The Amish people, known for their resourcefulness and ability to make the most out of what they have, showed true resilience during the challenging times of the Great Depression.
When things were really tough for everyone, the Amish folks had their own way of dealing with the struggle to get enough food.
They didn’t just get by; they showed how clever they were in cooking and figuring out ways to make meals without electricity.
Here are 10 cheap, yet highly nutritious foods that sustained the Amish during this trying period.
Scrapple
Derived from a thrifty use of pork scraps and cornmeal, scrapple was a mainstay for the Amish.
Boiling the leftover pork bits, they combined the cooked meat with cornmeal and spices. The mixture was then molded into a loaf, sliced, and fried. Served alongside eggs and toast, it provided a full breakfast.
Souse
Utilizing less prime cuts of pork, souse featured pig’s feet or various pork parts. Boiling the meat in a vinegar-based broth seasoned with spices, the Amish then allowed it to cool and set.
Served cold with pickled vegetables, souse became a flavorful and preserved protein source.
Dandelion Greens
Harvested from the wild, dandelion greens were a nutrient-rich addition to the Amish diet. They were either used in salads or sautéed with basic seasonings. The greens provided a cost-effective and healthful alternative during times of scarcity. Learn here about another wild edible, a ‘superweed’ that helped large communities survive the Great Depression.
Pickled Beets
Preserving surplus beets involved boiling them and then immersing them in a sweet and tangy pickling mixture of vinegar, sugar, and spices.
The pickled beets could be stored for an extended period, offering a versatile side dish or flavor-enhancer for sandwiches and salads.
Head Cheese
To create head cheese, the Amish boiled the head of a pig until the meat was tender. The cooked meat was then mixed with broth, set to cool and solidify.
Served with crackers or bread, head cheese showcased the Amish’s aptitude for utilizing unconventional ingredients.
Scalloped Corn
Scalloped corn, a beloved Amish dish, involved combining sweet corn with eggs, milk, butter, and flour. The mixture was then baked in the oven until it formed a golden crust.
Many Amish families have passed down this recipe for generations and continue to enjoy it as a staple dish in their community.
Related: 7 Amish ‘Powers’ You Should Master Before The Next Crisis
Chipped Beef Gravy
Chipped beef gravy was prepared by rehydrating dried beef and incorporating it into a roux-based gravy.
The Amish often served this savory dish over toast or mashed potatoes, transforming an affordable cut of meat into a substantial and flavorful meal.
Molasses Pie
Molasses pie, a simple dessert, was crafted by combining molasses, flour, sugar, and spices. The mixture was then poured into a pie crust and baked until set.
Served with a dollop of whipped cream, molasses pie offered a sweet indulgence with minimal ingredients.
Chow Chow
Chow chow was made by combining vegetables such as cabbage, onions, and peppers. The mixture was then pickled in a vinegar-based solution.
Versatile in its applications, chow chow served as a tangy side dish or a zesty addition to sandwiches.
Cornmeal Mush
Cornmeal mush, a breakfast porridge, was prepared by boiling cornmeal and water until it thickened. The solidified mixture was sliced and fried, often served with syrup or gravy for breakfast.
This dish reflected the Amish commitment to sustaining themselves with basic ingredients.
The Amish people’s culinary journey during the Great Depression wasn’t just about the dishes they crafted but also the ingenious methods they employed to prepare meals without the luxury of electricity.
In a world where convenience was scarce, the Amish embraced time-honored techniques like haybox cooking, where insulation was used to keep food warm after an initial heating on a stove or fire. Mason jar cooking became another practical approach, involving the cooking of food in jars submerged in boiling water.
However, the most cost-effective and efficient method that aligned seamlessly with their frugal lifestyle was solar cooking. The Amish utilized this method to cook and preserve their foods.
These methods continue to be used in many Amish households today as a way to preserve their cultural heritage and maintain a connection to their past. They are a testament to the Amish way of life and their ability to thrive even in difficult times.
This article was first published on Self-Sufficient Projects.
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Food diets are the interesting issues we have in a contentious current society. There people who believe in cultural and or religious feelings than actual concrete facts of eating meat or vegetables or a combination thereof.
I did not grow up in an Amish style foods, did grow up in an average meatloaf, potato and vegetable culture of the Midwest.
Have been to countries overseas and tasted their prepared foods. I still prefer the foods grew up on. Tried doing a vegetarian diet, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
Consuming food is a personal choice, don’t believe indoctrinated groups or individuals should tell or force people to eat their way and shame people for not towing their line of diet. Back a few decades there were vegans shaming people for eating meat as they are doing today.
The United Nations, that should not get anymore money and kicked off of American soil as a corrupt organization. Not friendly to American gun owners Second Amendment, they are trying to corrupt our American Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence.
The UN is attacking America and parts of the Western world to consume insects, why?
Do these UN globalist really think people want to eat parasite infected bugs or insects as the replacement in our food diets?
Do these globalist follow these same rules mandated for us Americans?
Will those globalist give up their Surf and Turf dinners too?
Why are we being indoctrinated to eat insects?
Is this another test of gullibility like the Covid mask wearing and mandated lockdowns we experienced?
We can agree to disagree and I like to continue to eat the way I want to and not what some organization wants us to do.
Then please read the labels of all your foods. Global manufacturers are already putting bugs in foods. Start in the kids yogurt area.
Those foreign and domestic manufacturers are also using GMO ingredients and the new buzzword made with “Bioengineered ingredients.”
Is this considered a form of debilitating health issues?
Like the Covid vaccines have caused us health problems?
Now the military is asking those fired military personnel to back, with an apology for the forced Covid shot.
It seems more out in the open bioengineering food stuffs are being forced on us consumers more and more since the great Covid Reset.
Maybe decades ago the truth in food ingredients labeling was not concerned with what the public consumer was aware of.
Just like the world isn’t any better or worse then it was before the internet and the smartphone or the 24/7 news.
We are getting bombarded with more news and garbage these days and people choose what they listen to.
For those who remember the days before the 911 Attack and the Patriot Act, our nation was in a better condition, now we have the woke indoctrination generations who hate America.
Making your own yogurt is VERY easy. And it tastes SOOOOO much better.
Amen! That’s a bullseye if I’ve ever seen one. This country from our corrupt government to foreign corrupt governments and agencies are taking a toll on our God given rights.
I’ll do it, right after John Kerry eats some night crawlers and sow bugs.
That would be akin to cannibalism
…or gives up his personal jets and travels to Europe to spew his lies in a row boat under his own power.
Would you mind getting John (“Silver Star/Bronze Star”) Kerry’s secret recipe for those nightcrawlers, please… as well as the sauce that he uses?
I like food just as much as the next person, just keep politics out of what I want to eat.
Off topic,
What is with the Bidenomics administration undermining our sovereign nation. Open borders letting diseased people and terrorist into our country?
I am tied of religion and politics as we see these getting us more divided each day in this woke BS society we are passing through.
Biden is described as a “half-breed.” Half a globalist and half a Manchurian Candidate, plus a continuing liar.
The Lone Stranger is Kee Mo Sah Bee China Joe and his trusted sick kick cackling hen Harris.
Together they ride the green energy climate change wave of bringing prosperity to all Americans in Bidenomics of fun and riches to the elite who profit by political bribes from everywhere.
All hail the chief goof is here to give America away to the world by open borders. Letting in Chinese nationals to roam to the Chinese American owned farmlands close proximity to our military bases.
Continue to let in military age males of unknown, Unvetted potential terror groups. Which include the radical Muslims who riot on campuses and the city streets.
Next new president must purge all UN-Americans like the Mexican drug cartels and their sister group MS13.
We need Dirty Harry, Organized Retail Crime Task Force, Walker Texas Ranger, kick butt force of one. Defund George Soros and son’s crooked DA’s giving criminals a revolving crime door.
Time purge the criminals back to prison and let us eat our food in peace, to each his/her own way.
Won’t happen
Behind puppet Joe is barrack obummer the puppet master/antichrist.
… are you sure you’re not giving “liars” a bad name…?
I do believe that you are mistaken about Souse and HeadCheese, being 2 different meals. Here in the south, they are used interchangeably. They are made with anything left over, cut into small pieces or coarsely ground. The pigs feet are essential for the gelatin responsible for the “set-up” and ability to “slice”. I can’t get over the looks of it to be able to eat it. I guess if I was starving…
Is headcheese the same as eating cow brains, which some people can get Mad Cow disease from, no thank you?
Head cheese uses the meat on the head. It’s removed from the scull and cubed and cooled in the liquid it was cooked it. It naturally jells as it cools. Grandma didn’t use brains in her headcheese. Mom was born in Bucks Country, PA. Cousins in one family line were Amish. I like some things on your list and others not so much. The corn is great but I mix up what would be a small batch of cornbread and stir in 2 cups whole kernel corn or one can of corn – juice included and a can of cream corn. Bake till lightly browned. It’s an awesome corn casserole. Some French fried onions stirred in or some crumbled bacon make it special.
its like the meat from a turkey neck…..
I use the turkey neck to make the gravy!
It wasn’t just souse and head cheese and scrapple… this was in addition to the regular meat and vegetables and grain that they were harvesting, to stretch their resources.
Thank God, I haven’t ever been desperate enough to eat stuff like that. I’ve eaten most wild game that I can imagine, the meat and even kidney and liver and heart, but this is off the rails for me. I have tried, I really have, but I just can’t do it. One close look at souse meat in the store and I’m trying to identify which part of the organism I’m looking at. The tipping point for me was something that looked like an eyelid or a trachea/esophagus. I might take some parts like bones and stew them to get nutrients out of them, but the other stuff is going to be fed to the dogs or the compost pile.
I am not a scrapple, souse, or head cheese fan. I have, however had jowl bacon that was mighty tasty.
My dad would eat pickled pigs feet and loved them. He also ate lamb tongue. I couldn’t get past knowing what they were to try them.
That said, if I have the whole animal to use, I do my best to use it all. Even if I’m not wanting to eat head cheese, I have pets who are glad to do so.
My ex-wife was born in Cuba and lived there until she was 10. She remembers clearly eating all manner of things many Americans would consider odd. Cow’s tongue, cow stomach (tripe), head cheese, and more. It was eat them or starve. She still eats some weird stuff. Also, she was so hungry once she ate some plants beside a road and ended up poisoning herself. Communism is such a wonderful thing ain’t it (note the sarcasm).
My father, a Great Depression kid, would eat anything. I never saw any food that he would turn down. He also, willingly, ate beef tongue, tripe, etc. He’d even eat things that would try to kill him, he just killed them first. Funny though, after he got back from WWII, he no longer enjoyed hunting with a rifle. Bow hunting, yes. Using a rifle wasn’t sporting to him anymore. He said he’d rifle hunt if the family needed the meat, but we never did.
My Mom made pickled pig’s feet in gelatin from time to time, and all of us added some (apple cider) vinegar as a garnish. I’m not exactly where my family came from in Eastern Europe (besides Poland and possibly Austria & Russia), but maybe I’ll satisfy my curiosity and get the DNA tests.
Great Article
I think that when your hungry you eat what ever you can get , prepare any why which is eatable and are happy just to have a meal
During the last depression it was limited , the one coming up will be like that only on a grand scale , with mass starvation created on purpose for control and lock up, lock down , and take over .
Wars , rumers of wars , then the end shall , like a thief in the nite , all will be like the days of past , sodom, gomorrah , noah
Eating , Drinking, Marrying , Right in the eyes of the beholder , as the individual sees fit
God Never Changes, Always the same , and Always fulfills prophecy
I used to believe we would have a chance to save the world , planet , enviornment
But Now , Corruption, Greed, Lust , Perversion has destroyed the future and now They get rid of God, Ten commandments , and any Restraint , holding mankind back
Good Luck with out God , there is NO Hope , Mankind will Destroy himself, herself, themselves
and lie to each other to feel good about what they do .
I believe your full of beans, real hogwash advice.
The religious fearmonger of this prepper site.
Which bible version do you use?
Go for it my sun.
Then change sites.
Sharon,
Christopher – He, she, or AI, cannot spell correctly and the comas are spaced incorrectly. He sounds like a broken record of ambiguity.
You all gather around the kook, because he uses religion intertwined into rehashed retread musings, you all support him.
Maybe you all need to reexamine your priories of what you think spouting out religious eclectic VERBIAGE is all about. Maybe this guy is related to the website owner or the monitor of the website, just saying. Most of the trolls have moved on to other websites.
Have any of you broadened your horizons to read the Torah and the Koran?
Going to church and reading the bible does not guarantee any of us are going to haven anytime soon. That is a fact as explained by Jesus Christ in the bible in many of his teachings.
Actions speak louder than soapbox preaching.
Agreed. Actions will speak louder than words. God bless America and people of good will.
believe you’re right……
I haven’t had chipped beef on toast for too long, comfort food. Remember chicken a’la king on toast, that was good too.
My kids loved ground beef in cream gravy over biscuits or toast. Make it the same as chipped beef and gravy…. Sh.. on a shingle – it was popular during the years of rationing durning WWII.
I’m not That old but my parents lived through 2 world wars and the Great Depression.
Molasses, buttermilk ect made good simple pies.
Chipped beef on toast, we called it SOS “Shit on a shingle”
Molasses pie is also known as shoo fly pie, which I make all the time.
Amish? This is the same stuff i grew up eating deep in a holler in KY.
there were(are) Amish in KY too…..my grandparents came from PA Amish, I grew up around Amish farms, people, it was so great! wish I’d stayed and learned more from them!!!
I live in Ohio now and we have a large Amish population. I frequent one family’s business quite often just for the strawberry rhubarb pie. Also being a blacksmith by trade the Amish are my go to for hard to find tools and equipment.
I grew up in Western Washington on a 10 acre farm. My folks were not Amish, but believed in using every part of the animals they raised, all the aforementioned as well as the tongue! Yuck! But they also grew a huge garden, milked cows, made cheese and butter, baked bread etc. Mom often traded butter and eggs for sugar& flour at the corner grocer.wore dresses she made from flour& feed sacks. We sometimes had pap for supper. As near as I can guess, it was made with
cornstarch & milk. We ate it with thick cream and brown sugar. I don’t recall ever having spaghetti but sometimes had macaroni with home canned tomatoes, had bean soup EVERY Thursday! But in spite of bounty, my mother was as frugal as the Amish, and rarely used spices, either!
I agree with all of the above. What I’m even more worried about are the children, and I don’t even have small ones. If anyone has not viewed it, I’d encourage them to watch the Christian movie, “God is ‘NOT’ Dead,” the third one in the series, subtitled, (We The People.). Regardless of your religion, special interests or even the age of children in your life, it will send chills down your spine.
God can’t be dead, he, she created the universe, haven and earth.
There are other worlds and universes he has made. Earthly humans are closed minded to think we are the only planet and people alive in this universe. God is both male and female, that is a perfect energy of say holy pure light.
We have been taught by organized religions here on earth what the higher levels of religion want us to know.
What is the truth, as there are many translations, versions of the bible. The Torah and Koran too have been written by the hands of man by their agendas for control of the worlds populations.
What did God actually say to the ancients whose writings we have followed in our modern world?
Why is the Vatican library restricted to the public and only to the vetted scholars for research?
Why are other religions restricting public access to their precious manuscripts, what are they all hiding from us?
Thoughtful comment, even thought I am a Christian and am concerned about the origin of Islam and how it has been employed throughout the last 14 centuries. I am also well aware of the European wars and threadbare rationale used for Imperialism before the 20th century, never the less.
I wish more people of genuine concern could come together and have honest discussions about freedom as it evolved under the only document to accept Judeo-Christian concepts upon which the Constitution of the United States (and the Bill of Rights) are based – the latter two seem to have been a major “drawing card” for many people for over two hundred and forty years.
Sadly, the thing attracting too many people to cross our borders (aside from criminals and terrorists) is our Welfare System.
I grew up in Central PA, and lived in Lancaster County a short-time. Loved the Amish food made by my neighbor. He and his wife had a dairy farm. Green thumbs all of them. He used to let me get raw fresh milk from his tank for a cheap price. Shoo fly pies, yummy!! I’ve had all the dishes you mentioned in the Central PA area, lots of PA Dutch cooking as well. Thanks for the reminder. Living in the Philippines now, new kind of foods here. They also use some techniques to preserve foods without refrig.
Snitz un Knepp!!! sauerkraut, fried apples, buttermilk pie, sand tart cookies, raisin filled cookies, POTPIE (not marie callenders either) homemade from scratch! yummmmm can remember my grandmother cooking it on her stove; remember her canning pickled beets/eggs, and all the other good things she canned and stored in her cellar….those were the days!
I am intrigued by the notion of cooking in Mason jars. Not so much in boiling water but rather in pressurized cooker. Makes sense to prepare several days of meals when no refrigerator is available. Also, reuse of canning lids is likely to be mandatory once supplies are gone. Buy salt, vinegar, sugar, and spices while you can. Dogs are such a good asset to a peppers and will eat what we won’t. Cellar is full of quart and pint canning jars from yard sales. Pressure cookers work good on an open fire.
That is good to know about the pressure cookers on an open fire. I had wondered about that.
I agree,
If you do not like what people put on this site,
No one is forcing you to read it.
Close out of it,
Trying to disrupt our freedom of speech.
This is our country,
If you do not like it,
Will help you pack.