Amish Main Dishes

Amish cooking is legendary for being hearty, economical, and accessible. In other words, one may have to spend years mastering the intricate art of French cooking, but anyone can learn to make Amish Beef Stew. The accessibility of Amish cooking doesn’t make it pedestrian, though. There are plenty of Amish suppers that employ splashes of elegance, but the flavors are available for most: brown sugars, mustards, and minimal spices, like the Amish Brown Sugar Beef Roast.

Amish main dishes are a time to bring people together. Families will gather around a common table and share a homemade pizza over tales of threshing, or antics at school, and garden stories. Each family member will bring their day’s experiences to the supper table and over ladles of hearty soup, spoonfuls of casserole, and forkfuls of savory pie share stories. Stories are the cement of Amish culture, binding the bricks of peoples commonality together, one by one. These stories are shared over supper, the common hearth of Amish culture.

Amish families frequently number 10 people, sometimes close to 20 in intergenerational households. And if some cousins or aunts or uncles drop by unannounced, which happens often, then even more mouths need to be fed. Amish suppers aren’t designed to be decorative and delicate, they are designed to be fast, easy-to-assemble, and tasty. That’s why casseroles are the cornerstone of Amish suppers, they are easy and feed an army. Ground beef, chicken, and fish are other favorites that keep the stomachs full. Favorites like Washday Casserole and Six Layer Casserole are favorites to feed large numbers.