by Mary Eccher - page 1 of 6
Over 300 years ago, German Protestants began to leave the Old World to settle in Pennsylvania at the invitation of William Penn. French Huguenots and Swiss Protestants soon followed, also searching for religious freedom. These settlers all came to be known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. Of all the regional cooking styles in America today, perhaps the most enduring and distinctive can be claimed by these Americans. New American foods such as corn, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and molasses were combined with the pork, cabbage, pickles, preserves and pastries of the Old World to make a Pennsylvania Dutch food tradition that has become famous across America.
Chicken potpie is a hearty stew flaunting the flavor and golden color of saffron. Potpies are pieces of noodle or baking powder dough, which are boiled with meat and often potatoes to make rib-sticking potpie stews that are named for the kind of meat used. They bear no resemblance to the pastry-encased potpies typical of other parts of the United States. Schnitz and Knepp is a savory concoction of ham pieces, dried apples and dumplings. Pork loin with Sauerkraut is a hearty cold-weather dish, usually served with mashed potatoes and relishes for a Special dinner. Funnel cakes were first devised so a cook could make cakes without having an oven or without heating the oven in the summer. They have become a favorite snack at carnivals and street fairs all across the country. When Fastnachts (doughnuts) are baked for Shrove Tuesday, they are cut into squares with a slit in the center, then fried in oil until golden. They are often dunked in coffee or in a big glob of old-fashioned molasses (the principal of dunking and the word itself originated with the Pennsylvania Dutch). Making apple butter used to be an occasion for friends and relatives to get together. Everyone would help peel and core the apples, then stir the apple butter as it cooked outdoors in large copper kettles over an open fire. Shoofly pie is one of the best known Pennsylvania Dutch specialties. Its name is said to come from the notion that when the pie is cooling on the windowsill you have to shoo the flies that are attracted by its sweetness. Its delicious filling is made from just a few kitchen staples including butter and molasses.
The Pennsylvania Dutch are people who love to eat, and are --- in their own expressive phrase, feinschmeckers. Translated roughly, this means "those who know how good food should taste and who eat plenty of it." Their love of good food has made Pennsylvania Dutch cooking famous.
Stout Hearted Fare
Early settlers brought these
Old World dishes to America
FEBRUARY 1986
Photo by Mary Eccher
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