“Dutch Treats” is a new recipe book devoted to Pennsylvania Dutch baking traditions.
The author, William Woys Weaver, of Denver, Lancaster County, writes about not only the food but the history behind the recipes that originate from familiar places in Berks and Lancaster counties, as well as others across the region.
“This is the first book of its kind to devote itself to the story of Pennsylvania Dutch baking traditions. Hopefully it will take an honored place on every Pennsylvania Dutch kitchen shelf as the ‘go to’ reference on old time traditions and time-tested recipes. There is nothing else like it,” said Weaver.
With this book, readers can bake, and eat, their way through PA Dutch history.
Weaver is 13th generation Pennsylvania Dutch. His family settled in Pennsylvania about 1696 then moved to Lancaster County in 1710. This would be the Weaver family (originally Weber) from Canton Zurich, Switzerland, he explained.
“I have been baking for more than 40 years,” he said. “My grandmother taught me the basics but I went beyond that picking up things here and there from chefs in Europe and here in the U.S.”
Weaver is the author of 16 books and hundreds of articles on food and foodways. His most recent book, “As American As Shoofly Pie,” is an analysis of Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine. Weaver is founding president of the Historic Foodways Society of the Delaware Valley and the director of the Keystone Center for the Study of Regional Foods and Food Tourism, a non-profit academic research institute, where he teaches courses on regional American cuisine. Weaver received his doctorate in food studies at University College Dublin, Ireland, the first doctorate awarded by the University in that field of study. He is teaching a course on this subject at the Culinary Literacy Center of the Free Library of Philadelphia this fall.
“What do I like about Pennsylvania Dutch food? First off, I like the classic cookery which I discuss in my 16th book ‘As American As Shoofly Pie,’ not the tourist cuisine which characterizes the ‘Amish Strip’ in Lancaster County. Some of the best Pennsylvania Dutch cooks live in Berks County, and the recipes in my new book should prove that,” said Weaver.
The recipe book “Dutch Treats” evolved out of his field work for his PhD at University College, Dublin, Ireland.
“I realized while interviewing people that there was a huge amount of oral tradition not being recorded, so I began collecting recipes,” he said.
Soon his collection became a book.
“What I like about the cuisine, and one reason it is becoming a new trend, is the connection to the land, the farm to table aspect, and many similarities with the cuisine of Alsace, so there is a light European touch to some of the dishes. Mostly it is down to earth cookery, no snobbery. You can kick off your shoes and enjoy it without candles and linen napkins.”
While he has no real favorite recipes in the book, Weaver does like the datsch recipes, oatmeal, hickory nut, and raisin.
“They are like big Granola bars, very healthy in some respects. Many people like the lemon sponge pie. Professional chefs like the Green Apple and Grapefruit Pie with Lovage. Many of my recipes are now on restaurant menus in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York,” said Weaver.
Many of the recipes have origins in Berks County, specifically the Kutztown area and Lancaster areas. One recipe, Crumb Cake, traces to the late Helen Fenstermacher Breidegam of Lyons, wife of the late DeLight Breidegam Sr., co-founder of East Penn Manufacturing Co. in Lyons.
Weaver writes in the book, “Her recipe has been widely circulated among church groups in southern Berks County and was a featured cake at fundraisers for Christ Lutheran Church in Dryville, where she was a member.”
Weaver said that many of the recipes in his book came from people who live in or near Kutztown and some of the photography was taken at the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University.
Weaver donated many family heirlooms to the Heritage Center and his cousin, the late Dr. Don Yoder, who helped to found the Kutztown Folk Festival.
“Through (Dr. Don Yoder) my Kutztown connections go way back. I took care of him until his death last year,” said Weaver.
He also helped the Heritage Center develop a Pennsylvania Dutch kitchen garden and he is a growing part of the Roughwood Seed Collection in a field at the Heritage Center. Income from seed sales is split with the Heritage Center.
“I did use the kitchen at the Heritage Center as a backdrop for some of the photos. I wanted a “farmhouse” look.”
Weaver said Patrick Donmoyer, Building Conservator and Exhibit Specialist at the Heritage Center, also wrote one of the blurbs for the book. Other than that, no one helped write the book, said the professional author who is a member of the Author’s Guild and a literary agent.
Other recipes with local connections include Uncle Penny’s Pie Crust, which originated from a man who now resides in Macungie.
For Beer Cheese Pie, the write-up talks about a Lenhartsville man who sold this pie.
The St. Gertrude’s Day Datsch and Propobin Pudding recipes originated from Ida Fry, who is from Fry’s Mill in Ephrata.
Whoopie Cake is a recipe from an area near Bird-in-Hand.
Strip Pie Crust is noted in the book to be still used in Berks County bake sales.
Chocolate Gribble Pudding is a dish that was served in the Black Horse Hotel in Reinholds.
Butter Semmels is a recipe that originated from a woman who’s husband part-owned an iron foundry in Lehigh County.
Gerhert’s Reunion Cake originates from Wernersville.
“The book is a tribute to Pennsylvania Dutch culture in that it is the first book of its kind devoted exclusively to baking traditions and the folk tales associated with many of the foods,” said Weaver. “Nowhere else has this material been recorded, and since much of it came from an older generation now slipping away, it may be difficult to assemble a book like this one in the future. Some reviewers already consider it a classic.”
Weaver is a contributing editor to Mother Earth News and a regular contributor to The Heirloom Gardener, and, until it stopped publication, was a contributing editor to Gourmet. He has been the subject of articles in Americana, Food and Wine, Food Arts, The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times and Country Living.
He is a board member of GMO Free Pennsylvania and the Experimental Farm Network, a grass-roots organization devoted to alternative methods of seed production. He maintains the Roughwood Seed Collection of over 4,000 heirloom food plants and lives in the 1805 Lamb Tavern, a National Register property in Devon, Pennsylvania. For more information about the author, visit www.williamwoysweaver.com.
Recipe excerpt from the “Dutch Treats,” courtesy of St. Lynn’s Press, Pittsburgh.
Crumb CakeTraced to the late Helen Fenstermacher Breidigam of Lyons
Serves 8 to 103 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt12 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 eggs1 1/4 cups clabbered raw milk or buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanillaSift together flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Rub the butter into this to form fine crumbs. Set aside 1/3 cup of the crumbs. Beat the eggs until lemon colored then combine with the milk and vanilla. Add this to the crumb mixture to create batter. Grease and dust with breadcrumbs three 7-inch pie tins. Fill them half full and top with the reserved crumbs. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 25 minutes or until fully risen and set in the middle.
