Amish Family Recipes: A Cookbook Across the Generations

I seldom start a review with the book’s title, but here is the delicious exception. Amish Family Recipes: A Cookbook Across the Generations is indeed a familial collection of recipes and personal recounting that spans generations of cooks, includes ingredients known to all Americans, and does not preach any kind of dietary regimen. That alone makes it a relief to read.

Recipe originators or modifiers are identified not only by name, but also by generation and relationship. There are endearing tales, like the nine year old girl who, seeing her first cake’s recipe calling for a whole egg, asked if that included the shell.

Good photographic illustrations are not only of appealing foods, but also of Amish homes, country, and environment, both indoors and out. The book would be worth reading just for those glimpses. Recipe feedback is usually from husbands, which one would expect from a culture where womenfolk typically maintain the home. These recipes are generally for family dining. However, on arriving at the section titled “Family Reunion Meals,” we encounter recipes like the one for Baked Beans that begins with “4 gallons of Pork ‘n Beans” and ends with “Serves 100.”

Not for the dieting inclined, this is nicely and kindly done and showcases fine writing.