I have quite a lot of things that came from my grandmother's kitchen after she passed, but what I use most are her cast iron frying pan (very well seasoned) and the everyday melamine plates (which makes my mother cringe).

I have all of my grandmother's cookbooks with her wonderful recipes and many of her own and ones that were passed on through the family all handwritten. But, my most prized possession is the "family mixing spoon". It's a sterling silver serving spoon that originally came from in a set that was giving to my ancestor as a wedding gift in the early 1800's. She used that particular spoon to mix all of her recipes and it has since been handed down through the generations as "the family mixing spoon". It goes to the one that loves to cook the most. It's beat up with pock marks and one round side of the spoon has worn down straighter due to almost 200 years of scraping the sides of bowls. I love it and feel extremely honored that out of everyone in my huge family, my grandmother chose to pass it on to me. It reminds me of her and I feel her beside me every time I use it.

Being the only female born in my generation, I was fortunate enough to be given not only my Grandmother’s silver and china but her sister’s collection as well (their value is only sentimental).

Each holiday dinner, I take a piece from both collections, polish/clean them and put them out for display. They are not placed “front and center” but rather integrated with the rest of my table and/or buffet. Inevitably, sometime during the evening, my Mother or one of my cousins will notice the piece and say “Wow, that was my Mothers/Grandmothers and it reminds me of the time when….” So not only does it bring back pleasant memories to my family, but it’s a treat for me to hear stories about my Grandmother and Great Aunt.

I have a number of things from both my mother & grandmother, but Grandma's rolling pin is the one item I really love. My mom also had one just like it & my eldest daughter has it now. These rolling pins are HUGE! I've never seen anything like them in any store, but then I wouldn't, because they were made by my great-grandfather, my grandma's dad. I don't know how many of these he made, but I'm lucky, because my women had two & today they are both being used. They are solid wood & a carriage bolt runs through the center to hold the handles. Mine broke a couple of years ago, but my brother was able to fix it. I couldn't possibly guess the number of pie crusts that pin has rolled out. Grandma & Papa owned a restaurant while my mom was growing up & I remember it. They closed in the mid-1970's, but Grandma made all the pies from scratch. She was famous for those pies. I make pies from scratch too, it wouldn't be right to do it any other way, & I use her rolling pin & recipes.

I was so sad when my mother died that I threw away her recipe box because it made me cry when ever I looked into it and read her handwritten notes. Oh, how I wish I had kept that box. My father died first and left me his German steel Case chef knife. I love that knife and I always think of him when I use it

my sibs & I have a number of sentimental and valuable pieces from our Mum/Mom and our maternal grandmother. I happen to be the keeper of an extra, extra large limoges turkey platter (and three large tureens/different shapes with lids) off white/white with gold trim and deep crimson delicate, leaf pattern. We share a number of pieces of heavy cut glass bowls, salad/dessert plates & vases. The piece I love the most is a 1940-50's glass alcaseltzer tube repurposed to hold turkey skewers from many Thanksgiving dinners etc. Every time I open the drawer for this bottle - I have plenty of great memory flashes. I still have some of the original skewers & have added new ones as necessary. So when I fight to carve or dismantle the turkey, it is not to privately eat the skin but to retrieve Mom's skewers!

I have so many things from my mother and my mother-in-law and I love using them. One of my prized possessions is a milk glass oval platter of my mother's. We used it all the time when I was a kid and I still use it a couple of times a week. A few months ago, I found a matching divided vegetable bowl at a thrift store. We had one of those, too, that disappeared. I have several cut glass pieces that belonged to my MIL. I did not keep her china, but I have her good silverware. I struggled with letting go of her two sets of Pyrex mixing bowls and I wish I hadn't. My mother had a pink depression glass piece that we used for olives, pickles and such at the holidays that has also disappeared. One day I will find one like it! Not in the kitchen, but just as dear to me are many wooden pieces of furniture that my FIL made. My sister and I do genealogy together and we love anything that gives us a sense of family history. We love to thrift and antique, always trying to recreate missing pieces from the past.

I have my Mom's large yellow bowl that we used to make angel food cakes. I also have the salt and pepper shakers that were always on the stove since I can remember. My Mom is gone now, but I love to have items that bring back such happy memories.

The first house I purchased belonged to my grandparents. It was fully stocked, and I donated quite a lot of stuff. I kept Linen dish towels; baby bibs; aprons; wooden forks and spoons; utensils with bone and painted wood handles; a dented macaroni pot; an enormous 30-cup coffee percolator; a covered vegetable dish; large oval platters; a porcelain salt box with wooden flip top lid; hugging Teddy Bear salt & pepper shakers; several hand-painted porcelain creamers. Most treasured are the Italian linen embroidered tablecloths with matching napkins; wine decanters with flat-bottom glasses. Oh, and I have a Hoosier with (4) frosted glass cabinet doors, flour sifter, bread drawer and tons of storage space.

I have my grandmothers Griswold cast iron frying pans circa 1940-45ish. love them, will pass them on to my son, his favorites too.

So happy to have my dad's kitchenaid mixer in a place of honor on my countertop! I think of him every day when I see it.

Le creuset is almost always a keeper

thank you all for your memories, all my mothers and grandmothers stuff "disappeared" while we were settling her estate, maybe I should ask my sister in law this question?

I am so very lucky to have my grandmother's crockery 'bread' bowl. I think of her often, and can almost taste and smell her wonderful bread every time I see it. Although it is heavy, it retains heat - even on the cooler days - for the perfect rise every time :)

The aluminum and copper cannister set that was my Grandmothers and bent wooden spoon of my Mom's I mentioned in a previous post...

I also remembered I have my Mom's manual food grinder, the sort you attached to the edge of the kitchen counter with a clamp and then pushed vegetables into it, (at great peril to your fingers!) while turning the grinder handle. How I hated canning season when I was a teenager! We grew and canned, pickled or froze all our own produce back then.

wyndyacre--my mom (91) has a canister set like yours...cookie jar NEVER had any cookies in it. She never really liked to bake or cook, although she could turn out a mean meal if she wanted. Hmmm, I don't know where those canisters went.

My wife has this little teaspoon tray we have been carrying from house to house, not a looker but very practical.

For good dual purpose vintage, I have a 40s meat grinder that looks charming on the edge of a shelf, with its big curvy handle. But I have also used it as a great contraption to clamp the old oven door for a few hours when it separates, so that the gloppy glue really adheres.

I had lots of cast iron that was my paternal grandmother's, maternal grandfather's and my husband's aunt which I used all the time. Unfortunately I developed a medical condition that made it impossible to lift them anymore (cast iron is HEAVY!). I was going to use them for a vintage kitchen display when my son-in-law ask for a cast iron skillet for Christmas. Instead I gave him most of the vintage skillets and a Dutch oven with the caveat that if he ever wanted to get rid of them I could have them back. He uses them all the time and I love it! Also have all of my grandfather's cookbooks and one my mother got as a wedding gift (my parents were married almost 60 years when she died five years ago). One of my favorite things though is a egg beater from my grandmother. Also have a cast iron "iron" that my dad remembers grandma using.

I am lucky to have so many pieces that belonged to my mom, but my favorites are the cast iron skillet and wooden spoons and one large stainless bowl with a ring handle. I have her beautiful china, but these are the pieces that were the everyday items and evoke visions of hands in action a sensation of connectivity whenever I use them.

I have my granny's three pieces of amberina moon & stars--to which my husband added to from ebay.

My mother died more than 20 years ago while I was still in high school, and I use (and treasure) a lot of her kitchen items on a daily basis - wooden spoons, aluminum saucepan, cookie sheets (her mother's), double boiler, cookie cutters, cookie press, cake pans, spoon rest, pyrex measuring jug, etc. I also have her Betty Crocker cookbook and a several cooking/baking booklets about things like the wonders of Jello or how to decorate children's cakes. The item we should really get rid of is my parent's toaster. It was a wedding present from 1970. It still works great, but bagels often don't fit. I doubt a new toaster would last so long. Maybe faux wood and stainless still will make a comeback. My favorite item are actually from my Yia-Yia (grandmother) - some of her recipes and her lamb cake mold.

Lamb cake mold?! Awww.....I have a photo of me at my 6th birthday, big smile on my face, pink glasses (yes, my eyes have always been terrible), with a lamb cake on the table in front of me. My mom (91) doesn't know where the mold ever went :( but I loved that cake when I was 6.

I have a set a cocktail glasses in a funky 70's pattern from my parents, as well as some other swanky barware like glass stirrers. When my husband and I married and began to keep kosher in our new home, we received all of his grandmother's Passover dishes. They were a mishmosh of items. There was an old wooden bowl, the origins of which we cannot figure out and even a yelloware bowl. The meat dishes are formal china in a lovely pattern fittingly named "Spring". There is also real silver cutlery. The dairy "set" is a bit less formal, and includes mismatched cutlery from the diner the family used to own decades ago.

When my grandmother died my aunt wanted to throw away her cast iron pans. I promptly claimed them. I have many fond memories learning how to cook with those pans. I got a metal mixing bowl for the same reason - it's nothing special but I remember being very little and being excited to be able to help make Jello in that bowl.

I have my grandmother's recipe box full of her recipes.

My favourite is the metal flat-bottomed bowl my dad used to knead chappati dough in every night. My mum had rheumatoid arthritis, and so he, an orthopaedic surgeon with a busy practice, would come home, wash his hands, and get down to it. The bowl is completely unremarkable - probably worth only a few cents but they brought it with them from India and kept using it even when they could finally afford better. The bowl is evocative of them, their regard for each other and my childhood. It also reminds me how far they travelled to better their lives and, ultimately, mine.

I have my graandmother's Fanny Farmer Boston School of Cooking Cookbook. It is over 100 years old now. I also have a couple of pieces of my mother's bake wear circa WWII. Another cherished item is my mother's I.O.D.E. Cookbook (the Independant Order Of the Daughters of thr Empire) which was a compilation of recipes submitted by the members and sold to support the War effort (Canadian). There are recipes from my mother, my aunts and their cousins and friends. It is tattered and torn and very well loved

I've got my mom's egg beater ...I don't use it but I like it

my grandfather as a young man made a table for his mother in 9 pieces [top, 4 sides, 4 legs and bottom shelf, he carved a pattern into the wood and presented it when all put together] it is now pride of place in my home.

Dina, Mine looks almost like yours, except the hand is centered instead of to the side. It belonged to my husband's grandmother who passed away 36 years ago. I use this every time i have scrambled eggs. You can't buy one as sturdy as this today.

I've had to stop reading, because I can't see clearly through my tears. All of these stories are so moving - it shows how much love is passed on through cooking and being in the kitchen together. I, too, have items from my mother's and grandmother's kitchens. Love in its purest form.

I have my mother's triple ply stainless pans from the early 50s and would not let go of them for anything- (my ex actually tried to have me get new ones because he said mine were ugly-I was like Noooo I'm not doing that) Have spoons my granddad made for my mom that are like what his mom had-they are decorations. I do use the little kid size rolling pin he made me when I was a toddler. I find for most of what I could I don't need a full size one anyhow.

My mom gave me her silver tea set, which she and her siblings purchased in the early 1940's for their parents 25th anniversary. I love it and sometimes use it for our 'Sunday tea'. (This photo shows my Mom holding it up after freshly polishing and cleaning the teapot for me when she visited me last summer. She is 85 now.)

I have things that were my Grandmothers as well as my Moms. I cherish them and use them. I love baking with my girls and using my Grandmothers mixing bowls that she ALWAYS used for everything.

i asked a friend today if she has anything of her mum in her kitchen as she collects retro stuff and she told me that everything in her kitchen comes from family, she said she has never bought a new thing, ever. she has cook books from the ww1 era too, i always thought her kitchen looked great and now i know why

I have my Mom's little red riding hood cookie jar she purchased in the fourties before she married my Dad

I had my mother's toaster for a long time, until I shorted it out, tried to get it fixed, and the repair shop lost it, then went out of business. But the last few years, I've been making lamps out of old kitchen gear: coffeepots, blenders, toasters, colanders. It's a whole lot of fun, bringing new life to old stuff (though I know that's probably sacrilege to some).

Great stuff, 4f -- welcome to houzz.

To answer the original question, NO, my mother is still using her stuff! However, I do have various items that belonged to my grandmothers, great grandmothers, and great aunt.

I have many recipe cards from various family members and my favorite Griswold cast iron and Lodge cast iron pans and skillets. I have a bunch of knives of many sorts I may never actually use (when would a vegetarian use an oyster shucking knife?) and I have a whole collection of cookie cutters and copper jello molds. I have someone's melon baller and several peeling devices. I was given one of my grandmother's Pyrex pie pans when I got married.

LOL, since my Nana went through six husbands and died single, I make sure NOT to use her recipies... (Sorry Nana, you know I love ya!)

Very funny Barhart Gallery!!

This is a fun question! =) I have my grandma's china but that's not exactly "kitchen" stuff. I do have an old pressure cooker that my mom gave to me when she got a new one. It's an old Mexican "Presto" cooker with the rocker top and everything and I LOVE it!

I have the electric skillet my mother cooked with when I was growing up. About 23 yrs ago she was going to buy a new one. I bought her a new one and kept her old one. A kitchen sentamental item... I have made a roast several times a month every month and every year since I've had it. It's probably 72 yrs old. LetsLet's hear it for westbend! Lol

I was 20 when my father passed. That was in 1982. He was the head chef of a very fine French restaurant in Manhattan.
The was a case full of knives/tools. I have some of them.
There is something so special about holding (and using) something that a person you love held in their hands too.
My mother (90) would bake. I have some of her pots and pans. (My sister must have those Pyrex bowls)
My Mom has a sad looking aluminum pan that she uses all the time. I remember her using it for as long as I remember. My younger daughter has had me promise that one day she can have it. I love that! I love her and my mom.
I’m very sentimental. I wouldn’t these types of things for anything.
Oh! I almost forgot to mention, recipes written out by hand in beautiful cursive! Beautiful.

I have some of my great-grandmother's tea cups (espresso cups for me), a cast iron pan from another grandmother that she originally got as a wedding gift, and a potato ricer from my other grandmother.

I have my mother's wooden rolling pin (circa 1937-42), numerous baking pans, pie plates, etc. Also have my mother's water bath canner and canning jars from the 1940's, along with my grandmother's (1880-1964) wire basket we used to slip the peach skins before packing in the jars. Although it's not a kitchen item (but it's displayed there), is my grandparent's old crank phone that my mother remembered using in the 1920's in Kansas.

I love my mom's manual meat grinder. Dunno the name of the brand, it's really hard to find smth similar now. It looks like LEM grinder

I have my mom's Pyrex mixing bowls and casserole dishes. I have the primary color set and several other patterns. I also have an old Sunbeam hand mixer that we used when I was a kid to make cookies and brownies. A white glass mixing bowl with a spout that used to go with the vintage stand mixer; I've lost the larger bowl that fit on it. I also have many pots/pans/dishes from the cornflower blue collection of corning ware. I also have about three of the translucent white glass with gold rims cups and saucers my grandmother had. I remember my mom and grandmother sitting down at the kitchen table and drinking coffee from them, using the sugar bowl and creamer. No one drinks coffee like this anymore. I used to have the Pyrex flame glow (I think) coffee pot that you put on the stove, that dripped the coffee from the top through the tube. I recall my mom taking a needle and cleaning out the coffee grounds from the metal filter. It broke. I love all those things...old Pyrex is almost indestructable. Oh....and a few of my mom's handwritten recipes on index cards. I have them tacked to the inside of my cabinets. I have an old Oster blender with the square glass jar. It still works. My mom never had cook books....she cooked all her own recipes, written down on those index cards.

Oh,...one more thing....I have a paring knife my mom used so much that the cutting edge is curved. I still use it to cut up strawberries and such.

I have a pressed glass citrus juicer that is huge (must have been for grapefruit as well as oranges and lemons) that I use almost daily that belonged to my great grandmother. It has a chip out of the side but I figure that just adds character. I also have a biscuit cutter and a Griswold frying pan that were hers. From my grandmother I have two large steel bread pans and some miscellaneous silver plate flatware that has most of the silver plate worn off. :) Very pretty art nouveau design from the early 1900's that I believe may have come from a store promotion as it's only a few large tablespoons. Although I know at one time it was common for spoons to be kept in a jar on the table and at a woman's funeral her friends would take a spoon to remember her by. I think that's an older custom, though. And I have things from my mother as I inherited a lot of the house contents, but they are more everyday dishes than anything really memorable. This is a fun thread. Maybe others will come along and keep it going!