Ozark Recipes – The Flavors of the Missouri Mountains

Most everyone’s grandma was an excellent cook. They cooked by their senses. Eyes, taste, touch, they were all engaged when Grandma cooked. The recipe? Maybe it was written down, more often than not it was by memory.

Hence, there have been cookbooks created to pass down the Ozark Mountain recipes to everyone who wasn’t in the cabin kitchen memorizing the recipe by cooking these things over and over and over.

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Some of these (like Ozark Pudding) are in multiple sources, others are one offs. Each unique, if somewhat similar, but all delicious and fortified with memories. Many times those in the Ozarks had to use what was available and “make do”, so variations of these were common even coming out of the same kitchen.

Ozark Pudding

A cake like pudding with fruit (usually apples) cinnamon and nuts (sometimes walnuts, sometimes pecans) with a custard as combiner.

Ozark Mountain Stew

Has familiar stew components in potatoes and carrots, onions and beef. Where it diverges is in its heat, with chili powder, red peppers and garlic with a tablespoons of cinnamon and paprika...(?)

Ozark Honey Oatmeal Cookies

Yes, oatmeal cookies, but with honey infused into the batter (some recipes use coconut too)

Ozark Grits Casserole

The main variation here will be with the cheese used. Do you use a cheddar or a jack or Colby?

All of these and so much more are catalogued in a handful of Ozark cookbooks like: Ma’s Cookin’ Ozark Recipes, Ozark Recipes, Ozarks Cookery, or Just Like Mother Made. These may bring back memories, or may be a lifeline to recreate things from your past that were never officially marked down.