At first glance, it might seem that gastronomy and death have little to do with each other. Nothing could be further from the truth: cultures such as the Mexican honor their dead by placing their favorite foods and drinks on home altars or eating next to the graves of loved ones and, in Anglo-Saxon countries, gatherings around food and drinks afterwards. of a funeral are the most common. Now: what paints a recipe in a cemetery?
It seems like the beginning of a joke, but it is not. Although it seems like the most out of place thing, recipes have their place on some tombstones. Under the cold stone lies a body and, on it, a recipe for posterity is inscribed. Rosemary Grant, a librarian from Los Angeles, knows this well, who collects them on her TikTok account @ghostlyarchives.
How did this strange hobby get started? Grant, 33, was interning at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., as part of his master's degree in library and information science. “In a job we were assigned, I had to start a TikTok account and post a video every day. I focused on documenting my internship stay and, to nourish myself with content, I began to investigate different cemeteries”, Grant comments to Comer La Vanguardia.
Unexpectedly, the time she spent in the Congressional Cemetery helped her become passionate about everything related to cemeteries, thus becoming a taphophile, that is, a person interested in death and its rituals. In one of those days that he was browsing the Internet in search of curiosities about cemeteries, he came across an entry from Atlas Obscura – a site that tells snippets of the history of hidden places or traditions all over the world – that caught his attention: a Tombstone in the Brooklyn cemetery, in New York, was crowned by the sculpture of an open book, inside which read "Spritz Cookies: 1 cup of butter or margarine, 4 cups of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 egg, 2 ¼ cups of flour, ½ teaspoon of chemical yeast, ⅛ teaspoon of salt”.
There weren't any instructions for making them, but that didn't stop Grant from putting on his apron and proceeding to make these cookies and document it for his TikTok. "They are to die for," he added. Overnight, that recipe made her famous and more than 1 million people watched her video, which has already reached almost 1.5 million views. “They were very tasty, but the first two times, I did them wrong. There were no instructions of any kind and it was my followers who explained to me how to do it: you had to shape them with a cookie press, and I bought it”.
After that, many more came. Martha Kathyrn Kirkham Andrews' fudge, at the grave she shares with her husband in the Logan, Utah cemetery. Again, an unexpected success, and a curious message in her DM: Martha's granddaughter had seen the video where she prepared her grandmother's recipe and told her all the details of why that recipe had ended up in the wrong place. tombstone of her
It turned out that Martha was a person who loved to give away food and one of her most iconic gifts was fudges. Thus, when her husband Wade died in 2000, Marta decided that she was going to prepare and accommodate that place where she would rest 19 years later: she installed the plate with that recipe and she loved to see how the people who passed by noticed her, they wrote it down and even commented that they had put it into practice.
Christmas cookies, oatmeal cookies with chocolate, walnut and date bread, peach cobbler, blueberry pie and other recipes are what have entertained Grant in his search for gourmand tombstones that he has been finding on the Internet and visiting in his country forever. that he could
Interestingly, many of these recipes (with the exception of a cheese spread) are sweet. But it is not surprising: we usually look for comfort in cookies, cakes and other desserts, and is not the death of a loved one an occasion to look for as much comfort as possible? In our imagination, sweet flavors refer us to tranquility and cookies or other baked goods, to family and more homely moments.
On the other hand, it is a way of making visible those recipes that once earned mothers and grandmothers the recognition of their relatives, taking them out of the house, making them public and sharing them with the world, thus finally giving them the importance they deserve. Asking the TikToker, she comments that this is something that is practically only seen in cemeteries in the United States. “I think we bring something personal to our graves, beyond a name and the date of birth and death. Many people add details of the things they enjoyed in life and what they want to be remembered for later. Maybe it's a hobby, a love for a pet, a book or a date. It's a unique and interesting way to celebrate someone's life."
Gran also confesses that she used to not have a good relationship with death and that this whole process has helped her think about certain topics that she tended to avoid in order not to face her fears and the possible pain that it could cause her. She comments that food has served as an excuse to talk and reflect on this tougher and less appetizing subject such as death, since many of the users leave their comments remembering their loved ones in detail and the recipes they prepared for them. . "I think we don't think enough about our mortal condition, but through food and recollection, this exercise becomes a little easier."
