The free Brown Bag Lecture will be June 11 at The Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center
On Wednesday June 11, Alice Wolfgang will share over 60 historic recipes at the noontime Brown Bag Lecture “Odd and Even Offal PA German Foods” at the Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center in Pennsburg.
For the past three hundred years, the Pennsylvania Dutch in Southeast Pennsylvania have maintained a unique cultural identity, to some extent preserving the dialect, but even more importantly, their food!
Wolfgang will showcase some of our more unusual edibles, and while some might be considered odd, they are also thought to be delicious. The lecture is available in-person or virtually.
The term Pennsylvania Dutch refers to German-speaking immigrants (primarily from what is now Germany, Switzerland, and Alsace) who settled in Pennsylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Despite the name, “Dutch” is a corruption of “Deutsch,” meaning German. These settlers, many of whom were Anabaptists (such as Mennonites and Amish) or Lutherans, brought with them a strong agricultural tradition and a hearty, resourceful food culture that became deeply rooted in southeastern Pennsylvania, especially in Bucks, Montgomery, Berks, and Lancaster counties.
Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine is known for being simple, filling, and seasonal, often using ingredients that were readily available on the farm or could be preserved for winter months. Common traits in Pennsylvania Dutch Food includes heavy use of pork, potatoes, cabbage and root vegetables, a balance of sweet and sour flavors, often in the same dish, use of preserving techniques like pickling and canning, heavy use of butter, cream and eggs in baking, and recipes reflecting family-style eating.
Signature dishes include chicken pot pie, which is stew-like, rather than baked, and made with wide egg noodles, chunks of chicken, potatoes and carrots in a thick broth; scrapple, a traditional breakfast delicacy made from pork scraps and cornmeal, shaped into a loaf and then fried; sauerkraut and pork, a New Year’s Day tradition of fermented cabbage slow-cooked with pork and applies or onions; shoofly pie, which is a molasses-based pie with a crumb topping, either with a “wet bottom” or “dry bottom”; pickled red beet eggs, which are hard-boiled eggs soaked in beet juice, vinegar and sugar brine; potato filling, a mixed of mashed potatoes and stuffing; and liver pudding or head cheese.
PA Dutch cuisine can be found at farmers’ markets in Lansdale, Quakertown, Souderton and Perkasie.
Call 215-679-3103 or email info@schwenkfelder.org to reserve your place.
Brown Bag Lectures this year are free of charge thanks to the sponsorship of KeyBank.
The Schwenkfelder Library & Heritage Center at 105 Seminary Street, Pennsburg, is the regional history museum for the Upper Perkiomen Valley. It is open Tuesday through Sunday with free admission to visit exhibits or research in the library. For more information on upcoming programs and exhibits, visit schwenkfelder.org
