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Also by Mary Emma Showalter:

Mennonite Community Cookbook, December 1986
Hardcover (reprint)

Mennonite Community Cookbook
Mary Emma Showalter

Favorite Family Recipes

Buy From Publisher

Herald Press
December 1986
On Sale: December 1, 1986
494 pages
ISBN: 0836113934
EAN: 9780836113938
Hardcover (reprint)
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Cookbooks

Mary Emma Showalter has compiled favorite recipes from hundreds of Mennonite women all over the United States and Canada noted for their excellent cooking. Tantalizing dishes brought to this country directly from old Dutch, German, Swiss, and Russian kitchens. Original directions like “a dab of cinnamon” or “ten blubs of molasses” have been standardized to help you get the same wonderful individuality and flavor. Showalter introduces each chapter with her own nostalgic recollection of cookery in grandma’s day—the pie shelf in the springhouse, outdoor bake ovens, the summer kitchen. Beautifully illustrated with color photographs and drawings by Naomi Nissley.

original publication January 1, 1950

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Comments

11 comments posted.

Re: Mennonite Community Cookbook

I've made the latkes for our holiday. I think I may make another batch tonight. I'll admit I make them the way my mom made them - from a box!
(Robin Greene 2:55pm December 19, 2009)

In my younger (and single) days I used to have an Open House at my apartment before Christmas. I would mix the batters and my guests would make their own cookies. It was a version of the cookie exchange because everyone went home with a container.
(Karin Tillotson 3:29pm December 19, 2009)

Bite-size snowball cookies crumble deliciously when popped in the mouth and cover your clothes like it's snowing confectioner's sugar. Decorating sugar cookies, from a recipe with sour cream added, crowned with royal icing tinted various colors. Placing the silver balls and sprinkling with coarse colored sugar before the frosting dries takes time and makes for fond memories of my mom, grandma and kids around the table. We stored those cookies in tins and flat boxes with waxed paper in between the layers.
(Alyson Widen 4:18pm December 19, 2009)

Well, I can't say that I have any particular traditions in "making" dishes, but my "eating" tradition is fairly close to that of the Mennonites. Ours is a German family and I spent a total of 18 years living there before and after we immigrated to Canada. My mother almost always cooked German dishes which I still find more nutritional than a lot of meals here. We rarely ate out and I still don't. However, now my meals come from cans or the freezer: I grew to hate cooking when I was in Grade 7 and have never recovered, lol.
(Sigrun Schulz 4:42pm December 19, 2009)

Traditional for us means making everything from scratch using the best ingredients. I still cook this way. It is cheaper & more nutritious & brings the family together for preparation & cooking & eating time.
(Mary Preston 5:01pm December 19, 2009)

I cook from scratch most of the time. If it's just for me, then it's a quicky meal from the freezer or sandwich!
(JoAnn White 5:50pm December 19, 2009)

When I was first married, I thought I would establish new/old family traditions, especially when I discovered my husband had never decorated a christmas cookie in his whole life. I spent an entire day baking sugar cookies and gingerbread boys and girls for him to decorate and told him we would send them to his sisters in another state. OHM!! He decorated them like Chippendale dancers and pole dancers! My sister-in-law later assured me that when the could stop laughing, the cookies tasted great; I admit I chickened out and never again tried anything so monumental as establishing new "family" traditions. Its so much funnier looking back.
(Susan Driskill 8:13pm December 19, 2009)

We do especially during holidays. I am half Polish, part Irish, Scottish and a dash of American Indian. We have pierogies, povitica and Golabki. I love to try new recipes. Your Mennonite cookbook would be a welcome change to some of my recipes.
(Lisa Glidewell 12:11pm December 20, 2009)

I always fix a big pot of black eyed pea soup for New Years Day. It is supposed to bring good luck thru the new year...I think it is an old Southern Tradition, but not sure. It's just something my grandma and mom always did.
(Mitzi Hinkey 11:43am December 20, 2009)

I always remember the smell of my Mother's kitchen as she baked cookies. I make several of her specialities as well as fruit cakes. There is always some to share with friends.

Mitzi, I also make our New Years dinner with Black Eyes Peas [Hoppin John] and corn bread.
(Robin McKay 1:01pm December 20, 2009)

Hoppin John...I always mean to make that but usually forget. Maybe this year I will. My mom's no longer with me either and every year I try to make her struffoli.
(Rosemary Harris 1:03am December 30, 2009)