Mabel and the Mennonites

One of my favorite presents this year did not come from a store; instead, it came from my ever-classy Great Aunt Carmon, who makes the most beautiful cakes I've seen in person.

After reading my blog for a few months, Aunt Carmon decided that I might like a cookbook that her aunt gave her years ago. She wrapped it elegantly and gave it to me for Christmas.

I've never met my great (great?) Aunt Mabel, but my mother and grandmother tell me she was neither a domestic diva nor a reverent lady.

"She just lived in a town with a large Mennonite population," mom dished when I unwrapped the book Christmas afternoon. "Mabel did what she wanted. And she was not a church kind of lady." (This comment was followed by affirming nods all over the room, as if Aunt Mabel had been a burlesque dancer or a tattoo artist.) Whatever Mabel was (or wasn't), she left behind a great book, full of Kansas history, anecdotes, and, oh yeah, recipes. Behold! The Melting Pot of Mennonite!

Published by the Bethel College Women's Association
Newton, Kansas, 1974

Melting Pot of Mennonite Cookery features stories, recipes, and the history of Kansas Mennonites from each place mentioned on the cover - from Poland to Russia. I could read that book with as much zeal as the latest Gregory Maguire novel.

It includes folk treatments for common ailments (tobacco juice for ringworm, peppermint oil for upset stomach, onion juice for bee stings), recipes for granulated soap and wall paper paste, and advice on how to preserve a husband:

1. Be careful in your selection.
2. Do not choose too young.
3. When once selected, give your entire thought to preparation for domestic use.....
4. Wrap them in a mantle of charity, keep warm with a steady fire of domestic devotion, and serve with peaches and cream. Thus prepared, they will keep for years!

Of course, the recipes are the main attraction. Each group of Mennonites in Kansas had their own recipes for lebkuchen, rye bread, noodles, and applesauce. And each recipe variation comes with little asides. For example, next to the recipe for currant applesauce, which is essentially currants cooked with applesauce, is written, "simple, but different!" This book is a treasure trove of comfort cooking: bread pudding, sausages, potato pancakes, pies, cheeses of all kinds, and sauerkraut. Mmm. I'm ready to tuck in.

Next week, I want to tackle some of the more unique recipes, like vanilla sauce and corn cob syrup, but today, I started simple. With potatoes.

Fried Potatoes, verbatim from Melting Pot of Mennonite

Begin with raw potatoes.

Select 2 or 3 potatoes per person to be served. Peel. Drop into water to prevent discoloring. Slice very thin into a skillet that has 2 or 3 tbsp. of shortening heating. Season with salt and pepper.

Cover and fry over moderate fire, stirring occasionally, until potatoes are done. Some may be browned, but by keeping the cover on the skillet, the potatoes will become soft with a super flavor. Serve with spring onions and fried eggs.

Fried potatoes, the two-step process.

My notes:

I didn't have a skillet big enough for the whole job at once, so I kept the potato sliced in a pot of hot water and cooked in batches. When I finished one batch of potatoes, I slipped them onto an aluminum pie plate that I kept in the oven on warm.

For the "shortening," I used a good quality unsalted butter -- about 3 tbsp. for two gigantic baking potatoes. The butter, when kept on a medium-low heat, gives the potatoes such a rich, delicious flavor! Just don't burn the butter, please.

Also, I didn't season the potatoes until the very end of cooking, with a little pepper, some sea salt, and a few caraway seeds -- just a pinch or two of each spice.

My husband and I couldn't finish the potatoes between us, and we each only had one fried egg and some applesauce (and I had a smidge of cranberry sauce.) I have no idea how a person could consume "two or three potatoes per person" with fried eggs and onions. Mercy.

D'r Schaffmann is sei lu waert.

The laborer is worthy of his hire.