The Best of Amish Cooking

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Coverage of Dutch Classics. Cheap.
Review: `The Best of Amish Cooking' by Phyllis Pellman Good is one of the high points of a cottage industry devoted to writing about Pennsylvania Dutch cookery. It is so much of an industry that Good is not only the author of this book, but its publisher as well. And, `Good Books', based in darkest Lancaster County, Pennsylvania publishes several other books on `Pennsylvania Dutch' (Amish and Mennonite) subjects. For the very few of you who may not be familiar with this fact, I quote `Dutch' and the phrase `Pennsylvania Dutch' since the term is actually a corruption of the name for German natives, or `Deutch'. Of course, the `Pennsylvania Dutch' return the favor and label all non-Amish / Mennonites as `English', including French, Poles, Italians, Russians, and Spanish. So there.

As someone who grew up in the bosom of the `Pennsylvania Dutch' cuisine, I have a closer connection to this cooking than to any other. That prejudice aside, I think it is safe to say that the `Pennsylvania Dutch' cuisine is much more coherent, that is, easier to understand from a few paradigms than, for example, Southern cooking, Tex-Mex, or California Cuisine, as the Amish and Mennonite traditions all came from not only from a single European country, but from a single region (North Central Germany). There is a small New World influence in the importance of corn (maize) in `Dutch' cookery. A second condition leading to continuity in this cuisine over time is that roles in the Amish household are clearly defined in that women do virtually all cooking. Men may handle butchering and preserving meats, but women handle everything else connected with food.

The foods for which `American' cuisine owes most to the `Dutch' cuisine would be pretzels, sweet and savory pies (Wayne Harley Brachman calls Lancaster County the American `dessert central' in his excellent book, `American Desserts), sugar cookies, corn relishes, and potato salad. I judge this book's claim to be the `Best', by looking to see if it has recipes for the most common dishes from my past which are associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine. And, I am not disappointed.

The touchstone dishes are stuffed pig stomach, corn pie, chow chow (corn relish), hot bacon dressing, and apple dumplings. I am happy to report that not only are all these recipes in place in this volume, but that they are as good or better than our `family' recipes. Yet, these are not what you would consider gourmet recipes. The recipe for pork and sauerkraut is an excellent case in point. In classic terms, this is a braise, yet Ms. Good's recipe does not do the classic braise drill of browning the pork and deglazing before simmering the meat with the kraut. Ever since I took over cooking for my household, I follow a much more French influenced recipe than a classic Pennsylvania Dutch procedure, so I add the sear, onions, wine, and Juniper Berries (a James Beard addition to braised cabbage) to my recipe. I also use a professional pastry chef's recipe for piecrusts instead of the author's crust that includes chicken fat and baking powder. Yet another departure is the recipe for chicken potpie. While I make this often, I follow James Beard's more sophisticated recipe which includes directions for creating the chicken broth and more elaborate instructions for creating the thickened sauce.

Thus, like a lot of books on Southern cooking and lots of other books on Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, this volume is more of an historical document for foodies than it is a source of fine cooking. The irony is that for a select few recipes, this book in fact does have the best recipes for distinctively Dutch preparations. In neither `The Joy of Cooking, `James Beard's American Cookery', or my three books on salads is there a decent recipe for the Pennsylvania Dutch hot bacon dressing. This is a staple on the shelves of Pennsylvania supermarkets, costing close to three dollars for enough to serve two to four people. So, there is much to be gained by learning how to make it fresh. It is a bit more difficult than your typical vinaigrette (and a bit harder on the waistline as well), but for a once a month treat, it's something you really should know. And, with cheap bacon ends, you can make it for half the price of `Wos-Wit' bacon dressing that may have been sitting on the shelves for a month.

This book does have a lot of contemporary value as a source of recipes for sour salads. While Italy and Province have their share of these antipasto dishes, the Dutch have their own twist on the technique, which they developed for exactly the same reason as their Latin cousins. It was the method they used to preserve a lot of produce for the winter.

I have seen many Pennsylvania Dutch cookbooks and, for its size and price, this is clearly one of the best.