This paper examines the cuisine of the Pennsylvania Dutch, a cultural subregion of rural southeastern Pennsylvania rooted in German immigrant traditions. It explores the geographic and agricultural foundations of the region, the historical immigration patterns that brought German settlers to Pennsylvania, and the religious beliefs — particularly those of the Old Order Amish and Mennonites — that shape daily food practices. The paper also surveys traditional dishes served at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, from Scrapple and Chicken Corn Soup to Shoofly Pie and Schnitz and Knepp, illustrating how history, culture, religion, and local ingredients combine to define a distinctive American culinary heritage.
The paper consistently links contextual factors — immigration history, religious belief, agricultural geography — to specific culinary outcomes, demonstrating how to use a cause-and-effect analytical framework when discussing food culture. Rather than simply listing dishes, the author explains why those dishes exist, connecting lifestyle demands (hard physical labor, self-sufficiency, preservation needs) to ingredients and cooking methods.
The paper opens with a geographic and agricultural overview establishing the regional setting, then moves to historical immigration and cultural identity before turning to religion and economy as behavioral influences on food. The final substantive section catalogs specific dishes by meal type (breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert), and a brief conclusion ties the cultural themes back to the food. This funnel structure — context first, specifics last — is well-suited to food-culture writing at the undergraduate level.
The Pennsylvania Dutch represent a distinctive American culinary subregion. This paper covers some of the influences on the foods and cooking of the Pennsylvania Dutch and discusses some of the region's most popular dishes and specialties. The Pennsylvania Dutch inhabit rural areas of southeastern Pennsylvania, and their cooking is a unique blend of their lifestyle, history, culture, and local influences. Really a blend of several different religious communities — from Amish to Mennonite — the Dutch are not Dutch at all, but rather German immigrants who brought many food traditions with them when they immigrated to America.
While there are Amish and Mennonite settlements in several U.S. states, the heaviest concentration is located in southeastern Pennsylvania, hence the term "Pennsylvania Dutch," which encompasses all people of the area. This part of Pennsylvania is covered with gently rolling hills and rich earth, making it an ideal home for farmers — which the Pennsylvania Dutch are. Cookbook author Betty Groff wrote of the farms of the area, "Their vegetable and flower gardens are so lush and immaculate that they could be mistaken for a horticultural college's test plots" (Groff 2). This lush farmland led to the development of a rich agricultural heritage, and many of the items grown end up on the family table for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Another expert on the Dutch writes, "In 1799 Thomas Hill described the Pennsylvania Dutch farmers as 'the most early rising, hard working people I ever saw.' Many of them, especially the 'plain people,' are still that. They have never been afraid of hard work or of getting their hands dirty" (Klees 192). They chose the perfect agricultural area when they came to America, and they have continued their agricultural heritage ever since, rooted in the geography of Pennsylvania's fertile farmlands.
Because the Dutch live in such an agricultural paradise, numerous local ingredients are available for their cuisine. They grow an abundance of vegetable and grain crops, and the area is quite rich in chickens, cattle, and pigs. Lancaster County has 45 million broilers, 10 million laying hens, 95,000 dairy cows, 250,000 beef cattle, and 335,000 hogs. Those numbers, combined with exceptionally fertile soil, have made Lancaster the most productive non-irrigated farming county in the United States (Editors).
Many area farmers sell their produce at roadside stands or at farmers' markets throughout the region. Local ingredients are diverse, ranging from native berries and plants to fresh trout from local streams and nuts from hickory and walnut trees native to the area (Groff 2–5). Because the Dutch rely mostly on fresh ingredients, it is essential that a wide variety of local ingredients remain available throughout the year for their cooking and canning. When they chose to settle in southeastern Pennsylvania, they found an agricultural region that also offered an abundance of native ingredients — a decision that has defined their culinary tradition ever since.
The first Pennsylvania Dutch came to America from the Rhineland of Germany because of religious persecution and the Thirty Years' War, which devastated much of Germany. They immigrated in great numbers during the seventeenth century. During that period, American founder William Penn — for whom Pennsylvania is named — visited the region and invited people to immigrate to America. Many took his advice and came to start a new life (Klees 137–138). They chose the fertile valleys and hills of southeastern Pennsylvania as their new home because they were agricultural families who recognized good land, and the area was reasonably close to the metropolitan center of Philadelphia.
Historian Klees writes, "The Pennsylvania Dutch farmer of the eighteenth century combined general farming with the raising of livestock. This is still the pattern of many farms in the Dutch country, especially in Berks County; and it was this method of farming that spread to the prairie states of the Middle West" (Klees 194). The lifestyle and immigration of the Dutch thus created a new form of agriculture based not on the village model, but on individual, self-sufficient farms. The Dutch were actually German and spoke a dialect of German — which many still speak today — but Americans anglicized their language from Deutsch (meaning German) to "Dutch," and they have been known as the Pennsylvania Dutch ever since.
They brought many traditional German foods to America with them, such as noodles (Spätzle), sauerkraut, Wiener schnitzel, and many other traditional European dishes that have since become part of the Pennsylvania Dutch culinary heritage.
Groff, Betty. Betty Groff's Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbook. New York: Galahad Books, 1990.
Klees, Fredric. The Pennsylvania Dutch. New York: Macmillan, 1950.
You’re 45% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 2 sections.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.