Amish “Music Mystery Supper” (Guess These 14 Food Riddles) [Updated With Winner]

Posted on June 20, 2019 in Amish Food

While at the Amish Health & Well-Being Conference, I had a chance to catch up with my friend Mark Curtis. Mark joined the Amish at age 50 and has been a member of the church at Belle Center, Ohio for over 15 years.

Some of you might remember Mark’s father Don, who for years commented on this site, often sharing insights on the Amish direct from Mark (Don passed away two years ago at age 92; he was one of our favorites here and is missed).

On two occasions we shared the menu from a special Amish event called a mystery meal, courtesy of Mark. The gist of this meal: diners receive a menu with a selection of items (including utensils), which are described in unusual ways. You then choose several items for each of three courses.

If you choose incorrectly, you might find yourself with a first course of mashed potatoes but no fork, spoon or even knife to eat them with, for example. Or you might end up starting your meal with dessert. You can see the previous editions here:

Amish Mystery Supper (Answer Key)

Amish Mystery Breakfast

Mark shared the latest menu with me at the conference. The theme of this latest edition is “Music Mystery Supper.” Each song title below represents a supper item.

Can you guess the items? What order would you choose them in? You might have to think in an abstract way as you guess what dinner items the songs might represent; some are more obvious than others.

I can say that they are all standard things you’d expect to find at a dinner in an Amish home. The first and second courses each have 5 items; the third has just 4.

For the person who gets the most right, I’ll send a second copy of the Cathedrals, Castles and Caves book we recently had a giveaway for.

Music Mystery Supper (Each song title represents a dinner item)

“Where are the Reapers?”
“There is a Mountain”
“Paradise Island”
“Oh the Snow”
“Gather the Golden Grain”
“Stormy Waters”
“It is Finished”
“There is a Green Hill Far Away”
“Unsearable Riches”
“Saved to Serve”
“All Creatures of our God and King”
“Blest be the Tie that Binds”
“Alone in the Garden”
“A Ruler Once Came to Jesus By Night”

1st Course
1. ________________
2. ________________
3. ________________
4. ________________
5. ________________

2nd Course
1. ________________
2. ________________
3. ________________
4. ________________
5. ________________

3rd Course
1. ________________
2. ________________
3. ________________
4. ________________

Updated: Answer Key

Here are the answers to the mystery menu puzzle. Some of these are more obvious to me than others; as Dale Ann Harsh commented, it might help if you know the songs well:

“Where are the Reapers?” – fork
“There is a Mountain” – mashed potatoes
“Paradise Island” – punch
“Oh the Snow” – ice cream
“Gather the Golden Grain” – roll
“Stormy Waters” – coffee
“It is Finished” – toothpick
“There is a Green Hill Far Away” – green beans
“Unsearable Riches” – pie
“Saved to Serve” – spoon
“All Creatures of our God and King” – chicken
“Blest be the Tie that Binds” – napkin
“Alone in the Garden” – salad
“A Ruler Once Came to Jesus By Night” – knife

I was going to use my judgment as to which of your combinations make most sense as a dinner menu. But, looking at your entries, it seems everyone who tried got close (although no one perfect, with usually at least a dessert out of sequence) and I don’t see a really clear way of judging.

With that in mind, I think it might be best to just choose one person at random from the entrants. So I used random.org, and the winner is: Vickey Cordoba.

Congrats, Vickey. Just email me the address where you’d like your book sent, and I’ll get that out to you (ewesner[at]gmail[dot]com). Thanks to everyone who took a crack at it!

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