La Lama Mountain Ovens
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Family Secrets

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The best of the recipes, techniques, and methods practiced by our large extended Italian-American family - with emphasis on the legacy handed down to us by the original immigrants.

This is a cookbook-in-process project. If you try any of these recipes please let us know how they turn out, whether or not you had any difficulties, and any clarifying improvements you might recommend to make them foolproof. We will of course acknowledge genuine "test-kitchen" assistance.

Family Secrets #1

Easter Bread with 65 Eggs

By Cece Dove, La Lama Mountain Ovens
For those of you who are interested, a little family background. We are first generation Italian. Our father emigrated to America around 1913. As in most Italian households food was the central theme around which our lives revolved. Marriages, weddings, baptisms, even deaths all had their traditional dishes as well as each major holiday and about a hundred minor ones too. Birthdays, graduations, engagements, job promotions all called for a celebration which called for special food. Even the days of the weeks had their own special dishes when we were growing up. We could always count on Friday being "fish day" because Catholics did not eat meat on Fridays. Monday was always homemade soup day because that was the day Mom did the washing and ironing and needed a dish she could put on the back of the stove to cook all day while she was busy. And so on through the week.

While I have very fond memories of all the chaos of a large extended family with cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters coming and going, laughing, arguing, singing and dancing, my most vivid memories are of how the food always seemed to bring all the component parts of the celebration together. We always knew when Aunt Mary and Uncle Andy came up the front steps on Christmas morning, their beautiful tray of cookies would have the best (and possibly only) Mostaccioli in town. We only prayed that she would make them again for Easter. Just as we knew that Aunt Norma arriving from Ohio would have in hand the most delectable Fiadone in the family, but only at Easter.

Easter looms large in my memory because it meant my mother would bake her annual batch of Piña, or as we came to call it ‘Easter Bread". I have searched for many years to find the origin of the word Piña, to no avail. There are many recipes for festive, holiday breads with similarities to Mom’s original, but none yield quite the same results as hers. All the women in our family attempted to bake it every Easter and some were good, some were acceptable, but Bertha was known to make the absolute best and everyone waited for it. We four kids were always slightly chagrined because we knew the tradition called for us to take the loaves to our neighbors, and family and friends on Easter morning as a gesture of goodwill and they would in turn visit us with their offerings which never, ever compared to Mom’s. She would keep a loaf or two of her own for us because we raised such a fuss about it but we watched most unhappily as she packed up loaf after loaf for delivery.

As you can surmise, Mom is long gone but before she left us I went home and sat with her in the kitchen and wrote my version of her recipe. Then I took it to my home and worked with it until I got it scaled down "for mere mortals". You will understand this reference as you read over her original recipe which I am sharing with you now. This is taken from her handwriting and with her references as to weight and size. As you read it please remember that she had no special equipment for mixing or kneading - this was all done by hand, although she did have a large wooden tub that was only used for the raising of this bread. It was made by a local carpenter and had slanted sides and was approximately 3 feet long by 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep. We also had a "MixMaster", electric mixer of average size. She would begin the process the day before the actual baking of the bread. Although she made this bread all of her life, we finally persuaded her to write her version in 1970.

Mama's Easter Bread with 65 Eggs
  • 65 eggs, beat with electric mixer and 5 lb of sugar.
  • 1 box raisins.
  • 3 glasses citron.
  • 1 glass anise seed, 35 cent size.
  • 2 glasses whisky (wine glass size).
  • 1 lb melted Crisco (you can put 1/2 oleo if you like).
  • 13 lb flour to start. If you have large eggs you will need about 3 lb more to mix, or less.
  • Set Your Yeast 1 hr before mixing.
  • 1 qt and 1 cup milk in large 8 qt kettle. Warm and dissolve 3 cakes of 13 cent size.
  • Put in 8 or 9 handfuls of flour, enough to make a real light dough.
  • Let stand to ferment one hour.
  • Always preheat your oven about 1/2 hour before you start to bake.
  • Large loaves bake at 275 for 50 to 55 min, real small loaves for 30 to35 min.

Ediberta Zara
(Bertha)
nee Buzzelli
(1903-1972)
Picture: 1948
That’s it folks. No mixing directions, let alone kneading times. No pan size, no direction on raising (once or twice?) and what does a "wine glass" mean to my mother who never drank? I will caution you now, try this recipe only at your own risk. I will publish my version of it next. Of this I can assure you, from this bread memories are made.
©1998-2006 CDove - Attributed Copies Permitted for Small Quantity Non-Commercial Use Only.
Commercial and Quantity Reproduction Requires Written Permission
La Lama Mountain Ovens, 2055 Lama Mtn., HC81 Box 26, Questa, NM 87556, Tel: 505-586-2286

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