Cuisine of the Pennsylvania Dutch
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Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine is the typical and traditional fare of the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine reflects influences of the Pennsylvania Dutch's German heritage, agrarian society, and rejection of rapid change.[1]
It is common to find Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine throughout the Philadelphia, Allentown and Lancaster regions of Pennsylvania.
Techniques
[edit ]In the 18th century, baking was still done in wood-fired ovens that produced inconsistent results and could easily become too hot. The Pennsylvania Dutch baked pastries on cabbage leaves to provide some protection from hot spots that could develop in the oven.[2]
Soups
[edit ]Soups, often featuring egg noodles, are characteristic of the Pennsylvania Dutch.[1] Pennsylvanian Dutch homes have traditionally had many broths on hand (vegetable, fish, poultry, and other meats) from the saving of any extra liquids available: "The Pennsylvania Dutch developed soup making to such a high art that complete cookbooks could be written about their soups alone; there was an appropriate soup for every day of the year, including a variety of hot and cold fruit soups."[3] Soups were traditionally divided into different categories, including Sippli, which is a light broth, Koppsupper, a cup soup, Suppe, which is a thick, chowder soup often served as a meal with bread, and G'schmorte, a soup with no broth often like a Brei or gravy.[4]
Pennsylvania Dutch soups are often thickened with a starch, such as mashed potatoes, flour, rice, noodles, fried bread, dumplings, and Riwwels or rivels , which are small dumplings described as "large crumbs" made from "rubbing egg yolk and flour between the fingers", from the German verb for "to rub."[4]
See also
[edit ]Notes
[edit ]- ^ a b David Rosengarten, It's All American Food: The Best Recipes For More Than 400 New American Classics (2003). Hachette Digital.
- ^ Fieldhouse, Paul. The World Religions Cookbook. Greenwood Press. p. 37.
- ^ William Woys Weaver, Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania Dutch Foods & Foodways (2nd ed.) (2002), p. 93.
- ^ a b William Woys Weaver, Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania Dutch Foods & Foodways (2nd ed.) (2002), p. 94.
