pie pan with the bottom crust. Beat the eggs slightly and add the milk. Stir the sugar, flour and nutmeg together and mix them into the eggs. Stir in the rhubarb. Pour it into the crust and dot with the butter. Put on the top crust (Grandma always did a lattice), cut some vents if it's a solid top, and crimp the edges. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until the crust is nicely browned and the filling is bubbling up through the lattice. Let it cool before you cut it or it will run all over. Use the red stalks. Never ever eat the leaves. [She's right about the leaves: rhubarb leaves are poisonous. Only use the stalks.]

Coming soon from the tin: sand plum jelly, zwieback, cinnamon rolls, the Jell-O salad nobody would admit to liking, and her famous "church basement" ham loaf. [email protected] Last updated: Sunday, September 12, 1999