Pennsylvania Dutch and German Cooking w/photos & links

November 2012 Did a blog post entitled : 

The Harmonists I - 18th & 19th century German cooking. The link is below (about German and Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking in the USA).

http://internationalfoodblog.blogspot.com/search?q=economy#.UO7e5W9QWSo

Did another blogpost in 2012 about Octoberfest:  
German Oktoberfest caught me off guard!!

Link:  http://internationalfoodblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/german-oktoberfest-caught-me-off-guard.html#.UO7gvW9QWSo

Also did a 3rd blogpost in 2012 entitled: (Alsace in France is French and German)

French food 1975 Part A - Alsace with photos

Link:  http://internationalfoodblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/french-food-1975-part-alsace-with-photos.html

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I am of German descent, lived in Germany for a year, held an ORIGINAL German dinner for 9 guests on November 25, 2011 with a menu of (these are my notes from 11/25/2012)

• For appetizers we had pickled asparagus, butterkase (German butter cheese), cream cheese mix and 12 grain pumpernickel and rye breads.
• Beverages were German wine (like a liebfraumilch), a German red (like a merlot) and German beers (light and dark). 
• For dessert we had German desserts:  (purchased items)

1. Kitchen Meister Liqueur Cake
2. Kitchen Meister Edel-Marzipan Stollen (Stollen with pudding in the middle)
3. Pfeffernuse (German cookies with powdered sugar)

Our German dinner on 12/25/2011  for 9 people. I am German & have lived in Germany.  Would like to share a few tips from my sauerbraten recipe which comes from a German family I knew well from a family sauerbraten recipe. 

1.  For the marinade I use red wine vinegar, sliced onions, peppercorns, juniper berries, bay leaves, cloves.  

2.  The marinade is cooked over medium heat until unions are semi-soft. 

3.  I brown the meat in a regular frying pan & place in a glass container, add the marinade & place in the fridge for 7-10 days.  (Alton Brown does 3 days and that is not enough.) 

Turn meat at least once a day.  DO NOT STICK A FORK IN IT or the vinegar will get into the meat.  Either use your hands or wooden spoons.  No metal, please. 

4.  Cook roast & marinade in an electric fry pan (stainless) & cook at 265-275 degrees for 3 hours min.  

5.  Remove meat to serving dish & keep warm. 

6.  Strain marinade, add the crushed gingersnaps & cook till thickened.  Serve with meat, sweet-sour red cabbage & little red potatoes.

  

  

  

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The Pennsylvania Germans were:

• Moravians from Bohemia and Moravia
• Mennonites from Switzerland and Holland
• Amish (offshoot of the Mennonites)
• German Brethren called "dunkards"
• Schwenkfelders from Silesia
• French Huguenots from Alsace-Lorraine

They were the Pennsylvania Deutsch but for over 250 years have been called Pennsylvania Dutch.

They merged their homeland cooking with ingredients available in this new country.

PIES

Potpie:     rich doodle dough cooked in chicken or meat broth

 

Shoo-fly pie:  which is a crumb pie (molasses attracts flies and you have to shoo them away).  When I moved to NC I thought it was a Southern pie but it really is a pie from the Mennonites that emigrated from PA to NC.  Just learned another food fact this month!!

Funeral pie:  a combination of raisins and lemon

 

CABBAGE

• PEPPER RELISH
• COLE SLAW
• HOT SLAW
• SAUERKRAUT

  

Ponnhaws or scrapple, schnitz and knepp (ham, dried apples and dumplings)

 

Other

• vegetables sweet and sour
• smoked sausage
• dandelion salad
• chicken corn soup
• red beet eggs
• chow chow 
• (we make every year but not the sweet PA kind but the southern non-sweet kind; again I thought this was a NC recipe but it isn't; came from  
• WIKI QUOTE:  Chow-chow found its way to the Southern United States during the expulsion of the Acadian (French-German) people from Nova Scotia and their settlement in Louisiana. It is eaten by itself or as a condiment on fish cakes, mashed potatoes, biscuits and gravy, pinto beans, hot dogs, hamburgers and other foods.
• WIKI QUOTE: Chow-chow is regionally associated with the Southern United States, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, the Appalachian Mountains, and soul food. The recipes vary greatly; some varieties are sweeter than others. Pennsylvania chow-chow, known by the Wos-Wit brand, is generally much sweeter than the southern varieties.)
• pretzels

  

 

Link to PAGENERALSTORE

http://www.pageneralstore.com/category/PennsylvaniaDutchFoods

From Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking cookbook circa 1960 Meat and Main Dishes section:

"A woman can throw out as much with a spoon as a man can bring in with a shovel."

TO SEE THE ATTACHED SCANNED JPEG OF RECIPES CLICK ON IMAGE TO MAKE LARGER:

Glückliches Essen