In this video, I look at the different ways Amish prepare food (specifically, how they generate the heat for cooking & baking – if you’re looking for things like Amish recipes and food prep techniques, this is not that topic 🙂 ). I go through three main ways they do so:

  • Wood-burning cookstoves – Amish use wood burning cook stoves and ovens for both traditional cooking and baking needs. Some may use coal-burning stoves for cooking
  • Fossil-fuel burning cookstoves – plainer Amish employ kerosene stoves for their cooking, while more progressive groups use propane. These methods have the advantage of being cooler. Some Amish may use both a wood cookstove (winter time) and a fossil fuel-based stove or oven (summer when the excess heat is unwanted).
  • Outdoor methods of cooking (grilling, backyard campfires) – these are more niche and limited, but summer backyard family campfires are a great chance to roast hot dogs and S’mores, mountain pies and other treats. And especially in communities with a level of disposable income, Amish enjoy grilling out on backyard grills and using other outdoor cooking implements.

In addition to these, there may be cases of Amish in more progressive households using other cooking implements (crock pots), powered by a combination of a battery and inverter, though this is not common. Runtime: 3:56.

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