Susanna Hormel cooks

Have you noticed that when you have people over to your home for a time of socializing everyone gravitates toward the kitchen?  The kitchen has become a place where most people feel comfortable.  Guests can offer assistance to their hosts and feel like they are contributing to the event.  Conversation can be shared in a casual environment surrounded by tasty snacks and friendly faces. I have heard it said that if you provide food, people will come to whatever it is you are planning. Our American culture today is quite obsessed with food with all sorts of tv shows and competitions dedicated to cuisine, but food has always been something that brings people together.

Susannah Hormel, George A.’s mother, made quite an impression in the kitchen as George describes in his autobiography, Three Men and a Business:  “I ate the good things that poured out of her kitchen at every meal with a relish and capacity that surprised even her.  I particularly remember a golden “Johnny cake” she used to make from fresh-ground cornmeal, sorghum molasses, eggs, milk, and shortening—a far different kind of cornbread from any one can find today.  She filled her hungry brood with young green cabbage coleslaw doused in sour cream, potatoes boiled in their jackets or baked, mashed rutabagas seasoned with butter and cream, and other fresh vegetables.  And her vitamin-rich meat and vegetable soups, her stews and browned beef hash would have put life into anyone this side of a mummy.  Before mealtimes the most tantalizing odors stole out of her kitchen, the kind you could taste; the yeasty goodness of baking bread mingling with the fragrant bouquet of new made coffee simmering on the stove.”

It sounds like George had the great fortune of a mother with a passion for the kitchen.  Her role of homemaker dictated that she provided meals but her love for the job was apparently evident to all.  George was also blessed with a wife, Lillian, who enjoyed entertaining in her home. Her job was not feeding 11 hungry children but she did often host luncheons and business affairs.  Two recipes we have from her include a Sour Cream Cake (served plain, with no frosting because George didn’t like it) and Hot Chicken Loaf.  I can share the recipes if you would like them. 

I like how Cesar Chavez puts it, “If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... the people who give you their food give you their heart.” 

The Hormel family certainly shared their heart with family and with others.