What Exactly Is Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine?

Before we get into the subject of Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, we need to mention that the "Dutch" part of the name is actually a misnomer. Most of the immigrants who settled in and around Lancaster County, Pennsylvania weren't from the Netherlands, so their culinary tradition didn't include the greasy doughnut spheres known as olliebollen; nor did gouda cheese or proto-stroopwafels play a major role. Instead, "Dutch" is a corruption of "Deutsch," meaning German, and most of the early immigrants came from the German-speaking parts of Europe. 

Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, too, is heavily German-influenced. Among the most German-inspired dishes are a few holiday treats: fasnachts, the cream-filled doughnuts served on Shrove Tuesday (aka Fasnacht Day in Lancaster County), and pork with sauerkraut, which is eaten on New Year's Day to bring good luck. 

Other Penn Dutch dishes have their roots in the New World, including chicken-corn chowder with dumplings and the offal (though not awful) dish known as scrapple. Perhaps the most famous Pennsylvania Dutch creation, however, is something you may not even be aware they invented: the soft pretzel, a staple of ballparks, movie theaters, and shopping mall Auntie Anne's kiosks all over the U.S.

While the Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish are often conflated, the two are not synonymous. The Amish were a subgroup of Pennsylvania Dutch settlers whose religion dictates that their descendants retain a lifestyle similar to that of their colonial ancestors. Not all of the German speakers who immigrated around the same time (that being the late 17th and early 18^th centuries) adhered to the same religion, though, so most of the people with some Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry (including your heretofore anonymous author) haven't retained anything more of the culture than a few family recipes.

That being said, there's not much that differentiates Amish cuisine from that of the Pennsylvania Dutch and many dishes like apple butter, bacon dressing, and three-bean salad can be attributed to either or both groups. 

If there is one item that may divide the two culinary traditions, however, it could be chicken pot pie. The traditional Pennsylvania Dutch version is more like a "not" pie than a pot pie since it closely resembles chicken and dumplings. On the other hand, Amish chicken pot pies, especially from Amish communities in the Midwest, can be actual pies complete with crust.

Besides soft pretzels, certain other Pennsylvania Dutch dishes have transcended the regional specialty status to gain a wider audience. Others, while they may not have had their breakout moment just yet, are ready and waiting to be discovered. Perhaps one of the biggest hits in the Penn-Dutch recipe repertoire is the sticky molasses concoction called shoofly pie. This dessert, as well as the slightly less famous apple pan dowdy (a cross between cobbler and single-crust pie), were commemorated in a popular song from the 1940s called (what else?) "Shoo Fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy." (According to the lyrics, both desserts can "make your eyes light up and your stomach say howdy.") Whoopie pies, however, are often incorrectly attributed to the Pennsylvania Dutch although it's more likely they originated some 500 miles to the north in Maine.

One of the better-known savory dishes with Pennsylvania Dutch roots is pickled eggs, a bright pink bar snack colored by beet juice. Perhaps a bit more obscure is the mixed vegetable relish called chow chow, although you can buy jars of the stuff on Amazon. Lebanon bologna, which tastes more like an extra-smoky summer sausage than anything that spells its name O-S-C-A-R M-A-Y-E-R, is also something you may need to hunt down online if you're not in Pennsylvania Dutch country. Even so, it's well worth trying if you ever get a chance.

To experience Pennsylvania Dutch cooking at a restaurant, you may need to go on a road trip. This cuisine has yet to be widely embraced, so there's no nationwide chain of Hex Sign Hash Houses or similarly-themed eateries. In and around Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, though, there are plenty of restaurants where you can get your fill of Pennsylvania Dutch staples — well some of them, at least, since über-authentic (and less tourist-friendly) items such as pig stomach stuffed with onions and potatoes may not be featured on the menu.

One of the area's best-known restaurants is the Shady Maple Smorgasbord, which happens to be America's largest buffet. While many of its menu offerings are similar to those you'd find at any given Golden Corral, it does offer a selection of Pennsylvania Dutch items including shoofly pie and cracker pudding (which, yes, is a pudding made with cracker crumbs). Miller's Smorgasbord includes Pennsylvania Dutch dishes such as chicken corn soup, red beet eggs, Lebanon bologna, and pot pie with noodles, while Deitsch Eck dishes up deep-fried scrapple, apple butter, and chow chow.

Should you wish to take home a culinary souvenir, Dietrich's Meats and Country Store has an extensive selection of Pennsylvania Dutch specialties including every pickled pig part possible from snouts to trotters. The establishment also offers five different flavors of shoofly pie along with lesser-known Pennsylvania Dutch desserts like apies cake (a dense, not-too-sugary coffee cake) and funny cake (which is baked in a pie shell, hence the hilarity).