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Texas Czech Cookbook and Request for Feedback

It has been quite a while since I wrote a blog post, not because I've lost interest in Texas Czech food, but actually the opposite. I am indulging my love of and pride in the foods we eat by writing a book for University of Texas Press with the working title Kolach Culture: Cooking From Texas Czech Kitchens.  And this endeavor has been consuming me, no food pun intended.

I have been testing recipes like crazy (see photos below), interviewing people, attending events, doing research, writing sidebars and recipe headers, and trying to keep a mountain of information organized. It's like being back in my junior high school social studies class and having an 80,000-word final report due the same day I have to bring an ethnic dish for "Showcase Your Heritage" Day.... only I have to bring 100 dishes! It's been quite a delicious adventure so far and I've gained 6 pounds (so far). 

The cookbook will celebrate the slice of Texas history that is Texas Czech food through 100 tested recipes, engaging prose, and celebratory photographs that preserve authentic Texas Czech foodways. I'm hoping that every Texas Czech will see themselves and their ancestors reflected in the book’s recipes and features about unflappable farmers to teenage bake-off winners, historic bakeries and meat markets, Sunday svačina with family, and the festivals and gatherings attended by thousands annually that keep the community’s food traditions alive. 

To help me understand what the Texas Czech community has been eating the last 150 years and the foods that define what it means to be Texas Czech today, I'm asking for your help. If you're a Texas Czech, I invite you to fill out an online questionnaire about your memories of food growing up and what you eat now. The survey is here. 

There's no way to sugar coat it; the survey is LONG. It could take you an hour to fill out if you have something to say about every question. But you can save the work as you go along and return to the survey as many times as you need to to finish it before submitting. Or only answer the questions you feel inspired by! You can even print out all your responses after you're done, so your children and grandchildren have a short record of some of your food memories and opinions. I hope you'll be surprised about some of the sweet memories that come up! As the title of a book edited by Mark Winegardner states... We Are What What We Ate. (1998, Harcourt Brace and Co.) And if you have an amazing photo of your family butchering a hog, or volunteers in the church hall kitchen cooking for a picnic, or your grandmother holding a just-baked pan full of klobasniky in 1925, please email me. It could end up in the cookbook. 

My kitchen several nights a week and most weekends.


Below are photos of a small selection of the things I've been cooking the last few months. Do any of these dishes spark memories for you? Or if you think your version or your mother's versions is the absolute BEST, let me know! With that said, I may not be able to respond to every person in a timely way, so please accept my thanks in advance for your help to identify the most representative dishes of the Texas Czech community.  I am so excited to read your feedback!


(Shout out to friends and family that have been triple testing recipes or cooking with me, making connections to cooks or businesses for me, eating my experiments, talking me down off ledges, attending events with me, proofreading drafts of things, and sending me helpful books out of the goodness of their hearts. I could not do this without you and I am SO grateful.) 



Buttermilk Pie

Fresh Sauerkraut

Scrambled Eggs and Tomatoes

Baked Sweet Rice (this one has prunes on top and lots of cinnamon)

Kolaches (my filling ran out!)

Pickled Beets (in process)

Bublanina (with vanilla ice cream on the side)

Smothered Steak

Angel Food Cake (yummy structural failure)

Whole Baked Trout

Šišky (potato dumplings with prunes inside and 
topped with melted butter, grated gingerbread, and powdered sugar)

Sauerkraut Salad

Garlic & Dill Pickles

Prune Cake with Sour Cream Frosting

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Pork Ribs and Sauerkraut (a big fail)

My older son braving chiggers and mosquitos
to help me pick wild mustang grapes for jelly.




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Comments

  1. NelsonJuly 15, 2024 at 6:48 PM

    Exciting update! It's such a pleasure to subscribe to a long-project blog like yours and see an update a year later. You've got fans waiting, patiently :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DawnJuly 15, 2024 at 6:59 PM

      I cannot tell you how much your reply means to me. Thank you for reading and for the encouraging words. With gratitude - Dawn

      Delete
  2. AnonymousOctober 2, 2024 at 2:53 PM

    Can't wait for your cookbook!

    ReplyDelete

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