Sauerkraut Yankees Cookbook - Pennsylvania German Foods

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Description: Dubbed the "Sauerkraut Yankees" during the Civil War, the Pennsylvania Germans held tenaciously to their Old World customs, especially traditions concerning the preparation of food. The sweet-and-sour pickle, Riuwels (crumb dumplings), as well as Schtinkkees ("stink" cheese), sweet potato waffles, and raspberry vinegar are spicy elements of that tradition. 

In addition to a luscious assortment of recipes available in translation for the first time, Sauerkraut Yankees paints an invaluable portrait of the Pennsylvania Germans as a people. The book is essentially a new one written around an old one: The text is threaded around a translation and analysis of Die geschickte Hausfrau (The Handy Housewife). This extremely rare cookbook was originally compiled for the Pennsylvania Dutch by Gustav Sigismund Peters (1793-1847), a Harrisburg printer whose eccentricities are as interesting as his culinary thievery, both of which are entertainingly described. 

William Weaver focuses on the period of 1830—70, when traditional Pennsylvania-German cookery began to break down under mounting pressures of assimilation, technological changes (such as the introduction of cooking stoves), industrialization, and the massive changes in life-style brought about by the Civil War. The author discusses the significance of certain dishes -- for example, serving calfs head was a status symbol. He describes many colorful food customs and beliefs that are now largely extinct in Pennsylvania -- such as the Metzelsupp, a meat gift associated with fall butchering, and Belschnickeling, a form of mumming once a very traditional part of the Pennsylvania-German Christmas. 

In addition to the 139 delicious recipes included in Sauerkraut Yankees -- everything from roast suckling pig to cherry bounce and mulled wine -- the book is garnished with charming line illustrations chosen from rare nineteenth-century sources. A fascinating addition to any gourmand's or food historian's bookshelf, Sauerkraut Yankees is a rare sumptuous find for the mind as well as the palate. 

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Condition: Good condition. Newspaper clipping about the author taped inside cover.