German Saga Has a Family Link

I want to thank you for the wonderful article on German cooking (“Children of Catherine the Great: the Germans From Russia,” June 25). What a surprise to suddenly see a recipe for beerocks. It was so exciting to read another family’s history so similar; my family’s origin was from White Russia also. They traveled to settlements in South America and Canada and then finally settled in Oregon and Washington around 1910.

My German grandmother passed away several years ago, and as with other families, the recipes were lost with her. I had tried on several occasions when I was a girl to get her to recite to me everything she did and added to the bowl, but when trying to cook from my old notes with a pinch of this and that, not much turns out right. I’ve scanned other German and Russian cookbooks over the last 28 years to find recipes, but to no avail. Now [with “Heinrich Family Favorites”] maybe a lucky break!

SANDRA WARD

San Juan Capistrano