The team behind the public television show America's Test Kitchen is trying to save a slice of culinary heritage.
Their Cook's Country magazine launched the Heirloom Recipe Preservation Contest and was flooded with nearly 3,000 entries — family recipes dating back to the Revolutionary War — plus more modern fare like blueberry boy bait, a coffee cake from the 1950s.
Chris Kimball, host of America's Test Kitchen, brought along an impressive array of some of the contest dishes to share and discuss with Renee Montagne.
"A great lost recipe is like a great short story," Kimball says. And like short stories, heirloom recipes have catchy titles, like Tennessee Stack Cake, Whoopie Pie or Naked Ladies with Their Legs Crossed (spiced crullers, if you must know). "So it's intriguing, it's interesting, it's kind of fun," he says. "The recipe itself is the narrative."
You can read some of the contest recipes, including the grand prize-winning Peach Puzzle, below.
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