5.

The Amish Kitchen

Three main types of cookstoves are used by the Amish. The most conservative groups and others who have easy access to wood still favor wood-burning stoves. Kerosene stoves, usually called oil stoves, also are widely used, while propane (bottled gas) stoves have been accepted in a number of Amish communities.

Wood-Burning Cookstoves

No group of Amish currently makes use of open fireplaces for cooking. A few “Nebraska,” or “White-Top,” Amish of central Pennsylvania (so named for their founder’s place of origin and the color of their buggies) use old-fashioned bake ovens. These are especially popular when large amounts of baked goods are needed for church services or weddings. Bake ovens are made of brick or stone and are usually located in separate small buildings.

These ovens were typical of other Pennsylvania Germans until the early part of the 20th century. The Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, used bake ovens as late as the 1930s.

Iron cookstoves were very rare in the general society before the 1830s or 40s. Before this time almost all cooking was done in open fireplaces. Iron heating stoves had developed before the 19th century, but these were rarely used for food preparation.

The change from fireplaces to cookstoves took place very gradually, but was nearly complete by 1880. The Amish seem to have followed the general trend.

Wood-burning cookstoves (left) are still common in many Amish communities. Kettle stoves (right) are used for many purposes including heating water for washing clothes. Here, apple butter is being made in a very large kettle.

Several North American and European companies still make wood-burning cookstoves. A number of types are used by the Amish.

In the 1970s two Amish brothers from Aylmer, Ontario, Elmo and Mark Stoll, decided to design a cookstove that was more fuel efficient and easier to use than available models. The two men wanted to utilize the downdraft system that was typical of heating stoves but not found in any cookstoves. They thought a stove should be airtight so that heat would not escape up the flue unnecessarily, and that a larger oven should be provided. In addition, the brothers wished for a firebox that would hold enough wood to burn through the night.

Elmo and Mark studied the pros and cons of available cookstoves and incorporated the best features into a design of their own. The result was the Pioneer Maid stove, which first appeared in 1979. These plain, black stoves are manufactured at an Amish shop in Aylmer and are very popular in many Amish communities.

In some areas where wood is not plentiful, coal-burning cookstoves are used. These work basically the same as a wood stove but have a firebrick lining which is capable of handling the more intense heat of coal.

Kerosene-Burning Stoves

Kerosene and gasoline stoves became available in the 1860s, following the development of the petroleum industry. Kerosene-burning stoves are popular in many Amish communities. Some families use them for all their cooking, others in addition to a wood-burning stove. Many people prefer to use a kerosene stove in the summer and a wood stove in the winter. This is because of the greater heat generated by a wood stove. Often the kerosene stove is located in the “summer kitchen,” which may be in a basement or semi-attached room.

“Oil” stoves (which burn kerosene) are used in addition to wood stoves by some Amish. Others use them as the sole cooking range.

The Amish prefer the Perfection brand of kerosene wick-type stove. These were made in Cleveland, Ohio, until about 1960. Because of decreased demand in the United States, the manufacture of these stoves was shifted to the South American nation of Colombia. The Amish purchased some of these South American-made stoves until production there was discontinued about 10 years later.

Propane gas is used for cooking, refrigeration, space heating, and heating water in several large Amish communities.

Rebuilt Perfection stoves and stove parts remain available from Lehman’s Hardware of Kidron, Ohio, and several Amish-owned businesses. In addition, the D. L. Schwartz Company of northern Indiana makes kerosene stoves of a similar design exclusively for the Amish market.

Cooking with Gas

In several large Amish communities, bottled gas is allowed. In Lancaster County, the Amish have been using this fuel since the 1950s. Amish who are permitted to use bottled gas cook on gas ranges like those used by non-Amish people.

The current variety of bottled gas, also known as propane or liquefied petroleum gas (LP), was developed in 1912 but did not become widely available until the 1930s. An earlier and much more expensive type of bottled gas, called Blaugas, had been used by wealthy rural people since the early 1900s.

In areas such as Ohio, Kansas, and Illinois, natural gas is sometimes used. Some groups view the presence of gas deposits on an Amish farm as providential, while others see it as a temptation. In certain Amish groups, only members who have a well on their own land are permitted to use natural gas. In the most conservative groups it may not be used at all, regardless of its source.

Coleman camp stoves are preferred in summer in many Amish kitchens, when the extra heat from a wood stove is not needed.

In LaGrange County, Indiana, and Holmes County, Ohio, some Amish use gas stoves converted to a gasoline pressure system. These stoves operate on the same principle as models that were built in the 1930s, as well as small Coleman camp stoves that are still being manufactured. In many Amish communities, the Coleman models find wide use as auxiliary stoves.

If a farm is blessed with a spring, the cold, flowing water may be used to keep food cool.

Refrigeration

The most conservative Amish groups use only natural refrigeration for food items. In cold weather, setting perishables outside or in unheated parts of the house suffices. In warm weather, cellars and wells provide a limited cooling effect. The underground temperature stays at the annual above-ground average. This varies somewhat according to region; in eastern Pennsy-lvania it is about 54 degrees Fahrenheit.

If a farm is fortunate enough to have a spring on its premises, the natural chill of the flowing water is used to preserve food. A small stone or brick building is built over the spring, or the house is constructed so that the spring is in the basement. The water is routed through cement compartments and channels where food containers are placed.

Water pumped from wells or cisterns is used for cooling in much the same way. Sometimes food is simply placed in buckets of water to cool.

Ice Refrigeration

Ice is used for refrigeration in a number of Amish communities. Some Amish in northern areas, such as Iowa, Wisconsin, and Ontario, still obtain ice from ponds and lakes. Ice harvesting is a community effort in which many men gather to cut out large blocks with special motorized saws and hand saws. Ice is stored in specially-insulated ice houses.

This modern-looking refrigerator in Geauga County, Ohio, has been stripped of its electrical apparatus and converted to an ice box. Old-style ice boxes and ice chests are still found in some of the most conservative Amish communities.

The use of ice for refrigeration did not become popular in North America until the 1830s. About this time an invention appeared that made it possible to cut ice into neat blocks by means of a horse-drawn device. The use of ice increased very rapidly through the rest of the century.

Between 1860 and 1910, natural ice was gradually replaced by manufactured ice. But ice refrigeration remained widespread until the end of World War II. Nearly one-third of all U.S. households still used ice boxes in 1944, despite the availability of electricity and mechanical refrigeration.

Ice Delivery

Although the ice man was a familiar figure for the first half of the 20th century, the occupation became nearly extinct in the 1950s. But rural ice delivery survives in several Amish communities. There is an active ice route in Geauga County, Ohio, where the Amish use ice boxes as the primary means of refrigeration. Ice delivery also remains available to the minority of Amish in Holmes County who still use ice refrigeration, and to members of several smaller communities.

In some areas the Amish must pick up their own ice from vendors. This is the case in Adams County, Indiana.

Many of the Amish who use ice for refrigeration still have the old-style ice boxes and ice chests. Now that these are no longer manufactured, some Amish have resorted to converting electric refrigerators to ice boxes. The ice blocks are placed in the redesigned freezer compartment.

Non-Electric Mechanical Refrigerators

A large percentage of Amish districts permit non-electric mechanical refrigerators. These operate on the absorption system by which a kerosene or propane flame cools a compartment through evaporation and condensation.

This gasoline-powered saw is used to cut ice blocks from ponds in Buchanan County, Iowa.

Such refrigerators appeared first in Sweden in 1922 and were being made in the United States by 1925. The largest manufacturer was the Servel Company, which produced gas refrigerators from 1926 to 1956.

The Swedish-based Domestic Company and the Swiss-based Sibir Company have U.S. plants that still produce absorption refrigerators. Both firms sell both propane and kerosene models.

In North America, gas refrigerators are made primarily for use in recreational vehicles and hotel rooms. Some Amish people are displeased with the small size of these appliances.

In Mifflin and Somerset counties in Pennsylvania, some Amish families connect refrigeration coils from their milk cooling systems to home refrigerators and coolers. In Lancaster County, food coolers refrigerated in this way are used as an auxiliary to gas refrigerators.

A gas refrigerator and range are found in this Lancaster Amish kitchen. The wood stove is used only in cold weather.

Frozen Food Lockers

Even in a full-sized gas or kerosene refrigerator, the freezing compartment offers little space to store frozen food. A few Amish keep such items in a gas or kerosene freezer. Others rent space in the frozen food lockers operated in some small towns and rural areas, often by grocery stores.

Lockers of this sort used to be quite common, but now are rare except in Amish areas. The practice of renting out space in large, commercially-owned freezers began in the 1930s and was quite popular until the 1950s, when home freezers made this service largely unnecessary.

Most Amish people neither own freezers nor rent locker space. Instead, they simply do without frozen foods, as all people did in the not-so-distant past.

These Amish rely on home-canned food. Their pantries and cellars are filled with hundreds of glass jars containing many kinds of fruit and vegetables. Even meat, such as beef, chicken, and sausage, are stored in this way.

Other Kitchen Appliances

Most of the smaller appliances found in modern kitchens are noticeably absent among the Amish. Electric-powered items, such as toasters, toaster ovens, mixers, blenders, coffee makers, food processors, electric knives, electric can openers, electric frying pans, crock pots, dishwashers, garbage disposals, and microwave ovens, cannot be used by Amish people. The Amish simply use tools and methods common in the pre-electric era.

The Lancaster County Amish have found that some kitchen tools can be converted to run on compressed air, rather than electricity. (Shop tools can also be powered this way. See Chapters 24 and 25). Air-operated “kitchen centers” are especially popular. These appliances can be used as mixers, blenders, food grinders, slicers, shredders, salad-makers, or dough-makers.