Growing up in the Pennsylvania Dutch region, I have eaten these foods all my life and I'm sharing with you what I consider the most iconic of these dishes, specific to the Lancaster County region. More info and links to come!
I have heard of that but I don’t think ever tried it. Thanks for mentioning it 👍 I haven’t seen it in the restaurants either but I may have missed it :). Not sure it “qualifies” as one of the most popular but I bet it’s one with deep roots!
Great video. My wife and I visit this region and go several times a year. We love the Bird in Hand restaurant. We especially love the broasted chicken.
I grew up in coal country north of Allentown - still very Pennsylvania Dutch! My grandmother and her siblings continued speaking exclusively PA Dutch among themselves until they passed. This area has a lot of central/eastern European influence: pierogi, halupki (cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and ground beef and baked on tomato sauce), haluski (cabbage fried with noodles)... I still love it all!
My Dad loved stuffed beef heart, and souse . My Grandmother would send my mom and her siblings to go pick what was left in the garden when they called for a frost, she used them to make chow chow.
@@robertVirtue-mc2yw wow! That’s hard core! 😆. I have never had stuffed beef heart and I don’t think I’ve seen it in any of the restaurants in Lancaster but my curiosity is quite peaked 🙃. Thanks for sharing your family’s memories! Quite special ❤️
It's amazing that 80% of the pretzels in the USA are made in Lancaster. I had never heard of putting apple butter on cottage cheese. The brown buttered noodles is my favorite on the list. I have heard of people eating stewed tomatoes on macaroni and cheese but had no idea it was considered Pennsylvania Dutch. Such an interesting video. Great job as always!
Thank you 😊 it’s so fun talking about such wonderful food! I think the Mac n cheese and stewed tomatoes is prbly very specific to a certain part of the PA Dutch region - don’t think the entire area does it but MAN do I love it 🥰 Thanks again for joining in! 😉
You missed sweet Lebanon balogne and curd cheese ABCake and although it's Irish origin, big back home with the Dutch corned beef hash. Salt was the reason for the Irish corned beef far before UK etc. Thanks for the video!!!
Thanks for including these foods 😊👍 I LOVE sweet Bologna and my kids like Lebanon Bologna 😄. And I also love corned beef hash. I grew up on those in York County. And I know of ABC cake but don’t know it well. I pretty much focused on what is popular on a menu in the popular restaurants in Lancaster. But your suggestions make me think it would be fun to do a popular food at the markets video 😎👍so thank you!!
This is great! I was missing home so much today and not sure how it popped up but the surprise was nice. Everything in this video has been a part of multiple family dinners. PA Dutch blood runs through these veins and kind of inspires me to bring out some old cookbooks.
Awww how great 😊 I know what mean. I have been gone from the area for so long and during those years when I only got back there once maybe twice a year, I could physically feel the ache for this beautiful (and delicious) place!! Glad it popped up! 😍😊👍
I am also fond of the Whoopie pie. My current favorite is from M&A Sweet treats across from Stoltzfus meats. My last visit there I brought 100 of them back with me. If you ever make it to Roots Market there is an outside stand that has a huge variety and all of the flavors are incredible!
Yes! I believe I know which Roots stand you are talking about!! 🤩🤩. A beautiful display of these amazing treats. And thank you for sharing your story about the 100 whoopie pies. That is pure awesomeness!! 😍😍👏👏. I have heard that place across from Stoltzfus is pretty great - I will have to try them! Thank you 😉😊👍
I grew up in Pennsylvania and have lived there for 63 years, and growing up around the Philadelphia area you almost never heard anything about the Pennsylvania Dutch. We never ate any Pennsylvania Dutch food when I was young. Where I lived almost everybody was Irish or polish or Italian and we ate American food and Polish food and Italian food. It wasn't until I got much older that I had some Pennsylvania Dutch food. I like some of their food but not their shoo fly pie. I like Pennsylvania Dutch stuffing or filling with the potatoes in it 👍🏻🙏🏻
That’s so interesting 🧐. I’m not surprised that you grew up with Italian, Polish and Irish influence as that is par for the course in the Northeast but it is interesting that you didn’t know about Pa Dutch food 😊😆☺️. But it sounds like you had plenty of good food growing up around all that 👍👍😊
@@ElleLiving I heard of Pennsylvania Dutch food but it was nowhere around. We did not go to Lancaster. We stayed in the Philadelphia and Bucks County area and then when we went on vacation back in the 60s 70s and 80s we always went to Wildwood New Jersey or Ocean City Maryland, and then my parents would take us down to the Old Country Williamsburg Virginia and then they took us to Florida to Disney World, so everywhere we went there was absolutely no Pennsylvania Dutch areas or Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants. When we went to the shore on vacation we always ate at seafood restaurants that was the big thing, to go eat at seafood restaurants. It wasn't until I got older that we finally took a ride out to Lancaster and had some Pennsylvania Dutch food. As a young person I heard of Pennsylvania Dutch food but nobody really talked about it at all it was never a topic of anybody's conversation. Many people that I knew were addicted to Italian food. But my family was mostly into Seafood. My mother used to make a lot of crab cakes and fried fish and haddock and shrimps, and she made American food too like meatloaf and stuffed peppers. My parents never ate Pennsylvania Dutch food and most people I know that live in Pennsylvania never eat Pennsylvania Dutch food. I mean come on you get out of Lancaster area drive across the state you're not going to see any Pennsylvania Dutch restaurants. I have had some because I'm a little bit more adventurous and have gone to Shady Maples Buffet and thought it was pretty good.
Thanks so much 😊👍 So I wondered about the origin of caramel corn bc I wasn’t aware that it was a PA Dutch food. It is from Germany but the 2 brothers that invented it settled in Chicago 😉👍. Here is a link, it’s pretty interesting 🤔 www.popcornforthepeople.com/blogs/blog/the-history-of-caramel-popcorn
Grew up in Snyder County, surrounded by Amish and Mennonite. They heavily influenced the culture. I got about half way through your video and i thought "is she not going to mention pot pie?" And then i thought "I'll be patient and see." You did so, and i want to say I like a pot pie thats somewhere in between the two examples you displayed. Homemade noodles, any meat-though chicken, ham, beef, and squirrel were the most common growing up- onions, carrots....I miss PA. Best woopie pie ever had was a 'Chocolate Chip' woopie pie from a little grocery store in Middleburg, PA called IGA. Middleburg is also home to the legendary Middleswarth Chips company. Interesting video. You earned a like and subscribe from me.
Lol 😂 I love how you commentated on your reaction to this video 😊 it made me chuckle 🤭 SQUIRREL 🐿️??!! That’s a first for me to hear about! 🤪😊😂 These are just a list of the most popular ones I’ve seen in most of the restaurants in Lancaster (and York) County. I know there is a huge list of them. It would be interesting to dive deep into that and interview people 😊👍 thanks for commenting, sharing your experiences, and subscribing!
I am from the Morgantown PA area and went to Millersville University. Yes. We do eat and love the foods you named. Seems natural. We also ate a lot of oyster stew and fried oysters. Also funnel cakes and corn fritters are popular. There are also many casserole combinations among the Mennonite communities and the Amish families. What a great place to be from. Thanks.
Yes it IS a great place to be from!! 👍👍😊😊. My husband went to Millersville!! It would take a serious of videos to cover all the amazing food, right??!! One thing I never got into though was oysters! But my grandma would make oyster stuffing at Thanksgiving sometimes 😍😍👍👍 I can eat that 😉. Thanks for the comments and food mentions.
@@mickikindley7821 nice to meet a fellow scrapple fan! 😀😆👍 And some of the markets will ship it if you want it! I’ll copy a link here to Stoltzfus Meats and they will ship many things, including Scrapple to you! www.stoltzfusmeats.com/
I remember eating pickled eggs at my grandmother, Verna's house. When I was little we would visit her at her home in Quakertown, PA and take her to lunch at a restaurant called Trainer's. I remember looking forward to the hot bacon dressing and cottage cheese with apple butter. Yum!
Watching your videos makes us miss the area that much more…lol. I admit, I’m a Scrapple fan…😊. When we visit family and friends,between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I preorder 15 dozen sampler Whoppie Pies packages. Our friends here in the south Love them! I like Stewed Tomatoes on my Brown Buttered Noodles. We also make Pork and Sauerkraut on New Year’s Day, down south, and invite friends over. Thank you for taking the time to make the video. Subscribed….
Thank you so much, Steve, for sharing!! Loved reading all of it 😊. Where do you order that sampler of whoopie pies from? I make them sometimes and hand them out and people do love them. But they do take a good amount of time, especially the mini ones 😆! stewed tomatoes are one of my favs for sure! I have never had them on buttered noodles but I can see how that would be good! And you aren’t the first one to say that these videos make them miss Lancaster 🤩 I feel the same way. It’s both nice to “see” Lancaster when we can’t be there but then it can make us homesick for it 🥰 thanks for all your sharing and support!
@@ElleLiving You’re welcome! I go back and forth between Bird-In-Hand Bakeshop (Gibbons Road) or Bird-in-Hand Creamery. Old habits die hard…. Bird-In-Hand Creamery has the small sample sizes. Bird-In-Hand Bakeshop I will get then regular sized…if friends have been extra nice that year…😁. They will ship on certain days. Also, when in the area, we stay at a local place in Strasburg, The Carriage House. They are located on East Main Street (741). Great local lodging with good prices.
I'm from Franklin county, the far west of deep red, Amish area. Some of the local recipes get local twists. We go another step on the pickled eggs, Devil them after,, :> Jim's Market , Grant St. Chambersburg, is only open Friday and Saturday. They have a pretzel stand that is no slouch. They do pretzel rolls with breakfast and lunch type items rolled inside. The country sausage egg and cheese pretzel roll is excellent. As are all the pretzels, I've probably had them all over the years.
THIS is awesome info! Thank you @D. Rex! You said it perfectly- each area often adds their unique twist to the Pa Dutch food 🥘 👍😊 And thank John for the recommendation on Jim’s Market!! Sounds amazing 🤩 Love getting recommendations 👏👏
My great grandpa was Pennsylvania Dutch so my grandma raises my mom and her siblings on this weird blend of PD and New Englander foods. Always wondered why my mom likes stewed tomatoes on her mac and cheese
Lol 😂 THAT is one of my favorite things to eat!! No one really gets it unless u were raised that way 😆😄. Ironically, my Dad’s family was from New England too - lots of Swedish family settled there. It’s my Moms side that were hard core PA Dutch 😍👍😊. Thanks for sharing!
My family has Pennsylvania Dutch roots. My mom was born in Reading, but moved to Indiana where the rest of our family is from. My grandpa loved hot bacon dressing. Always said you gotta have saffron for Chicken Pot pie. I brought my mom back some last time. The tomatoes on Mac and cheese was new to me, but I tried it. I liked it. I think the best thing I ate our whole leaf peeping trip was a tie between the apple cider sauce at Millers and the freezer jam at Katie’s kitchen. Is it the same all over? We had it at 2 restaurants and it was delicious!
@@fernwanderlust3866 for some reason I never saw this comment till now! I am sorry!!! I would have replied sooner if I would have known 🫣 I love the fact that you tried the stewed tomatoes w Mac n cheese - most people don’t! And glad u liked it. It is truly one of my favorite dishes. And I have not heard of using saffron in chicken pot pie! Not have I heard of freezer jam ? And I have not tried the apple cider sauce - what did you put it on? Thanks for sharing about your family. It’s near your grandpa loved hot bacon dressing 😊👍 You gave me some new items to think about 😆
@@ElleLiving no worries! The apple cider sauce was meant as a meat condiment. It was delicious! Katie’s kitchen was called freezer jam. People in Indiana make freezer jam as well instead of canning. I hope the meetup was successful. Of If I wasn’t so far would have been fun to attend. Fun seeing your OK content. Northern IN has a small amount of Amish Attractions in the Shipshewana area. We visited in May. It’s hard not to compare it to Lancaster County. It’s nice to have something a few hours away.
@@fernwanderlust3866 so interesting about the sauce and freezer jam! I will have to check that out someday :) And yes I also find it interesting to see other Amish communities but none shall compare I think. 😆😍
My favorite PA Dutch food is baked oatmeal which I love to get from the farm markets. Also enjoy cracker pudding, cup cheese, corn pie and beehive cake. There is nothing like homemade root beer that tastes great in the warmer months
Interesting, Joan 😊 I know of Beehive cake and cracker pudding and I think I know what cup cheese is though not positive. I didn’t realize baked oatmeal was a PA Dutch thing ☺️👍. Do you get any of these at any of the restaurants and if so which ones? I have seen cracker pudding at some but not sure about the others? And I actually am not a fan of homemade root beer 🤪 sorry! I tried it but just don’t like it though I don’t drink soda normally ☺️☺️. Thanks for this list. I will have to look for these when I am in Lancaster:) 👍👍
@@ElleLiving Bricklerville House in Lititz makes a great baked oatmeal. and has different flavors throughout the year. Most of the farm markets in the area carry it also. Harvest Lane Farm Market in Lititz and Village Farm Market in Ephrata both make excellent oatmeal. Village Farm Market usually has cup cheese, cracker pudding and corn pie. The beehive cake I have only seen at Roots Farmers Market though probably some bakeries in the area make it. So excited for Spring in Lancaster County all the greenhouses will soon be open with all the beautiful flowers. My favorite time of year,
There is a farm on Rt. 340 that has a fantastic homemade root beer. If you drive on 340 it's on the outskirts of Intercourse and between Intercourse and Bird in Hand. Make sure they have their "OPEN" flag at the end of the drive before you go up to the farm. The flag is out most Fridays and Saturdays in the summer.
@@richardgazinia5482 I know the place you are talking about Old Heritage Homemade Root Beer. The root beer is the best and they also make really great lemonade.
Not a bad idea 😊👌 I grew up hearing my Dad order that for breakfast on a regular breakfast when we would be out to eat. They do serve it in Lancaster restaurants 👍☺️ In fact I bet more people like that than scrapple. Tho I like both 😊 thanks for mentioning it!
That was a great video about my favorite subject FOOD. We have even tried the one that was made in the pig stomach ☹. Thanks for the shout out, scrapple is still my least favorite. The video brought back good memories, thanks for all the hard work you do.
Thank YOU David! It was a lot of work but a really fun video to do! I even learned things I didn’t know that I didn’t know, if you know what I mean 😆🤪😄. I’m super impressed you’ve tried Hogmaw!!
@@ElleLiving Don't be too impressed I only took a bite. A nice lady at Shady Maple talked me into trying it. Still ranks above scrapple but just barely😁.
My mom grew up aside of the Wixons shoofly pie bakery in Shillington. I live in Amish country just outside of Lancaster County in Berks. Shady Maple is only 15 mins away. The only food i didnt know was the chicken and waffles. I love cottage cheese with applesauce and chicken pot pie. I think cucumber salad is another item you missed. Also Shenks cup chesse. And stuff made with dandelions. I am pa dutch and have eaten all of these foos. I dont like the bacon dressing but my husband loves it.
Cool! Thanks for adding to the list 👍😊☺️. This wasn’t an exhaustive list by any means, just the some of the more popular ones I’ve seen and eaten over the years 🤩😋😍. The Bird-in-Hand Restaurant makes great cucumber salad!
I grew up on the edge of Philadelphia and we ate soft pretzels all the time. We never considered them to be Pennsylvania dutch. We also ate scrapple in the 1960s 70s it was invented in Philadelphia not by the Pennsylvania dutch. Chicken pot pie was invented in greece, whoopie pie was invented in the state of Maine. I do like ham balls and had them a few years ago for the first time at Shady Maple Buffet, but the internet says that the ham balls were actually invented in Iowa. I go to the local farmers market and the Amish are in the inside selling their food and desserts. They make some really good chicken scampi drenched in garlic and I like their cream cheese cupcakes. All in all I like Pennsylvania Dutch food but it's not my favorite. I still like my seafood and my juicy steaks better! Oh and I do like Pennsylvania Dutch filling with the potatoes and I just made some a couple days ago and ate it with my meatloaf, all drenched in gravy of course! 👍🏻👍🏻😂
Yeah that is a good one and one my family loves ;) But for this video I focused more on what popular PA Dutch foods you can find at the restaurants as part of a meal 😊👍But yes it is a staple of PA Dutch I believe 😉
True! Definitely a classic PA Dutch dish though I don’t often see that offered on the popular buffets. I f grew up seeing my family eat that for breakfast - creamed chipped beef on toast 🤩👍
I grew up in Southwestern Chester County (West Grove then Kennett Square) and have been eating these foods since I was in a highchair. The only foods I avoid on this list are the stewed tomatoes on Mac and Cheese (acid reflux), Liver and Onions (thank god my mother hated it so we never had it when I was a kid and (maybe shockingly) ham balls. I've never gotten a taste for ham balls or ham loaf and I'm not 100% sure why. I'll get one at Shady Maple or Duth-Way or any other buffet and the first bite is fine but I can't get through the whole piece. My girlfriend who's not a big fan of meat (she was vegetarian for a while) ate Scrapple even when she was vegetarian. The Scrapple had to be cooked supper crispy and she would eat it with either ketchup or syrup. I wonder if there is a particular spice in the stewed tomatoes that is turning on my acid reflux because I like ketchup on Mac and cheese. The chicken corn soup reminds me of going to my dad's softball games back in the early 70s and having warm chicken corn soup from the concession stand on a cool Spring evening. Of course, I'd have to beg mom for a whoopie pie at the same time. Thanks for bringing back some old memories, I miss Mom and Dad, but I can still get the food we shared back in the day.
This is so precious! Thanks for sharing these really special memories! I was literally picturing the sound of ball game and getting soup to warm you up. So cool. 😊😊😍😍 And I literally laughed out loud at your ketchup and Mac n cheese comment! 😂😂. It’s fun to hear what people like and don’t like. My mom DID make me eat liver when I was a kid but only once or twice 😂😂🤪🤪 still can’t stand it! Thanks again!!
@@ElleLiving Elle, Do you know if there are any more "Family Style" Restaurants in the Lancaster area now that Good and Plenty is closed? If so could you do a list of them?
@@richardgazinia5482 I will look further into this to make sure my info is correct but sadly it’s almost all gone. However, “Smokehouse BBQ and Brews along 340 does offer it but they may have party size stipulations. They used to be “Plain & Fancy” but are now the BBQ joint. ALSO, next year in 2024, Hershey Farm will reopen after the rebuild and they will be offering it in addition to their buffet!
I was suspicious when someone said that they liked to top their fastnachts with turkey syrup. It's a common way to eat them. Turns out there is mostly corn sugar and coloring, but no turkey.
Pretzel house in Hershey? And your definition of who is the Pennsylvania Dutch are includes only about 5%. There were many different peoples other than the Amish move and they did not all , at the same time, nor do they all come from Germany. Other than that, Great video
@@debbieyoder162 thank you! Is it their own ham loaf or Gene Wegners (which most restaurants use in Lancaster). I’m a sauce girl. The pineapple sauce can make or break a ham loaf or ham balls for me 😍😍👍👍
It is Wenger’s. I’m not a pineapple sauce girl. I make a glaze for it with brown sugar, vinegar, water and dry mustard. You baste it every 15-20 minutes.
I live in Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Dutch only live in about a quarter of Pennsylvania. Most of Pennsylvania you would see no Pennsylvania Dutch😂
@@ElleLiving I feel that the map is incorrect. I live an hour from Lancaster and there is absolutely no Pennsylvania Dutch anywhere. And where I grew up on the edge of Philadelphia there is zero Pennsylvania dutch. Use to go to the Poconos a lot also and there is no Pennsylvania Dutch in the Pocono Mountains. There are 13 million people in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Dutch makes up about 175,000 to 300,000 people. Approximately 2% of the population of Pennsylvania. I would say Lancaster is mostly where you see Pennsylvania Dutch but maybe a quarter of Pennsylvania has small amounts of Pennsylvania Dutch mix through in the countryside.
@@jeffhampton2767 interesting because I’ve had people comment on this video who are from outside Lancaster who grew up eating dishes in their home that were PA Dutch. There is a whole FB page of people who talk about and share Pa Dutch food and they are from many places. I grew up in York county and my great grandparents and grandparents made PA Dutch food regularly. So you may not find many restaurants outside of Lancaster that serve that food but I know people outside of Lancaster who grew up with it in their house and still make it 😃😊👍
@@ElleLiving My grandparents on my mother's side were from South Jersey and they were polish. My father was irish and from Philadelphia. Because my mother was polish she made Polish food and American food there was absolutely no reason to make or eat Pennsylvania Dutch food because nobody was Pennsylvania Dutch in that part of Southeastern Pennsylvania. There are no Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch in Philadelphia or in Bucks County you would have to get in the car and drive at least 50 Miles West. I could think back through my life and for many many decades and all the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people that I know and knew, and I can't think of one person who said oh I'm going to go eat some Pennsylvania Dutch food. It just never happened. Everybody was eating American food and Italian food and Chinese food and some Polish food, seafood and steakhouses, everything but Amish Dutch food. Not far from where I grew up was historical Washington's Crossing and a British looking town called New Hope Pennsylvania. It's a tourist town and there's like a hundred restaurants and almost all the food is Gourmet, food like beef wellington and Filet Au Poivre, fancy sauteed dishes. In the same area is Peddler's Village and right across the river is Lambertville New Jersey there are restaurants everywhere there is no such thing as Pennsylvania Dutch food in any of those areas. I can get in the car and drive from my house near the Poconos all the way to Philadelphia and there is absolutely no Pennsylvania Dutch people or restaurants anywhere. Lol
@@ElleLiving There are also millions and millions of people living in Pennsylvania that don't eat Pennsylvania Dutch food. For instance Italians make up 15% of the population in the state of Pennsylvania compared to 2% Pennsylvania Dutch. They eat Italian food they don't eat Pennsylvania Dutch food. My sister is half polish and Irish and her husband is Irish and Italian and during the holidays she makes homemade pierogies and she makes homemade lasagna. And there are millions and millions of people like this in Pennsylvania so why on Earth would they eat Pennsylvania Dutch food. You only think half the state eats Pennsylvania Dutch food because you grew up in york county near Lancaster and those areas do have more Pennsylvania Dutch but most of the state there is no Pennsylvania Dutch and no Pennsylvania Dutch food. There are over 4,000 pizza shops in the state of Pennsylvania. How many restaurants in Pennsylvania actually serve Pennsylvania Dutch food probably not even not even 100.
You forgot the most iconic food of all! Shame on you! Lebanon and sweet Lebanon bologna should be right up there with scrapple! Also ketchup is also used by many on scrapple..... Mustard as well...especially when made into a sandwich. Lebanon bologna sandwich: butter a slice of homemade bread, spread on horseradish add the meat. Garden lettuce and thin sliced onion optional. Hot: meat, horseradish, Muenster cheese. Put in broiler pan and leave open faced to melt the cheese. Fry the bologna and make a sandwich! Fry it and eat it with eggs! You also forgot Taylor's pork roll!
Wow! I looked it up bc I didn’t know and you are right!! The Pennsylvania Dutch are said to be the makers 😍😊👍. Now I don’t see them in restaurants but I do see them in markets and fairs etc. So cool!! Thanks for mentioning it!
