The BEST Sourdough Bread You Will Ever Make... The Old Way, No Store Yeast @amishcooking

Amish Cooking 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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There is a kind of bread a person can make with nothing but flour, water, and salt. No packet of yeast bought from the store, nothing from a company at all, only those three plain things and the wild goodness already in the air and in the flour itself. It is the oldest bread there is, the bread folks made for thousands of years before ever there was such a thing as yeast in a little packet, and it is called sourdough. And I will tell you plainly, it is the finest bread you will ever put in your mouth, a loaf with a deep crackling crust, a tender open crumb, and a gentle tang no quick bread can match.
This one is special, and for a reason that goes to the very heart of how my people live. It is bread you can make forever without ever buying a thing from anyone. The store-bought yeast ties you to buying it again and again, and the day the shelf is bare you have no bread. But a sourdough starter, once you have it, is yours for life. You feed it a bit of flour and water and it lives on and on, for years, passed down even, mother to daughter, so that some families bake with a starter older than the grandmother who keeps it. That is not just bread. That is independence, the same as catching your own rainwater instead of buying it.
Now I will be plain, this is not a quick bread. It takes days, not hours, and it cannot be rushed. But almost none of that time is your work, only waiting, and the little work there is spreads out easy across the days.
Here is what you will learn:
✔ What a sourdough starter is and how to catch one from the air
✔ How to make a starter from scratch in about a week
✔ How to feed and keep it alive for years, and how to store it
✔ What to do when your starter looks or smells off
✔ How to build a lively levain the night before you bake
✔ Why this bread likes a wet dough for an open airy crumb
✔ The gentle stretch-and-fold method, so no hard kneading
✔ Why the long slow rise gives both the lift and the deep flavor
✔ The overnight cold rise that deepens the tang
✔ The cast iron Dutch oven trick for a crackling bakery crust
✔ How to score, bake dark, and why you must let it cool
You do not need store yeast and you do not need a bakery. You need flour, water, salt, a little cast iron, and patience. And once you cut into that deep crackling crust and find the tender open crumb inside, and taste that gentle tang, you will understand why folks have made this bread for thousands of years, and why a jar of living starter on your counter is one of the most independent things a kitchen can hold.
Now tell me something down in the comments. Did anyone in your family keep a sourdough starter, a crock of it kept alive for years, and do you remember the bread that came from it? And if you start one of your own from this video, come back and tell me how it lives. I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.
Next time I am going to show you another old thing made from almost nothing, the tender golden homemade egg noodles that turn a bowl of broth into a hearty supper, rolled and cut by hand from just flour and egg, and so far above the dry store noodle that you will never look at the box the same way again. If you have flour and you have eggs, you are only a little knowing away from the finest noodles you have ever eaten. Next time, the homemade noodle.
Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the oldest bread of all needs nothing from any store, only flour, water, salt, and a patient hand.

#sourdough #sourdoughbread #sourdoughstarter #breadbaking #artisanbread #homemadebread #nostoreyeast #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #frugalcooking #homestead #oldfashionedcooking #dutchovenbread #pennsylvaniadutch

updated 2 months ago

The BEST Sourdough Bread You Will Ever Make... The Old Way, No Store Yeast

Amish Cooking 2026-07-05 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

There is a kind of bread a person can make with nothing but flour, water, and salt. No packet of yeast bought from the store, nothing from a company at all, only those three plain things and the wild goodness already in the air and in the flour itself. It is the oldest bread there is, the bread folks made for thousands of years before ever there was such a thing as yeast in a little packet, and it is called sourdough. And I will tell you plainly, it is the finest bread you will ever put in your mouth, a loaf with a deep crackling crust, a tender open crumb, and a gentle tang no quick bread can match.
This one is special, and for a reason that goes to the very heart of how my people live. It is bread you can make forever without ever buying a thing from anyone. The store-bought yeast ties you to buying it again and again, and the day the shelf is bare you have no bread. But a sourdough starter, once you have it, is yours for life. You feed it a bit of flour and water and it lives on and on, for years, passed down even, mother to daughter, so that some families bake with a starter older than the grandmother who keeps it. That is not just bread. That is independence, the same as catching your own rainwater instead of buying it.
Now I will be plain, this is not a quick bread. It takes days, not hours, and it cannot be rushed. But almost none of that time is your work, only waiting, and the little work there is spreads out easy across the days.
Here is what you will learn:
✔ What a sourdough starter is and how to catch one from the air
✔ How to make a starter from scratch in about a week
✔ How to feed and keep it alive for years, and how to store it
✔ What to do when your starter looks or smells off
✔ How to build a lively levain the night before you bake
✔ Why this bread likes a wet dough for an open airy crumb
✔ The gentle stretch-and-fold method, so no hard kneading
✔ Why the long slow rise gives both the lift and the deep flavor
✔ The overnight cold rise that deepens the tang
✔ The cast iron Dutch oven trick for a crackling bakery crust
✔ How to score, bake dark, and why you must let it cool
You do not need store yeast and you do not need a bakery. You need flour, water, salt, a little cast iron, and patience. And once you cut into that deep crackling crust and find the tender open crumb inside, and taste that gentle tang, you will understand why folks have made this bread for thousands of years, and why a jar of living starter on your counter is one of the most independent things a kitchen can hold.
Now tell me something down in the comments. Did anyone in your family keep a sourdough starter, a crock of it kept alive for years, and do you remember the bread that came from it? And if you start one of your own from this video, come back and tell me how it lives. I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.
Next time I am going to show you another old thing made from almost nothing, the tender golden homemade egg noodles that turn a bowl of broth into a hearty supper, rolled and cut by hand from just flour and egg, and so far above the dry store noodle that you will never look at the box the same way again. If you have flour and you have eggs, you are only a little knowing away from the finest noodles you have ever eaten. Next time, the homemade noodle.
Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the oldest bread of all needs nothing from any store, only flour, water, salt, and a patient hand.

#sourdough #sourdoughbread #sourdoughstarter #breadbaking #artisanbread #homemadebread #nostoreyeast #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #frugalcooking #homestead #oldfashionedcooking #dutchovenbread #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Gingerbread — Dark, Moist & Packed With Molasses

Amish Cooking 2026-09-22 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the great old cozy bakes of the winter and the holidays, an old-fashioned gingerbread, a proper gingerbread cake, dark and moist and tender, deep with molasses and warmly spiced with ginger and cinnamon and clove, the very smell of it baking filling the house with the coziness of the season. This is not the hard little gingerbread men, but a soft, moist, rich cake, cut into squares and served warm, wonderful with a dollop of whipped cream, and it is one of the most comforting things you can bake on a cold day. And it is an old, old recipe, the kind handed down through families for generations.

Now, gingerbread is about as old-fashioned a bake as there is, the sort you find written in a great-grandmother's hand. Molasses was one of the old sweeteners, and ginger and spice were treasured, and together they make this dark, warm, spiced cake beloved of the winter and the holidays.

INGREDIENTS (one 9-inch cake)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses (a good dark molasses)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 to 2 teaspoons ground ginger (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup hot water

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why molasses is the dark heart and soul of a gingerbread
✔ Why you use a good dark molasses (deepest flavor)
✔ The creamed-butter-and-sugar method
✔ Why baking soda (it reacts with the acidic molasses)
✔ The warm spices, and why many bump them up bolder
✔ The ONE old trick: stir in hot water for a moist, tender crumb
✔ Why you must NOT overmix
✔ How to bake it until a tester comes clean
✔ Why it is best served WARM, with whipped cream or a lemon sauce
✔ How to fix a burnt top, dense, or dry gingerbread

You do not need a box mix. You need good molasses, flour, and spice. And once you cut a warm, fragrant square of this, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest sweetness for a cake comes not from a bag of white sugar but from real molasses and spice, baked in your own oven by your own hand, as it was for hundreds of years.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family have an old gingerbread recipe, handed down, and did they serve it warm with whipped cream, or a lemon sauce, or how? And is the smell of gingerbread baking, to you, one of the smells that means the holidays have come? I would dearly love to hear those old recipes and memories. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you a wonderful old thrifty dessert, a proper old-fashioned bread pudding, warm and rich and comforting, made from humble stale bread transformed into a sweet custardy pudding, a fine old way of wasting nothing. Next time, old-fashioned bread pudding.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest gingerbread there is comes not from a box mix but from real molasses and spice, baked in your own oven by your own hand.

#gingerbread #gingerbreadcake #gingerbreadrecipe #molasses #holidaybaking #oldfashionedgingerbread #christmasbaking #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #spicecake #winterbaking #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Green Beans & Bacon — Slow-Cooked and Savory

Amish Cooking 2026-09-22 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the great humble vegetable sides of the old table, green beans and bacon, tender green beans cooked slow and savory with a bit of good bacon and onion until they are rich and flavorful and coated in that smoky bacon goodness. It is a plain, simple, honest side dish, nothing fancy, and yet it is one of the most beloved, the kind of green beans that folks reach for at a holiday dinner or a Sunday supper and that make a humble vegetable into something you actually crave. And it is easy, done in a few minutes really, and made with things you have on hand.

Now, this uses that homemade bacon of yours, and for its grease too, and a thrifty old practice I want to teach you, saving your bacon grease in a jar, for it is liquid gold in the old kitchen and what makes these beans so good.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

1 lb green beans (fresh, frozen, or canned)
4 slices bacon, cut up (homemade is best)
1 tablespoon bacon grease (saved from a jar)
1/2 onion, chopped
Water, to cook the beans
Salt and pepper (go easy on the salt)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you save your bacon grease (liquid gold in the old kitchen)
✔ How the grease alone flavors them in lean times
✔ Why to brown a bit of onion in the grease first
✔ Why this works with any green beans (fresh, frozen, or canned)
✔ How to dress up even cheap canned beans
✔ The key to good beans: cook off the liquid so the bacon coats them
✔ Why you keep the seasoning simple (let the bean and bacon shine)
✔ Why you go easy on the salt (the bacon is salty)
✔ What to serve them beside (a holiday or Sunday dinner)
✔ How to fix watery, bland, or too-salty beans

You do not need a dressed-up package. You need green beans and a bit of bacon. And once you set these on the table, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest green beans there are come not from a dressed-up package but from plain beans and a bit of bacon, cooked savory in your own pan by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family cook their green beans with bacon, and did they save their bacon grease in a jar as the old folks did? And do you grow and can your own green beans, and what do you love to serve them beside? I would dearly love to hear those old ways. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another beloved side of the holiday table, proper old-fashioned candied sweet potatoes, sweet and tender sweet potatoes baked soft in a sweet glaze, the classic sweet side of the Thanksgiving and Christmas table. Next time, old-fashioned candied sweet potatoes.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest green beans there are come not from a dressed-up package but from plain beans and a bit of bacon, cooked savory in your own pan by your own hand.

#greenbeans #greenbeansandbacon #baconbeans #greenbeanrecipe #sidedish #holidaysides #southerngreenbeans #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #vegetablesides #thanksgivingsides #pennsylvaniadutch

The EASIEST Creamy Spinach Pasta — Ready in Just Minutes

Amish Cooking 2026-09-21 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today a quick, fresh, lovely supper, a creamy spinach pasta, tender pasta tossed in a smooth creamy sauce made with ricotta cheese, loaded with soft wilted spinach, garlic, and a bright touch of lemon, ready in well under half an hour from just a few simple things. It is creamy and comforting but also fresh and light, the ricotta making a sauce that is rich but not heavy, and it is a fine answer to a busy weeknight, and a good way, I will add, to get greens into folks, even children, who might turn up their noses at a plate of plain spinach.

Now, this came to us from Italy and became beloved home food, like my lasagna and my pizza. And let me set it apart from my alfredo, for they are different creatures. My alfredo is built on cream and butter, rich and heavy. This is built on ricotta cheese, a lighter, fresher, creamy sauce, loaded with spinach and brightened with lemon.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

8 oz pasta (penne or a short shape)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz spinach (fresh or frozen, thawed and squeezed dry)
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup grated parmesan (freshly grated)
Zest of 1 lemon (optional, for brightness)
Salt and plenty of black pepper
A cup of reserved pasta water

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you save a cup of the starchy pasta water (a trick for all pasta)
✔ How to wilt the spinach in garlicky oil (don't burn the garlic)
✔ Why ricotta makes a lighter, fresher creamy sauce than cream
✔ Why plenty of black pepper against the mild ricotta
✔ Why you grate your own parmesan for the best melt
✔ Why a bit of lemon zest lifts the rich sauce
✔ How to loosen the sauce silky with the pasta water
✔ A sly way to get the children to eat their greens
✔ How to make it your own (chicken, peas, other greens)
✔ How to fix a sauce too thick, too thin, or bland

You do not need a jar of sauce or a frozen tray. You need pasta, spinach, and a soft cheese. And once you toss up this fresh creamy pasta, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest creamy pasta there is comes not from a jar or a frozen box but from fresh pasta and greens and cheese, tossed together in your own pan by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Do you make quick pasta suppers like this on a busy night, and have you tried a ricotta sauce, lighter than a cream one? And do you grow your own spinach or greens, and have you a sly way of getting the children to eat their greens? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you a beloved sweet side of the holiday table, proper old-fashioned candied sweet potatoes, sweet and tender sweet potatoes baked soft in a sweet glaze, the classic sweet side of the Thanksgiving and Christmas table. Next time, old-fashioned candied sweet potatoes.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest creamy pasta there is comes not from a jar or a frozen box but from fresh pasta and greens and cheese, tossed together in your own pan by your own hand.

#creamyspinachpasta #spinachpasta #pastarecipe #ricottapasta #quickdinner #weeknightdinner #vegetarianpasta #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #easypasta #meatlessmeals #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Salisbury Steak — Tender Beef Patties in Rich Onion-Mushroom Gravy

Amish Cooking 2026-09-20 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today a supper that is pure comfort, an old-fashioned Salisbury steak, tender, savory patties of seasoned ground beef, browned and then simmered until tender in a rich brown gravy full of soft onions and mushrooms, spooned over mashed potatoes or noodles so all that good gravy soaks in. This is honest, hearty, warming comfort food of the best sort, and it is made from cheap, humble things, ground beef stretched and dressed up into something that eats like a fine meat-and-gravy supper.

Now, let me place this among my beef suppers. It is not my meatloaf, though kin, for a meatloaf is one big loaf baked in the oven, where this is individual patties cooked on the stovetop in gravy. And it is not my beef and onions in brown gravy, for that is chunks of cubed beef, where this is ground beef shaped into patties, a wholly different thing.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

For the patties:

1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (my dried breadcrumbs)
1 egg
1/4 cup onion, minced
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

For the onion-mushroom gravy:

2 tablespoons oil, for browning
1 onion, sliced
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups beef broth (homemade is best)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper

To serve: mashed potatoes or egg noodles

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why a binder (breadcrumbs and egg) keeps the patties tender
✔ Why you shape them into ovals (the "steak" shape)
✔ Why you brown the patties well first (flavor and the fond)
✔ How to build a rich brown onion-mushroom gravy from the fond
✔ Why you simmer the patties in the gravy to finish (tender and moist)
✔ The honest word on doneness (ground beef, cooked through, 160)
✔ What to serve it over (mashed potatoes, egg noodles)
✔ The old art of making a "steak" from cheap ground beef
✔ Why it is even better the next day
✔ How to fix dense patties, ones that fall apart, or a thin gravy

You do not need a frozen box or a boxed helper. You need ground beef, onions, and a bit of broth. And once you spoon these tender patties and gravy over your potatoes, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest Salisbury steak there is comes not from a frozen box but from ground beef and onions, shaped and simmered in gravy in your own pan by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make Salisbury steak, and did they do the mushrooms in the gravy, and did they serve it over mashed potatoes or noodles? And what is your favorite cheap comforting supper, the kind that feels hearty for humble means? I would dearly love to hear those comfort suppers. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you a beloved bake of the winter and the holidays, a proper old-fashioned gingerbread, dark and moist and warmly spiced with ginger and molasses, the cozy spiced cake of the cold season. Next time, old-fashioned gingerbread.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest Salisbury steak there is comes not from a frozen box but from ground beef and onions, shaped and simmered in gravy in your own pan by your own hand.

#salisburysteak #salisburysteakrecipe #groundbeef #comfortfood #beefrecipe #hamburgersteak #onionmushroomgravy #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #beefdinner #cheapmeals #pennsylvaniadutch

The SECRET to PERFECT Cranberry Orange Bread

Amish Cooking 2026-09-19 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today a bright and beautiful bake for the late autumn and the holidays, an old-fashioned cranberry bread, a moist tender loaf studded through with tart, ruby cranberries and brightened with orange, the tart-sweet berries bursting against the sweet tender crumb, and a sweet orange glaze drizzled over the top. It is the cheerful bread of the holiday season, the cranberry being the berry of the late fall and the Christmas table, and it is festive and pretty and delicious, wonderful with coffee of a cold morning and a lovely thing to give as a gift.

Now, this completes a little family of quick breads I have shown you, the banana, the zucchini, the pumpkin, and now this cranberry, all made the same simple stirred-together way, but this one is the bright, tart one of the bunch, and the one of the holidays. And the cranberry is at least a true native berry of this country, one of the few fruits native to North America.

INGREDIENTS (one loaf)

For the bread:

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries (plus 1/2 tablespoon flour to coat)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
Zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup orange juice + 1/4 cup milk

For the orange glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why fresh cranberries' tartness balances the sweet crumb
✔ Why you flour-coat the cranberries so they do not sink
✔ Why cranberry and orange are a match made in heaven
✔ Why you zest the orange BEFORE you juice it
✔ The simple stir-together quick-bread method
✔ Why you must NOT overmix (or the loaf turns tough)
✔ How to bake it until a tester comes clean, and cool before glazing
✔ The simple orange glaze (and why it is worth it)
✔ Why it makes such a lovely homemade gift
✔ How to fix sunken berries, a tough loaf, or a dry one

You do not need a bakery or a box. You need cranberries, orange, and a bit of flour and sugar. And once you slice this bright, glazed loaf, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest cranberry bread there is comes not from a bakery or a box but from your own oven, stirred together and baked by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family bake cranberry bread for the holidays, and did they do the orange with it, and is it, to you, one of the tastes of the season? And do you give homemade breads as gifts, for there are few nicer things to give or get? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another beloved bake of the season, a proper old-fashioned gingerbread, dark and moist and warmly spiced with ginger and molasses, the cozy spiced cake of the winter and the holidays. Next time, old-fashioned gingerbread.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest cranberry bread there is comes not from a bakery or a box but from your own oven, stirred together and baked by your own hand.

#cranberrybread #cranberryorangebread #cranberrybreadrecipe #quickbread #holidaybaking #cranberries #christmasbaking #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #baking #orangeglaze #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Pork Chops & Peppers — Juicy, Sweet & Tender

Amish Cooking 2026-09-18 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today a wonderful old bake, a proper honey cake, a moist, tender, fragrant cake sweetened not with white sugar but with real honey, that golden gift of the bees, which gives it a deep, warm, complex sweetness and a moistness that keeps for days. It is spiced gently with cinnamon and warm spices, golden brown and lovely, and it is one of the finest ways there is to show off good honey, to let that honey be the very heart and flavor of a cake. If you keep bees, or have a good honey, this is the cake to make with it.

Now, this pays off what I promised when we talked about honey, a fine thing to make with it, where the honey is the star. It is not my crumb coffee cake nor my quick breads, for those are sweetened with sugar and this with honey, and that honey makes it a wholly different, deeper, more fragrant cake. Honey cake is an old and traditional bake, made by many peoples for their feasts for centuries.

INGREDIENTS (one cake)

1 cup honey (a good flavorful honey), warmed
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or melted butter)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup warm coffee or cider (optional, traditional)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon each nutmeg, ginger, clove (to taste)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why honey makes a deeper, moister cake than sugar
✔ Why you use a good flavorful (darker) honey
✔ Why you warm the honey first (so it pours and mixes easily)
✔ The old tip: oil your cup so the honey slides right out
✔ Why baking soda (it reacts with the acidic honey)
✔ The warm spices that go so well with honey
✔ The ONE real trick: honey browns fast, so bake moderate and shield the top
✔ Why it is even better a day or two later
✔ How to make it your own (nuts, orange zest, dried fruit)
✔ How to fix a burnt top, dry cake, or faint honey flavor

You do not need a bakery or a box. You need good honey, flour, and spice. And once you cut a moist, fragrant slice of this, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest sweetness for a cake comes not from a bag of white sugar but from the honey of the bees, in the old and honorable way.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family, or your people's tradition, have a honey cake, for many do, and was it for a holiday or a special day? And do you keep bees, or have a good honey you might bake this with? I would dearly love to hear those traditions. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another lovely quick bread for the season, a proper old-fashioned cranberry bread, bright and tart-sweet with cranberries, the perfect bread of the late autumn and the holidays. Next time, old-fashioned cranberry bread.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest sweetness for a cake comes not from a bag of white sugar but from the honey of the bees, in the old and honorable way.

#honeycake #honeycakerecipe #honey #honeydessert #oldfashionedcake #honeybaking #spicecake #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #baking #holidaybaking #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Honey Cake — Moist, Spiced & Full of Honey

Amish Cooking 2026-09-17 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today a wonderful old bake, a proper honey cake, a moist, tender, fragrant cake sweetened not with white sugar but with real honey, that golden gift of the bees, which gives it a deep, warm, complex sweetness and a moistness that keeps for days. It is spiced gently with cinnamon and warm spices, golden brown and lovely, and it is one of the finest ways there is to show off good honey, to let that honey be the very heart and flavor of a cake. If you keep bees, or have a good honey, this is the cake to make with it.

Now, this pays off what I promised when we talked about honey, a fine thing to make with it, where the honey is the star. It is not my crumb coffee cake nor my quick breads, for those are sweetened with sugar and this with honey, and that honey makes it a wholly different, deeper, more fragrant cake. Honey cake is an old and traditional bake, made by many peoples for their feasts for centuries.

INGREDIENTS (one cake)

1 cup honey (a good flavorful honey), warmed
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or melted butter)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup warm coffee or cider (optional, traditional)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon each nutmeg, ginger, clove (to taste)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why honey makes a deeper, moister cake than sugar
✔ Why you use a good flavorful (darker) honey
✔ Why you warm the honey first (so it pours and mixes easily)
✔ The old tip: oil your cup so the honey slides right out
✔ Why baking soda (it reacts with the acidic honey)
✔ The warm spices that go so well with honey
✔ The ONE real trick: honey browns fast, so bake moderate and shield the top
✔ Why it is even better a day or two later
✔ How to make it your own (nuts, orange zest, dried fruit)
✔ How to fix a burnt top, dry cake, or faint honey flavor

You do not need a bakery or a box. You need good honey, flour, and spice. And once you cut a moist, fragrant slice of this, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest sweetness for a cake comes not from a bag of white sugar but from the honey of the bees, in the old and honorable way.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family, or your people's tradition, have a honey cake, for many do, and was it for a holiday or a special day? And do you keep bees, or have a good honey you might bake this with? I would dearly love to hear those traditions. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another lovely quick bread for the season, a proper old-fashioned cranberry bread, bright and tart-sweet with cranberries, the perfect bread of the late autumn and the holidays. Next time, old-fashioned cranberry bread.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest sweetness for a cake comes not from a bag of white sugar but from the honey of the bees, in the old and honorable way.

#honeycake #honeycakerecipe #honey #honeydessert #oldfashionedcake #honeybaking #spicecake #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #baking #holidaybaking #pennsylvaniadutch

The CREAMIEST Old-Fashioned Baked Chicken — Coat It, Bake It in Cream, DONE

Amish Cooking 2026-09-17 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the easiest and most comforting suppers there is, a creamy baked chicken, chicken pieces coated in a seasoned flour, set in a dish, cream poured around them, and baked slow in the oven until the chicken is tender and falling from the bone and the cream has thickened into a rich, savory gravy right there in the pan. And here is the beauty of it, it is near effortless, you coat the chicken, pour the cream around, and put it in the oven, and it does the rest itself, no standing over it, no fussing, coming out an hour later a whole comforting supper.

Now, this is its own thing among my chickens. It is not my fried chicken, nor my roasted chicken, nor my glazed chickens, nor my wings. This is chicken baked in cream, making its own gravy, a hands-off one-dish bake, closest in spirit to my smothered pork chop but chicken and baked.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

4 to 6 bone-in chicken pieces (thighs, legs, breasts)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons smoked paprika (or plain)
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup water or chicken broth
Chopped parsley, to garnish

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why bone-in pieces stay juiciest through the long bake
✔ The seasoned flour-and-cornmeal coating (and why it matters)
✔ How the coating thickens the cream into gravy all by itself
✔ Why you thin the cream (for enough gravy)
✔ Why you use REAL cream, not a can of condensed soup
✔ The honest word on doneness (cooked through, 165 degrees)
✔ Why it is the effortless, hands-off oven supper
✔ What to serve it over (mashed potatoes, rice, noodles, biscuits)
✔ How to make it your own (mushrooms, onion, herbs, cheese)
✔ How to fix a thin gravy or dry chicken

You do not need a can of soup or a frozen box. You need chicken, real cream, and a seasoned flour. And once you set this dish on the table, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest creamy chicken there is comes not from a can of soup or a frozen box but from real cream and a bit of seasoned flour, baked in your own oven by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make a creamy baked chicken like this, and did they make their gravy from scratch or, as so many came to, from a can of soup? And what do you love to serve it over, the mashed potatoes, the rice, the noodles? I would dearly love to hear those comfort suppers. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the perfect plain vegetable to serve alongside this creamy chicken and so many suppers, proper old-fashioned green beans, cooked slow and savory with a bit of bacon, the honest homely vegetable side of the old table. Next time, old-fashioned green beans.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest creamy chicken there is comes not from a can of soup or a frozen box but from real cream and a bit of seasoned flour, baked in your own oven by your own hand.

#creamybakedchicken #bakedchicken #chickenrecipe #chickendinner #comfortfood #onedishdinner #creamychicken #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #easychickenrecipe #weeknightdinner #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Classic Wedge Salad — Better Than a Steakhouse

Amish Cooking 2026-09-16 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today a salad that is simplicity itself and yet feels special, a classic wedge salad, a big crisp cold wedge of iceberg lettuce set on a plate and drowned in a cool creamy dressing, scattered with crumbled bacon and a bit of chive, cold and crisp and creamy and savory all at once. It is the salad you get at a fine steakhouse, where they charge you dearly for what is really just a quarter of a head of lettuce dressed up, and I am going to show you that you can make it at home for pennies, better than any steakhouse, in about two minutes.

Now, this pays off what I promised when we made that buttermilk dressing, the perfect thing to drown a crisp wedge of lettuce in. And it uses that homemade bacon of yours too, crumbled over. It is not a mixed tossed salad like my coleslaw or macaroni salad, but a plated wedge, a whole quarter-head of crisp lettuce dressed on top, eaten with a knife and fork.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

1 head iceberg lettuce, cut into 4 wedges (through the core)
1 cup buttermilk dressing (see my recipe), or blue cheese dressing
4 slices bacon, cooked crisp and crumbled (homemade is best)
2 tablespoons chives, chopped
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved (or diced tomato)
Blue cheese crumbles, for topping (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why iceberg is the RIGHT lettuce here (its crispness is its glory)
✔ How to cut the wedges through the core so they hold together
✔ The one true secret: keep the lettuce icy cold and crisp
✔ Which dressing to use (my buttermilk, or the classic blue cheese)
✔ How to drown it generously (a wedge is meant to be lavish)
✔ The toppings that make it (bacon, chives, blue cheese, tomato)
✔ What to serve it with (a steak, a roast, or as a light meal)
✔ How to make it your own (onion, avocado, egg, croutons)
✔ How a little care makes a humble thing feel grand
✔ How to fix a limp, watery, or skimpy wedge

You do not need a steakhouse. You need a cheap head of iceberg, your own dressing, and your own bacon. And once you set this cold crisp wedge on the table, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest wedge salad there is comes not from a steakhouse at a steakhouse price but from a cheap head of iceberg, your own dressing, and your own bacon, assembled by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Do you love a wedge salad, and do you take yours with blue cheese or the buttermilk dressing, and what do you top yours with? And have you, like me, ever marveled at what a steakhouse charges for what is really just a piece of lettuce? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the perfect warm side to go with a steak and a wedge salad, a proper old-fashioned creamed spinach, rich and creamy and savory, the classic steakhouse vegetable made easily at home. Next time, old-fashioned creamed spinach.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest wedge salad there is comes not from a steakhouse at a steakhouse price but from a cheap head of iceberg, your own dressing, and your own bacon, assembled by your own hand.

#wedgesalad #wedgesaladrecipe #saladrecipe #icebergsalad #steakhousesalad #baconsalad #bluecheesesalad #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #salad #easysalad #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Bread You’ll Ever Make — Moist & Perfectly Spiced

Amish Cooking 2026-09-15 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today the perfect bake for the fall, an old-fashioned pumpkin bread, a moist, tender, deeply spiced loaf, the warm gold of autumn, fragrant with cinnamon and nutmeg, wonderful sliced and buttered with your coffee of a crisp morning. It is soft and moist and full of that gentle pumpkin warmth, and it is about the easiest baking there is, a quick bread just stirred together and baked, no yeast, no fuss. And it is the very taste of autumn, of the harvest, and it makes a lovely gift besides, a loaf of it wrapped and given to a neighbor.

Now, this completes a little family of quick breads I have shown you, for it is the autumn sibling of that banana bread and that zucchini bread, all three made the same simple way, but each with its own season. And it ties to my pumpkin pie besides, for it uses the same pumpkin.

INGREDIENTS (one loaf)

1 1/3 cups pumpkin puree (homemade from a pie pumpkin, or canned)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or melted butter)
1 1/4 cups sugar (or part brown sugar)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Which pumpkin to use, and how to make your own (from a pie pumpkin)
✔ Why plain canned pumpkin works too (NOT pie filling)
✔ Why the pumpkin gives color, gentle flavor, and lovely moisture
✔ The simple stir-together quick-bread method
✔ Why you must measure your flour LIGHT (packed flour makes it dry)
✔ Why you must NOT overmix (or the loaf turns tough)
✔ The warm autumn spices
✔ How to bake it until a tester comes out clean, and cool it
✔ How to make it your own (nuts, chocolate, a crumb top)
✔ How to fix a loaf gone dry, tough, or gummy

You do not need a coffee shop or a boxed mix. You need pumpkin and a bit of flour and spice. And once you pull a moist, fragrant loaf from your oven, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest pumpkin bread there is comes not from a coffee shop or a box but from your own oven, from the pumpkin of your own harvest, stirred together and baked by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family bake pumpkin bread in the fall, and did they put nuts in it, and is it, to you, one of the tastes that means autumn has truly come? And do you make your own pumpkin puree, or use the can, and have you tried it with the banana and zucchini breads to make the whole trio? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another lovely quick bread, a proper old-fashioned cranberry bread, bright and tart-sweet with cranberries, the perfect bread of the late autumn and the holidays, tart and cheerful against all the sweet. Next time, old-fashioned cranberry bread.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest pumpkin bread there is comes not from a coffee shop or a box but from your own oven, from the pumpkin of your own harvest, stirred together and baked by your own hand.

#pumpkinbread #pumpkinbreadrecipe #homemadepumpkinbread #quickbread #fallbaking #pumpkinrecipes #pumpkinspice #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #autumnbaking #breakfastbaking #pennsylvaniadutch

The CHEAPEST Old-Fashioned Ground Beef & Potato Dinner — Feeds the Whole Family

Amish Cooking 2026-09-14 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the humblest and most honest suppers there is, a ground beef and potato skillet, browned ground beef and crisp tender potatoes together in one pan, seasoned simply, topped with melted cheese, a warm, filling, comforting meal made from the cheapest of things in a single skillet. This is not a fancy dish, and it is not meant to be, it is the plain, everyday, throw-it-together supper for a busy evening, the kind of thing that fills a family well for very little money and very little work, dirtying but one pan. And it is delicious, for all its plainness, for good ground beef and potatoes and a bit of cheese need nothing fancy to satisfy.

Now, I have shown you a good many beef suppers, and this is the humblest of the lot, and proudly so. It is not my meatloaf, nor my burger, nor my beef and gravy over noodles, nor a pasta. This is the plainest of all, the cheap everyday skillet you make when time and money are short, ground beef and potatoes and little else, all in one pan.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

4 potatoes, diced small (skins on)
2 tablespoons oil or fat, for frying
1 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon paprika
1 cup grated cheddar cheese (freshly grated)
Optional: fresh parsley or chives, to garnish

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you fry the potatoes crisp FIRST and set them aside
✔ Why potatoes and beef want different things to cook right
✔ The trick to crisp potatoes (do not crowd, do not over-stir)
✔ How to brown the beef with onion and garlic in the same pan
✔ Why you grate your own cheese for the best melt
✔ The old art of stretching the meat with potatoes
✔ Why it is all one pan and half an hour
✔ How to make it your own (peppers, peas, mushrooms, an egg)
✔ What to serve it with
✔ How to fix soggy potatoes, gray beef, or a bland skillet

You do not need a boxed helper or a drive-through. You need ground beef, potatoes, and one pan. And once you set this hot skillet on the table, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest quick weeknight supper there is comes not from a box or a drive-through but from a bit of beef and some potatoes, browned in one pan by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make a beef and potato skillet like this, some cheap one-pan filler, and what did they put in theirs, for every family has their own version? And what is your go-to cheap quick supper for a busy night when time and money are short? I would dearly love to hear those honest suppers. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you a wonderful thing to make with that honey we talked about, a proper old-fashioned honey cake, moist and tender and fragrant, sweetened with honey rather than sugar, a traditional honey-sweetened bake that shows off the golden gift beautifully. Next time, old-fashioned honey cake.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest quick weeknight supper there is comes not from a box or a drive-through but from a bit of beef and some potatoes, browned in one pan by your own hand.

#groundbeef #beefandpotatoes #onepanmeal #skilletdinner #groundbeefrecipe #cheapmeals #comfortfood #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #weeknightdinner #budgetmeals #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Homemade Buttermilk Dressing — Creamy, Herby & Made From Scratch

Amish Cooking 2026-09-13 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the most useful things a kitchen can have, a good homemade buttermilk dressing, cool and creamy and tangy and flecked with fresh herbs, the kind of dressing you drizzle over a salad, dip your vegetables and your wings into, and spoon over near anything that wants a cool creamy something. It is the honest homemade kin of what folks buy in bottles by the case, and I promise you, made fresh from your own buttermilk and a few herbs, it is worlds better than any bottle, brighter and fresher and creamier, with no strange long list of things you cannot name.

Now, I promised you this cool creamy dressing when we made those hot wings, for it is the perfect cool foil to dip a fiery wing into, and to dip your crisp celery and carrots in alongside. But it is far more than a wing dip, it is a grand all-purpose dressing, built on your own buttermilk and your own mayonnaise.

INGREDIENTS (makes about 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup mayonnaise (homemade is best)
1/2 cup buttermilk (real, from churning butter, or store)
1/4 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh chives, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced fine
1 tablespoon onion, grated (or more chives)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Where real buttermilk comes from (churning butter) and a quick substitute
✔ Why buttermilk's tang is the soul of the dressing (not just milk)
✔ The base: mayonnaise for body, buttermilk to thin and tang
✔ The plain old herbs: parsley and chives, garlic and onion
✔ How to get it the thickness you want (dip or pourable)
✔ Why it is better after resting (the flavors meld)
✔ All the ways to use it (wings, salads, vegetables, potatoes)
✔ How to make it your own (dill, bacon, blue cheese)
✔ How long it keeps
✔ How to fix a dressing too thick, too thin, or bland

You do not need a bottle. You need buttermilk, a bit of mayonnaise, and some herbs. And once you stir up a jar of this, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest dressing there is comes not from a bottle on a shelf but from fresh buttermilk and herbs, stirred together by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make their own salad dressings, a buttermilk dressing like this or another kind, before the bottles took over every table? And what will you dip or dress with yours, the wings, a salad, a platter of garden vegetables? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the perfect thing to drizzle this cool creamy dressing over, a proper old-fashioned wedge salad, a crisp cool wedge of lettuce drowned in this dressing and topped with your homemade bacon, a simple but glorious salad. Next time, old-fashioned wedge salad.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest dressing there is comes not from a bottle on a shelf but from fresh buttermilk and herbs, stirred together by your own hand.

#buttermilkdressing #ranchdressing #homemaderanch #saladdressing #buttermilkranch #homemadedressing #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #saladdressingrecipe #dips #pennsylvaniadutch

The OLD Ways With HONEY — The Sweetener That NEVER Spoils

Amish Cooking 2026-09-11 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me tell you today about one of the great treasures of the old kitchen, honey, that golden, sweet, glorious gift of the bees, and all the old wisdom about it, how to use it, why it is finer than sugar in so many ways, and the near-magical things about it that folks have forgotten. I keep bees, as many of my people do, and there are few things I treasure more than a jar of our own honey, made by the bees from the flowers of our own fields, a sweetener that costs me nothing but the keeping of the hives. A jar of honey is a jar of the summer's flowers, captured and kept, the very taste of the fields and the season, which no white sugar from a factory could ever be.

Here is what you will learn about honey:

✔ The wonder that honey never spoils (and why: low water, high sugar, acidity)
✔ The one thing that CAN spoil it (water getting in) and how to prevent it
✔ Why honey crystallizes, that it is harmless, and how to reverse it
✔ Why honey sweetens, flavors, AND keeps baked goods moist
✔ How to bake with honey (less honey than sugar, less liquid, browns faster)
✔ The honest word: honey is still a sugar, to enjoy in moderation
✔ How honeys differ by their flowers (light and mild to dark and strong)
✔ Why raw honey is the truest
✔ A little on keeping bees, the honest source of your own honey

And one serious safety note I give plainly, because it matters: honey must NEVER be given to a baby under one year old, not a taste, not baked into anything, for it can carry spores that cause a serious illness called infant botulism in a baby's young gut. After one year it is perfectly safe. Please share that warning with any young parents, for not all know it.

You will also hear that eating local honey helps with allergies. I will be honest, that is a widely told belief but it is not well proven, so I would not have you rely on it as a remedy, though local honey is a lovely thing to eat regardless.

Nature's own sweetness, from the bees, gathered from the flowers, a sweetness that never spoils. The finest sweetener there is comes not from a factory's white bag but from the bees, a gift of the flowers and the good creation.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Do you keep bees, or have you thought of it, and if you have your own honey, is there anything like it? And what is your favorite way to use honey, drizzled on what, baked into what, stirred into what? And did you know before today that honey never spoils, or the important warning about babies? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you a wonderful thing to make with your honey, a proper old-fashioned honey cake, moist and tender and fragrant, sweetened with honey rather than sugar, a traditional honey-sweetened bake that shows off the golden gift beautifully. Next time, old-fashioned honey cake.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest sweetener there is comes not from a factory's white bag but from the bees, nature's own sweetness that never spoils.

#honey #rawhoney #honeybees #beekeeping #naturalsweetener #honeytips #localhoney #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #selfsufficient #honeybenefits #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Zucchini Bread — So Moist, It Melts in Your Mouth

Amish Cooking 2026-09-09 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the most beloved and thriftiest home bakes there is, old-fashioned zucchini bread, a moist, tender, sweet loaf, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, often with walnuts through it, wonderful sliced and buttered with your coffee or for a breakfast. And here is the beauty of it, and why every gardener comes to love it, it is the answer to the great summer glut of zucchini, that vegetable which produces so wildly that a family cannot possibly eat it all. Zucchini bread turns that flood into something wonderful. And I promise you, though it is full of vegetable, you would hardly know it, for the zucchini melts in and you taste only a moist, sweet, spiced bread.

Now, this is the sibling of that banana bread I showed you, made much the same way, but where the banana bread rescues your overripe bananas, this rescues your garden zucchini. It is squarely in the old thrifty way I love, the using-up of what the garden gives in abundance rather than letting it go to waste.

INGREDIENTS (one loaf)

1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini (skin on, not wrung out)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or melted butter)
3/4 cup sugar (or part brown sugar)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you shred the zucchini skin-on and do NOT wring it out
✔ Why that moisture is the secret to how moist it stays
✔ Why you can hardly taste the zucchini (a way to sneak in veg)
✔ The simple stir-together quick-bread method
✔ Why you must NOT overmix (or the loaf turns tough)
✔ The flour-coat-the-nuts trick so they do not sink
✔ How to bake it until a tester comes out clean, and cool it
✔ How to freeze the loaf, or even the shredded zucchini, for winter
✔ How to make it your own (walnuts, raisins, chocolate)
✔ How to fix a loaf gone tough, gummy, or greasy

You do not need a shelf loaf or a boxed mix. You need shredded zucchini and a bit of flour and sugar. And once you pull a moist, fragrant loaf from your oven, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest zucchini bread there is comes not from a shelf or a box but from your own oven, from the zucchini of your own summer garden, stirred together and baked by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make zucchini bread, and did they put walnuts in it, and were you, like every zucchini grower, forever finding ways to use the flood of it? And what do you do with your summer zucchini glut, bread, or frying, or giving it away by the armload? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the autumn sibling of this bread, a proper old-fashioned pumpkin bread, moist and spiced and sweet, made much the same way but with pumpkin, the perfect quick bread for the fall, from the same pumpkins as our pie. Next time, old-fashioned pumpkin bread.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest zucchini bread there is comes not from a shelf or a box but from your own oven, from the zucchini of your own summer garden, stirred together and baked by your own hand.

#zucchinibread #zucchinibreadrecipe #homemadezucchinibread #quickbread #gardenzucchini #baking #breakfastbaking #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #zucchinirecipes #gardenharvest #pennsylvaniadutch

The CREAMIEST Old-Fashioned Cucumber Salad — Cool, Crisp & Full of Fresh Dill

Amish Cooking 2026-09-07 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the great cool refreshments of the summer garden, an old-fashioned creamy cucumber salad, crisp cool cucumbers and onion in a creamy, tangy, dill-flecked dressing, cool and light and refreshing, the perfect thing on a hot day and beside a rich supper. This is a salad my people have made forever, a Pennsylvania Dutch and German summer staple, made from the cucumbers coming out of the garden by the basketful in the warm months. And the fresh dill in it is the signature, that bright feathery herb that goes so perfectly with cool cucumber. I will show you how to make it, including the one trick that keeps it from going watery.

Now, this is another cool creamy salad in the family of the coleslaw and the macaroni salad I showed you, using a bit of that homemade mayonnaise even, but it is its own distinct thing, cool cucumbers and dill, fresh and light where those are heartier.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4 to 6)

4 to 6 garden cucumbers (or 2 English cucumbers), sliced thin
1 teaspoon salt (for drawing out water)
1/2 onion, sliced thin (or 1/3 cup chopped chives)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise (homemade is best)
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Which cucumbers to use (peel only the waxed ones)
✔ The salt-and-drain trick that keeps it from going watery
✔ Why the salting works (and why it firms and seasons them)
✔ The creamy dressing (sour cream, a bit of your own mayo, garlic)
✔ Why fresh dill is the signature flavor
✔ Why you eat it fresh (cucumbers weep over time)
✔ What to serve it beside (grilled meats, fish, ham)
✔ The vinegar version, the other classic old way
✔ How to make it your own (radish, herbs, a squeeze of lemon)
✔ How to fix a salad gone watery, bland, or too oniony

You do not need a deli tub. You need cucumbers, a little cream and dill, and the salting trick. And once you set a bowl of this on a hot day, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest cucumber salad there is comes not from a deli tub but from the cucumbers of your own summer garden, cut and dressed by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make cucumber salad in the summer, and did they make it creamy like this, or in a vinegar dressing, and did they use dill? And do you grow cucumbers, and are you, like so many gardeners, drowning in them come July? I would dearly love to hear how your family made theirs. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the perfect cool creamy thing I promised, a homemade buttermilk dressing, cool and herby and creamy, made from scratch with your own buttermilk, for dipping those hot wings, dressing your salads, and spooning over near anything. Next time, homemade buttermilk dressing.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest cucumber salad there is comes not from a deli tub but from the cucumbers of your own summer garden, cut and dressed by your own hand.

#cucumbersalad #creamycucumbersalad #cucumbersaladrecipe #cucumbers #summersalad #gardensalad #dillcucumbersalad #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #summersides #pennsylvaniadutch #gardenharvest

The CRISPIEST Buffalo Wings — Hot, Buttery & NO Bottled Sauce

Amish Cooking 2026-09-07 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today a real treat, crispy Buffalo-style chicken wings, chicken wings fried until they are shatteringly crisp and golden, then tossed in a hot, buttery, tangy sauce until they glisten red and glossy, that famous combination of crisp fried chicken and hot buttered sauce that folks cannot get enough of. And here is the thing most folks do not know, you do not need a bottle of sauce for this, for that Buffalo sauce is nothing but butter and a bit of cayenne pepper and vinegar, made in two minutes on your own stove, and made fresh yourself it is far better than any bottle.

Now, Buffalo wings are an American thing, named for the city of Buffalo in New York where the sauce was first made. And let me set them apart from other chicken I have shown you. These are not my fried chicken, though kin to it, for these are wings tossed in a hot buttery sauce. And they are not my sweet glazed chickens, the honey-garlic or the barbecue, for those are sweet, where these are hot and buttery and tangy.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

Wings:

2 to 3 lbs chicken wings, split at the joint
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon paprika
Oil, for frying

Buffalo sauce:

1/2 cup butter
2 to 3 teaspoons cayenne pepper (to taste)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt, to taste

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why a mix of flour and cornstarch makes an extra-crisp coat
✔ Why you pat the wings very dry first
✔ The double-fry trick for wings that stay crisp under sauce
✔ The honest word on doneness (165 degrees, cooked through)
✔ How to make the Buffalo sauce from scratch (no bottle needed)
✔ Why the bottled hot sauce is just cayenne, vinegar, and salt
✔ How to set the heat exactly where you like it
✔ Why you toss the wings JUST before serving
✔ How to make them your own (baked, hot-honey, garlic-butter)
✔ How to fix wings gone soggy or greasy

You do not need a wing shop or a bottle. You need wings, a crisp coating, and butter and pepper for the sauce. And once you pile a plate of these hot crisp wings, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest hot wings there are come not from a bar or a bottle but from your own pan, fried crisp and tossed in a butter sauce you made yourself.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Do you love a hot wing, and how hot do you take it, mild or fiery, and did you know before today that the sauce is just butter and cayenne and vinegar? And what do you serve beside your wings, the celery and dip, or something else? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the perfect cool creamy thing to serve beside these hot wings, a proper old-fashioned buttermilk dressing, cool and herby and creamy, made from scratch with your own buttermilk, for dipping your wings and your celery and dressing your salads. Next time, homemade buttermilk dressing.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest hot wings there are come not from a bar or a bottle but from your own pan, fried crisp and tossed in a butter sauce you made yourself.

#buffalowings #chickenwings #crispywings #hotwings #buffalochicken #wings #gamedayfood #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #friedwings #partyfood #pennsylvaniadutch

The JUICIEST Maple-Glazed Pork You’ll Ever Make

Amish Cooking 2026-09-06 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today a supper that is both simple and special, maple-glazed pork, a tender pork tenderloin seared golden and roasted through, then coated in a glossy, sweet-savory glaze made with real maple syrup, sliced into rounds that glisten with that maple glaze. It is the kind of thing that looks and tastes like a special-occasion dish but is easy enough for a weeknight, done in well under an hour, and the sweet maple against the savory pork is a pairing made in heaven, sweet and salty and rich all at once.

Now, this uses that real maple syrup I showed you, in a savory glaze for meat, for maple and pork are old friends. And let me be plain how this differs from other pork I have shown you. It is not my garlic butter pork bites, savory in garlic butter. It is not my chops. And while it is cousin to my apple cider chicken, that is chicken and cider, and this is pork and maple, its own thing.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

For the pork:

1 pork tenderloin (about 1 to 1 1/2 lbs)
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon oil, for searing

For the maple glaze:

1/3 cup real maple syrup
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper, to taste

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why pork tenderloin is perfect for a glaze (and loin vs. tenderloin)
✔ Why you pat it dry and sear it golden first
✔ The sweet-savory glaze, and why balance matters (not just sweet)
✔ The one rule: glaze at the END, not the start (or the sugar burns)
✔ The honest word on doneness (145 degrees, do NOT overcook)
✔ Why you rest it before slicing
✔ Why real maple syrup, not the imitation
✔ How to make it your own (spices, maple-mustard, on chops or ham)
✔ What to serve it beside (autumn vegetables, potatoes, applesauce)
✔ How to fix dry pork or a burnt glaze

You do not need a restaurant or a takeout box. You need a pork tenderloin, real maple syrup, and a few honest things. And once you slice this glossy, tender maple pork, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest maple-glazed pork there is comes not from a restaurant or a takeout box but from your own pan, glazed with real maple by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family cook pork with something sweet, maple or brown sugar or apple, for that sweet-and-savory pairing is an old and good one? And do you tap your own maple, or know someone who does, for real maple syrup is a treasure? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you an honest, thrifty quick bread, a proper old-fashioned zucchini bread, moist and tender and sweet, the perfect thing to do with that garden zucchini that always seems to grow more than a family can eat. Next time, old-fashioned zucchini bread.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest maple-glazed pork there is comes not from a restaurant or a takeout box but from your own pan, glazed with real maple by your own hand.

#mapleglazedpork #porktenderloin #maplepork #porkrecipe #glazedpork #porkdinner #maplesyrup #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #tenderloin #weeknightdinner #pennsylvaniadutch

The MOISTEST Old-Fashioned Banana Bread You’ll Ever Make

Amish Cooking 2026-09-05 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today one of the most beloved home bakes there is, old-fashioned banana bread, a moist, tender, sweet loaf full of deep banana flavor, wonderful sliced and buttered with your coffee of a morning or as a treat any time of day. And here is the beauty of it, it is made from bananas that have gone too ripe to eat, those spotty, blackened, soft bananas that folks are tempted to throw out, turned into something wonderful. It is thrift and comfort together, the rescuing of what would be wasted into a glorious loaf, and it is about the easiest baking there is, just stirred together in a bowl and baked, no yeast, no fuss.

Now let me be honest with you, as I always am. Bananas are not something we grow here, they are a tropical fruit, bought from the store. But banana bread has become a beloved home bake across this country, and there is no shame in using a bought fruit that has become a staple, for I buy my flour and sugar too. And what I love about it is its thrift, that it rescues bananas too far gone to eat.

INGREDIENTS (one loaf)

4 to 5 very ripe bananas (about 2 cups mashed)
1/2 cup soft butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why very ripe, spotty-black bananas make the best bread
✔ Why the riper the banana, the sweeter and more flavorful
✔ Why the banana keeps it so moist (and moist for days)
✔ The simple stir-together quick-bread method
✔ Why you must NOT overmix (or the loaf turns tough)
✔ How to bake it until a tester comes out clean
✔ Why you let it cool before slicing
✔ How to make it your own (nuts, raisins, chocolate)
✔ How to freeze the loaf, or even the bananas, for later
✔ How to fix a loaf gone tough, bland, or gummy

You do not need a shelf loaf or a boxed mix. You need overripe bananas and a bit of flour and sugar. And once you pull a moist, fragrant loaf from your oven, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest banana bread there is comes not from a shelf or a box but from your own oven, from the ripe bananas you might have wasted, stirred together and baked by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make banana bread, and did they put nuts in it, and did they have a trick to it, and do you remember the smell of it baking? And what do you do with your overripe bananas, do you bake bread, or freeze them, or something else? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another honest, thrifty quick bread, a proper old-fashioned zucchini bread, moist and tender and sweet, the perfect thing to do with that garden zucchini that always seems to grow more than a family can eat. Next time, old-fashioned zucchini bread.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest banana bread there is comes not from a shelf or a box but from your own oven, from the ripe bananas you might have wasted, stirred together and baked by your own hand.

#bananabread #bananabreadrecipe #homemadebananabread #easybananabread #quickbread #baking #breakfastbaking #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #bananabreadfromscratch #bananawalnutbread #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Beef & Onions in Brown Gravy — So Tender, So Easy

Amish Cooking 2026-09-04 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today one of the great humble comforts of the old kitchen, beef and onions in a rich brown gravy, tender morsels of beef and soft sweet onions simmered slow in a deep savory gravy until the beef is fork-tender, spooned over noodles or mashed potatoes. This is old-fashioned comfort food of the plainest, best sort, the kind of thing that fed families cheaply and well and warms you right through on a cold day. And here is the beauty of it, it is made from a cheap tough cut of beef, turned meltingly tender by slow simmering, and a gravy built from nothing but the beef, some onions, a bit of flour, and some broth.

Now, let me be plain about how this is its own dish. It is not my stroganoff, for that is beef in a creamy sour-cream sauce, where this is a plain brown gravy. It is not my pot roast, cooked whole, for this is beef cut into bites. And it is not my beef stew, full of vegetables, for this is just beef and onions in gravy, over noodles or potatoes.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4 to 6)

2 lbs beef chuck (or stew beef), cut into 1-inch cubes
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons oil, for searing
2 large onions, sliced
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups beef broth (homemade is best)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf, a little thyme (optional)
Egg noodles or mashed potatoes, to serve

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why a cheap tough cut (chuck) becomes the most tender
✔ Why you sear the beef well in batches (flavor and the fond)
✔ Why a good lot of onions is near half the soul of it
✔ How to build a smooth brown gravy from the fond
✔ Why you simmer it LOW and SLOW until fork-tender
✔ Why you cannot rush it (tough cuts only tenderize with time)
✔ What to serve it over (egg noodles, mashed potatoes)
✔ How to make it your own (mushrooms, tomato paste, herbs)
✔ Why it is even better the next day
✔ How to fix beef that stayed tough or a gravy too thin

You do not need a costly cut or a packet or a can. You need a cheap tough cut, some onions, and a bit of flour and broth. And once you spoon this over your noodles, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest beef and gravy there is comes not from a can or a costly cut but from a cheap tough cut, browned and simmered slow and tender by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make beef and gravy like this, beef tips or a similar thing, over noodles or mashed potatoes, and was it a thrifty comfort in your house? And do you serve yours over noodles, or potatoes, or something else? I would dearly love to hear those comfort suppers. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you a cool crisp side from the summer garden, a proper old-fashioned cucumber salad, cool cucumbers and onion in a tangy dressing, refreshing and simple, the perfect light thing beside a rich supper or on a hot day. Next time, old-fashioned cucumber salad.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest beef and gravy there is comes not from a can or a costly cut but from a cheap tough cut, browned and simmered slow and tender by your own hand.

#beefandgravy #beeftips #browngravy #beeftipsandgravy #comfortfood #beefrecipe #overnoodles #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #beefdinner #slowcooked #pennsylvaniadutch

The CREAMIEST Old-Fashioned Macaroni Salad — Made With Homemade Mayo

Amish Cooking 2026-09-03 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the great cool creamy sides of the summer table, a proper old-fashioned macaroni salad, tender elbow macaroni in a smooth creamy tangy dressing with crisp bits of vegetable through it, cool and satisfying, the classic companion to barbecue and picnics and every summer gathering. It sits beside the ribs and the barbecue chicken and the baked beans, a cool creamy foil to all that rich hot food. And there are a few little tricks that make the difference between a gluey, greasy, disappointing macaroni salad and a truly wonderful one, silky and creamy and perfectly seasoned.

Now, this is another fine thing to make with that homemade mayonnaise I showed you, for a macaroni salad is built on a creamy dressing. So you see once more how these things build together, the mayonnaise becoming the salad, as it did the deviled eggs and the coleslaw. And this rounds out the cookout table, the ribs, the barbecue chicken, the baked beans, and now the cool macaroni salad beside them.

INGREDIENTS (serves 8)

1 pound elbow macaroni (about 4 cups)
1 cup mayonnaise (homemade is best)
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 to 2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup celery, finely diced
1 carrot, grated
1/4 cup onion, finely diced
1/2 cup red bell pepper, finely diced
Salt and pepper, to taste

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you make the dressing first and pickle the veg in it
✔ Why you cook the macaroni fully (undercooked goes gummy)
✔ Why you do NOT rinse the pasta (the starch grips the dressing)
✔ Why you dress it COOLED, not hot (hot pasta makes it greasy)
✔ Why you dress it a bit wet and chill to absorb
✔ Why you season it AFTER chilling, and freshen before serving
✔ What to serve it beside (all your barbecue)
✔ How to make it your own (egg, relish, peas, ham)
✔ Why it must be made ahead
✔ How to fix a salad gone greasy, gummy, or bland

You do not need a deli tub. You need macaroni, a creamy dressing of your own, and some crisp veg. And once you set a bowl of this beside your barbecue, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest macaroni salad there is comes not from a deli tub but from a bowl of macaroni and a creamy dressing, made by your own hand for the folks you love.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make macaroni salad for the cookouts and picnics, and did they have their own way with it, sweeter or tangier, with egg or relish or their own touch? And what do you love your macaroni salad beside, the barbecue, the fried chicken, the burgers? I would dearly love to hear those family recipes. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another cool crisp side of the summer garden, a proper old-fashioned cucumber salad, cool cucumbers and onion in a creamy tangy dressing, the perfect refreshing thing from the summer garden, cool against the heat and the rich food. Next time, old-fashioned cucumber salad.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest macaroni salad there is comes not from a deli tub but from a bowl of macaroni and a creamy dressing, made by your own hand for the folks you love.

#macaronisalad #pastasalad #macaronisaladrecipe #creamymacaronisalad #bbqsides #picnicfood #potluck #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #cookoutfood #summersides #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Crumb Coffee Cake You’ll Ever Make — Buttery, Cinnamon-Ribboned & Tender

Amish Cooking 2026-09-03 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the most comforting bakes there is, an old-fashioned crumb coffee cake, a tender, moist, buttery cake with a ribbon of cinnamon running through its middle and a thick, crunchy, brown-sugar crumb topping over the whole of it, the kind of cake you cut a square of to have with your coffee of a morning, or set out when a neighbor stops by. It is homely, humble, and utterly delicious, that soft tender cake against the sweet crunchy crumb, and it is easier than you might think, no yeast, no fuss, a quick cake stirred together and baked.

Now, this is a beloved bake of my people, the Pennsylvania Dutch, who are great ones for a crumb cake. And let me clear up a thing that puzzles folks, there is no coffee in a coffee cake. Not a drop. It is called a coffee cake because it is the perfect thing to serve with a cup of coffee, a cake meant to accompany your coffee of a morning or afternoon.

INGREDIENTS (one 8-inch cake)

Crumb topping:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
6 tablespoons cold butter
pinch of salt

Cinnamon ribbon:

1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon flour

Cake:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons soft butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why coffee cake has no coffee in it
✔ The brown-sugar crumb topping, rubbed to wet sand (like pie dough)
✔ The cinnamon ribbon that runs through the middle
✔ Why sour cream is the secret to a tender crumb
✔ Why you must NOT overmix the batter (or it turns tough)
✔ How to assemble it like a cake sandwich
✔ How to bake it until a tester comes out clean
✔ The optional vanilla glaze
✔ How to make it your own (nuts, berries, spice)
✔ How to fix a cake that came out tough, dry, or sunken

You do not need a plastic clamshell from the store. You need butter, sugar, flour, and sour cream, ribboned with cinnamon and crowned with crumb. And once you cut a fresh square with your coffee, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest coffee cake there is comes not from a plastic clamshell but from your own oven, tender and crumb-topped and baked by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family or your grandmother make a crumb coffee cake, and did they set it out for company and coffee, and did they do a cinnamon ribbon or nuts or fruit in theirs? And what is the cake or bake that means coffee time and welcome at your house? I would dearly love to hear those warm memories. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another beloved homey bake, a proper old-fashioned banana bread, moist and tender and sweet, the perfect use for those ripe bananas going spotty on your counter, wonderful with coffee or for a breakfast. Next time, old-fashioned banana bread.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest coffee cake there is comes not from a plastic clamshell but from your own oven, tender and crumb-topped and baked by your own hand.

#coffeecake #crumbcake #crumbcoffeecake #cinnamoncoffeecake #coffeecakerecipe #baking #breakfastbaking #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #pennsylvaniadutch #streusel #cinnamon

The CHEESIEST Old-Fashioned Garlic Bread — Crisp, Buttery & Irresistible

Amish Cooking 2026-09-02 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the great simple pleasures of the table, cheesy garlic bread, a good loaf split and spread thick with a rich garlic and herb butter, piled with cheese, and baked until the bread is crisp and golden and the cheese is melted and bubbling and stretchy. It is the perfect companion to so many suppers, beside a bowl of pasta or a plate of that tomato beef pasta I showed you, alongside a soup, at any Italian-style meal, and it is so good that folks fight over the last piece and mop up every crumb.

Now, this brings together several good things I have shown you how to make, your own bread, your own butter, and your own cheese, all in one glorious buttery cheesy loaf. And some of you may think of my grilled cheese, but this is a different thing, that being a sandwich cooked in a pan, this being a loaf spread and baked open, more of a shared bread to tear and pass.

INGREDIENTS (serves 6 to 8)

1 good sturdy loaf (day-old is fine), split lengthwise
1/2 cup soft butter (homemade is best)
4 to 6 cloves fresh garlic, minced fine
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups melting cheese (mozzarella and cheddar), freshly grated
A little grated hard cheese (parmesan-style), for the top

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Which bread to use (a sturdy loaf, day-old is fine)
✔ The garlic-herb butter (fresh garlic, NOT powder)
✔ Why you mince the garlic fine so it does not burn bitter
✔ Why you GRATE your own cheese (pre-shredded melts poorly)
✔ Which cheeses melt and stretch best
✔ How to bake it crisp, then broil for a golden bubbly top
✔ Why day-old bread crisps up beautifully
✔ What to serve it beside (pasta, soup, spaghetti)
✔ How to make it your own (a tomato-sauce pizza-bread version)
✔ How to fix burnt garlic, soggy bread, or greasy cheese

You do not need the freezer aisle. You need a good loaf, garlic butter, and fresh-grated cheese. And once you pull a golden, cheesy, garlicky loaf from your oven, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest cheesy garlic bread there is comes not from the freezer aisle but from a good loaf, buttered and cheesed and baked golden by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make their own garlic bread, and did they do it cheesy like this, and what did they serve it beside? And do you grate your own cheese, or had you been buying the bagged kind, for I hope I have made a convert of you? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you a beloved sweet bake for a breakfast or a gathering, a proper old-fashioned crumb coffee cake, tender and buttery with a thick brown-sugar crumb topping, the perfect thing with a cup of coffee of a morning. Next time, old-fashioned crumb coffee cake.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest cheesy garlic bread there is comes not from the freezer aisle but from a good loaf, buttered and cheesed and baked golden by your own hand.

#garlicbread #cheesygarlicbread #homemadegarlicbread #garlicbreadrecipe #cheesebread #bread #sidedish #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #pastanight #comfortfood #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Baked Beans — Sweet, Smoky & Loaded With Bacon

Amish Cooking 2026-09-02 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today one of the great companions of the table, old-fashioned baked beans, tender beans slow-baked in a rich, sweet, smoky, tangy sauce with good bacon through them, until they are thick and glossy and deep with flavor, the top gone a little caramelized and sticky. These are the beans that sit beside the barbecue at every gathering, beside the ribs and the chicken, the pot of them slow-baked and passed around, and they are pure comfort, sweet and savory and satisfying. And they are worlds beyond the plain canned beans dumped in a bowl.

Now, these are the perfect thing to serve beside that barbecue chicken and those oven ribs I showed you, and they use a couple of things you have learned from me, that homemade bacon, and that barbecue sauce, both going into these beans and making them richer than any. So you see again how these things build together, the bacon and the sauce becoming the beans.

INGREDIENTS (serves 8)

1 pound dried navy beans (or 3 cans white beans, drained, for quick)
6 slices bacon, cut up
1 onion, chopped
1 cup homemade barbecue sauce
1/3 cup molasses
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Here is what you will learn:

✔ How to cook dried beans from scratch (soak overnight, simmer tender)
✔ Why you cook the beans tender BEFORE the sweet acid sauce
✔ Why rendered bacon and onion are the savory foundation
✔ The sweet-smoky-tangy sauce, built on your own barbecue sauce
✔ Why molasses is the soul of a proper baked bean
✔ Why you bake it LOW, SLOW, and uncovered (it thickens and caramelizes)
✔ How to get that sticky caramelized top
✔ Why they are even better the next day
✔ What to serve them beside
✔ How to fix beans that stayed hard, or a sauce too thin

You do not need a can. You need dried beans, some bacon and onion, and a sweet smoky sauce of your own. And once you set a pot of these on the table, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest baked beans there are come not from a can but from a pot of beans baked slow in your own oven with your own bacon and sauce.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make baked beans from scratch for gatherings, and did they have their own way with them, sweeter or smokier or tangier, and did they bake them in the oven or over coals? And what do you love your baked beans beside, the ribs, the chicken, a hot dog? I would dearly love to hear those family beans. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another beloved dish of the cookout and the gathering table, a proper old-fashioned macaroni salad, cool and creamy, made with your own good mayonnaise, the perfect cool side beside all this barbecue, made fresh and honest rather than from a tub. Next time, old-fashioned macaroni salad.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest baked beans there are come not from a can but from a pot of beans baked slow in your own oven with your own bacon and sauce.

#bakedbeans #homemadebakedbeans #bbqbeans #bakedbeansfromscratch #bbqsides #bacon #molasses #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #barbecue #cookoutfood #pennsylvaniadutch

The GOOIEST Pennsylvania Dutch Sticky Buns Ever — Caramel-Soaked & Baked Upside Down

Amish Cooking 2026-09-01 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the great glories of my people's baking, proper Pennsylvania Dutch sticky buns, soft tender rolls of sweet dough wound with cinnamon, baked over a rich caramel and pecans, and then turned upside down so all that gooey caramel runs down over them, sticky and glossy and studded with nuts. These are a signature bake of the plain folk of Pennsylvania, famous far and wide, and there is a reason, for a good sticky bun, warm, pulled apart, the caramel stringing, is one of the finest sweet things there is.

Now, some of you will ask, is this not just a cinnamon roll, and it is a fair question. A cinnamon roll is baked right side up and iced on top. A sticky bun is baked upside down, over a layer of caramel and nuts, then turned out so that caramel becomes a glorious sticky topping. No icing at all, just that rich buttery caramel and the pecans baked right on.

INGREDIENTS (makes 12)

For the dough:

1 batch enriched sweet dough (see my cinnamon roll or dinner roll dough)

For the caramel:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey or corn syrup (keeps it soft and glossy)
1 cup pecans (leave out, or use walnuts)
pinch of salt

For the filling:

3 tablespoons soft butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon

Here is what you will learn:

✔ How this differs from a cinnamon roll (upside down, caramel not icing)
✔ The same soft enriched dough you already know
✔ How to make the caramel gooey and glossy (not hard candy)
✔ Why pecans are the classic Pennsylvania Dutch nut
✔ How to roll, fill, and cut the buns clean
✔ Why the second rise makes them light
✔ The one crucial trick: flip them out WHILE HOT
✔ Why the caramel sticks in the pan if you wait too long
✔ The overnight make-ahead for a special morning
✔ How to fix stuck caramel or dense buns

You do not need a mall stand or a tube from the cold case. You need sweet dough, cinnamon, and a simple caramel with pecans. And once you turn a pan of these out gooey and warm, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest sticky buns there are come not from a mall stand or a tube but from your own oven, baked over caramel and turned out gooey by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family, or a bakery in your town, make old-fashioned sticky buns, and did they do them with pecans as we do, and do you remember them warm? And do you favor a sticky bun with its caramel, or a cinnamon roll with its icing, for it is a great and happy debate? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another beloved sweet bake for a breakfast or a gathering, a proper old-fashioned crumb coffee cake, tender and buttery with a thick brown-sugar crumb topping, the perfect thing with a cup of coffee of a morning. Next time, old-fashioned crumb coffee cake.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest sticky buns there are come not from a mall stand or a tube but from your own oven, baked over caramel and turned out gooey by your own hand.

#stickybuns #pennsylvaniadutch #caramelpecanstickybuns #cinnamonrolls #sweetrolls #baking #breakfastbaking #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #caramelrolls #bakedfromscratch #amishbaking

How to Make WHIPPED CREAM — Easy and AMAZING

Amish Cooking 2026-08-31 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the simplest, loveliest little wonders a kitchen can make, real whipped cream, fresh cream whipped by hand into a soft, light, billowy cloud, sweet and delicate, the perfect crown for a pie or a bowl of berries or most any dessert there is. And I promise you, once you have tasted real whipped cream, made fresh from good cream in minutes, you will never again reach for the sprayed kind in the can or the tubbed kind from the freezer case, for they are pale imitations, and the real thing is so much finer and so easily made.

Now, I promised you this when we made that pumpkin pie, that I would show you the whipped cream to crown it, and here it is, and it crowns not just the pumpkin pie but the apple, and near any dessert you like. And here is a lovely thing for those who watched me make butter, this is the very same cream, only taken to a different stage, for whipped cream and butter are cousins, both made by whipping cream.

INGREDIENTS (makes about 2 cups)

1 cup cold heavy cream (or whipping cream)
2 to 3 tablespoons sugar (to taste; powdered dissolves smoothest)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you must use heavy or whipping cream (the fat holds the air)
✔ Why cold cream, a cold bowl, and a cold whisk whip best
✔ How to whip it by hand with a whisk (the old way)
✔ When to add the sugar and vanilla, and how much
✔ The stages: soft peaks, stiff peaks, and too far
✔ The most important lesson: do NOT overwhip it
✔ How whipped cream and butter are the same journey, stopped apart
✔ How to rescue cream that is just starting to overwhip
✔ Which desserts to crown with it
✔ How to fix cream that would not whip

You do not need a can or a tub. You need good cold cream, a bit of sugar, and a whisk. And once you make your own, fresh and light and creamy, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest whipped cream there is comes not from a can or a tub but from good fresh cream, whipped by your own hand into a soft sweet cloud.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family whip their own cream, by hand or with one of those old crank beaters, and do you remember it, fresh on the pies and the berries? And what do you love your whipped cream on best, which pie, which dessert? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the perfect thing to serve beside that barbecue chicken and those ribs, a proper old-fashioned baked beans, slow-cooked sweet and smoky and rich, the classic companion of the barbecue table, made from scratch rather than dumped from a can. Next time, old-fashioned baked beans.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest whipped cream there is comes not from a can or a tub but from good fresh cream, whipped by your own hand into a soft sweet cloud.

#whippedcream #homemadewhippedcream #howtomakewhippedcream #chantillycream #freshcream #dessert #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #pietopping #baking #pennsylvaniadutch

The STICKIEST Oven BBQ Chicken — No Grill Needed!

Amish Cooking 2026-08-31 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the most crowd-pleasing suppers there is, sticky barbecue chicken, tender juicy chicken drumsticks roasted in the oven and glazed in a rich homemade barbecue sauce until they are sticky and glossy and deep with flavor, the kind of thing children and grown folk alike fall upon with both hands. And here is the good news, you need no grill for this, no smoker, no fire, just your oven, so you can make sticky barbecue chicken any day, any weather, right in your kitchen.

Now, I have shown you a few ways with chicken, and this one is its own thing. I showed you a honey garlic chicken, and an apple cider chicken, and a plain roasted chicken with potatoes. This is a barbecue glaze, that smoky, tangy, tomato-rich sweetness, quite unlike the honey or the cider. And this is the same barbecue sauce I showed you make for those oven ribs, now on chicken. I have chosen drumsticks, those handheld legs that are such happy eating.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

For the chicken and rub:

8 chicken drumsticks
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

To glaze:

1 1/2 to 2 cups homemade barbecue sauce

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why drumsticks are forgiving, juicy, and handheld
✔ Why you pat the chicken dry and season it with a dry rub
✔ The one rule that matters: roast FIRST, glaze near the END
✔ Why the sugar in the sauce burns if you glaze too early
✔ How to build the glaze up sticky in layers (or a quick broil)
✔ The honest word on doneness (cooked through, 165 degrees)
✔ Why you keep a clean portion of sauce back for the table
✔ Why the oven beats the grill (even heat, no flare-ups, any weather)
✔ How to make it your own (thighs, wings, a touch of smoke)
✔ How to fix a burnt glaze or underdone chicken

You do not need a store tray or a fussed-over grill. You need drumsticks, a dry rub, a hot oven, and a homemade sauce. And once you pile a platter of these sticky drumsticks on the table, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest sticky barbecue chicken there is comes not from a store tray or a fussed-over grill but from your own oven, glazed with your own sauce.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make barbecue chicken, and did they have their own sauce for it, a family recipe? And do you favor the drumsticks like me, or another piece, and what do you love to eat beside your barbecue chicken? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the perfect thing to serve beside this chicken and those ribs, a proper old-fashioned baked beans, slow-cooked sweet and smoky and rich, the classic barbecue-table companion, made from scratch rather than dumped from a can. Next time, old-fashioned baked beans.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest sticky barbecue chicken there is comes not from a store tray or a fussed-over grill but from your own oven, glazed with your own sauce.

#bbqchicken #barbecuechicken #stickychicken #chickendrumsticks #ovenchicken #bakedchicken #homemadebbqsauce #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #chickenrecipe #bbq #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Creamy Coleslaw — Crisp, Cool, and Better Than the Tub

Amish Cooking 2026-08-30 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the great cool crisp sides of the table, a proper creamy coleslaw, crunchy fresh cabbage and carrot in a smooth, creamy, tangy-sweet dressing, cool and refreshing, the perfect partner to so many suppers. It is the thing you want beside rich barbecue ribs, beside fried chicken, beside a ham or a burger, its cool crisp freshness cutting through the rich hot food beautifully. And it is at every picnic and potluck and summer supper for good reason, and it is about the easiest thing there is to make, yet the homemade kind is so far beyond the sad watery tub from the store that there is no comparing them.

Now, this is a fine thing to make with that homemade mayonnaise I showed you, for a creamy coleslaw is built on a creamy dressing, and that dressing begins with good mayonnaise. So you see again how these things build one upon another, the mayonnaise becoming the slaw. And it is a good use of cabbage, which I have shown you turn to sauerkraut and to cabbage cakes, and here it is again, raw and crisp and creamy.

INGREDIENTS (serves 6 to 8)

1/2 large head cabbage (about 6 cups), shredded fine
2 carrots, grated
1 small onion, grated (optional)
1 cup mayonnaise (homemade is best)
3 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste

Here is what you will learn:

✔ How to shred cabbage and carrot fine by hand (no machine needed)
✔ The creamy dressing, built on your own good mayonnaise
✔ The balance that matters: creamy, tangy, and just a touch sweet
✔ How to toss it so every shred is coated but not drowning
✔ Why you toss and REST it so the flavors meld and the cabbage softens
✔ The salt-and-drain trick for a crisper, less-watery slaw
✔ What to serve it beside (ribs, fried chicken, ham, pulled pork)
✔ How to make it your own (apple, raisins, caraway seed)
✔ How to make it ahead and keep it
✔ How to fix a slaw that came out watery, harsh, or bland

You do not need a deli tub. You need a fresh head of cabbage, a carrot, and a creamy dressing of your own. And once you set a bowl of this beside your supper, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest coleslaw there is comes not from a deli tub but from a fresh head of cabbage, shredded and dressed by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make coleslaw for gatherings and barbecues, and did they make it creamy like this, or a vinegar slaw, and did they add anything of their own, caraway, or apple, or such? And what do you love to eat your slaw beside, the ribs, the fried chicken, or something else? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you that thing I promised, the perfect crown for a pumpkin pie and so many desserts, real homemade whipped cream, made in minutes from nothing but fresh cream, so far beyond the sprayed and tubbed kinds that once you make your own you will never go back. Next time, homemade whipped cream.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest coleslaw there is comes not from a deli tub but from a fresh head of cabbage, shredded and dressed by your own hand.

#coleslaw #coleslawrecipe #creamycoleslaw #homemadecoleslaw #howtomakecoleslaw #cabbage #bbqsides #picnicfood #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #potluck #pennsylvaniadutch

The PERFECT Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Pie — Silky, Spiced, and From Scratch

Amish Cooking 2026-08-29 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

There is no pie that says autumn, that says harvest, that says the holidays are come, quite like a homemade pumpkin pie, and today I am going to show you how to make one, truly well, from scratch, a smooth silky spiced custard the deep gold of the season, in a crisp flaky crust. It is one of the great pies of this country, bound up with gratitude and gathering and the turning of the year, and I will show you the whole of it, including how to make your own pumpkin from a real pumpkin, and how to bake that custard so it is silky and set and never cracked or weepy.

Now, this is another of the pies I promised would open up once you could make a good crust. When we made that flaky pie crust, and then that apple pie, I told you a whole world of pies would follow, and the pumpkin pie is the very next one you want come autumn. So you already know the crust, and today we fill it with a spiced pumpkin custard.

INGREDIENTS (makes one 9-inch pie)

For the crust:

1 flaky pie crust (see my pie crust recipe)

For the filling:

2 cups pumpkin puree (homemade from a pie pumpkin, or one 15-oz can)
3 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 cups cream (or cream and milk)
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Which pumpkin to use (a small sugar pie pumpkin, NOT a carving one)
✔ How to make your own puree, and drain it so it is not watery
✔ Why you blind bake the crust (so the bottom stays crisp)
✔ How to use dried beans as pie weights
✔ The spiced cream custard (real cream, not evaporated milk)
✔ The warm-the-filling trick for an even, silky bake
✔ The doneness to watch for: the center JUST jiggles softly
✔ Why you cool it fully to set before cutting
✔ How to make the spice blend your own
✔ How to fix a pie that cracked, wept, or had a soggy bottom

You do not need a store case or a can of filling. You need a pumpkin, some eggs and cream, and warm spices, in your own flaky crust. And once you set a homemade pumpkin pie on your holiday table, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest pumpkin pie there is comes not from a store case but from your own oven, from the pumpkin of your own autumn, baked by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family bake pumpkin pie for the holidays, and who was the baker, and did they make their own pumpkin or use the can, and did they have their own blend of spices? And what is the pie that means the holidays are truly come at your house? I would dearly love to hear those grateful memories. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the perfect crown for this pie and so many desserts, real homemade whipped cream, made in minutes from nothing but fresh cream, so far beyond the sprayed and tubbed kinds that once you make your own you will never go back. Next time, homemade whipped cream.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest pumpkin pie there is comes not from a store case but from your own oven, from the pumpkin of your own autumn, baked by your own hand.

#pumpkinpie #pumpkinpierecipe #homemadepumpkinpie #pie #custardpie #thanksgivingpie #fallbaking #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #thanksgiving #pumpkin #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Old-Fashioned Oven BBQ Ribs — Fall-TENDER, No Grill Needed

Amish Cooking 2026-08-28 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today how to make truly wonderful barbecue ribs, tender and juicy and deeply flavored, glazed in a rich homemade barbecue sauce, and here is the thing, made entirely in your oven, no grill, no smoker, no special equipment at all. A great many folks believe you cannot make good ribs without a grill or a smoker and a whole day of tending a fire, but that is not so, for the oven does low-and-slow beautifully, and I will show you how to make ribs in your own kitchen that will rival any, tender and glorious.

Now, ribs are a fine use of the hog, and I keep hogs, so ribs are dear to me. And I will be plain, I have no grill nor smoker, and do not need one for this, for the low steady heat of an oven does just what slow barbecue wants, melting the tough ribs to tenderness over hours, the very same principle as the braises I have shown you. So this is honest oven cooking, low and slow, giving you ribs as tender and good as any, in any weather, any time of year.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

For the ribs and rub:

2 racks pork ribs (baby back or spare)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons prepared mustard (as a binder)

For the foil wrap:

4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup apple juice or cider

To finish:

2 cups homemade barbecue sauce

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you remove the tough membrane first (and how)
✔ The dry rub, and why the brown sugar caramelizes into a bark
✔ Why you paint on mustard first (a binder, not for flavor)
✔ Why you bake it LOW and SLOW (the connective tissue melts)
✔ The foil-wrap trick that steams them fall-tender
✔ Why you pour the foil juices into the sauce (liquid gold)
✔ Why you glaze and bake hot at the END to set it sticky
✔ The doneness to aim for (tender but holding to the bone)
✔ How to cut them clean, bone side up
✔ How to fix ribs that came out tough, dry, or a burnt glaze

You do not need a restaurant or a costly smoker. You need a rack of ribs, a rub, a low oven, and a homemade sauce. And once you pull a rack of these from your oven, tender and glazed, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest barbecue ribs there are come not from a restaurant or a costly smoker but from your own oven, cooked low and slow and glazed with your own sauce.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make ribs, and did they have their own barbecue sauce, a family recipe handed down, for those sauces are treasures? And do you like your ribs holding to the bone, or falling right off? I would dearly love to hear, and I would love to know your family's sauce. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the perfect thing to serve beside these ribs, and beside near any summer supper, a proper old-fashioned coleslaw, crisp and cool and creamy, made fresh and honest rather than from a tub, the perfect cool crisp partner to rich barbecue. Next time, old-fashioned coleslaw.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest barbecue ribs there are come not from a restaurant or a costly smoker but from your own oven, cooked low and slow and glazed with your own sauce.

#bbqribs #ovenribs #barbecueribs #ribs #porkribs #ovenbakedribs #homemadebbqsauce #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #bbq #barbecue #pennsylvaniadutch

OLD-Fashioned Deviled Eggs — The Classic Dish That Always Disappears First

Amish Cooking 2026-08-27 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the great beloved dishes of any gathering, deviled eggs, those creamy, savory, cool little stuffed eggs that appear at every picnic and potluck and holiday table, and that, I promise you, vanish first, always, before near anything else on the table. There is something about a good deviled egg that folks cannot resist, the smooth rich creamy yolk filling in the tender cool white, a perfect little two-bite morsel. And they are easy, made of nothing but eggs and a few plain things, and today I am going to show you how to make them just right, including how to boil the eggs so they peel clean and have no ugly green ring.

Now, here is a happy thing, this is the perfect dish to make with that homemade mayonnaise I showed you, for good deviled eggs are built on good mayonnaise, and your own fresh homemade mayo makes them finer than any. So you see how these old skills build one upon another, the mayonnaise becoming the deviled egg. And a deviled egg is one of the great gathering dishes, humble and cheap and yet always the first thing gone.

INGREDIENTS (makes 12 halves)

6 eggs
3 tablespoons mayonnaise (homemade is best)
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste
Paprika, for dusting
Optional: chopped chives or parsley, crumbled bacon

Here is what you will learn:

✔ How to hard-boil eggs so they peel clean (start in boiling water)
✔ The ice bath trick: no ugly green ring, and easy peeling
✔ Why slightly older eggs peel easier than fresh ones
✔ How to halve them and get the yolks out neat
✔ The creamy yolk filling, built on your own mayonnaise
✔ Why mustard, vinegar, and paprika make them "deviled"
✔ How to fill them, spooned rustic or piped fancy
✔ The sieve trick for an extra-smooth filling
✔ How to make them ahead and carry them to a gathering
✔ How to fix a green ring, eggs that won't peel, or a dull filling

You do not need a store party tray. You need a few eggs, a bit of mayonnaise and mustard, and a dusting of paprika. And once you set a plate of these on any table, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest gathering food there is comes not from a store tray but from a few eggs and a little knowing, made by your own hand for the folks you love.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make deviled eggs for gatherings, and did someone have their own special way with them, a secret in the filling, for there was often one in a family known for their deviled eggs? And what do you put in yours, do you keep them plain, or add pickle or relish or something of your own? I would dearly love to hear those family recipes. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you another beloved gathering dish that uses a good creamy dressing, a proper old-fashioned coleslaw, crisp and cool and creamy, the perfect thing beside your summer suppers and at every picnic, made fresh and honest rather than from a tub. Next time, old-fashioned coleslaw.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest gathering food there is comes not from a store tray but from a few eggs and a little knowing, made by your own hand for the folks you love.

#deviledeggs #deviledeggrecipe #howtomakedeviledeggs #eggs #appetizer #partyfood #gatheringfood #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #potluck #picnicfood #pennsylvaniadutch

The PERFECT Baked French Toast Casserole — Make It the Night Before!

Amish Cooking 2026-08-26 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today one of the finest tricks a home cook can have for feeding a crowd a warm and special breakfast, a baked French toast casserole, all the glory of French toast, the soft custardy middle and the sweet cinnamon and the maple, but made in one dish in the oven, and better still, put together the night before so that in the morning you have only to slide it into the oven while you tend to other things. It is a breakfast for a holiday morning, for a houseful of guests, for a Christmas or an Easter when you would rather be with your family than standing over a griddle.

Now, some of you will remember I showed you French toast before, the regular kind, dipped slice by slice and cooked on the griddle. This is a different creature. That is made fresh, slice by slice, fine for a few but a chore for a crowd. This baked one is made all at once, in a single dish, and above all assembled the night before and left to soak overnight, so come morning there is near nothing to do but bake it. Where the griddle French toast is a fresh-cooked breakfast for a few, this is a make-ahead breakfast for a houseful.

INGREDIENTS (serves 8 to 10)

For the casserole:

1 loaf good sturdy bread (day-old is best), torn or cubed (about 12 cups)
8 eggs
2 1/2 cups milk (or milk and cream)
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the crumb topping:

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons cold butter

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why day-old, slightly stale bread soaks up the custard best
✔ How to make a plain honest custard (no fancy spices needed)
✔ The make-ahead heart: soak it overnight in the cold box
✔ Why the overnight soak gives that even, custardy texture
✔ How to make a brown-sugar cinnamon crumb topping (or keep it plain)
✔ How to bake it until puffed, golden, and SET (not wet)
✔ Why you shield the top with foil if it browns too fast
✔ Why the make-ahead dish gives you your morning back
✔ How to make it your own (apple, berries, nuts)
✔ How to fix a casserole that came out soggy or dry

You do not need a bakery box or a brunch out. You need bread, eggs, milk, and cinnamon, soaked overnight and baked in the morning. And once you carry out one warm golden dish that feeds the whole table, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest, easiest special breakfast for a crowd there is comes not from a bakery box but from a dish you soaked overnight and baked in your own oven.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family have a special make-ahead breakfast for holiday mornings, a French toast bake or an egg casserole or such, prepared the night before? And what is the breakfast your family gathers for on a Christmas or an Easter morning, the one that means the whole family is home? I would dearly love to hear those warm morning traditions. Tell me.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest, easiest special breakfast for a crowd there is comes not from a bakery box but from a dish you soaked overnight and baked in your own oven.

#frenchtoast #bakedfrenchtoast #frenchtoastcasserole #overnightfrenchtoast #breakfastcasserole #makeaheadbreakfast #holidaybreakfast #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #breakfast #brunch #pennsylvaniadutch

The REAL Smash Burger — Crispy Edges, Juicy Center & No Drive-Thru Needed

Amish Cooking 2026-08-26 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today how to make a truly great hamburger at home, the kind with crisp, browned, lacy edges and a juicy middle, cheese melted just so, on a soft toasted bun, a burger so good you will wonder why you ever pulled up to a drive-through window. This is what folks call a smash burger, though it is really just an old honest way of cooking a burger, pressing it thin on a hot pan so it browns deep and crisp. It is about the finest hamburger there is, and one of the easiest, made of nothing but good ground beef and a hot pan and a few simple things.

Now, the hamburger is honest American food, plain and good, and there is no reason on earth it should be a thing you drive out to buy. It is ground beef, cooked, on a bun, and I keep cattle and grind my own beef, and a good burger from your own hand is worlds beyond the thin sad thing from a paper wrapper. So let me take the fast-food shine off it and show you the honest burger, cooked crisp and juicy on your own stove, better than any bought one.

INGREDIENTS (makes 4 burgers)

1 1/2 pounds ground beef (80/20, for the fat and flavor)
Salt and pepper
4 slices cheese (cheddar, or American for a smooth melt)
4 soft buns (my rolls are perfect)
Butter or bacon fat, for toasting the buns
To serve: ketchup, mustard, pickles, onion, lettuce, tomato

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you want 80/20 beef (the fat is the flavor and juiciness)
✔ Why you keep the meat plain and loose, salting only the outside
✔ How to form gentle loose balls (not tight-packed patties)
✔ The whole secret: a HOT heavy pan and one hard smash
✔ Why you smash ONCE and never press again (or you lose the juices)
✔ Why the thin patty gives those crisp lacy edges
✔ The honest word on ground-beef doneness (cooked through, 160 degrees)
✔ The bun trick: toast it in the beef fat (a soggy-proof barrier)
✔ A simple honest sauce from your own mayo, ketchup, and pickle
✔ How to fix a burger that came out dry, pale, or dense

You do not need a drive-through. You need a ball of good beef smashed crisp on a hot pan, cheese, and a toasted bun. And once you eat one made this way, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest hamburger there is comes not from a drive-through window but from your own hot pan, smashed crisp and juicy by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Is burger night a thing in your house, and do you make them at home or had you fallen into buying them out, and do you dress yours plain or pile them high? And do you grind your own beef, for those who do know it makes a burger like no other. I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you a lovely thing to make with that homemade mayonnaise, proper deviled eggs, those creamy savory stuffed eggs that vanish first off any table at any gathering, made right with your own mayonnaise. Next time, old-fashioned deviled eggs.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest hamburger there is comes not from a drive-through window but from your own hot pan, smashed crisp and juicy by your own hand.

#smashburger #hamburger #burger #howtomakeburgers #burgerrecipe #cheeseburger #homemadeburgers #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #burgernight #griddleburger #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST Garlic Butter Pork Bites — Crispy, Juicy & Loaded With Flavor

Amish Cooking 2026-08-25 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today a quick and glorious little supper, garlic butter pork bites, tender morsels of pork seared crisp and golden in a hot pan and then tossed in a rich garlic and herb butter until they glisten and drink up all that savory goodness. It is fast, it is easy, it is done in one skillet in barely more than ten or fifteen minutes, and it is the kind of thing the whole family reaches for the moment it hits the table, popping the little bites straight into their mouths. It is a supper for a busy evening, and a fine one.

Now, I have shown you pork chops before, my smothered chops and my seared chops, and this is its own thing. Those are whole chops, a plated supper, knife and fork. These are pork cut into little bites, seared quick and tossed in garlic butter, quick and casual, more of a grab-and-eat skillet supper, or even a fine thing to serve on toothpicks at a gathering. It is about the fastest hot pork supper there is, which is its great virtue.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

1 1/2 pounds pork tenderloin (or boneless chops), cut into 1-inch cubes
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons oil, for searing
4 tablespoons butter
4 to 6 cloves garlic, minced
Fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, or parsley)
A squeeze of lemon (optional)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Which cut to use (lean tenderloin or chops, or richer shoulder)
✔ Why you pat the cubes dry and season them well
✔ The crust secret: a HOT pan, and do NOT crowd it
✔ Why you sear in batches rather than steam the meat
✔ The honest word on doneness (145 degrees, and do not overcook)
✔ The pull-early-and-rest trick to keep lean pork juicy
✔ How to make the garlic butter (and why you cook garlic just till fragrant)
✔ Ways to serve it (over rice or potatoes, or on toothpicks)
✔ How to make it your own (Worcestershire, honey, onion, greens)
✔ How to fix pork that came out dry, pale, or bland

You do not need a bag from the freezer or a drive-through. You need pork cut into bites, seared in a hot pan, and tossed in garlic butter, in fifteen minutes. And once you set down a skillet of these crisp, buttery, garlicky bites, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that a fast supper need not come from a freezer or a window, but from your own hot skillet, made with your own hands in the time it takes to set the table.

Now tell me something down in the comments. What is your family's go-to quick supper for a busy evening, the thing you throw together fast when there is no time? And do you cook with a good garlic butter, for it makes so many things glorious, and what do you put it on? I would dearly love to hear those quick honest suppers. Tell me.

Next time, now that you can make a flaky crust and have baked a good apple pie, I am going to show you that other great pie of the autumn table, a proper old-fashioned pumpkin pie, smooth and spiced and custardy in your own flaky crust. Next time, old-fashioned pumpkin pie.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows a fast supper need not come from a freezer or a window, but from your own hot skillet, made with your own hands in the time it takes to set the table.

#garlicbutterporkbites #porkbites #porkrecipe #garlicbutter #quickdinner #skilletsupper #porktenderloin #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #easydinner #weeknightdinner #pennsylvaniadutch

Homemade Mayonnaise the OLD-FASHIONED Way — Just Egg & Oil!

Amish Cooking 2026-08-24 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today something that will likely surprise you, how to make your own mayonnaise, by hand, from nothing but an egg and some oil and a few plain seasonings, whisked together into a thick, rich, creamy spread far finer than anything that comes in a jar. Most folks think of mayonnaise as a thing that only ever comes from a jar at the store, a manufactured product. But it is not, and never was. Mayonnaise is one of the old kitchen's small wonders, made at home by hand long before ever it came in a jar, nothing but egg and oil brought together by a bit of knowing. And today I am going to show you that knowing, the old hand way.

Now, when I mentioned this while we were making that BLT, that you could make your own mayonnaise, I saw it surprises folks. So here is the whole of it. It is a thing they call an emulsion, oil broken into tiny droplets and held suspended in egg, bound smooth and thick, and the whole secret is in adding the oil slowly. Get that one thing right and you have mayonnaise.

INGREDIENTS (makes about 1 cup)

1 egg yolk (or 1 whole egg), at room temperature
1 teaspoon mustard (helps it hold together)
1 tablespoon lemon juice or mild vinegar
1 cup good neutral oil (or a mild olive oil)
1/4 teaspoon salt, to taste

Here is what you will learn:

✔ What an emulsion is, and why the egg yolk holds it together
✔ The ONE rule above all: add the oil slowly, drop by drop at first
✔ Why everything must be at ROOM temperature
✔ Why a bit of mustard helps the emulsion hold
✔ How to whisk it by hand into a thick creamy spread
✔ The quick modern way with a stick blender (noted)
✔ Why a strong olive oil can turn it bitter (use a mild or neutral one)
✔ How to RESCUE a broken mayonnaise (do not throw it out)
✔ The honest word on raw-egg safety (keep it cold, use it fresh)
✔ Why mayonnaise is the mother of a whole world of dressings

You do not need a jar from the store, made with cheap oils and preservatives. You need an egg, some oil added slow, and a whisk. And once you make your own, fresh and rich and creamy, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest, freshest mayonnaise there is comes not from a jar on a shelf but from an egg and some oil, brought together by your own patient hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family or your grandparents make their own mayonnaise or dressings by hand, before the jars took over, and do you remember it? And will you try making your own now that you have seen it is only egg and oil and a slow steady hand? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you a lovely thing to make with your fresh homemade mayonnaise, proper deviled eggs, those creamy savory stuffed eggs that vanish first off any table at any gathering, made right with your own mayonnaise. Next time, old-fashioned deviled eggs.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest, freshest mayonnaise there is comes not from a jar on a shelf but from an egg and some oil, brought together by your own patient hand.

#mayonnaise #homemademayonnaise #howtomakemayonnaise #mayo #homemademayo #emulsion #condiments #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #mayonnaiserecipe #handmademayo #pennsylvaniadutch

This Is REAL Chocolate Fudge — Made the Old-Fashioned Way

Amish Cooking 2026-08-24 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today one of the great old homemade candies, real chocolate fudge, cooked on the stovetop the old way, rich and smooth and deeply chocolate, that melts on the tongue and cuts into neat little squares to share and to give. There are quick and easy fudges about these days, made with condensed milk and such, and they are fine in their way, but I want to show you the real thing, the old cooked fudge our grandmothers made, for there is a magic to it, cooking sugar and milk and chocolate to just the right point and then working it smooth. Once you know the way of it, you can make a candy finer than any you would buy, for pennies, to fill a tin for the holidays or to give as a gift made by your own hand.

Now, I will be honest from the start, fudge is a candy, and candy-making has a bit more exactness to it than most of my plain cooking, for it depends on cooking the sugar to just the right stage. It is not hard once you understand it, but it wants your attention at two points, the cooking and the cooling, and I will be plain about both so yours comes out smooth and not grainy.

INGREDIENTS (makes about 1 1/2 pounds)

3 cups sugar
3/4 cup whole milk (or cream)
1/2 cup cocoa powder (or 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate)
4 tablespoons butter, plus more for the pan
1 teaspoon vanilla
A pinch of salt
Optional: 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you dissolve the sugar fully before it boils (or it goes grainy)
✔ The old cold-water test for the soft-ball stage (no thermometer needed)
✔ What soft-ball stage is, and why it makes or breaks the fudge
✔ Why you must NOT stir it while it boils
✔ The real secret: let it cool undisturbed BEFORE you beat it
✔ Why beating it hot makes grainy fudge, and cool makes it smooth
✔ How to beat it until it loses its gloss (the sign it is ready)
✔ Cocoa or chocolate, and how to choose
✔ How it keeps, and why it makes a treasured holiday gift
✔ How to fix fudge that came out grainy, too soft, or too hard

You do not need a candy shop. You need sugar, milk, chocolate, and butter, cooked to soft-ball, cooled, and beaten smooth. And once you cut a square of your own, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest, smoothest, richest fudge there is comes not from a box in a store but from your own pot, cooked and cooled and beaten by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make fudge, especially at the holidays, and who was the fudge-maker, for it was often a special skill someone was known for, and did they make it plain or with nuts? And do you remember tins of homemade candy given and received at Christmas? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest, smoothest, richest fudge there is comes not from a box in a store but from your own pot, cooked and cooled and beaten by your own hand.

#chocolatefudge #fudge #oldfashionedfudge #homemadefudge #fudgerecipe #candy #christmascandy #holidaybaking #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #homemadecandy #pennsylvaniadutch

The BEST BLT the OLD-FASHIONED Way — Homemade Bacon, Bread & Garden Tomatoes

Amish Cooking 2026-08-23 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today what I believe is one of the finest sandwiches ever made, a proper BLT, bacon and lettuce and tomato, made right. There is a world of difference between a sad soggy BLT of pale store bacon and mealy winter tomato, and a truly great one made of your own good crisp bacon, a ripe tomato at the height of summer, crisp cool lettuce, and good bread. Today I am going to show you how to make the great one, where every humble part is at its best.

Now, this is the very sandwich I promised you when we made that homemade bacon, for I told you the finest way to eat your own cured and smoked bacon is in a proper BLT. A BLT is only as good as its parts, and when the parts are your own, your own smoked bacon, your own bread, a tomato from your own garden at its ripe peak, it becomes something far beyond the sandwich most folks know.

INGREDIENTS (makes 2 sandwiches)

4 slices good bread (my sandwich loaf is perfect)
6 to 8 slices homemade bacon, cooked crisp
1 large ripe tomato, sliced thin and salted
Crisp lettuce (leaf or butter), a few leaves per sandwich
4 tablespoons mayonnaise (jar, or homemade)
Salt and pepper
Bacon fat, for toasting the bread

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why the ripe TOMATO is the soul of the sandwich
✔ Why a BLT is truly a summer sandwich
✔ Why you cook the bacon crisp (and the easy oven way)
✔ The glorious trick: toast the bread in the saved bacon fat
✔ How to crisp the lettuce in ice water
✔ Why you slice the tomato thin and salt it
✔ That you can make your own mayonnaise (just egg and oil)
✔ The anti-soggy assembly order: lettuce, bacon, tomato, lettuce
✔ Why you cut it on the diagonal
✔ How to fix a soggy, limp, or dull BLT

You do not need a deli. You need your own crisp bacon, a ripe tomato, crisp lettuce, and good bread toasted in bacon fat. And once you bite into one made this way, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the greatest BLT there is comes not from a deli but from your own kitchen, from your own bacon and bread and the ripe tomatoes of your own summer.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Is the BLT a summer favorite in your house, and do you grow your own tomatoes for it, and do you have it plain or add anything, an egg, or cheese, or such? And here is a thing I want to know, will you make your own bacon for it now, having seen how? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you that thing I mentioned, how to make your own mayonnaise, the old way, from an egg and oil brought together into a rich creamy spread far beyond any jar, for once you can make your own mayonnaise a whole world of dressings and spreads opens to you. Next time, homemade mayonnaise.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the greatest BLT there is comes not from a deli but from your own kitchen, from your own bacon and bread and the ripe tomatoes of your own summer.

#blt #bltsandwich #bacon #baconlettucetomato #sandwich #homemadebacon #summersandwich #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #baconsandwich #gardentomato #pennsylvaniadutch

Old-Fashioned Beef Stroganoff — The CREAMIEST Mushroom Sauce!

Amish Cooking 2026-08-23 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

Let me show you today a supper that is pure comfort, tender beef and mushrooms in a rich, creamy, savory sauce, spooned over soft egg noodles, a beef stroganoff done the old honest way. It is warming and hearty and a little bit special, the kind of creamy comforting supper that has been a beloved standby of the American home table for generations, and yet it is not hard at all, made in one pan in not much time. And I will show you how to get that sauce silky and rich and to keep it from curdling, which is the one thing folks worry over.

Now, let me credit this honestly, for the stroganoff came to us from Russia, where beef in a sour cream sauce was a fine old dish. But it traveled, as good dishes do, and took root here and became a thoroughly beloved American home supper, a comfort-food standby folks grew up on. I make it in my plain kitchen honoring where it came from, of good honest things a plain kitchen has, beef and mushrooms and onion and broth and sour cream, over noodles.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

1 1/2 pounds beef (tender strips, or ground beef, or a chuck cut for braising)
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons butter
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups beef broth (my homemade bone broth is best)
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
1 cup sour cream (at room temperature)
12 ounces egg noodles, to serve

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Three honest cuts of beef you can use (tender, ground, or braising)
✔ Why you sear the beef well and keep tender beef quick
✔ Why you must brown the mushrooms (not steam them pale)
✔ How to build the sauce on the browned bits and broth
✔ The one crucial secret: add sour cream OFF the boil (or it curdles)
✔ Why room-temperature sour cream blends in smoother
✔ Why egg noodles are the classic bed for it
✔ How to make it your own (mushroom-rich, meatless, and more)
✔ How to reheat leftovers gently without breaking the sauce
✔ How to fix a curdled sauce, tough beef, or a thin sauce

You do not need a box or a packet of powder. You need beef, mushrooms, onion, broth, and sour cream, over noodles. And once you spoon this creamy stroganoff over soft buttered noodles, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest, creamiest stroganoff there is comes not from a box on the shelf but from a pan of real things cooked with a little knowing and a gentle hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make beef stroganoff, and did they make it with beef strips, or with ground beef as many do, and did they serve it over noodles, or rice, or potatoes? And do you have a creamy comfort supper your family always turned to on a cold evening? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest, creamiest stroganoff there is comes not from a box on the shelf but from a pan of real things cooked with a little knowing and a gentle hand.

#beefstroganoff #stroganoff #beefstroganoffrecipe #comfortfood #creamybeef #eggnoodles #mushroomsauce #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #familydinner #beefdinner #pennsylvaniadutch

The PERFECT Old-Fashioned APPLE PIE — Flaky Crust & a Rich, Foolproof Filling

Amish Cooking 2026-08-21 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

There is no pie so beloved, so deeply woven into this country's heart, as a homemade apple pie, and today I am going to show you how to make one, truly well, the old way, with tender spiced apples in a sweet glossy sauce, all in a crisp flaky crust, the kind of apple pie that fills the whole house with its smell and makes folks close their eyes at the first bite. It is the pie of home, of autumn, of every good gathering, and I will show you the secret, too, that keeps the filling from going watery and sliding all over the plate, so your pie slices clean and holds together proud.

Now, this is the very pie I have been leading you toward. When I showed you how to make that flaky pie crust, I told you a whole world of pies would open to you once you had it, and here is the first and greatest of them. So you already know how to make the crust, and today we fill it with apples, the same good apples I have shown you turn into applesauce and apple butter.

INGREDIENTS (one 9-inch pie)

For the crust:

Pastry for a double-crust pie (from my flaky pie crust recipe)

For the filling:

6 to 7 tart baking apples (Granny Smith or similar), peeled and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg (for the egg wash)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ How to choose good tart, firm baking apples (and why)
✔ Why you slice them thin and even
✔ The SECRET cooked sauce that keeps the filling from going watery
✔ Why most apple pies turn out soggy, and how this fixes it
✔ How to weave a lattice top (easier than it looks)
✔ Or how to do a plain top crust with vents
✔ The egg wash for a glossy golden crust
✔ The two-stage bake: hot to set the crust, then moderate
✔ Why you MUST let it rest before cutting (or it runs)
✔ How to fix a watery filling, soggy bottom, or hard apples

You do not need a bakery or a frozen pie. You need a flaky crust you know how to make, good tart apples, and that little cooked sauce. And once you cut a clean slice of your own, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest apple pie there is comes not from a store case but from your own oven, made by your own hand from the apples of the autumn.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family bake apple pie, and who was the pie-maker, and did they have a secret to their filling or their crust, and did they do a lattice or a full top? And what do you have on your apple pie, ice cream, or cream, or cheese, or nothing at all? Those are warm memories and I would dearly love to hear them. Tell me.

Next time, now that you can make a flaky crust and have baked your first great pie, I am going to show you another, that other great pie of the autumn table, a proper homemade pumpkin pie, smooth and spiced and custardy in your own flaky crust. Once you can make a crust, the pies never end. Next time, old-fashioned pumpkin pie.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest apple pie there is comes not from a store case but from your own oven, made by your own hand from the apples of the autumn.

#applepie #applepierecipe #homemadeapplepie #pie #baking #apple #latticepie #fallbaking #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #pierecipe #pennsylvaniadutch

HOMEMADE BACON the OLD Way — Cure & Smoke Your Own From the Belly

Amish Cooking 2026-08-20 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today one of the most rewarding things a person can make, your own bacon, cured and smoked from a fresh pork belly by your own hand, the old way. Homemade bacon, cured slow and smoked over hardwood, is so far beyond the packaged stuff from the store that once you have made and tasted your own, the store kind near disappoints you forever. It is deeply satisfying work, not hard but wanting patience, and it fills your home with a smell there is nothing finer than. Today I am going to show you how it is done, honestly and carefully, including the plain truth about the curing that keeps it safe.

Those of you who watched me braise a fresh pork belly will remember I said the belly has two great fates, and I would show you the other. Here it is. That same cut, cured and smoked, becomes bacon. And this is deep in my people's way, for in the old hog seasons, much of the belly went to the smokehouse to become bacon, cured and hung and smoked to keep and feed the family through the year.

INGREDIENTS (for a 3 to 5 pound belly)

3 to 5 pounds fresh skinless pork belly
1/4 cup coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
1/4 cup brown sugar (or 1/4 cup maple syrup)
1 teaspoon pink curing salt (sodium nitrite cure #1; measured carefully per the proper guide for your weight of meat)
Optional: black pepper, garlic, herbs

Note: the pink curing salt is NOT table salt or Himalayan salt. It is a sodium-nitrite cure used in a small, carefully measured amount for safe curing. Follow a proper curing guide for the exact amount for your meat, and keep it labeled and away from children.

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why the belly is the same cut as the fresh braised one
✔ The honest cure: salt, sugar, maple, and the curing salt
✔ The plain truth about pink curing salt, why it matters for safety
✔ Why you cure it cold for several days, turning it
✔ Why you rinse and dry it before smoking
✔ Why you smoke it LOW and SLOW over hardwood
✔ The safe internal temperature to smoke it to
✔ The honest no-smoker option (cured, oven-cooked bacon)
✔ Why it keeps well and makes a treasured gift
✔ How to fix bacon that came out too salty or did not cure through

You do not need a store package, much of which is not even truly smoked but flavored with liquid smoke and pumped with water. You need a belly, a simple cure, and a low hardwood smoke. And once you cook a slice of your own, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest bacon there is comes not from a store package but from a belly you cured and smoked yourself, the old way.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family, or your grandparents, cure and smoke their own meat, and did they have a smokehouse, for those are becoming rare memories worth keeping? And have you ever made your own bacon, or will you try it now that you know the way of it? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the very best way to eat that homemade bacon, the finest sandwich there is, a proper bacon, lettuce, and tomato, the BLT, made right with your own good bacon, your own bread, and a ripe tomato. Next time, the perfect BLT.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest bacon there is comes not from a store package but from a belly you cured and smoked yourself, the old way.

#homemadebacon #bacon #curedmeat #smokedbacon #howtomakebacon #porkbelly #curingmeat #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #smokehouse #nothingwasted #pennsylvaniadutch

Apple Cider CHICKEN — The OLD-Fashioned Harvest Supper with CRISPY Skin & a Sweet Glaze

Amish Cooking 2026-08-20 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today a supper that tastes of autumn itself, chicken with a crisp golden skin, cooked in a skillet and glazed in a sweet-tart apple cider glaze that cooks down sticky and glossy and clings to every piece, sweet and savory and bright all at once. It is the kind of supper that suits a cool harvest evening, when the apples are in and the cider is pressed, warming and homely and a little special, and yet it is a simple skillet supper made in one pan in not much time.

Now, those of you who have cooked along with me know I have shown you chicken glazed sweet before, that honey garlic chicken. This one differs, glazed with apple cider reduced to a sweet-tart glaze, brighter and more autumn, and done a different way, seared crisp and glazed right in the skillet. It ties to those apples I have shown you put up, the applesauce and the apple butter, another good use for the fruit of the autumn orchard.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

6 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (or a cut-up chicken)
Salt and pepper
2 cups apple cider (real cloudy pressed cider, not clear juice)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar or honey (optional, to taste)
2 cloves garlic, and a sprig of thyme or sage
A little mustard (optional)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why bone-in, skin-on thighs are best (juicy, crisp skin)
✔ Why you pat the skin dry, then sear it undisturbed for crispness
✔ How reducing the cider concentrates it into a glossy glaze
✔ How to balance the glaze: sweet, tang, butter, and herb
✔ Why real cloudy cider beats thin clear juice
✔ How maple can stand in for a sweeter glaze
✔ The honest word on doneness (165 degrees, sure and safe)
✔ How to serve it (over rice, mashed potatoes, with autumn sides)
✔ How to make it your own with apples, onions, or warm spice
✔ How to fix skin that is not crisp or a glaze that will not thicken

You do not need takeout. You need crisp-seared chicken and apple cider cooked down to a glaze, in one skillet, of honest things. And once you set down a plate of crisp-skinned chicken glossy with sweet-tart apple glaze, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest sweet-glazed chicken there is comes not from a takeout carton but from your own skillet, glazed with the cider of your own autumn.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family cook with apple cider, in savory dishes like this and not just to drink, and what did they make with the autumn cider and apples? And do you favor the bright tang of a cider glaze, or the deep sweet of a maple one, for I am fond of both? I would dearly love to hear how your family cooked the taste of autumn. Tell me.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest sweet-glazed chicken there is comes not from a takeout carton but from your own skillet, glazed with the cider of your own autumn.

#appleciderchicken #ciderglazedchicken #chicken #chickenthighs #harvestrecipe #fallrecipe #skilletchicken #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #chickendinner #applecider #pennsylvaniadutch

THE BEST Homemade Yeast Doughnuts — Light, Fluffy & Fried to GOLDEN Perfection the OLD-Fashioned Way

Amish Cooking 2026-08-19 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
eliasyoder.com

There are few treats so loved, so sure to bring a smile, as a fresh homemade doughnut, light and fluffy and tender, still warm, glazed sweet or rolled in sugar, the kind that fair melts in your mouth and is gone before you know it. My people, the plain folk of Pennsylvania, are near famous for our doughnuts, for a good yeast doughnut is one of the treasured treats of the plain kitchen, made for special mornings and gatherings. Today I am going to show you how to make them at home, truly well, light and fluffy and fried golden, and I promise you a fresh warm homemade doughnut is a thing no bakery box can touch.

Now, here is a happy thing for those who have baked along with me, for you already know the heart of this. The doughnut is made from a soft, rich, enriched yeast dough, the very same friend you met when we made that sandwich loaf and those dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls. So the dough will be familiar, and we will spend our real time on what makes a doughnut a doughnut, the shaping, and above all the frying.

INGREDIENTS (makes about 12 doughnuts)

For the dough:

1 cup warm milk (about 110 F)
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 to 4 cups flour

For frying and finishing:

Lard or oil, for deep frying (several inches deep)
Simple glaze: 2 cups powdered sugar, 3 to 4 tablespoons milk, a little vanilla
Or: cinnamon sugar (1/2 cup sugar + 1 tablespoon cinnamon)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why it is built on the same enriched dough as your rolls
✔ Why the second rise makes them light and fluffy
✔ How to cut the rings (and why the hole helps them fry even)
✔ The whole secret: the right FAT TEMPERATURE for frying
✔ The old scrap-of-dough test for judging the heat
✔ Why you fry a few at a time and turn them once golden
✔ Why lard is the traditional, finest frying fat
✔ How to glaze or sugar them warm
✔ How to make filled doughnuts from the same dough
✔ How to fix doughnuts that came out greasy, raw inside, or dense

You do not need a doughnut shop. You need a sweet dough you already know, rolled and cut and risen, and fried golden in a pot of fat. And once you eat one warm from your own pot, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest, freshest, most tender doughnut there is comes not from a shop case but from your own pot, fried golden and eaten warm.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make doughnuts, and did they have a special time for them, a holiday or a certain morning, and did they glaze them or sugar them or roll them in cinnamon? And who was the doughnut-maker in your family? I would dearly love to hear those warm memories. Tell me.

Next time, now that I have shown you how to make a good flaky pie crust, I am going to show you a pie to fill it with, a proper old-fashioned apple pie, made from good apples in your own flaky crust. You have the crust now, so next comes the pie. Next time, old-fashioned apple pie.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest, freshest, most tender doughnut there is comes not from a shop case but from your own pot, fried golden and eaten warm.

#doughnuts #donuts #homemadedoughnuts #yeastdoughnuts #homemadedonuts #friedbread #baking #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #donutrecipe #pennsylvaniadutch #fasnacht

OLD-Fashioned Braised Pork Belly — Slow-Cooked Until It MELTS Apart

Amish Cooking 2026-08-19 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today one of the richest, most deeply satisfying things you can do with a hog, a slow-braised pork belly, cooked low and gentle for hours until the meat is meltingly tender and the fat has gone soft and silky and the whole thing near dissolves on the tongue in a deep savory richness. Pork belly is a glorious cut, one of the most flavorful on the whole animal, and braised the old slow way it becomes something truly special, rich and tender and comforting.

Now, those of you who know your cuts will know that pork belly is the very same cut that bacon is made from, only fresh and uncured, that thick slab of meat and fat from the underside of the hog, layered lean and fat through and through. Today we cook it fresh, braised slow. Another day I will show you the other great thing to do with a belly, which is to cure and smoke it into bacon.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

2 pounds fresh pork belly, cut into large chunks
Salt and pepper
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups pork or chicken broth (or bone broth)
2 tablespoons brown sugar (or honey, or a splash of cider)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 bay leaf, a sprig of thyme or sage

Here is what you will learn:

✔ How pork belly differs from bacon (fresh vs. cured)
✔ How to choose a well-layered belly (good streaks of meat and fat)
✔ Why you brown the chunks first (and render some fat)
✔ Why NO soy or strange bottled sauces are needed
✔ Why a touch of sweet and a splash of tang balance the rich pork
✔ Why you braise LOW and SLOW for hours (the gelatin science)
✔ How to test it by feel (spoon-tender, not by temperature)
✔ Whether to serve it saucy or reduce the sauce to a sticky glaze
✔ Why you serve it against something sharp (kraut, applesauce)
✔ How to make it ahead and lift off the set fat, and fix common troubles

You do not need a fancy restaurant. You need a fresh belly, browned and braised slow in good broth with onion and herb. And once you serve up a piece of meltingly tender pork belly, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that this cut the restaurants now sell so dear was always plain honest farm food, made glorious by nothing but time and a slow gentle heat.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family cook fresh pork belly, or was your belly always turned to bacon, and if you cooked it fresh, how, braised, or roasted for crackling, or some other way? And what do you serve against rich pork to cut it, kraut, or applesauce, or something else? I would dearly love to hear, for the old ways with the hog are worth gathering. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the other great thing to do with a pork belly, the thing most bellies became in an old farm kitchen, and that is bacon, made the old way by curing and smoking the belly yourself, worlds beyond any bacon from a store package. Next time, homemade bacon, curing the belly the old way.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows this cut the restaurants now sell so dear was always plain honest farm food, made glorious by nothing but time and a slow gentle heat.

#porkbelly #braisedporkbelly #porkbellyrecipe #slowcookedpork #pork #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #comfortfood #porkrecipe #slowbraised #nothingwasted #pennsylvaniadutch

HONEY BUTTER — The OLD Sweet Spread for Warm Biscuits and Bread

Amish Cooking 2026-08-18 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today one of the simplest, sweetest, most purely lovely things there is to make in a kitchen, honey butter, just good butter and good honey whipped together into a soft, light, golden spread, sweet and rich and creamy, that turns a warm biscuit or a slice of fresh bread into something near heavenly. It is the work of but a few minutes, it uses only two things, and yet the result is so much more than the sum of them, so much better than either butter or honey alone, that folks who taste it for the first time on a warm biscuit tend to go quiet and then reach for another.

Now, this brings together two of the finest things a plain homestead makes, good butter, churned fresh, and good honey, that pure golden sweetness the bees give. Bring those two together, whipped light, and you have something that tastes of a whole way of life, the cow and the bee and the churn, all in a spread for your bread.

INGREDIENTS (makes about 1 cup)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened to room temperature
1/4 to 1/3 cup honey (more for sweeter, to taste)
1/4 teaspoon salt (a small pinch; omit if using salted butter)
Optional: a pinch of cinnamon, or a little vanilla

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why the butter must be SOFT (not cold, not melted) to whip up light
✔ Why you whip the butter airy and pale FIRST
✔ Why you add the honey gradually and beat it in
✔ Why a small pinch of salt lifts and rounds the sweetness
✔ Why good butter and good honey matter (they are the whole of it)
✔ How local honey gives it the flavor of your own countryside
✔ All the warm breads to spread it on (biscuits, cornbread, rolls)
✔ How it keeps, and why it makes a lovely homemade gift
✔ A few gentle variations (cinnamon, orange, maple)
✔ How to fix honey butter that came out heavy, runny, or streaky

You do not need a tub from the store. You need butter and honey, whipped light with a pinch of salt, in two minutes. And once you spread a soft golden swirl of it onto a warm biscuit and watch it melt, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that some of the sweetest pleasures of the table are also the simplest, a crock of honey butter beside warm biscuits, both made by your own hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make honey butter, or a sweet butter of some kind, and what did they spread it on, biscuits, or cornbread, or something else? And do you keep your own bees, or know someone who does, for good local honey makes the finest honey butter there is? I would dearly love to hear. Tell me.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows some of the sweetest pleasures of the table are also the simplest, a crock of honey butter beside warm biscuits, both made by your own hand.

#honeybutter #whippedhoneybutter #honey #butter #homemadehoneybutter #biscuits #cornbread #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #sweetspread #easyrecipe #pennsylvaniadutch

MELT-in-Your-Mouth BEEF Short Ribs — The OLD-Fashioned Slow-Braised Way

Amish Cooking 2026-08-17 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today one of the grandest, richest, most impressive suppers a plain kitchen can set upon a table, beef short ribs, braised long and slow until the meat is so tender it falls from the bone at the touch of a fork and fair melts in your mouth, in a deep rich savory sauce. This is a special-occasion supper, a dish for a Sunday or a holiday or a gathering, the kind of thing that makes folks go quiet with the first bite and then ask how you did it. And I am going to show you that it is not hard at all, only slow, and that the slowness does all the work while you go about your day.

Now, I have shown you a pot roast before, and this is kin to it, the same great principle of braising a tough cut slow until it turns meltingly tender. But this is its own thing, grander and richer, and the difference is the cut. Short ribs are a special cut, meaty beef on a piece of bone, marbled and rich, and braised slow they give a fall-off-the-bone richness beyond a plain pot roast. Where the pot roast is your everyday braise, this is the braise for when you want to set something truly special before folks you love.

INGREDIENTS (serves 4 to 6)

4 to 5 pounds bone-in beef short ribs
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons flour (for dusting)
2 tablespoons fat (butter or oil), for searing
2 onions, chopped
3 carrots, in chunks
3 celery stalks, chopped
5 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 cups rich beef stock or bone broth (no wine needed)
1 tablespoon Worcestershire, and a splash of vinegar
A few sprigs thyme, 2 bay leaves

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why the CUT makes this richer than a pot roast
✔ Why you brown the ribs deep first (the whole flavor foundation)
✔ Why NO wine is needed (good broth and bone broth do it better)
✔ Why you braise LOW and SLOW for hours (the gelatin science)
✔ How the tough connective tissue melts to silky richness
✔ Why you strain and reduce the sauce down glossy
✔ How to serve it (over mashed potatoes, noodles, or polenta)
✔ Why it is even better made a day ahead
✔ How to skim the fat easily by chilling it
✔ How to fix ribs that came out tough, dry, or a thin sauce

You do not need a fancy restaurant. You need a tough cut, browned deep, and braised slow in good broth. And once you spoon a melting short rib and its rich sauce over mashed potatoes, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the grandest, most melting supper there is comes not from a restaurant but from a tough cut and a slow oven and a patient hand.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make braised short ribs, or slow-braised beef of any kind, for a special supper, and what did they serve it over? And what is the dish your family makes for a special occasion, the one that means something is being celebrated? I would dearly love to hear, for those dishes carry a family's whole heart. Tell me.

Next time I am going to circle back to something I promised you, when we made that honey garlic chicken, and show you the sweet gold itself, honey, and the keeping of bees, one of the oldest and most rewarding things a person can do. Next time, honey and the keeping of bees.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the grandest, most melting supper there is comes not from a restaurant but from a tough cut and a slow oven and a patient hand.

#shortribs #braisedshortribs #beefshortribs #shortribrecipe #braisedbeef #comfortfood #sundaydinner #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #specialoccasion #slowcooked #pennsylvaniadutch

OLD-Fashioned BONE BROTH — The Nourishing Foundation From Bones Youd Throw Away

Amish Cooking 2026-08-17 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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There is a thing simmering on the back of an old kitchen stove more often than not, a pot of bones and water going low and slow, filling the house with a deep savory smell, and it is one of the most nourishing, thrifty, and useful things a person can make, a good bone broth. It is not a soup, not yet, but the foundation of soups, the rich golden liquid you draw from bones over long slow hours, deep with flavor and body and goodness, and once you have a jar or two of your own put by, you will reach for it again and again. Today I am going to show you how, the old way, from bones you might otherwise have thrown away.

Now, this is the very heart of the old thrift, the wasting of nothing, for bone broth is made from the parts most folks discard, the bones and scraps left from your meats, turned by nothing but water and time into something precious. It costs next to nothing and gives so much.

INGREDIENTS (makes about 3 to 4 quarts)

3 to 4 pounds bones (beef, chicken, or a mix; roasted for beef)
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar (to help draw out the minerals)
1 onion, quartered (skin on is fine)
2 carrots, in chunks
2 celery stalks, in chunks
A few cloves garlic, smashed
A bay leaf, a few peppercorns, herbs if you like
Water, enough to cover the bones well (about 4 quarts)
Salt, to taste (added at the end)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you ROAST the bones first (for a deep, rich, brown broth)
✔ Why a splash of vinegar helps draw the goodness from the bones
✔ Why you simmer it LOW and SLOW for long hours (the gelatin)
✔ Why you skim the foam for a clean, clear broth
✔ Why you salt at the end, not the start
✔ How to know it is done (it sets to a jelly when cold)
✔ How to strain it clean and store it
✔ How it keeps: in the cold box, frozen, or as broth cubes
✔ Why it is the foundation of your soups, gravies, and braises
✔ How to fix a broth that came out weak, cloudy, or flavorless

You do not need a carton from the store, that pale salty stuff. You need bones, water, a bit of vinegar and vegetables, and time. And once you ladle out a rich golden broth of your own, deep and nourishing and set to a jelly when cold, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest, most nourishing broth there is comes not from a carton but from a pot of bones simmered slow on your own stove.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family keep a broth pot going, and what bones did they use, and did they have a soup they always turned it into? And do you save your bones and scraps for broth, or had you been throwing them away? I would dearly love to hear, for this old thrift is worth keeping alive. Tell me.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest, most nourishing broth there is comes not from a carton but from a pot of bones simmered slow on your own stove.

#bonebroth #homemadebonebroth #bonebrothrecipe #broth #stock #howtomakebonebroth #beefbonebroth #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #nothingwasted #nourishing #pennsylvaniadutch

The FLUFFIEST Old-Fashioned Pancakes — The SECRET to Perfectly Light & Golden Cakes

Amish Cooking 2026-08-16 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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There are few breakfasts so beloved, so sure to bring a smile to a sleepy face, as a stack of tall, fluffy, golden pancakes, soft and light, with butter melting down the sides and syrup soaking into every layer. It is a breakfast that feels like a treat even on an ordinary morning, the kind that gets children out of bed without a second call, and today I am going to show you how to make them, truly well, tall and fluffy and light rather than flat and heavy and sad, from scratch, and I promise you they are far beyond anything from a box mix.

Now, those of you who made those waffles with me will find this familiar, for a pancake is the close cousin of the waffle. But where a waffle is pressed thin and crisp between hot irons, a pancake is poured onto a flat griddle and cooked soft, tender and fluffy all the way through. So think of them as a pair, the crisp waffle from the iron, and the soft fluffy pancake from the griddle.

INGREDIENTS

Flour
Baking powder (the leavening that puffs them up)
A bit of sugar and a bit of salt
Milk (or buttermilk for the tenderest pancakes)
An egg
Melted butter
A little vanilla (optional)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ The FIRST secret: do NOT overmix (leave the batter lumpy)
✔ The SECOND secret: rest the batter (it lightens before it cooks)
✔ Why buttermilk makes the most tender, fluffy pancake
✔ The THIRD secret: a steady MEDIUM heat, not too hot
✔ The FOURTH secret: watch the bubbles to know when to flip
✔ The FIFTH secret: flip once, and NEVER press them down
✔ How thick the batter should be for tall pancakes
✔ How to keep the stack warm so the cook eats too
✔ How to make them with berries or other touches
✔ How to fix pancakes that came out flat, dense, or burnt

You do not need a box mix or a bag of frozen ones. You need flour, milk, egg, butter, and a bit of baking powder, stirred gentle and cooked on a griddle. And once you set down a stack of tall fluffy pancakes with butter and real maple syrup, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the fluffiest, finest pancake there is comes not from a box on the shelf but from a bowl of plain things stirred with a light hand and cooked on your own griddle.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make pancakes from scratch of a weekend, and who was the one at the griddle, and did you have them plain, or with berries, or some special way? And what do you put on yours, real maple syrup, or honey, or fruit, or something else? Those are warm morning memories and I would dearly love to hear them. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you the very thing that crowns a stack of these, real maple syrup, made the old way from the sap of the maple trees, boiled down slow into that dark sweet gold, for there is nothing like real maple syrup on a hot pancake. Next time, homemade maple syrup.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the fluffiest, finest pancake there is comes not from a box on the shelf but from a bowl of plain things stirred with a light hand and cooked on your own griddle.

#pancakes #fluffypancakes #homemadepancakes #pancakerecipe #buttermilkpancakes #breakfast #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #pancakesfromscratch #griddlecakes #breakfastrecipe #pennsylvaniadutch

The SECRET to the Flakiest Pie Crust Ever — The Old-Fashioned Way

Amish Cooking 2026-08-15 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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I have promised you this one more times than I can count now, at the end of that lemon meringue pie, and the pizza, and those cookies, for it is the foundation under so much good baking. Today I finally make good on it. We are going to make a proper pie crust, from scratch, the old flaky kind that shatters into tender buttery layers, the kind that makes a pie a pie. For a pie is only as good as its crust, and a good crust is one of the great skills of the plain kitchen. Learn this, and a whole world of pies opens before you, every fruit pie and cream pie and custard pie there is, for they all begin here.

My people, the plain folk of Pennsylvania, are known far and wide for our pies, and the secret is first and always the crust. A pie crust troubles a great many folks, coming out tough, or hard, or shrunken, or soggy. But there is no mystery to it, only a few plain principles that, once you understand them, make it easy and sure.

INGREDIENTS

Flour
Cold fat: lard (flakiest, traditional), or butter (best flavor), or shortening, or a mix
Salt
A bit of sugar (for a sweet pie, optional)
Ice-cold water

Here is what you will learn:

✔ The fat, honestly: lard for the flakiest, butter for flavor, or a mix
✔ The FIRST principle: everything must be COLD (this is the whole secret of flakiness)
✔ Why cold fat in bits makes the flaky layers (the steam-pocket science)
✔ How to cut the cold fat into the flour BY HAND (no machine needed)
✔ The SECOND principle: just enough ice water, and no more
✔ The THIRD principle: do NOT overwork it (the opposite of bread)
✔ Why you chill the dough before rolling
✔ How to roll it out and ease it into the plate without stretching
✔ How to blind bake an empty shell (for pies like lemon meringue)
✔ How to make a double crust, and how to fix a tough or shrunken crust

You do not need a box of ready-rolled crust. You need flour, cold fat, salt, and ice water, handled with a light and knowing hand. And once you make a flaky crust of your own, tender and shattering, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest, flakiest pie crust there is comes not from a box but from your own hands.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make pie crust from scratch, and who was the crust-maker, for there was often one in a family known for it, and did they use lard, or butter, or shortening? And what pie will you make first now that you can make a crust? I would dearly love to hear, for the making of pies is one of the great home arts. Tell me.

Next time I am going to show you something I have owed you a good while, homemade pancakes, done the old way, light and fluffy and golden, for a stack of proper homemade pancakes is one of the great simple breakfast joys and far beyond anything from a box mix. Next time, homemade pancakes.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest, flakiest pie crust there is comes not from a box but from your own hands, made with cold fat and a light and knowing touch.

#piecrust #flakypiecrust #howtomakepiecrust #pastry #homemadepiecrust #baking #piedough #pie #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #bakingbasics #pennsylvaniadutch

The SECRET to Perfect Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup — Crispy & Gooey Every Time

Amish Cooking 2026-08-14 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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There are few pairings in all of eating so perfectly, so comfortingly matched as a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup. The crisp golden buttery sandwich with its molten cheese within, and the warm rich tomato soup to dip it in, together they are one of the great simple comforts of the table, the kind of meal that warms you through on a cold day and takes grown folks straight back to childhood. And today I am going to show you how to make both, truly well, from scratch, a grilled cheese crisp and golden without and gloriously melted within, and a rich smooth tomato soup to go beside it.

It sounds simple, and in its makings it is, but cooking a grilled cheese truly well, so the cheese inside is fully melted at the very moment the outside is perfectly crisp, takes a bit of knowing, and it is where most folks go wrong. So I will show you the way of it, and the roasted tomato soup that near makes itself in the oven while you tend the sandwiches.

INGREDIENTS

For the tomato soup:

Ripe tomatoes, a good lot
An onion, quartered
A clove or two of garlic
Olive oil, salt, and pepper
A little cream (optional)

For the grilled cheese:

Good sturdy bread (sourdough or a hearty loaf)
Sharp cheddar, plus a bit of a good melting cheese
Butter (and a little mayonnaise, if you like)
A little grated Parmesan for the crust (optional)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why roasting the tomatoes deepens the soup far beyond a simmered one
✔ How to blend it smooth (blender, food mill, or a good mash)
✔ Why you finish with cream and must NOT boil it after
✔ Why you GRATE the cheese (it melts smoother than slices)
✔ Why a mix of cheeses beats one alone
✔ The single greatest secret: cook it LOW and SLOW
✔ Why the lid on the pan melts the inside
✔ The Parmesan-crust trick for the outside
✔ Why day-old bread grills up crispest
✔ How to fix a sandwich burnt outside and cold within, or a broken soup

You do not need a can and a diner. You need tomatoes roasted and blended, and good bread and cheese grilled slow. And once you dip a crisp golden grilled cheese into a bowl of your own rich tomato soup, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the finest, most comforting grilled cheese and tomato soup there is comes not from a can and a diner but from your own oven and your own pan.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Is grilled cheese and tomato soup a comfort from your own childhood, and who made it for you, and do you dip the sandwich in the soup as I do, for I know some do and some would never? And what cheese do you reach for in a grilled cheese? Those are warm memories and I would dearly love to hear them. Tell me.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the finest, most comforting grilled cheese and tomato soup there is comes not from a can and a diner but from your own oven and your own pan, made by your own hand.

#grilledcheese #tomatosoup #grilledcheeseandtomatosoup #comfortfood #roastedtomatosoup #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #soup #sandwich #cheese #homemadesoup #pennsylvaniadutch

The JUICIEST Italian Meatballs — Made the OLD-FASHIONED Way

Amish Cooking 2026-08-14 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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There are few suppers so beloved, so comforting, so sure to make a family glad, as a plate of tender juicy meatballs in a rich tomato sauce, spooned over pasta, or piled into a roll for a meatball sandwich. It is hearty and homely and generous, the kind of supper children cheer for and grown folks never tire of. And today I am going to show you how to make it, truly well, meatballs that come out juicy and tender rather than dry and hard as a great many folks' do, simmered in a good tomato sauce, the old way, from scratch.

Now, those of you who made those Swedish meatballs with me may wonder how these differ. They were Swedish, in a rich creamy gravy. These are Italian, in a tomato sauce, over pasta, an altogether different dish, though both share one secret of tenderness. And this is a glorious use for that homemade tomato sauce I showed you how to make and put up from your own garden tomatoes.

INGREDIENTS

Ground pork and ground beef (half and half; or all beef)
A few slices of bread, soaked in water or milk (the panade)
Garlic, minced, and fresh parsley
A good grating of Parmesan cheese
An egg
Salt and pepper
Your own tomato sauce, to simmer them in
Pasta, to serve

Here is what you will learn:

✔ The secret to a juicy, tender meatball: the panade (soaked bread)
✔ Why a pork-and-beef mix makes the finest meatball
✔ Why you must NOT overmix the meat (it turns rubbery)
✔ How to roll them smooth and even (the wet-hands trick)
✔ Why you brown them first, then simmer in the sauce
✔ The honest word on doneness (cooked through, no raw center)
✔ How to serve them (over pasta, in a sub, with good bread)
✔ How to make a big batch and FREEZE them for easy suppers
✔ How to make them your own with a few plain touches
✔ How to fix meatballs that came out dry, dense, or fell apart

You do not need a frozen bag of hard little balls. You need meat, soaked bread, garlic, cheese, and egg, rolled and browned and simmered in good sauce. And once you set down a plate of tender juicy meatballs over pasta, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that the juiciest, most tender meatball there is comes not from a frozen bag but from a bowl of meat and soaked bread and your own two hands.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Did your family make meatballs, and did they have a secret to them, and did they serve them over pasta, or in a sandwich, or some other way? And do you make your own sauce for them, now that I have shown you how? I would dearly love to hear how your family does their meatballs. Tell me.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows the juiciest, most tender meatball there is comes not from a frozen bag but from a bowl of meat and soaked bread and your own two hands, simmered in good sauce.

#meatballs #italianmeatballs #meatballrecipe #homemademeatballs #spaghettiandmeatballs #meatballsandsauce #fromscratch #scratchcooking #amishcooking #oldfashionedcooking #homestead #comfortfood #familydinner #juicymeatballs #pennsylvaniadutch

Baked Sweet Potatoes the OLD Way — Buttery, Crispy & Irresistible

Amish Cooking 2026-08-13 | 🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
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Let me show you today a lovely way with the sweet potato, that humble, honest, nourishing root that grows so generously and keeps so well, a way that turns a few plain sweet potatoes into a dish handsome enough for company and good enough that folks who think they do not care for sweet potatoes come round to them. We slice them thin, coat every slice with butter and herb and a bit of good cheese, and bake them, first covered so they go tender, then uncovered so the tops brown and crisp and gold. It is a simple thing, and a beautiful one, tender and creamy within, crisp and golden on top, savory and rich.

The sweet potato is a fine old crop, and I have a great fondness for it. It grows in abundance, it is filling and nourishing, and it keeps a good long while in a cool dry place well into the winter, which made it a mainstay of many an old farm table through the cold months. Most folks know it only mashed with sweetness piled on, but this is a savory baked dish that lets its own gentle sweetness shine against butter and herb and cheese.

INGREDIENTS

3 to 4 sweet potatoes, as even in shape as you can
Melted butter
Salt and black pepper
Fresh thyme (or rosemary, oregano, parsley)
A clove or two of garlic, minced fine
A good grating of hard cheese (Parmesan or the like)

Here is what you will learn:

✔ Why you slice them thin AND even (so they cook at the same rate)
✔ Why you coat every slice with the butter, herb, and cheese
✔ How to layer them, or stand them up for a handsome dish
✔ The two-stage bake, and why it is the whole secret
✔ Why COVERED first (steams them tender all through)
✔ Why UNCOVERED and hotter after (browns and crisps the top)
✔ Why you grate your own cheese from a block
✔ How to make it richer, sweeter, or with other vegetables
✔ Why it works for white potatoes too
✔ How to fix a dish that came out undercooked, dry, or bland

You do not need a frozen side or a canned sugary yam. You need sweet potatoes, sliced thin, buttered and herbed and cheesed, and baked in two stages. And once you set down a dish of it, tender and creamy within, crisp and golden on top, you will understand what the old kitchens always knew, that this humble, storable, generous root is one of the finest things a garden gives, and never needed a heap of sugar to be wonderful.

Now tell me something down in the comments. Do you grow sweet potatoes, or store them through the winter, and how does your family like them, sweet or savory? And had you ever thought to bake them sliced like this, savory with herb and cheese, or only mashed with sweetness? I would dearly love to hear how your family cooks this good old root. Tell me.

Until then, take good care of the ones at your table. And keep a kitchen that knows this humble, storable, generous root is one of the finest things a garden gives, and never needed a heap of sugar to be wonderful, only butter and herb and a hot oven and a little knowing.

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