The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking

by Edna Eby Heller

– Eating in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country is one of the true pleasures of life. Now these pleasures are shared in this collection of recipes, some of them family heirlooms and here made public for the first time, treasured by generations of Amish, Mennonite and other Pennsylvania Dutch folk. Edna Eby Heller spent nearly 15 years listening, watching, measuring and testing to standardize directions like “sugar to sweeten and flour to stiffen” for cooks everywhere. The result of her research is a marvelous combination of colorful food, helpful hints on its preparation and some of the history of these delightfully individualistic people. Nearly 300 recipes include well known favorites like Shoo-Fly Pie, Apple Butter, Fasnachts (donuts), and Milk Pie. The traditionally hearty main dishes of a farming people, such as Chicken Corn Pie or Pork, Sauerkraut and Dumplings and savory soups like Brown Potato Flour Soup or Philadelphia Pepperpot, will delight all lovers of good food. Relishes , breads, puddings, cakes like Cinnamon Flop and Blotch Kucha, treats like Sticky Buns, and pies of every kind and for every meal, make this an enchanting culinary tour of the land of the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Genres: Cookbooks

243 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1968

Reviews

[Rebecca]

This book is one of my family's most consulted cookbooks. Best pie crust recipe I've used so far. Though it doesn't say to chill the pie pastry, I'd say chill it and add a half tablespoon more water than the recipe calls for.

[Diane Haugen]

Pennsylvania Dutch cooking is German, as the Pennsylvania Dutch are. But their cooking is very different from, for example, the Germans from Russia recipes common in the Dakotas. The Pennsylvania Dutch have more varieties of pie than I have ever seen in a cookbook. They are also heavy with the molassas. In the Dakotas, sour cream raisin pie is on all dessert lists. Doesn't even appear in Heller's book. No one in the Dakotas has ever heard of Shoo-fly pie, and molasses is more or less nowhere to be seen. But Cheese Buttons and Kuchen are everywhere.

Pie, especially custard-based pies, as are many of Heller's, form the foundation of a remarkable healthy breakfast. As does the custard based kuchen. Forget the granola. Bring on the pie!

[Jerry]

This looks to be a very good old-school Pennsylvania Dutch cookbook. I’ve tried the Cinnamon Drop, and it was simple and extremely good. I’m also looking forward to some potato soup, peas and dumplings, onion pie, Montgomery pie (“a lemon-flavored molasses custard with a cake-like top”) and especially some rhubarb upsidedown cake, which sounds like it’s going to be caramelized rhubarb with cake on top. Like a pineapple upsidedown cake, but better!

[Fredrick Danysh]

This collection brings forth a wonderful collection of recipes from the Pennsylvania Dutch. While the food is simple, the tastes of most of these dished=s are delightful.