August 15, 1999

This review is by Edna Boardman. If you wish to reprint it and have not already asked permission, please send a message to [email protected]


Voth, Norma Just. Mennonite Foods and Folkways from South Russia, Vols. I and II. Intercourse, PA., Good Books. 1990. Vol 1, hardcover, 480 pages, hardcover, $24.95. paperback, $18.95. Vol II, paperback, 288 pages, $14.95. (Available at http://www.mennolink.org/books/german.html or write to Laura Harder: ([email protected])

These two books provide a most friendly way to learn about both the way of life and the cooking that developed in some of the German colonies of South Russia. Though the focus is life among the Mennonites, readers of other German-Russian faiths will find much they can relate to, like low German sayings and nursery rhymes, plus recipes for many of their familiar dishes. Volume I contains 400 recipes; Volume II, more than100, different from Volume I. The recipes reveal great creativity, and tell not just how foods were prepared but how they fit into the celebrations and work life of the community. In Volume I, Voth sorts recipes much as a writer of a general cookbook would: breads, pork dishes, cookies, Christmas cookies, pickles, beverages, spices, herbs, and condiments, fritters, fried cakes, and biscuits, fruit soups and moos, vegetables, salads,... In volume II, she guides us through the seasons of the year and tells of the work, the recreations, and the foods, even whole menus, that accompanied each. Sometimes she tucks in a note about a Ukrainian cultural connection--as there is regarding uses for clabbered milk or the coloring of Easter eggs. In these books, you will find out how to make homemade noodles for soup, sauerkraut borscht, syrup cake, peppernuts, whole brined watermelon in a barrel, potato pancakes, roast wild jack rabbit, French toast, chicken and dumplings, and homemade laundry soap.

The brief essays and vignettes are great fun to read. In volume II, there is the story of an 1818 visit by Czar Alexander I to the villagef Lindenau, one of the Molotschna villages. One April morning, a rider appeared announcing to a Mrs. D. Hiebert that the emperor and his entourage would be joining her for breakfast two days hence. You can imagine the flurry to spruce things up! Lutherans from a neighboring village arrived to join the group that greeted him. After he and his group had enjoyed their breakfast, the Czar presented Mrs. Hiebert with a diamond ring. (Does anyone in the Hiebert family know what became of this ring?????) The essay says that other visitors, including royal family members, found the Molotschna villages convenient stopping places as they traveled to the summer resorts in the Crimea. This volume also has a fine essay about the Turkey Red wheat that made its journey from Russia onto the tables of the world. Norma Jost Voth is the descendant of grandparents who were "the original Mennonite settlers who came to Kansas from the Ukraine in 1874." Old photographs show a polished prosperity. No tales of hardship here, just German-Russians at a very fine time in their history.