Amish Cooking: Stories, Techniques, and Recipes

About Amish Cooking

At this website, you will learn about the Amish with regard to their cooking and their recipes. Also about an upcoming book you may be interested in (Amish-recipe chocolate-covered goodies, with stories).

Welcome to Amish cooking — their recipes, techniques, and stories. The recipes you find at Amish Recipes and Cooking generally are updated for use with modern kitchen utensils.

We will publish a book in the near-future containing Amish chocolate-covered candy recipes. And yes, there will be stories. (My mom was a genius with Amish candy — something I treasure to this day.)

A Unique Road With Amish Recipes

If it's about an Amish recipe, or about Amish cooking in general, we can talk about it.

Recipes you find at Amish Recipes and Cooking generally are updated for use with modern kitchen utensils.

Some of the articles will have an Amish recipe along with a story about how the recipe was updated — the testing and the tasting; and generally more modifications with more testing and tasting.

As Amish Recipes and Cooking gradually expands, there will be more and more recipes, stories about how some of the recipes evolved, and stories about Amish cooking.

Authentic Amish

My name is Will Bontrager. I was born and raised Amish, the oldest of many siblings. Our kitchen had a wood-burning stovetop and oven. There was no electricity. And no gas for ovens and stoves, or hot water heaters.

My earliest memories of helping in the kitchen include bringing in kindling for the wood box so mom could fire up the stove. Mom would then stand me on a chair so I could watch her cook on the stovetop. I was perhaps 5 years old. Maybe 4.

I love to cook and bake, especially making candies and inventing recipes based on what I learned from my mom. Those talents came from her. She was the best for updating recipes depending on what ingredients were at hand or easily available — often better than the original.

Converting Amish Recipes

The Amish make do with what they have. Thus, Amish recipes generally aren't classy. The recipes, however, are classic Amish.

Converting Amish recipes so they can be used by non-Amish in modern kitchens is a special thrill.

All-tested Recipes

Unless otherwise noted with the recipe itself, all recipes published here have been tested in my own kitchen.

All recipes are either from Amish recipe books and updated for modern kitchens or my own developments — tested and tweaked until I was satisfied with them.

This website will not copy and paste recipes from other websites. Perhaps those who copy and publish without testing entertain the false premise that someone must have tested it or it wouldn't have been published in the first place.

Some I have absolutely no use for, like my Mom's pickling recipe. And I will not make something all the while knowing I will be throwing it away.

The Amish tend to have large families and their recipes often reflect that. What would I do with 2 bushels of church cookies! In those cases, I will have tried a smaller batch and a note to that effect will be with the recipe.

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Conversation

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