Culinary Arts Institute

Our copy (it was originally Mom's) is in shreds. We have used it since before I can remember, perhaps before I was born. The first recipe I ever made (except for peeling and slicing the cucumbers; I was about five years old) was Pressgurka (page 16). Also recommend the meatballs, deviled eggs, and the fishballs. The fishballs are similar to are recipe I found in my Scottish Grandmother's cookbook--they were, of course, catching the same fish from opposite sides of the North Sea!

This is a show more terrific cookbook, second only to Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook in our family. But we do have the 1955 edition, so it reflects an older style of Scandinavian cooking. For a more modern take, check out Scandinavian Feasts. show less

Pennsylvania Dutch cook book of fine old recipes, published in 1936 in Reading, Pennsylvania by The Culinary Arts Press, is a cookbook showcasing the cooking of the Pennsylvania Dutch homemaker. All of the expected recipes are there: from Schnitz un Knepp to chicken pot pie (the real recipe with noodles as well as the pie) to dandelion salad to shoo fly pie. My mother used many of the recipes and there are notations with the changes she made in recipes. And what a taste treat. My favorite show more was mojhy apples (a caramel coating over a whole apple). Be aware, however, that some recipes call for using uncooked eggs, which has been declared unsafe. (I'm sad that I can't make the delicious egg nog recipes I remember from long ago.) There is an index but it isn't really needed as the book groups like recipes together.

The book opens with the Pennsylvania Dutch poetry of William J. Meyer. Throughout the book, there are sayings and words in Pennsylfanishe Deitsch, English and High German. The accompanying illustrations are charming.

There is a reprint of an article on Berks County's Shartlesville Hotel first published in Esquire Magazine by F. Gregory Hartswick, "Meals served country style." If you've never experienced a real Pennsylvania Dutch smorgasbord, you need to read this article. The hotel has closed but there are still a few restaurants like this in Lancaster County.

If you like to eat well and want to cook delicious meals, this cookbook's for you. show less

Dad gave this to Mom as a Christmas gift a few months before they were married. Mom didn't know how to cook (her mother disliked having other people in the kitchen) and she needed a crash course.

Mom because an excellent cook, in part by studying this book. It is truly "encyclopedic" (as the title states), covering everything from how to boil water (page 8) to building your own root cellar (opp. page 832) to formal service for a dinner party (page 940).

I rarely give five-star ratings but show more this book deserves it. It was truly life changing. We call it "the bible." show less

This 1936 cookbook was "compiled from tried and tested recipes made famous and handed down by the early Dutch settlers in Pennsylvania."

The adaption of traditional German cuisine to local ingredients is evident in many of the recipes. Also interesting is the way the lack of refrigeration influenced the recipes, relying on freshly killed meat and a variety of preservation techniques.