Does memory have a taste? Anyone who’s tried to make their favourite family dishes without a recipe will tell you it does –  as distinctive as smell, touch and feel.  That’s why when you eat food “like grandma used to make”, it instantly transports you back to another time and place.

And somehow those tastes from childhood seem the best, with each family believing, no, actually knowing, that their grandmother made the best plum pudding, the best chopped liver, the best congee…

Irris Makler: "Somehow those tastes from childhood seem the best."

Across all cultures the familiar taste of home sings out to us, bringing with it family memories, a sense of belonging and most importantly love.

I’m a journalist, and a Middle East correspondent, a lot of my time is spent on the frontline covering wars, but I’ve begun working on a new project collecting the life stories and the recipes of Jewish women who were alive during World War Two.

You might also like:  “The mother I never knew and the ‘mum’ I’ll always love.”

I’ve filmed three wonderful women, now in their 80’s and 90’s, in their kitchens with their grandchildren for the ABC’s Compass programme.

They share recipes for the food they grew up with in Europe, and stories of surviving genocide and arriving here as refugees, teaching their grandchildren to love the tastes of the past.

Eva Grinston, Lena Goldstein and Rita Ross are remarkable women, who have seen evil – maybe even the heart of darkness – when they were growing up in the Nazi era during World War Two.

Lena Goldstein's Jewish I.D. during WWll.

Their stories are spell-binding, at times horrifying and also inspiring.

All three are fabulous cooks, and all chose to bake cakes for our cameras, sweet dishes to accompany sad stories.

When a matriarch’s experience is so bitter does she pass on fear and trauma, or a stubborn survival instinct along with her cooking secrets?  Both generations speak frankly about their unbreakable bond.

Personal motive

I’ve been searching for that taste of memory ever since my own beloved grandmother Lea died more than 20 years ago, without me having written down any of her recipes.

That’s something I’ve never forgiven myself for, because when I was growing up in Sydney, it was her kitchen that was the centre of my family life.

Lena Goldstein and her grandson, Ben.

It was where we sat after school, where the family met, where she cooked – which she did every day – without really consulting recipes.  She was an instinctive cook, so it was all done on taste and feel. If you wanted a recipe, you had to watch and write down the quantities yourself.

Related:  “Don’t call it retirement. I’m having a gap year”

When I finished studying I went to try my luck in London. Grandma Lea was already unwell when I left, and she passed away not long after I arrived there. Then my aunt, her daughter, died suddenly – and it seemed no one had collected my grandmother Lea’s recipes.

When I returned to Sydney, I found myself obsessively trying to bake my favourite of her cakes, her honey cake.

(Post continues after recipe).

Irris's grandmother's honey cake.

I baked and discarded one honey cake after another – a light version from Elizabeth David, with clover honey and almonds, a heavier Russian cake, made with three types of flour and cottage cheese.

They were all delicious, but they weren’t right.

They weren’t my grandmother’s honey cake, so I’d start the search again.

Rita Ross and her grandson, Jake.

We all have a dish that’s on the table at family gatherings and that says family to us. For me it was that honey cake. Finding it again has become a symbol of my grandmother’s love, and a way to be close to her even after her death.

In a way, that why I’m doing this project. I don’t want anyone else to have to search for their grandmother’s recipes.  I also want to hear the extraordinary stories of the last Australian Jewish Holocaust survivors.

Eva Grinston with her grandchildren.

Watch – ABCTV Compass 6.30 Sunday 29th March, repeated 11am Monday 30

th

and on iview after that

Send your grandmothers’ recipes, or other family favourites, to the ABC Compass recipe page.

And visit foodislove.co to see and hear more stories, or to include your own grandmother in the project