Amish Barn-Raising Breakfast Casserole

This Amish Barn-Raising Breakfast Casserole is a very popular recipe among the Amish.  Large gatherings require large amounts of fuel, and this casserole delivers!   

Barn raisings have captured the imagination of Hollywood scriptwriters and Amish-themed novelists for generations. Barn-raisings are irresistible material: hundreds of Amish men swarm like ants over the frame of a barn and quickly get it put up within the span of a day. Meanwhile, a legion of  ladies ladel soups, cart in casseroles, bake breads, and whip up desserts to feed the hungry men throughout the project.  Man, the barn-raising scene from the Harrison Ford movie, Witness, was epic.

And the above paragraph does pretty much describe an old-fashioned Amish barn-raising, they aren’t as common as you would think.  I mean, first, you have to assume that everybody can just drop work at a moment's notice.  But that isn’t as “easy” as it used to be when most Amish men were self-employed farmers.  Now they work for shops, as shopkeepers, in factories, so from a practical standpoint, barn-raisings are just tougher to organize. I’ve noticed, frolics are becoming more popular in recent years, those are scaled-down versions of barn raisings.

Anyway, none of this is to say that barn-raisings don’t still happen among the Amish, they do. They are part of their cultural traditions and community fabric. They’re just not all that common. It’s not like there’s a barn-raising every week in Amish country. In older established Amish communities, most of the barns are in decent shape so the need for from-scratch barns are rare.

Also, when there are barn-raisings today, more and more frequently, power tools show up. This doesn’t diminish the workmanship, just a note to show how they’re changing.

Most Amish who make this Amish Barn-Raising Breakfast Casserole recipe would use homemade cottage cheese (I've had some, it's delicious), homemade hashed browns, farm fresh eggs, homegrown onions, and slabs of home-cured bacon. You can make this at home with all store-bought stuff and it'll taste great, but nothing can quite mimic fresh, home-sourced ingredients.

Cook bacon and onion in a separate skillet.

Delicious shredded potatoes.

Pour into a glass or metal 13 X 9 inch dish and bake, makes for a delicious breakfast (or supper)

Serve in slices or squares and you'll have yourself an amazing meal. I think the combination of the cheeses, including the cottage cheese, really gives this some full flavor.

🍳 Barn-Raising Breakfast Casserole Ingredients

• 1 pound(s) sliced bacon, diced
• 1 medium sweet onion, chopped
• 6 eggs, lightly beaten
• 4 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed or your own shredded potatoes
• 2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 ½ cups cottage cheese
• 1 ¼ cups shredded Swiss cheese

📋 Instructions

1. In a large skillet, cook bacon and onion until bacon is crisp; drain.
2. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; stir in bacon mixture.
3. Transfer to a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish.
4. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting

🍳 More Amish Egg Recipes

Egg Salad Recipe - Delicious classic!

Egg-in-Nest - So good!

Egg Dutch - Wow!

Eggs La Golden - a delicious meal

🖨️ Full Recipe