So today I went searching through my Pot Roast recipes to find one for Sunday dinner.
First I found my Mom's recipe for "Perfect Pot Roast". It's a worn copy of a magazine page, softened on the fold lines from frequent use, dotted with splashes from previous pot roasts. In her handwriting, a note along the margin: "4/8/92 - Sorry I couldn't copy it in color. Mom."
Next, I pulled a recipe clipped from the Penzey's catalog, and guess what? They were the same. Identical.
Mom's recipe was from the June 1973 issue of McCall's magazine. I couldn't find that exact issue online, but it would have been in this bunch from the '70s. (Being the vintage-stuff-loving-person that I am, if I could find it online, I'd be sorely tempted to buy it.)
Unlike my editor/proofreader mother, I didn't note the date of the Penzey's recipe I'd torn out of the catalog. But as always, it didn't take long, with Google's help, to find out: it was from the Winter 2010 issue of Penzey's catalog: "Perfect Pot Roast".
So I have two identical pot roast recipes, just published 37 years apart.
And that's what we're having for dinner tonight.
