Do you have a signature dish?
A signature dish is a food item that you are known for, that everyone loves when they taste it, that is one of the first things to run out at a potluck because it's general knowledge that you make this particular thing very well.
I have long wished to have a signature dish.
I first became aware of this concept when I was a child. Every year my mom would purchase a couple pies for our Thanksgiving table, to accompany the ones she would make herself (Hershey pie may well be my mom's signature dish - it was so good). Of the pies she purchased, one would always be a lemon meringue, because it was my dad's favorite. Every year she would offer him a slice of lemon meringue, and he would eat and enjoy it, but then she'd ask if he liked that particular lemon meringue brand. And he would always declare that it was good, but not as good as his Granny's lemon meringue pie.
In some recipe box somewhere, my Great-Granny's lemon meringue pie recipe is probably languishing. I'm not sure if it was passed down to anyone, and if it was, I can almost guarantee that the lucky recipient also failed to make it as well as Granny, at least in the eyes of her grandsons. I've become convinced there must be some secret magic in a grandma's fingers that makes lemon meringue pies all over the world irresistible, because doesn't everyone have a grandma or great aunt that used to make an inexplicably delicious lemon meringue?
I would love to learn to make a lemon meringue pie and let that be my signature dish too, to carry the tradition on, but I'm a little terrified to even attempt to compete with Granny. I'm not sure I trust myself to judge the deliciousness of a lemon meringue without my dad's stamp of approval, and I don't have the grandma magic to help me.
No, I probably have to find my own dish. My grandma on my mom's side has a great potato dish that I've stolen for a few potlucks, but I still consider it her special creation, not mine. I also find that even when someone shares their signature recipe, it's very difficult to make it as well as the original. My sister-in-law generously shared her lemon bar recipe with me, and though it's next on my list of treats to make this fall, I have no aspirations of making it as well as she does. (Also, maybe the secret to a signature dish is just the lemons - lemon meringue, lemon bars...my lemon fudge is fairly popular online, but I don't think it counts because I haven't personally made it in so long.)
I've thought of investing all my efforts into perfecting one type of dish, but I haven't figured out which one yet. I may feel intimidated by lemon meringue, but perhaps another kind of pie will do. I've been complimented on my chili, but I'm not sure I can count that one either, since it's not made from scratch (canned beans are my friend). Maybe I should just wait until I'm a grandma, because surely the mysterious grandma magic will sprinkle itself onto the food that my grandchildren eat. Perhaps my time just has not yet come.
Regardless, I'll keep searching through pie recipe books, researching how to make chili beans really well from scratch, trying new recipes - until hopefully, someday, my signature dish finds me.
Again - do you have a signature dish? Or do you have a relative who has one?
I love this!! Years ago, when I went to the church I attended for most of my twenties, my signature dish was broccoli salad. I was not permitted inside any church lunch without it. People asked for the recipe and I shared it, but all of them said their husbands said it didn't taste the same. When I worked at the college, my signature dish was usually a breakfast casserole or cinnamon rolls. Now it's usually cookies - with chocolate chip being the most requested!
I love that there's someone else out there who thinks about this! I mostly think of signature dishes when it comes time for meal trains for new moms at my church. So many women I know, who all participate in these meals trains, have a signature dish-something that you can always count on receiving when you have a baby, something that they do well. I would love to have perfected a dish so it's what I'm known for, but maybe that is something I'll have to wait for until I'm a grandma. I do make a lot of bread, though (I grind wheat for it too), and a lot of people know me for my bread, so maybe that count as my "signature dish."
My grandma is known for making her Peach Pie! (Grandmas and their pies I guess!:) No one else can quite make it just right like she does, it has a crispy crust and cinnamon sugary peach filling. She taught me how to make it, but it is an art for sure! I am usually known for bringing some kind of dessert… I tend to switch it up with different things though, more fun that way!
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