The PA Melting Pot: alsace

Monday, August 2, 2021

The PA Melting Pot - Part 1 - Germany - German Sects 1-1

If you missed the Introduction to this series
please click on this link below:

The PA Melting Pot - Introduction

Also DON'T MISS the link below
"Link to 282 German Recipes.
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Now to Part 1 - 1 - German sects

(NOTE: Pennsylvania has the largest population of German-Americans in the U.S. and home to one of the group's original settlements, Germantown (Philadelphia), founded in 1683 and the birthplace of the American antislavery movement in 1688, as well as the revolutionary Battle of Germantown. The state of Pennsylvania has 3.5 million people of German ancestry.)
(NOTE 2: 13.68% of American population is of German ancestry)
(NOTE 3: 44,164,758 of Americans stated they are of German ancestry in 2018)

Pennsylvania Dutch refers to immigrants and their descendants from Alsace, SW Germany and Switzerland.

(If you want to read about east of the areas click on the orange links directly below. You will ALSO find an audio file on each section with national anthems)

Alsace
Southwestern Germany and
Switzerland

who settled in Pennsylvania originally but also emigrated to

West Virginia

and Ohio in the 17th & 18th centuries

and to other parts of the US.

Historically they have spoken the dialect of German known as Pennsylvania Dutch or Pennsylvania German (Deutsch) which also includes the Amish and the Mennonites. (I personally lived 5 miles from an Amish community and on Saturday mornings they would hitch up the horses & buggies & go to town to shop for the week.)

According to Wikipedia:

German Americans established the first kindergartens in the United States, introduced the Christmas tree tradition,
and introduced popular foods such as hot dogs and hamburgers to America.

Very important in the cuisine were Noodles that can be served with anything: (flat noodles, spaetzle noodles, etc.)

in soups
as a side dish with any fish, beef or fowl
as an appetizer
as a dessert with a rich sweet sauce

LINK FOR All Recipes German Spaetzle noodles (dumplings) with VIDEO

They had many soup recipes. Soup making was considered an art: hot & cold soups, fruit soups, light broths, chowder soups and more!!

Chow-Chow is a German relish made with green tomatoes and more!! I love it! You can make it sweet, hot and mild. We like semi-hot and not sweet. You can put it on beans or hot dogs or anything you like relish on.

Root Beer and Birch Beer (not Beer beer - that's a

different pack of Germans)

LINK for Birch Beer Recipe

LINK for All recipes root beer

Photos below part of the faspa or Sunday Dinner or day of rest.

Prepared on Saturday.
Meats, cheeses, zweibach rolls, mennonite sausage,

Check out Rhonda Nickel of Mennonite Foods

She has a nice presence on Pinterest. Here is a link: You need a Pinterest account!!

http://pinterest.com/foody/mennonite-foods/

LINK to Zweiback (zweibach) rolls

Link for German Roll Kuchen to be served with watermelon to deep fried food

The Pa Dutch, Mennonites, Amish liked sponge cake. I think they would have liked this one!!

Taste of Home Orange Sponge Cake

Pies were a big part of the Germanic ethnic cuisine in America.

Homemade whoopie pies

LINK TO 9 whoopie pie recipes

ALSACE - FRENCH OR GERMAN?

Photos of Colmar, Germany

I have been to Alsace (Colmar and Strasbourg, etc) and believe it is part of my German heritage. It is a mixed province along with Lorraine which was conquered several times by the Germans and then given back to the French. Legally part of France it is VERY MULTICULTURED because of the many occupations by the Germans. The menus are in both languages; you can hear both languages being spoken and the food is a mixture of French and German. You must check out this webpage I found below and you will see what I mean:

LINK TO Interfrance presents Alsatian cuisine

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ALL RECIPES LINK TO 282 GERMAN RECIPES and VIDEOS

SOUTHWESTERN GERMANY included:

Bavaria

Baden-Wurttemburg

Rhineland-Palatinate

Saarland

LINK TO GERMAN FOODS BELOW

that are shared with Austria and Switzerland

LINK TO Germanfoodguide.com

Northern Switzerland

North eastern Switzerland and Liechtenstein

Zurich area

Basel Area (I was married in Basel, Switzerland)

Photos of areas above:

Recipes from the German part of Switzerland

Älplermagronen: (Alpine herdsman's macaroni) is a frugal all-in-one dish making use of the ingredients the herdsmen had at hand in their alpine cottages: macaroni, potatoes, onions, small pieces of bacon, and melted cheese. Traditionally Älplermagronen is served with applesauce instead of vegetables or salad.

Fotzel slices: Nobody really knows how this dish got its name. Literally, "fotzel" means a torn-off scrap of paper, but in Basel dialect it means a suspicious individual. Stale bread can be used to make fotzel slices, which made it an ideal recipe for homemakers accustomed to never throwing bread away.
LINK TO SWISS FRENCH TOAST - BASEL

"Birchermüesli" was invented by Dr Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner (1867-1939), a pioneer of organic medicine and wholefoods.

LINK TO BIRCHER MUESLI

Riz Casimir is a preparation of rice with curry sauce and minced pork blended with tropical fruits: pineapple, banana and cherries, sometimes with currant grape. It was first served in 1952 by the international chain of hotel and resorts.
LINK TO RIZ CASIMIR with photo step by step

Rösti: This simple dish, similar to hash browns, is traditionally regarded as a Swiss German favorite. It has given its name to the "Rösti ditch", the imaginary line of cultural demarcation between the German and French regions of Switzerland. However, it is also eaten by the French-speaking Swiss.

LINK TO CHEESE ROSTI from All Recipes - Basel

Tirggel are traditional Christmas Biscuits from Zurich. Made from flour and honey, they are thin, hard, and sweet.

LINK TO TIRGGEL - SWISS HOLIDAY COOKIE RECIPE

Zopf (bread): There are dozens of types of bread in Switzerland. However, Zopf is a typical Swiss specialty for Sundays.
LINK TO ZOPF RECIPE

See my blog at WWW.THEPAMELTINGMELTINGPOT.COM

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

THE PA MELTING POT - Germany: German Sects: Part 4: Alsace-Lorraine: Part 2 of 2: German or French? Alsace

The Melting Pot: A look at the evolution of food in southwestern Pa. – Alsace-Lorraine Part 2 Alsace –

French or German?

(see photos and links below column)

U.S immigration records could have been flawed, faulty or just incorrect. The Alsace and Lorraine provinces were bandied about by the Holy Roman Empire and German nations. Both languages are spoken in both locations. Due to heavy immigration the recordation officials could have registered the countries of origin at the US entry portals by the language spoken, the spelling of the names and the European ports of exit paperwork language.

An interesting note is that during Germanic occupations the French Alsatians were forced to change their French names to German from an “acceptable” list of German names. The names of towns, cities, etc. were changed to German and by observation of an Alsatian map one can see the German names. The names of foods were changed to German and the French were forced to speak German especially in public. During parts of the war-ridden 20^th century the maps of France used in school to study geography featured Alsace & Lorraine blacked out as if they didn’t exist!!

Some years ago I had the pleasure of spending several days in Colmar, Alsace, France where the languages and menus were duel and the foods served were both French and German. Since Alsace is adjacent to Germany the German influence on the cuisine was strong. Alsatian cuisine combines the robust earthiness of German fare and the subtleties of French cooking.

Traditional foods are: (French names first if the names are different):

Choucroute or Sukrut (sauerkraut), Backenoffe (stew of pork, mutton and beef), Berawecka (rich fruitcake), Boudin Noir or Blutwurst (blood sausage-not as bad as it sounds), Tarte Flambee or Flammenkueche (bacon and onion tart), spaetzle (a type of noodle dumpling), waffelpsteta (truffled foie gras wrapped in pastry), Brioche (highly enriched bread with high egg and butter content), Tourtiere (pork and beef pie), Bouchées à la Reine or Suppepaschtete (meats and vegetables served in puff pastry), Cervalas (short fat sausage similar to a hot dog), Jambon en Croute or Schinken mit Rinde (ham cooked in a pie crust), Foie gras or Fettleber (food product made of a specially fattened duck or goose livers), Tarte au Raisins (grape tart) and Pain d’Epices or Leb-und-Gewürze (pain d’épices is not a gingerbread as some translate it; pain d’épices features whole-grain flour, anise seed, ginger and luscious French honey.) (I order it from a catalog near holiday time.)

Alsace is very famous for its traditional clear, unsweetened fruit brandies called eaux-de-vie which are distilled from pears, raspberries, cherries, plums, holly berries, rowan berries, ginger, pine buds, rose hips, gentian and even celery’s country cousin lovage.

Alsace is an important white wine-producing region. Vins d'Alsace (Alsatian wines) are white and display a strong Germanic influence. Some of those are the world's most noted dry Rieslings and Gewurztraminers. Other traditional whites include Muscat, Tokay d’Alsace, Sylvaner and Pinot Blanc. They do, however, produce one red which is Pinot Noir.

Beers are produced at Strasbourg area breweries which include Fischer, Karlsbrau, Kronenbourg and Heineken International.

This is the question. Could some of the citizens of south central Pennsylvania really be Alsatian (French) rather than German because of the German influence on language, names, foods and immigration records?

Christine Willard, a native of western Pennsylvania, researches and blogs about the food unique to western Pennsylvania. She currently resides in North Carolina. Her blog is www.ThePAMeltingPot.com.