Find the recipes your grandmother used to make with a little help from our vintage cookbook collection.
Holidays are the best time to break out those old family recipes that have been time-tested. In the Walker Local and Family History Center we have a large collection of local cookbooks that can be mined to find those wonderful and familiar dishes of yesteryear.
While browsing through these recently I came across one of my personal favorites. For holiday gatherings my grandmother and mother loved to serve Charlotte Russe. It’s a light, fluffy dessert that puts the perfect finish to a rich meal, and was what we would serve every Christmas. Charlotte Russe appears in many of the cookbooks we have in Local History and must have been a perennial local favorite.
The following recipe is from Columbia Cooks with Fun and Flavor published by the Heathwood Hall Parent’s Guild in 1960. This recipe was contributed by Flora Barringer.
Charlotte Russe
1 pint whipping cream
5 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
2 packages unflavored gelatin
½ cup milk, hot
½ cup milk, cold
4 ounces bourbon or sherry or
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 dozen ladyfingers
Split ladyfingers and line sides and bottom of two bowls. Beat cream until stiff. Separate eggs, beat each well. Add pinch of salt and sugar to yolks. Dissolve gelatin in cold milk. Heat ½ cup milk and add to gelatin being sure it is thoroughly dissolved. Allow this to cool. Pour into yolk and while still beating add flavoring slowly. Fold in cream, then whites of eggs, stiffly beaten. Spoon this mixture over ladyfingers and place ladyfingers (split) across top. Allow to chill for several hours.
Columbia Cooks with Fun and Flavor. Copyright 1960 by the Heathwood Hall Parents Guild, Columbia, S.C.