When 60-year-old Edna Miller goes to her job as a cook at the Buggy Wheel Buffet, she travels the mile and a half in a horse and buggy or on her bike. Only on the coldest winter days will she accept a ride in a car. That’s not the Amish way.
Here in picturesque Shipshewana, about 110 miles east of Chicago, you can catch a glimpse of the late 1800s. At any given moment, the street may be filled not with cars looking for parking spaces but with buggies driven by full-bearded men in broad-brimmed hats and women in homemade dresses dyed the palest pastels, their hair pinned up and covered with bonnets. Horse-drawn drays, filled with the rich colors of summer produce, pass by.
Miller is representative of the hardworking Amish, who eschew the conveniences of modern life. She lives in a house without electricity. The Millers have a phone, but it’s outside in what they call a shanty.
“People ask me, `What’s the difference? Why can you have phones outdoors and not inside?’ ” Miller says. “I say, if you go make a phone call on a below-zero morning, you are not going to stand there and gossip, and then you’ll know why we have them outside and not inside. You just do what you have to and you get out of there.”
Though Miller’s five children are grown, she still cans the fruits and vegetables that she and her husband grow. She doesn’t can much meat now, though there were times when she used to butcher and put up 100 chickens a day. She and her children also used to tap the maple trees in the spring, gathering the sap and boiling it to make syrup.
She recently bought chicken from the store: “I could hardly eat them, there’s such a big difference in taste,” she says. “But after a while you get used to it.”
Those store-bought chickens and the occasional car ride are Miller’s few concessions to the 21st Century. The food she cooks-homemade noodles with chicken or beef, crusty pot pies, thick, fluffy biscuits covered with sausage gravy, candied apples and deep-dish fruit pies-are the staples of Amish cooking.
The food is hearty, as befits this rural society. And there’s no need for a gym because everyday life is a workout.
According to cookbook author Marcia Adams, who grew up in northern Indiana, the average Amish farmer expends almost 8,000 calories a day.
It may come as a surprise to many visitors that the traditional Amish meal of beef cooked with noodles is used as topping for mashed potatoes.
A clear history
If hearty meals seem typical of a culture hard at work, there is a nuance to Amish cooking that often escapes notice.
“Because the Amish chose to remain separate from the rest of society and because they came directly here from their native countries, their foodways are pure,” says Adams, who has written many cookbooks with Amish recipes.
“That’s why you run into recipes that are 18th Century French and Swiss. The onion pie made here is just like the quiche Lorraine found in Alsace.”
Adams also notes that a hot cabbage salad that graces the Amish table year-round is identical to a French dish called emince de choux verts au lardons chauds.
“I got goose bumps on my arms when I found this out,” Adams says.
Miller, who is wiry despite her hearty cooking, is a testament to how hard work defeats caloric intake.
“I make everything from scratch,” she says. “We had to cook when we were small. I come from a family of 10. We raised everything. It was a long way to go to town, so you didn’t go that often. You would do your own butchering. Everybody had their own meat, they had their own lard and they had their own canned goods. We raised our own popcorn.
“We did buy our flour and sugar and crackers. Some people even made their own cereal. What we ate was basic: meat and potatoes, noodles, applesauce and peaches. Mom would always bake pies every Saturday.”
Noodles and cheese
It isn’t only the older generation of Amish who carry on the traditions. At Fern’s Country Foods, teenagers Gertie Miller (no relation to Edna) and Ella Frey, wearing long dresses and white bonnets, roll out thin sheets of noodle dough, then run them through a cutting machine before hanging them over wooden racks to dry.
“I learned to make noodles when I was a girl,” says Gertie Miller. Ella Frey estimates she was about 7 when her mother taught her to roll out noodle dough.
The girls, who start work at 6 a.m., cut noodles in four different widthsthe fine and narrow are for soups, the wide are for casseroles and the extra wide for dishes with rich sauces. Fern’s, which is south of Shipshewana on Indiana Highway 5, makes and sells 1,000 pounds of noodles a day.
Also on Highway 5 is Yoder’s Country Meat Shoppe, where meat is cured for hams, hocks and sausages. Locally made preserves like gooseberry and watermelon line the shelves. People working at Yoder’s are Amish, dressed in the simple style that makes the tourists’ T-shirts and shorts seem garish.
Near Middlebury, just west of Shipshewana, Amish workers at the Deutsch Kase Haus make cheese behind plate glass windows. All the milk used for the Colbys, Cheddars and butter cheeses (as well as such variations as pepper, caraway and salsa) are made with milk from Amish farms in Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan. In keeping with their strict religious beliefs, these farms do not have electricity, mechanical milkers or the type of refrigeration typically used to store milk for long periods. Cows have to be milked daily and the milk then watercooled in 10-gallon cans. The next morning it’s delivered to the Kase Haus, where it is pasteurized before the cheesemaking begins.
The store also sells fresh chunks of butter wrapped in paper, ice-cold cans of white birch beer, red cream soda and mixes for such Amish specialties as shoofly pie, plus syrups such as sorghum, ribbon cane and pecan.
Homemade and hearty
In the winter, Naomi Mullet teaches grades 1 through 8 in a one-room Amish school. In the summers she cooks at Tiffany’s, a surprisingly large restaurant in tiny Topeka, about 10 miles outside Shipshewana. Mullet specializes in dumplings and vegetable soups. Another Amish woman, Barb Frain, comes in at 5 a.m. every day to make the 15 or so varieties of pies served at Tiffany’s. She bakes 30 to 35 pies daily, including mincemeat, apricot, blueberry cream cheese, Dutch apple, black raspberry and Bob Andy, a spiced custard pie.
Also working at Tiffany’s is Dorothy Waldron, a 75-year-old Amish woman who also starts her day at 5 a.m. to make the mashed potatoesa job that requires her to peel 35 pounds of potatoes a day.
“We wouldn’t serve anything that wasn’t homemade,” Mullet says.
Some may think this life hard, but Edna Miller believes that “the hard work is what keeps you going.”
But she does have a weakness, she admits. She loves burritos.
BEEF AND NOODLE OVEN STEW
Prepatation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 3 1/2 hours
Yield: 10 servings
Even the noodles are cooked in the oven in this recipe, adapted from “Cooking from Quilt Country: Hearty Recipes from Amish and Mennonite Kitchens,” by Marcia Adams.
1/4 cup instant beef bouillon granules
10 cups hot water
1 boneless chuck roast, about 3 pounds, trimmed
8 whole cloves
3 ribs celery, cut in thirds
2 large carrots, peeled, cut in thirds
1 each, quartered: large onion, seeded green pepper
1 small bunch parsley sprigs plus 1/2 cup chopped
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 package (16 ounces) egg noodles
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Dissolve beef bouillon in water in large Dutch oven. Add chuck roast, cloves, celery, carrots, onion, green pepper and parsley sprigs. Cover; bake until meat is tender, 3 hours.
2. Transfer meat to cutting board. Shred meat into bite-size pieces. Remove vegetables from broth with slotted spoon; chop. Return meat and vegetables to broth. Stir in uncooked noodles, salt and pepper; cover.
3. Bake until noodles are tender, stirring once, about 30 minutes. Add additional water if noodles absorb all of broth. Sprinkle with chopped parsley.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories ………… 505 Fat …………. 26 g Saturated fat .. 10 g
% calories from fat .. 47 Cholesterol .. l130 mg Sodium ….. 1,360 mg
Carbohydrates …… 34 g Protein ……… 32 g Fiber ……… 2.7 g
BUTTERSCOTCH TAPIOCA
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 35 minutes
Chilling time: 3 hours
Yield: 8 serving
This addictively sweet dessert is adapteed from the Buggy Wheel Buffet.
6 cups water
1 cup small pearl tapioca
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
4 egg yolks, beaten
1 cup milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut in small pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1. Mix together water, tapioca and salt in large saucepan. Heat to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low; simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes. Stir in brown sugar; continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 20 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Meanwhile, combine egg yolks, milk and sugar in small saucepan; cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thick enough to coat back of spoon. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Stir into tapioca mixture. Pour into custard cups or bowls. Chill completely before serving, about 3 hours or overnight.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories ………… 470 Fat …………. 14 g Saturated fat … 8 g
% calories from fat .. 27 Cholesterol .. l140 mg Sodium ……. 340 mg
Carbohydrates …… 85 g Protein …….. 2.6 g Fiber ……… 0.2 g
CHICKEN DRESSING CASSEROLE
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour, 20 minutes
Yield: 10 servings
This one-pan meal is adapted from a recipe from the Buggy Wheel Buffet.
1 can (14.5 ounces) chicken broth
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 cup water
2 tablespoons chicken base or bouillon granules
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1 loaf (1 pound) white bread, cubed, toasted
2 cups cooked, cubed chicken
3 ribs celery, diced
3 carrots, shredded
1 onion, diced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 tablespoon seasoning salt
1/4 teaspoon each: freshly ground pepper, salt, celery seed
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine broth, butter, water and chicken base in small saucepan over medium heat until butter is melted and base is dissolved; cool completely. Whisk in milk and eggs.
2. Mix together bread, chicken, celery, carrots, onion, parsley, seasoning salt, pepper, salt and celery seed in large bowl. Pour broth mixture over; toss until liquid is absorbed. Place dressing into 13-by-9-inch baking pan. Bake until golden brown, about 1 hour, 20 minutes.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories ………… 300 Fat …………. 14 g Saturated fat … 7 g
% calories from fat .. 42 Cholesterol … l10 mg Sodium ….. 1,450 mg
Carbohydrates …… 29 g Protein ……… 15 g Fiber ……….. 2 g
BOB ANDY PIE
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Yield 8 serving
This pie is a cross between a custard and a brown sugar pie. It’s adapted from “Cooking from Quilt Country: Hearty Recipes from Amish and Mennonite Kitchens.”
1 cup each: granulated sugar,brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each: ground cloves, salt
3 eggs
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine granulated sugar, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, cloves and salt in large bowl. Beat eggs in medium bowl. Mix in milk, butter and vanilla. Stir liquid mixture into flour mixture. Pour into unbaked pie shell.
2. Bake until just set, about 45 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Serve at room temperature.
Nutrition information per serving:
Calories ………… 360 Fat …………. 10 g Saturated fat … 3 g
% calories from fat .. 24 Cholesterol … l90 mg Sodium ……. 255 mg
Carbohydrates …… 64 g Protein ………. 5 g Fiber ……… 0.3 g
