Molasses, too, is indispensable. Twenty-five years ago each grocer had a molasses barrel or two, but there are only a few left. Barrel molasses is the table molasses that is spread on butter bread, fried mush, scrapple, egg cheese, fritters, doughnuts and many other deep-fat-fried foods. For cookies, cakes and pies, baking molasses is used. In the pie category alone there are many uses. We use molasses for Shoo-fly Pies, Molasses Crumb Pies, Molasses Custards, Funny Cake Pies, Montgomery, McKinley, Quakertown, Union, Lemon Strip Pies, Shellbark Custards and Vanilla Pies. Yes, we like our molasses! Perhaps, for this craving, we are indebted to our great-grandmothers who religiously gave their children molasses and sulphur for a “necessary spring tonic.”
It might be noted that we like boiled dinners. Vegetables are frequently cooked in the same kettle with the meat and potatoes. The favorite combinations are: cabbage and beef, sauerkraut and pork, green beans and ham, turnips and beef. More unusual, though, and favorites of any season, are our Boiled Pot Pies. Squares of dough are dropped into boiling broth to cook with either chicken, veal, pork, or beef. And again, potatoes are in the same kettle. Some cooks choose to use both Sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes in the same Pot Pie. You will find baked meat pies, but they are outnumbered by boiled ones of which the Chicken Pot Pie is the most popular.
There is a chicken specialty in Lancaster County that attracts great crowds. Every August and September when the Ladies of the Fire Company Auxiliaries serve Chicken Corn Soup suppers they make gallons and gallons. Plenty of chicken and plenty of corn in a rich chicken broth is tops on our list of soups.
Have you heard about our Funeral Pie? It is none other than a Raisin Pie. It may be Raisin Crumb or a two-crust Raisin Pie; either is called Funeral Pie. For as many years as our grandmothers can remember, this pie was made for the meal that was served to relatives and friends who had gathered for a funeral. Today, in this age of travel, there are few of these suppers served excepting among the Amish who still travel by horse and buggy.
The Shoo-Fly Pie is a common subject of inquiries. Everyone wants to know the translation of its name, but there is none. The discussion of whether the name actually came from an occasion when flies were chased from this molasses pie or whether its rough textured topping gave it a name similar to the French choufleur meaning cauliflower, has not yet been reconciled. There are many varieties of Shoo-Fly Pies. The Dutchman who likes to dunk wants his “dry as punk” and others like them “gooey as can be.” The latter is often referred to as the “wet-bottom shoo-fly.” Basically, this pie is made in an unbaked crust that is partially filled with a molasses mixture and covered with a thick topping of crumbs, which may or may not be spicy.
On the menu of the restaurant that serves Pennsylvania Dutch meals you are quite likely to see “Schnitz un Knepp.” Literally this means apples and dumplings. Specifically, “schnitz” are dried apple slices that are cooked with the dumplings in ham broth and then served with ham. Dried apple slices can be purchased in many stores, but on the farm each cook dries her own, just as she dries her own corn and beans, in the oven, on top of the coal stove or in the sun. Schnitz are also put into pies or served alone as stewed fruit.
Probably more apples go into Apple Butter which in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect is called Lottwaerick. Hand in hand with Lottwaerick goes Smiercase, the Dutchman’s version of cottage cheese, but much creamier than the commercial cottage cheese. Wherever Lottwaerick is served, there will be Smiercase. They were made to go together, we think. A thick slice of homemade bread when spread with Lottwaerick and then a layer of Smiercase is a joy to man, woman or child in the Dutch country.
Lancaster countians enjoy the flavor and color of saffron. This is the dried stigmata of the crocus-like flowers that bloom from a saffron bulb. Although it is almost extinct in our own cultivation of herbs, we now purchase the imported saffron and use it in breads, potato or noodle dishes, and always with chicken. This is one of the items that is regional within this region. Natives of Lancaster and Lebanon Counties delight in the flavor of saffron as well as its butter color, but no other Dutch cooks seem to appreciate it as we do.
Photo by Charles Rice