Cuisine of the Pennsylvania Dutch facts for kids
Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine is the traditional food of the Pennsylvania Dutch people. This group has a special culture, especially around Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Their food is still eaten every day in this area.
Pennsylvania Dutch food shows its German heritage. It also reflects their farming lifestyle. They like to keep things traditional and don't change quickly. You can often find this type of food in the Philadelphia area too.
Contents
Cooking Methods
In the 1700s, people baked in ovens heated by wood. These ovens didn't always heat evenly. They could get very hot in some spots. To protect their pastries, the Pennsylvania Dutch would bake them on cabbage leaves. This helped stop them from burning.
Yummy Soups
Soups are a big part of Pennsylvania Dutch meals. They often have egg noodles in them. Homes traditionally had many different broths ready. These came from saving extra liquids from cooking vegetables, fish, poultry, and meat.
The Pennsylvania Dutch were very good at making soups. There was a perfect soup for every day! This included hot and cold fruit soups. Soups were put into different groups:
- Sippli (or "little soup") was a light broth.
- Koppsupper (or "cup soups") were small servings.
- Suppe were thick, chowder-like soups. These were often a whole meal with bread.
- G'schmorte was a soup with no broth, more like a gravy.
Pennsylvania Dutch soups are often made thicker with starch. This could be mashed potatoes, flour, rice, noodles, fried bread, or dumplings. They also use Riwwels or rivvels. These are small dumplings that look like large crumbs. They are made by rubbing egg yolk and flour together. The name comes from the German word for "to rub."
Special Dishes and Desserts
Drinks
Main Dishes
- Amish potato salad: A creamy potato salad.
- Apple butter: A thick, sweet spread made from apples.
- Baked apple: A cored and peeled apple wrapped in pie crust. It's baked with sugar or cinnamon. Often served with milk and can be a meal itself.
- Chicken and waffles: A popular combination of fried chicken and waffles.
- Chicken corn soup: Made with egg noodles and sometimes saffron. It can also have rivels (small dumplings).
- Chow-chow: A mix of pickled vegetables.
- Cole slaw: Shredded cabbage salad.
- Hamloaf: Like a meatloaf but made with ground ham. It often has brown sugar on top.
- Hot bacon dressing: Cooked bacon in a sweet, thick dressing. It's served hot over fresh salad greens.
- Lebanon bologna: A type of smoked, fermented sausage.
- Pepper cabbage: A sweet and sour dish.
- Pork and sauerkraut: A traditional meal, especially on New Year's Day.
- Potato filling: A side dish often served with roasted meats.
- Pot pie: This is not a baked pie with a crust on top. It's a meat stew with large noodles called "pot pie squares." It often has chicken, vegetables like celery, onion, and carrots, and spices.
- Pretzel: A classic snack.
- Red beet eggs: Hard-boiled eggs pickled in a sweet and sour beet juice.
- Sauerbraten: A "sour roast" where meat is marinated for days in vinegar or wine. It's often served with dumplings and red cabbage.
- Scrapple: A breakfast meat made from pork scraps and cornmeal.
Desserts
- Angel food cake: A light, airy cake.
- Apple dumplings: Similar to baked apples, often served as a dessert.
- Cracker pudding: A pudding thickened with saltine crackers.
- Fastnachts: A type of doughnut traditionally made before Lent.
- Funnel cake: A fried dough dessert, often served at fairs.
- Funny cake: A unique dessert that combines pie and cake. It has cake baked inside a pie crust, often with chocolate streaks.
- Whoopie pie: Two soft cake-like cookies with a creamy filling in the middle.
- Montgomery pie: A pie with a buttery crust, a gooey molasses and lemon filling, and a buttermilk cake topping.
- Moravian sugar cake: A sweet, yeasted cake with a buttery, sugary topping.
- Shoofly pie: A molasses crumb cake with a pie crust, making it easier to eat.
- Sugar cookies: Classic sweet cookies.
See also
In Spanish: Gastronomía de los alemanes de Pensilvania para niños
