Traditional Recipes Near Gettysburg

By Amy DeVries

I have written a cookbook to share my family's recipes and to encourage you to eat the fresh, seasonal foods of Gettysburg and the mid-Atlantic area. These recipes have been passed down through the generations.

I walk you through the steps for making everything from bone broth to scrapple to strawberry rhubarb pie. For the homemade pumpkin pie recipe, I explain how to cook a whole pumpkin and make homemade pie crusts using lard. For roast turkey with giblet gravy, I tell you how to reuse the bones and make soup stock. I even describe home butchering and how to use the whole hog, such as stuffing the stomach to make hogmaw and using the intestines for sausage casing!

Ok, so maybe you're not into lard and gizzards, but I also explain how to use wild edibles, and I share the menu from President Lincoln's 1865 Inauguration. There are plenty of grain-free and gluten-free recipes included, and it is all low sugar. I'm sure you'll find something interesting in this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amy DeVries
• Release date: Nov 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465847218

Amy DeVries

My passion is traditional arts. I love bringing them into the modern era via websites and ebooks. I hope you enjoy my work, and I'd love to hear from you!

Book preview

I have been planning to write this recipe book for several years. It brings together several of my interests and hobbies. I am delighted to share them with you. I hope you will embrace the opportunity to learn more about food and the mid-Atlantic region, in addition to a little of my family history.

There are some traditional recipes included in this collection that have been passed down over the generations. I really enjoy studying history; however, as you learn about authentic historical recipes you will discover why this is not a historical book intended for academics. It is my goal to share recipes that are practical and useful for those living in the greater Gettysburg or mid-Atlantic area or for those participating in reenactments.

History and Heritage

My ancestry in central Maryland goes back to the 1600s. I lived in the area until my late-20s and still visit often to see family and friends. I grew up familiar with local foods and eating from our home garden, which was quite large. I know for a fact how great real, fresh food tastes!

I have researched my family genealogy extensively. Our ethnicity is very early German and English settlers, maybe some French, with the most recent Germans coming over around the 1860s. At the time, it was not called Germany, but there were independent states called Prussia, Bavaria, Darmstadt, etc.

Our early German and English ancestors were living in this area before the Revolutionary War, before the Mason-Dixon line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767, and long before Carroll County was established in 1837 using part of Frederick County and part of Baltimore County. As the expression goes, we are older than the hills, but we haven't been inhabiting the area quite that long --- the Native Americans were there first.

Carroll County, Maryland is located to the south of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania across the Mason-Dixon line. It is northwest of Baltimore City, as you can see on my hand drawn map, which is not to scale, but it does show approximately where things are in relation to each other. I have also highlighted the main areas for ancestors on my mom's side and dad's side, although my mom's side moved around more than would be practical to totally illustrate. The pink area near the top is where the Legore family lived during the Civil War and met troops passing to and from Gettysburg.

On my dad's side, my family has lived in the same little area for several generations. My dad and grandmother were proud to tell me how things used to be done and frequently showed me original artifacts. There were photos and stories to help make it all more real.

This photo, taken in Gettysburg in the late 1920s, shows from left to right: Grace and her husband Howard Harpel with daughter Eleanor (born 1923) standing, daughter Agnes (born 1922) sitting and holding her head, Grace's sister Blanche Slorp, and cousin Gussie Yokle.

Traditional Foods

I value traditional cooking and believe that it holds greater nutritional value than modern industry-influenced methods. I have studied the work of Dr. Price, and I am active in the Weston A. Price Foundation. For centuries, people understood the value of real foods and animal fats. It was not until the 20th century that industry-funded science started spreading lies.

I believe it all comes down to this fundamental perspective: Do you believe that foods are good as they were created/evolved or do you believe that man can do better through food science, engineering, and manufacturing? My answer is that the human mind is too narrow to know everything or reach perfection. Hubris is an ancient sin.

There is a present day interest in taking back control of our own food supply and eating foods that are local, fresh, and in season. It is time to get back in tune with the rhythms of nature and the world around us. By eating local, you are avoiding all the petroleum used in shipping. And food tastes better when it is fresh and picked when ripe!

What's Missing?

This collection focuses on local and seasonal foods. It also keeps the Civil War era in mind. That is why there are no rice or pasta dishes, and there are some ingredients that are not found in general supermarkets.

You might be surprised that there are no cookie and cake recipes in here. My historical role playing excuse is that I am an abolitionist and refuse to support the slave labor that goes into producing refined cane sugar. My modern excuse is that it is bad for your health and we don't need to pass on traditions of diabetes and obesity which are becoming so widespread.

I have included some special pie recipes and ice cream because they are extra special and you need something for special occasions, right?

My ancestors felt that the holiday season was a very special occasion and they used to go visit friends and family or have others visit them just about every night for weeks. To prepare for this, they made large tins full of all kinds of cookies, cakes, and baked goods. These used some special ingredients like nuts, dried currants, figs, and spices, but there was also a lot of flour, sugar, and molasses.

I can remember going to reunions with my maternal grandmother's Legore cousins, and there was an entire table packed full of all kinds of homemade sweets, just as big, if not bigger than, the table full of homemade main dishes and side dishes. I suspect most of those were post-World War II recipes, so they should not be in this recipe collection anyway. Even my paternal grandmother Agnes' gingerbread cookies, which are the old-fashioned cookies my cousins and I remember with nostalgia originate from a 1950s recipe publication that she showed me.

It is time to let go of the extra sweets and return to the fresh seasonal foods that will keep us healthy.

Using These Recipes

The recipes are listed by the suggested season for when the foods were most likely eaten. During the Civil War, people ate more locally and in season than in the present day because of limited transportation. There were shipments into Gettysburg by rail, but obviously there wasn't much coming from the South, and the West was still wild. International goods could be shipped by boat into Philadelphia or Baltimore, but this took several months.

Traditional recipes and expert chefs do not rely heavily on knowing exact recipe measurements. I have given measurements, but you are free to experiment and adapt to your ingredients and to serve however many people you have

Also, people used to cook by woodstove. How do you figure out the temperature settings for that? You don't. They learned what signs to look for, just as you learn what to look for in a boiling pot.

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