Readers share beloved legacy recipes that are served up on their holiday tables
These days, social media provides much of our culinary inspiration, but not so long ago, our favorite recipes were dogeared in cookbooks, clipped from newspapers and photocopied at work. They were tucked into kitchen drawers and stuffed into binders, reliably extracted when the calendar flipped to holidays and special occasions. The best were hard to read and stained with use, inevitably passed around among family members and friends. These weren’t gourmet dishes. They were nostalgic timestamps, linking everyone who tasted them to moments from the past.
“I just remember my grandma always making it,” says Elizabeth Reimann about her family’s cranberry ice, a cold and creamy frozen cranberry salad that her Canadian grandmother, Dorothy Otto, served atop lettuce as a holiday side.
The recipe was handed down to Reimann’s father, David Otto, who made it throughout Reimann’s Missouri childhood. Reimann says she has no idea where the dish came from, but she continues to make it now for her Baton Rouge family. It’s a ritual that connects her to forebears.
“I just think it’s really delicious,” Reimann says. “And it’s kind of a perfect recipe because it brings flavor and texture and color.”
For Kate Seba, preparing her late friend and coworker David Ledet’s green bean casserole recipe every holiday season makes her pause and reflect on his kindness and generosity. The two worked together at a law firm early in Seba’s career. A grandfatherly empty nester whose wife had died, Ledet would bring his famed green bean casserole to firm potlucks. Seba says the inclusion of dried thyme and basil, along with crisp bacon, crunchy water chestnuts, fried onions and cheddar cheese makes the otherwise commonplace casserole a standout.
“In the mid-’90s, I asked him if he’d share the recipe,” Seba says. “He was so tickled. I have made it every year since.”
This month, families will gather around the Thanksgiving table, and it’s a sure bet that a dish or two will have special significance. Here’s to the recipes that fill the belly and soothe the soul, and that we make over and over again.
Read on for some of the family recipes that were shared by 225 readers.
Granny’s Mac & Cheese
LeRay’s Cajun Chicken and Sausage Gumbo
David’s Green Beans
Macaroni Salad
Pantry Casserole
Cranberry Ice
This article was originally published in the November 2026 issue of 225 Magazine.
