Bread Soup, Oyster Stew & More: Favorite Dishes From My Ohio Amish Community

Nora Kurtz is a member of a Geauga County, Ohio Amish church. Today she shares some favorite dishes from her childhood – and some she still loves today, including bread soup and more.

Anyone who lives in or around a large Amish community is probably going to be at least somewhat familiar with “Amish food”.

Fried chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, creamed vegetables, pies and puddings are classic wedding fare for the community and can be found in any Amish-owned or Amish-themed restaurant.

Some dishes are more prominent in one Amish community than another. You would be hard-pressed to find snitz pie (made with dried apples) in Geauga County, but it is widespread among the Lancaster, PA Amish families.

Pickled goods such as beets and eggs, cornmeal mush and tomato gravy, whoopee pies and sauerkraut, soft pretzels, homemade root beer and other foodstuffs can be found in varying degrees across all communities.

Milk-Based Soup Tradition

There is, however, a dish much lesser known outside the culture. This is a group of milk-based soups that can be served hot or cold.

The Amish trace their roots to the mountains of Switzerland during the Reformation and later to the Rhine River Valley of southern Germany. Among the lower class of that later region, one dish dominated the foodscape called ‘Mus’, the ancestor of the unique dairy soups and stews the Amish enjoy today.

The base for creating this dish was milk, lard, salt and eggs. Upper class people could afford to add sugar and flour.

The consistency of this soup would range from a thin broth to porridgelike, owing to the addition of various grains. Typically, in the broth form, beans, meat and seasonal vegetables were added.

When eaten cold, fruit and honey replaced the savories, along with the addition of crumbled bread.

There are a variety of dishes still eaten among the Geauga County Amish that reflect this culinary heritage.

Horse-drawn wagon on a rural road with a bright orange slow‑moving triangle at the back. A crossroad sign and 35 mph sign are visible to the right. — The Geauga County area is home to the fourth-largest Amish community in the country.

Cake & Cold Fruit Soup

Growing up, in the strawberry season, my mother would bake a dense, sweetened biscuit-like cake. This was crumbled into a bowl with heaps of fresh strawberries, a dash of sugar and milk poured over the whole of it. This was a treat, since strawberries were seasonal and it was eaten as a main dish, not dessert.

I am aware that a percentage of our older generation in this community eat different versions of this cold fruit soup. Bananas might be used instead of strawberries and typically homemade bread is cubed and substituted for the biscuit.

My mother would frequently bake a cake as a common dessert. These were always simply baked in a 9 x 13 pan and frosted right in the pan when cool, a time saving maneuver if you have eight little mouths to feed, plus your husband and yourself.

No matter if it was chocolate, butter pecan or white vanilla, we always ate it with milk. Your square piece of cake would be placed in your bowl and milk added along with it. It was ready to eat only when you had properly and evenly mashed everything together.

When I was five years old, I was attending kindergarten in our public school district, the only Amish child in my class. I have a distinctive memory of the lunch lady handing me a tray of food one day and there was a piece of cake included for dessert.

I was thoroughly confused regarding the lack of any appearance of milk — and even if dairy had been included, how was it to be eaten off a cafeteria tray?

I decided to wait and observe how my classmates ate theirs. Needless to say, it was the first time I ever tried “dry” cake. I thought it was quite terrible.

Oyster Soup & Bread Soup

In this community, a popular Christmas dish is oyster soup. The assumption is it was adopted by the culture during colonial days here because it so strongly resembled the ‘Mus’ they were already accustomed to. Made simply with butter, salt, milk and fresh oysters, it is always served alongside ham.

Last, but far and away the most common, is a soup most popular for church meals, especially during the winter months.

You first need homemade bread, cut or torn into large chunks and left out for a day or so to become crusty. Butter is browned well in the bottom of a large stockpot, milk is added, seasoned with salt, and heated until just simmering. When hot enough, the bread is added along with navy beans. This is called bean soup or bread soup and ideally served with lots of black pepper.

Traditional bread soup with navy beans and a generous helping of black pepper.

The lady of the home hosting services will leave the service early to get the soup started. As a little girl, close to the end of three hours trying my best not to squirm on the hard backless bench, the tantalizing smell of the yeasty bread and the butter sizzling intermingling with the scent of gallons of coffee brewing would be drifting into the room.

This did not assist whatsoever in my attempts to sit still and to banish the wish that the minister would wrap it up already so we could get to the closing hymn.

My maternal grandparents were produce farmers and we grandchildren would help out during the summer, sometimes spending several days and nights or up to a week there at a time.

One evening, my grandmother announced that bread soup and apple pie were on the menu for supper. I was happy with this. I loved bread soup and certainly had no complaints about apple pie either.

I was also the only cousin at the table that evening with my grandparents, which was rare and rather special. After Grandpa said grace, I watched in amazement as he placed a large wedge of pie in his bowl, ladled the soup directly over the top, and tucked in.

Grandma laughed at my dumbfounded expression and encouraged me to try it. I did, and to this day, I love the surprising medley of flavor and texture.

Today, I can make a fairly decent bread soup when I get a craving for it. (it’s not served nearly enough for church meals to suit my liking) However, it’s a dish much better eaten infused with the atmosphere of community.

I was made aware that my love for these dishes may be somewhat of an acquired taste, when a friend from another Amish community was in for a visit and tried the bread soup for the first time. In her careful words, “I would probably eat it again, but not right away.”

We also have several extended family members who did not grow up eating oyster stew for the holidays, so we serve ham and potato soup as well for Christmas.

Foods that bring back memories of the past can satisfy the soul as much as the palate. May we all be so fortunate to occasionally indulge in good memories brought back by the simple act of eating a nostalgic food with loved ones.

Nora Kurtz grew up in Geauga County, Ohio and is a member of an Old Order Amish church in that community. She serves as Director of Operations at the Geauga Amish History Center.