Families pass down recipes from generation to generation.
During CampCCJ at Mercer’s Center for Collaborative Journalism, high school students collected interviews with Maconites on their favorite family recipes for the Macon Food Story project.
They shared the history and inspiration behind their dishes.
William Ayears – Frito chili pack
One of Ayears’ favorite childhood dishes is the Frito chili pack.
When he was in elementary school in Texas, his mother showed him how to make them and he shared the knowledge with his brother, Rodney.
As latch-key kids, it was a go-to snack for them that was both easy to make and easy to clean up while tiding them over until dinner.
Those the recipe has changed a bit, Ayears still uses the same basic ingredients his mother used.
Abby Dowling -- Peanut butter cookies
Dowling is a history professor at Mercer who was finally able to enjoy her family’s peanut cookie recipe after she outgrew her peanut allergy.
Baking was a way for her family to stay close, but she was never able to indulge in the cookies, or anything made with peanuts.
She searched for the recipe and now wants her infant daughter to experience the recipe and grow up with it committed to memory.
Zetta Nganga -- Jambalaya
Nganga left Louisiana in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, and although she calls Macon home, she keeps her cultural ties to her previous home alive by cooking jambalaya.
She is of Creole descent and learned a lot about the culture through music and food, like gumbo and red beans.
She likes to invite people into her life experiences and culture by giving them a taste of what South Louisiana has to offer.
Mindy Hart -- Hummingbird cake
Sugar was scarce during the Great Depression, but that didn’t stop Hart’s great-grandmother from making her favorite hummingbird cake.
Instead, she improvised with moonshine, which is a good sweetener substitute since it contains a high sugar content.
The cake takes two days to create and can be easily affected by humid weather conditions, so the cake is best in the winter.
It’s her favorite recipe because of how long its passed down through her family.
