Food memories
Back to all
Irish in Britain’s Cuimhne coordinator Zibiah writes:
Our six–year old came home from school this week expectantly announcing it was pancake day, something which had escaped me completely! Since we had run out of eggs and it was getting late to go shopping, we agreed we would call Wednesday, Tuesday and Tuesday, Wednesday!
So, the next day after school, we rolled our sleeves up and discovered how much easier it is to make pancakes that look like pancakes and not scrambled eggs if you use a non–stick pan!
Foods can be touchstones to life story memories and the smells of cooking especially can transport us on express trains into our pasts. Mixing up milk and butter and eggs and weighing up both the flour and the likelihood of being able to flip pancakes into the pan rather than up to decorate our ceiling, I found myself reminiscing about tossing pancakes with my Granny. We used to sit by her open fire rolling pancakes around lemon juice, crunchy sugar and currants, eating them faster than they could be tossed!
Our Cuimhne team are collecting recipes that people living with dementia and their families might like to try making together or tasting together, or simply talking about together, helping open conversations about other memories.
Do you have a favourite recipe that brings back memories of growing up within an Irish family? Our Cuimhne team would love to hear these!
We are posting recipes in a special bank of resources we are creating with Pearl Support Network to support people caring for people living with dementia. Simple recipes like these recipes for boxtyand boiled fruitcake, adapted into a more dementia–friendly format from Monica Sheridan’s Irish cookbook are great.
We would love to hear too from anyone with creative skills who might like to help create some images to accompany these recipes!
If you can offer any help please email champions@irishinbritain.org