The "Gutes Essen: Good Eating in German-Russian Country" memories cookbook celebrates the food culture of the Germans from Russia who emigrated to south central North Dakota beginning in the 1880s.
The publication shares recipes and memories from kitchens of ten local women cooks who make strudels, sauerkraut, kartoffel-kurbis strumbus, fleischkeuchla, borscht, rahmnoodla, pickled beets, stirrum, knoephla soup and kuchen.
Memories shared include, "Queen of dessert - kuchen", "A German-Russian Love Story", "Garden Beauty", "Name's Days and Birthdays", "Aunt Alice's Aunt Katie's Potato Bread Recipe", "Host a cheese button party" and "A heaping cup of history".
Recipes include ten women from Emmons, Logan and McIntosh counties, south central North Dakota, featured in the television documentary, "Gutes Essen": Mary Ann (Werre) Lehr, Lehr, North Dakota - Strudels, Rhubarb-Strawberry Jam, Rhubarb Dessert; Violet (Eiseman) Diegel, Wishek, North Dakota - Knoephla Soup, Lettuce Soup, Stirrum, Gross Mutter's Pfeffernussen; DeAnn (Haak) Larson and her sisters, Carrie (Haak) Heidrich, Strasburg, North Dakota - Cheese Buttons; Carolyn (Kuhn) Sperle (at 101 years old), Napoleon, North Dakota - Borscht; Theresa (Meier) Eissinger, Napoleon, North Dakota - Fleischkuechla, Potato Soup, Pfeffernusen; Marion (Kramlich/Woehl) Schweigert, Lehr, North Dakota - Blagenda, Bean Soup; Donna (Maier) Eszlinger, Ashley, North Dakota - Potato-Pumpkin Stumbus; LaVerna (Dockter) Kasemen, Wishek, North Dakota - Pickled Beets; Marge (Burlack) Horner, Napoleon, North Dakota - Wedding Kuchen, Rahmnoodla; Sue (Kaseman) Balcom, Mandan, North Dakota - Grandma Meidinger's Kuchen Recipe, Potato Bread, White Bread, Date Cookies, Ammonia Cookies, Molasses Sugar Cookies.
Other recipes include: Hot Potato Salad, Pumpkin Blachenta, Pickled Eggs, Pickle Pig's Feet, Pickled Fish, Watermelon Pickles, Sauerkraut, Halupsy (Pigs in the Blanket), Pork Sausage, Summer Sausage, Rice Dressing, German Kuchen, Homemade Egg Noodles, Bread Dough, Wedding Whiskey (Red Eye ), Anise Cookies, Sally Ann Cookies, German Lutheran Coffee, Honey Cookies, and others.
To preview the documentary DVD, follow the links below to Prairie Public Broadcasting's YouTube:
--Carolyn Sperle of Napoleon, North Dakota, tells the story of her family immigrating to Napoleon in 1911, just five years before she was born.
-- Sue Balcom teaches the youngsters in Napoleon, North Dakota school how to make some tradition foods. The recipes she uses have been handed down from generation to generation.
--The Strasburg Church Supper is an event held every year in the fall to help raise money for The Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church. They use the same recipes every year because there's no need to change a recipe that good.
Comments:
"When I first watched the documentary, "Gutes Essen: Good Eating in German-Russian Country," my interest lay in comparing the food of my mother's forebears, the Volga Germans who settled in Colorado, with that of the Germans who had settled in North Dakota after many generations, from the more southerly rim of the old Russian Empire. On this level, the makers of this film produced an extremely clear and informative ethnic cooking show that primarily made me aware of interesting differences in dishes, techniques, and names. In itself, this was a remarkable feat of editing and inducing participants to speak articulately, but also spontaneously, in their own "voices." "However, beyond that, the makers of this film have managed to convey subtly but poignantly a deeper unifying theme expressed casually through one of those voices when one of the older cooks says, almost as an aside, and spoken with a sense of wonder, "I've had a good life...a good life." To an outsider, or perhaps to the female homesteaders who were said to have "cried daily during their first year in the harsh North Dakota climate" while yearning for the balmy Black Sea region, this would be a surprise. But those homesteaders built strong families and good communities, a heritage worth passing on to new generations. However, as the film makes clear, this prospect is challenged by time and changes that have already eroded the size of rural communities, ties to the land and older occupations. Yet, their "gutes Essen", seems to work in the opposite direction to renew ties to people, stories, things of the past and to convey this heritage to the young: viz., the annual community meal for 1500 on "Sauerkraut Day;" the college graduate who returns to run the family sausage business; teaching the 4H kids gramma's recipes along with the story of her arranged marriage and the tip that her old bowl works best for dough. In this respect, the film makes clear that these folks and my Volga Germans have the important things in common."
---Judy Holleman, Boulder, Colorado.
"I thoroughly enjoyed the video of "Gutes Essen" . So many scenes brought back warm memories of my German/Russian grandmothers. I learned how to make many of the featured dishes from them but I had forgotten many "little" things. This video and the cookbook are wonderful memory refreshers for me. Another Prairie Public Television hit!"
--- Barbara Geiger Horn, Member, Glueckstal Colonies Research Association, and 1996 Journey to the Homeland Tour member.
"Good eating! The defining feature for most cultures is food. For the Germans from Russia there is so much food to talk about and to celebrate that sometimes the art of food becomes an event!
"My family meets annually to can dill pickles. it is a multi-generational effort that takes place in a barn on the ancestral farm. it is a time when family members come from many direction to work together toward a common goal and catch-up on one another's lives. the added bonus? Dill pickles to enjoy until the next time we meet.
"Gutes Essen the 70 minute DVD created and produced by Prairie Public Broadcasting and the Tri-County Tourism Alliance (Emmons, Logan and McIntosh Counties in ND) is like getting together to celebrate that goal of creating and savoring the foodways of our culture. The companion recipe book, Gutes Essen: Good Eating in German-Russian Country is the added bonus!
"Watching Gutes Essen is like spending time in the garden or kitchen with your mother or a favorite aunt. Be prepared to feel nostalgic and just a little hungry. for those of us who have never worried just who we would keep interest in our foodways going - never fear- the DVD includes 4-H member and high school students learning German from Russia culinary skills and liking it!
"Our food culture is safe."
--- Carol Just, North Star Chapter of Minnesota Germans from Russia Heritage Society
