By David Croll

With mention of Easter and associated festivals I have gotten to thinking about seasonal PA German food traditions...which are one way in which the culture manifests itself.

Holy Week to me marks the real beginning of "Spring Eating"...and the first tradition that I really like is that on Holy Thursday....called Green Thursday (Grien Dunnersdaag) by PA Germans...the tradition is to eat a fresh salad accompanied by the same type of dressing that one uses to make German style potato salad...bacon drippings, vinegar, hardboiled eggs etc.

PA German salads are simple and use either the above type of dressing with greens or vinegar/sugar/oil bases over either greens or shredded cabbage. One real rite of spring is dandelion salad....and dandelions themselves are referred to in PA German dialect as "bittre Salaad"...or by the archaic term "Pissebett" since they have diuretic properties!

In addition to the cabbage and wild greens, PA Germans have historically grown a variety of leaf lettuce known as "deer tongue lettuce" since the shape of the leaves resembles the tongue of a deer, I guess. It is used with the hot bacon dressing as is endive...and both have a spring association in my mind.

A real quick PA German sugar vinegar salad is served throughout PA German areas and goes under the local English name of pepper cabbage...

Pepper Cabbage
grate some cabbage finely
chop some green and red garden peppers into small cubes
mix parts of sugar and vinegar to taste, pour over the cabbage/peppers and
let sit for an hour or so in the fridge

and then a real favorite....

Gummere (Gurken) mit saur' Raahm
* slice the cukes thin....salt and let sit...
discard the excess water from the salted cukes and rinse slightly to remove most of the salt
* Add thinly sliced onions....
* Mix yoguhrt/sour cream...1/2 cup of yoguhrt or sour cream to each tablespoon of cider vinegar...making enough to cover the cukes/onions completely
*Combine and let stand in fridge overnight

The final "spring dish" is what are locally called "red beet eggs". Pickled "red" beets...rot Riewe are put up with hardboiled eggs in them...and some add slices of onion as well. An alternative is to take already pickled beets, add the eggs and let sit in a covered dish or jar in the fridge for a week or so.

Pickled "red" beets...rot Riewe (I am told constantly by my non-German friends to drop the "red" in English and just say beets, but it doesn't seem right...there are different kinds of Riewe/Rüben ...gel net?) they are red beets - rote Rüben (rote Bete) and there are many different kinds of Rüben. There are sugar beets and gelbe Rüben (carrots) we call them geehl Riewe in PA German dialect...and they are grated and combined with raisins and sugar.

Another harbinger of the warmer months is the shift to picnic style meats such as smoked ham and my favorite form of this is a dish in which the ham is cooked in a style that is reminiscent of sauerbraten, but with ham and with the marinade being used to baste the ham during cooking. It is flavored by fennel, onions and a bit of garlic and the secret ingredient is PA German style black vinegar sauce combined with raspberry vinegar.

The smoked ham is cooked by baking in a Dutch oven and being basted by the pot liquors which are composed of the drippings of the ham and the black vinegar sauce. After a few hours, the final sauce is made by removing the ham...boiling down the liquid to about 1/3 volume, and then adding about 1/2 volume of raspberry vinegar.

Black vinegar sauce

4 cups of red wine vinegar (or balsamic, good but expensive)
1-1/2 cups of brown sugar
3/4 cup of raisins

Combine in a heavy sauce pan the vinegar and brown sugar. Heat to boil, reduce heat and cook slowly...1 hour ...or till liquid is reduced to 2-1/2 cups. It will be dark and not have a sharp vinegar taste at this point.

This is a common PA German meat sauce, and some folks put it over ice cream! It is really good with ice cream and pretzels!!

And summertime foods include strawberry Torten, Rhabarberkompot. PA Germans also make these...one other thing...we tend to eat Torten and American style pies as a breakfast "stand-alone", as well as desert on Sunday...and our apple dumplings are traditionally served as a meal course or a light meal alone....I had never seen them as something for after dinner till we moved to New England!

When I sit down to a meal featuring potato salad...German style of course, sweet-sour smoked ham with black vinegar/raspberry sauce and one of the PA German salad greens, I finally feel like it is really Spring!

In our household, my Mom always made such dishes starting with Easter season and afterwards through the summer months. I wonder if other folks from German backgrounds have memories of or still make special dishes associated with Spring/Summer holidays?

Where can you get some of these PA German delicacies? Near Reading and Lancaster PA...plenty of stuff, but off the beaten path....the "tourist trap versions" have been Americanized and are bland, so avoid them!

Best opportunities are the church suppers and food tents run by local groups at places like the PA German Folk Festival....the one in Kutztown...not the commercialized version at Summit Station PA....or at occasional Versommling dinners listed in the local papers.

Unfortunately, the best PA German cooking is family produced...and so not readily available in many restaurants. When we go "down home" we head not to local restaurants, but to the festivals and to specialty butcher shops, farmers markets and specialty stores. I can recommend several butcher shops, places for mail order etc. in cold weather. Let me know what you are interested in, and I can put a list together.

Things like red beet eggs/pickled beets, sweet sour relishes, torts, pies, dried egg noodles, Swiss style cheeses and some types of wurst can be purchased from the locals at the farmers markets. Pretzels, meats and specialty items can also be mail ordered.

Return to Customs or Maundy Thursday page. More info about the PA Dutch.