The Amish Cook: Recollections and Recipes from an Old Order Amish Family [Hardcover]

Elizabeth Coblentz (Author), Kevin Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 13, 2002

Ten years ago, aspiring newspaper editor Kevin Williams convinced Elizabeth Coblentz, an Old Order Amish wife and mother, to write a weekly cooking column called “The Amish Cook.” Each week Elizabeth shares a family recipe and discusses daily life on her Indiana farm, spent with her husband, Ben, and their eight children and 32 grandchildren. THE AMISH COOK, a full-color cookbook based on Elizabeth's columns, compiles more than 75 traditional Amish recipes, photographs of the Coblentz farm, practical gardening tips, cherished family tales, and firsthand accounts of traditional Amish events like corn-husking bees and barn raisings. A truly unique collaboration between a simple Amish grandmother and a modern-day newspaperman, THE AMISH COOK is a poignant and authentic look at a disappearing way of life.• “The Amish Cook” column is syndicated in more than 100 newspapers nationwide.• Elizabeth wrote THE AMISH COOK in longhand by the light of a kerosene lamp.• Elizabeth has been a writer for the Amish newspaper, The Budget, for 40 years.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Eleven years ago, while still a college student, Williams, who had become intrigued by the Amish as "a living link between a simpler time" and the hectic world of today, asked Coblentz to write a newspaper column he had envisioned about life in an Amish community. Today, her syndicated monthly column appears nationwide in more than 100 newspapers. This book is not just a compilation of the columns and recipes, however; Williams begins with his and Coblentz's story, than follows with a chapter on the history of the Amish. He has organized the recipes by meal, from breakfast to supper, with separate sections on dessert and on Sundays and special occasions. Each chapter contains history and background from Williams, comments and reminiscences from Coblentz, and some of her original columns, as well as additional recipes. Williams's instincts were true-Coblentz's description of her life offers a fascinating glimpse into another era (her columns might almost have been written by a contemporary of Laura Ingalls Wilder). Recommended for both social science and cookery collections. [Sadly, Coblentz died September 17, 2002.-Ed.]
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

•"The Amish Cook" column is syndicated in more than 100 newspapers nationwide.

•Elizabeth wrote THE AMISH COOK in longhand by the light of a kerosene lamp.

•Elizabeth has been a writer for the Amish newspaper, The Budget,for 40 years.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (November 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580082149
• ISBN-13: 978-1580082143
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,308 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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46 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heartwarming Letters from the Amish. A Good Read, February 25, 2004

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Amish Cook: Recollections and Recipes from an Old Order Amish Family (Hardcover)

Having been born and raised on the fringes of the Pennsylvania Dutch heartland in Lancaster County, and having grandparents who were close enough to the Pennsylvania Dutch lifestyle as to consider myself half `Dutch', this book deals with a subject very, very close to home for me.

The most important thing for a prospective reader to know about this book is that it is as much, if not more so a book of Recollections than it is a book of Recipes. In fact, one will get much more from this book if they approach it as they would Jacques Pepin's book `The Apprentice' rather than as they would a book of Pennsylvania Dutch recipes by Betty Groff or Mary Showalter.

The book most similar to this that I have read recently is Sallie Ann Robinson's `Gullah Home Cooking the Daufuskie Way'. Both books describe a subsistence farming way of life, with recipes that reflect that fact. In reviewing Robinson's book, I thought it was unlikely I would ever actually make any of the recipes in the book. The very same thing is true of the recipes by Elizabeth Coblentz. That is not because I don't like Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. I like it as well or better than Southern cooking or Spanish cooking or Irish cooking. Coblentz' recipes are pictures of how an Old Order Amish family lives. As such, they contain a lot of surprises for us `English'. On the one hand, when a recipe calls for mayonnaise, it specifies homemade mayonnaise. No surprise there. But, on the next page is a recipe that calls for a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup and American cheese.

Equally surprising is the use of margarine. Not surprising is the large amounts of white bread, bacon, potatoes, lard, processed cheeses, butter, and sugar in the recipes. Missing are recipes with oysters, recipes for chow-chow, and recipes for corn pie. All this means is that the book is about the Amish and how they actually eat and live. It is not especially about providing you, dear reader with yet another recipe for Snickerdoodles.

The real reward from this book is in the stories of life in this Amish family. These people seem to be immensely wealthy with the riches that come from a very large, closely-knit family. Ben and Elizabeth Coblentz have eight children and, at the time the book was written, 33 grandchildren. Their daily life begins at 4:00 AM and that is accepted as a matter of course. They don't even have alarm clocks. That is just the time they naturally get up.

Many Amish are no longer full time farmers. Several family members work at trades or in local factories because of rising land prices and falling farm produce prices. This leads to some odd twists in customs designed to keep technology at arm's length. But, it does not seem like hypocrisy, as the heart of the matter is that regardless of how close technology comes to their life outside the home, it is always kept outside the home.

Much of the book is facsimile copies of Ms. Coblentz' columns published in some 90 newspapers around the country. Ms. Coblentz' sentence structure and choice of words in these columns is worth the price of admission. Sometimes it sounds like it is coming straight from the 16th or 17th century. Other times it is as drolly modern as you would not expect from an Amish pen. That must be the influence of the Bic ballpoint Elizabeth uses to handwrite each column.

The book also contains many sidebars on various phases of Amish life. All are informative. Most are surprising to those with a conventional picture of the Amish.

The story of how the co-author, Kevin Williams, enlisted Ms. Coblentz to do this column and how he managed to sell the column and create this book are nifty stories too. This is all genuine stuff.

The photographs are all skillfully taken, however, many photographs of cooking tableau are obviously staged. The remaining photographs are of farm buildings, hanging laundry, birdhouses, and growing crops, all under a bright blue sky. The Amish do not allow themselves to be photographed.

Shirley Corriher gets it exactly right in her blurb on the dustjacket when she says `This is a beautiful and moving book that you will remember for more than just down-to-earth recipes'. Put this book next to your Showalter volumes and read it to warm your insides with words.

Recommended. I give four stars to be sure you stop and look a bit at these thoughts before buying something with a mistaken impression of what this book is about.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource, April 25, 2005

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Highland Croft (NC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Amish Cook: Recollections and Recipes from an Old Order Amish Family (Hardcover)

This book gives such a delightful insider's view of Amish life that it far surpasses most of the books about Amish life in print. Then you get the bonus of the recipes!

You will find yourself laughing and mourning with Elizabeth as she journeys this life plainly.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great help in the kitchen as well as a great read!!, January 6, 2004

By 

Victoria Conner (Marlin, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Amish Cook: Recollections and Recipes from an Old Order Amish Family (Hardcover)

Not only is this book a great read about the personal day to day going ons of Mrs. Coblentz, it is also a great help in the kitchen. Without meaning to, the book seems to pull you into their lives and culture. We are already using many of the recipes in our own home. The pictures are beautiful and leaving you wanting to peek more into their lives. If you are interested in the Amish, as I am, I found this book to be a nice way to be that "fly on the wall"