I had many stories that I could have shared here. Some funny, some sad and some, like this one, that reminds me of family that is no longer walking this earth, but still carried with me in my heart.
After my parents got divorced, we moved to New Jersey to live with my maternal grandparents. Every year they had a family gathering with all the Hungarian relatives. Everyone brought something so that no one family would be burdened with the expense of feeding everyone.
As a tradition, to symbolize the poor conditions they all grew up in, my Pop-Pop would man the wood grill to make Szalonna, aka greasy bread.
In the poorer villages, when food was scarce, the families would gather together, each bringing what they could to make a dish. Someone brought an onion. Someone else a tomato or cucumber. A loaf of seedless rye bread and a pig jowl.
The most important job went to the head of the household, that of cooking the jowl on a large metal fork over a wood stove to release the fat to drip on the bread, which the families then adorned with the sliced toppings. The children all gathered round the fire, anxiously awaiting the little chunks of cooked meat that were cut off the slab, to make them strong, as the children were the future of the family.
This was my Pop-Pop's job, and no one did it better, not even his brother, despite what my cousin's think.
After my Pop-Pop passed away, the family gatherings like that became few and far between as if the "greasy bread" would not taste the same without him there to man the fork.
To this day, the smell of bacon and rye toast always makes me smile and think of him.
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Comments: 48
I think greasy bread sounds pretty good.
It does sound like an awesome tradition, CC. Thank you for sharing. (And I didn't steal that line from anyone on Gather. =))
I always think it was a sad day when someone decided fat and grease were bad for us... our kids are missing out on the great taste of all the rich, traditional food we ate as we were growing up.
glad to know it's still a tradition for some families. i haven't gotten to have any in at least a decade.
Szalonna. hm, how to phonetically spell that? where is Aniko when i need her. lol.
try Zo lun A.
my grandmother pronounced things with a Windish accent, so someone who speaks Hungarian will say it different.
this is exactly how i remember my grandfather. i always sat right next to "the fixings" table to hand him the knife for cutting off the bacon so that i got first dibs.
my mom still has the fork, but she never makes this. if i could convince her to give me the fork, i would make this tomorrow.
funny thing about the Greasy Bread is that even the vegetarians in the family would eat at least one piece a year. they said they craved it.
Sounds like your pop-pop was very good at this, and someone you loved very much. Good to have good memories of him. :)
CC, this was wonderful. My mom's (Slovak) family did something similar to this and maybe we actually called it "Szalonna." I don't remember. Most of those get togethers ended pretty early in my childhood, and I hadn't actually thought about them until I read this. Thanks for the memory jog -- and this is really well written, too.
Needs more Donkey, though... ;-)
Oh, the smell of some foods that were made in our home! My mother makes homemade apple strudel from scratch, stretching the pastry tissue thin, even though she is in her 90s now. It took years to learn and I pray I learn the art of her particular recipe. I'm working on it.
Now, in an odd circular way, we have an adopted Romanian (adopted at 5) growing up with us. My father is gone and it feels good to have the cultural background resonate through our house. Even by 5, certain cultural traditions are there.
I was thinking about you, CC, when my dad did szalonnasütés with the kids (over a campfire, not a grill), and I actually took some pictures. Let me see if I can find them.
(That's amazing, Jo! My grandmothers used to stretch their own strudel dough, but these days everyone I know buys the frozen stuff....)
thanks for the pronunciation btw and look forward to seeing those pics.
Regards,
Doyle I <~~~~~
Thanks, CCMiranda.
How lovely-- What a wonderful memory and something to pass down to your children.
beautiful memory!