How an Appalachian Chef Found His Way to His Roots Through the Kitchen

Shared by Ian Boden
Recipe Roots: Kensington, Maryland > Staunton, Virginia

Chef Ian Boden started working in a restaurant kitchen when he was 13-years-old, first assembling salads and later learning to make French classics like beurre blanc. For the first two decades of his career, though, he wasn’t interested at all in the Ashkenazi foods of his family, dishes like stuffed derma or kishke, chopped liver, apple cake, and a small pasta called egg barley. 

“[Like] a lot of Jews my age, I was kind of embarrassed about my heritage,” Ian says. He and his brother were the only Jewish students in their elementary school in suburban Virginia and Ian clearly recalls a day he came home crying after “a guy who I thought was my friend told me: 'Your people killed Jesus, I’m supposed to hate you,’” he says. “I think that had a lot to do with it.” 

His perspective towards Ashkenazi food and his identity started to shift in his 30s. Ian would visit iconic delis and appetizing shops on visits to New York City and saw them becoming shadows of themselves. “It really upset me,” he says. At the same time he saw people around him take pride in their ancestry and culture. And, “I felt like I was lacking — I was missing it.” 

In 2014, when he and his wife opened The Shack, a restaurant on the western edge of Virginia dedicated to the Appalachian cooking of her grandmother, Ian started to see parallels with his own family’s cooking and felt a drive to put dishes from his roots on the menu. 

His mother’s family came to the U.S. from Hungary in the early part of the 20th century. And, his grandmother Pauline, was one of four sisters, who were chatty and exuberant, jokingly calling themselves the Gabor sisters. Pauline’s cooking harkened back to her roots. In her repertoire there was brisket, egg barley, and chopped liver that was given to guests just as they arrived at her home in Maryland. “You’d get a kiss on the lips and then a piece of matzo shoved in your face with chopped liver,” he recalls 

All the sisters had passed away by the time Ian decided to look into his family’s culinary past. “Unfortunately, I missed out on a lot,” he says. But, he’s since taken on a new role as the culinary torch bearer in his family, researching recipes he remembered and cooking them, but with a chef’s twist. First he made latkes at The Shack, then egg barley, replacing the packages his grandmother used with his own homemade version that’s tossed with schmaltz and black pepper. He’s since made kishke with foie gras and truffled matzo ball soup. 

“It took me a long time to get to that point,” Ian explains. But, “The more research I do, the more flavors I taste and remember, the more attached and fond of them I am.”

Egg Barley

Makes: 4 servings
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients
For the Egg Barley: 
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
3  whole eggs
1 tablespoon vegetable oil or any neutral oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon and ½ teaspoon water 

For the sauce:
4 cups chicken stock  
½ cup schmaltz 
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced 
1 fresh or dry bay leaf 

Preparation

1. Make the dough: Make a mound out of the flour on a clean surface or in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center of the pile. Lightly beat together the egg, salt, oil, and water in a separate bowl. Drop this mixture into the flour well and work the mixture with a fork or your hands, folding the flour over the egg mixture until a dough comes together and can be rolled into a ball. Knead this mixture by folding the dough over towards the body and press with the heel of the hand and give a slight turn. The mixture will feel a bit dry but as you continue to knead it it will hydrate. Fold, press and turn the dough again and continue this process until the dough is smooth and elastic. Knead the dough for about 15 minutes. Divide the dough into 2 balls and set aside, uncovered, for 30 to 45 minutes. 

2. Preheat the oven to 350°.

3. Shape and toast the egg barley: Grate the balls of dough on the coarse side of a box grater onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Grate the dough in a one direct motion from the top of the grater to the bottom. Try to keep the grated dough in an even layer on the sheet. Transfer the baking sheet with the grated dough into the oven and bake it for 20 minutes total, checking every 5 to 10 minutes, stirring the barley and breaking apart any large chunks of egg barley. The barley is finished when most of the pieces are golden brown and very dry. If the barley is not evenly toasted that's completely fine. The uneven toast allows the barley to have different flavors. 

4. Cook the egg barley: Add the schmaltz to a medium size pot and melt it over medium heat. Add the onion, bay leaf,  ¼ teaspoon salt and the black pepper.  Cook the onions until they are translucent, for about 5-10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the toasted barley, stir to coat the barley with the onions and schmaltz that are in the pan.  Add the stock, bring the mixture to a boil then place a lid on the pot and reduce the heat to medium-low or to a gentle simmer.  Allow it to simmer until the liquid has been absorbed and the barley is tender, about 20 minutes.  If more liquid is needed add more stock or water and continue to cook.  

Cook’s Note: If you are not cooking your barley immediately, store it in an air-tight container once fully cooled at room temperature for up to a week.

Apple Cake

Nearly all of Pauline’s recipes that were written down — and many of the family photos — were lost in a house fire caused by lightning. The one recipe that survived was this one apple cake, which was written on a card that was tucked into a cookbook.

Makes: 1 apple cake
Total Time: 15 minutes active, 1 hour and 40 minutes inactive

Ingredients
Nonstick cooking spray for greasing
5-6 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and diced ½ inch pieces
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ cups plus 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ cups vegetable oil or any other neutral oil
4 eggs
¼ cups orange juice or apple cider vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Confectioners sugar for dusting (optional)

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 350° and grease a 10 inch bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside. 

 2. Place the apples, cinnamon and 5 tablespoons of sugar in a large mixing bowl. Mix well until the apples are coated evenly in the cinnamon and sugar. Set aside.

3. Mix the flour, salt and baking powder in a separate large mixing bowl. Set aside. 

4. Mix the wet ingredients: Place the remaining 1 ½ cups of sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, orange juice or apple cider vinegar and vanilla extract into another bowl. Whisk well until combined. 

5. Gently pour the wet ingredient mixture into the flour mixture and stir until the mixture is smooth and just combined. Add the apple mixture and gently fold it into the cake batter until it is distributed evenly. Carefully pour the batter in the bundt pan and use a spatula to roughly even out the surface if needed. Transfer into the oven and bake for about 1 hour and 20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

6. Set the cake aside for 15-20 minutes to cool and then carefully place an inverted cake stand on top of the bundt pan and unmold the cake.  

7. Let the cake cool completely for 1 hour and then serve. Dust the cake with confectioners sugar if using.