Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book [Paperback]

J. George Frederick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1971

Now used by many Pennsylvania resorts as their official cookbook, this book by J. George Frederick, one-time president of the Gourmet Society of New York, is an excellent introduction to every aspect of Pennsylvania Dutch cookery from hors d'oeuvres to desserts. Over 350 recipes for apple soup, liver dumplings, shrimp wiggle, spaetzle, and more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 186 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (June 1, 1971)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 048622676X
• ISBN-13: 978-0486226767
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #522,891 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Perspective and Legacy Recipes. Buy It., September 22, 2006

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book (Paperback)

This `Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book' by J. George Frederick is the next step on my search to find the best `Pennsylvania Dutch' cookbook. For many reasons, it is not the best `Dutch' cookbook for the average modern American amateur cook who happens to want to make some traditional Lancaster County dishes, but it is near the top of the titles I have found for documenting this great Southeastern Pennsylvania cuisine for the author(s) of more popular books.

The first thing to note is that this is a standard Dover reprint of a book published in 1935. This means that since the book has a distinctly early 20th century point of view, before James Beard and before Julia Child and before Craig Claiborne, and certainly before the `back to the farmer's market' movement of Alice Waters and Deborah Madison. This being so, the introductory material is not only a narrative of the Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, it is a testament to the mid-Depression view of the Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine.

The first thing which tickles me about this point of view is that the author has no interest in the more politically correct `Pennsylvania German' term, since the ethnic origins of the Pennsylvania Dutch is actually the German, French, and Swiss lands bordering on the Rhine. (I can personally attest to this, as my mother's family that settled between Bethlehem and Philadelphia were originally German Swiss Huguenot clockmakers from Western Switzerland.) The second thing that appealed to me personally was the fact that the author includes my hometown of Bethlehem, PA among the five great cities of Pennsylvania Dutch homeland, including Allentown, Lancaster, Reading, and Philadelphia. There is even a recipe for `Bethlehem Scrapple Cabbage'. Talk about a `signature' dish!

One of the most distinctive aspects of the 1935 point of view is the author's belief that all regional American cuisines are dying out, diluted into the great American soup pot (my term). The great thing about this perception is that it was either wrong, or the emphasis on regional culinary identities of the last 30 years has overcome and reversed this fading of local differences. On the other side of the coin, the author's claim that of the three great regional cuisines he mentions, referring to `Southern' cooking and `New England' cuisine, the Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, based in a few counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania, has by far the smallest geographical base, yet it has some of the greatest culinary diversity. The only real competitor the author sees is the Cajun / Creole cuisine based in New Orleans.

At first, I was inclined to take this statement as simply an expression of regional pride, until the author started to remind me of the genius of the Pennsylvania Dutch culture for preserving food and using preserved foods in a wide range of recipes. Is this not the cornerstone of the great Italian cuisine, with their wealth of preserved meats, cheeses, pastas, wines, and liqueurs? As a minor participant in that great tradition in making and buying our church's `chow-chow', the classic vegetable relish. This, however, is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are dozens of varieties of pickled and dried vegetables and meats in the Dutch repertoire.

On the recipes in this book, they truly reflect a cuisine of frugal self-sufficiency. They make me laugh at all those boosters of Italian `cuisine of poverty' as they load up their dishes with $16 pound cheeses and dried ham. The most common `rich' ingredient in these recipes is butter, but then, all these recipes arose on dairy farms, where the butter was made at home. Like the Northern Italians, corn is one of the most common ingredients in Dutch dishes, but we don't make a heavy use of corn meal. Instead, the `signature' Pennsylvania Dutch corn ingredient is dried corn, famous in Southeastern Pennsylvania in the green `Cope's Corn' cans and boxes.

Since these recipes are so authentic, and since they genuinely reflect a thrifty culture, many actually appear rather unappetizing on the surface, due to the heavy use of flour, suet, lard, and items from the `fifth quarter' of animals. The most common examples of this `use everything' culture are scrapple and souse. The first is a pate of pork scraps and corn meal. The second is a Gelee of pork and vegetable scraps. Both dishes are symptoms of the Rhineland on the border between France and Germany. What is odd is that while the book gives a recipe for making souse and ten (10) recipes for cooking scrapple, it has no recipe for making scrapple. For this, you will need to go to `Country Scrapple' by the foremost author on `Dutch' cuisine, William Woys Weaver, the author of the best historical perspective on `Dutch' cooking, `Sauerkraut Yankees'.

Frederick's book is more useful to the general audience than either of these two books from Weaver, but it is still something of a challenge to the amateur. There are several ingredients such as souse, scrapple, and dried corn that may simply not be available. There are other ingredients that I confess are a mystery to me, such as `sago'. On the other hand, `Reading Pretzels', a surprising ingredient in some soups, is plentiful throughout the country now.

On searching the book for my favorite `Dutch' dishes, I find everything but stuffed pig's stomach. And, all the other recipes I found are close to or exactly like my grandmother and mother made; however, even their versions were a bit fancier and richer than the recipes given in this book. The hot endive salad, for example, wilt's the dickens out of the greens, while my mother's take on the same dish is to simply heat the greens with the hot dressing, without the endive ever touching the hot pan in which the dressing was cooked.

For the amateur culinary archeologist and the native `Dutchman', this is a great, inexpensive find, containing a heap of nostalgia for the tummy.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Regional Cooking At Its Best, May 16, 2000

By 

Lorelei (Tega Cay, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book (Paperback)

What an amazing book! I glimpse into the not-so-distant past when we couldn't just "log-on" and get whatever we desire. This cookbook goes back to the time of self-sustaining farms and communities. You can see this in the number of recipe variations that include the town where it is common. Anyone familiar with PA Dutch cuisine should own this cookbook!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A want more than a need...., July 28, 2010

By 

itzmisse - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book (Paperback)

I am from PA and I purchased this more for the memory aspect than the need to learn to cook PA Dutch food :) This is my heritage & I will be able to share this with my Grand daughter who was born in CA.