The book
The book version of Pastries from the Past has 40 recipes of cakes, sweet and savory baked goods and desserts selected from the yellowing, 80-page notebook my grandmother kept throughout her life. The book is about the art of baking as it was practiced by a dedicated housewife in the early 20th century, at the height of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until WWI, in Budapest between the wars, and the years after WWII under the communist regime in Hungary.
The book includes a selection of successfully tested delicious cakes and pastries from the 300+ recipes in the notebook. After the recipes were translated from German and Hungarian to English, they were carefully tested and adjusted to current units of measure, ingredients and tools.
A few words about my grandmother Ilona:
My grandmother, Ilona Adler, was born in 1886 in a Slovakian small town, then part of Austro-Hungary. She married in 1904, at the age of 18, and started collecting recipes as she began her married life with my grandfather, Fülöp Binetter. The recipes are in German and Hungarian, in the two languages spoken in her bilingual home.
The newly married couple moved to my grandfather's hometown of Nyitra, about 32 km from Topoľčany. My Grandfather was an architect, and his family had a lumber wholesale business. Their first child was born in 1905, and two more sons in 1907 and in 1909.
The Binetter family had a prosperous life in Nyitra until WWI, when my grandfather was enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian army and served until 1918. After the war and dissolution of the Empire, the family moved to Budapest.
Between the two World Wars Budapest was a lively city and Jewish families were prosperous. The Binetter family thrived in trade and manufacturing owning the company Herkules r.t., Joinery and Building Material Trading, where my grandmother was also a partner. Their 3 sons were all grown-up, educated young men and successful in business. My grandparents had a relatively comfortable life, judging from photos taken at home and on vacations throughout Europe – holidays with friends in Opatia, Croatia, Nice and Monte Carlo in France, and ski in Italy.
From 1939 on, life became very difficult for the Binettr family with all the anti-Jewish laws issued by the Hungarian government and even worse after the German occupation of Budapest, in April 1942. The family lived through the deportation, hiding and the unimaginable atrocities of WWII - but survived.
My grandmother died in 1976 in Antwerp, Belgium. Among her belongings was a recipe notebook, which I received many years later from my cousin Georges. It took me a couple of years to decipher the content and translate the recipes into English, which presented me with great challenges. Reading her recipes and experimenting with baking was a great insight into the ingredients, tools and baking conventions of Austro-Hungarian traditions of that bygone era.
The recipes in Pastries from the Past book are organized into 8 sections: Cream Cakes – for people who like their cakes with cream, like my husband. Nut Cakes – as the notebook had surprisingly many recipes based only on almonds, hazelnuts, or chestnuts without any flour or breadcrumbs, I decided to have a section for all the people in my family with a gluten-free diet. Cookies – of course are for my grandkids to bake together or treat them. Puddings – are my new discovery. The notebook has a variety of puddings and for me, it was a novelty. Coffee Cakes and Salty Pastries – are for occasional entertainment, family gatherings and get-togethers with friends. Or just for a bite with morning coffee. Fruit Cakes – we tried a few fruit recipes from the notebook, one for the fruit of each season. And of course, Strudels – the quintessential Austrian / Hungarian dessert.
The book is available in bookstores and online at Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Bookshop.org and others.