Making EVERYTHING taste Amish

I love the cover of Amish Taste Cookbook (Alma T. Herschberger, 1977) because it just looks wrong.

You don't usually see a horse pulling a carriage directly upward in front of a bunch of chairs that seem to be jutting from the wall. The orientation of the title makes it clear that the cover was supposed to be at this angle, though, so readers get to enjoy the sideways mural. (It's from Danville Ohio's Der Dutchman Restaurant, btw, and painted by Heintz Gaugel.)

The cover's suggestion that something is just a bit off prepares readers for the rest of the book-- in which things continue to seem a bit off... especially in the Amish ideas of non-Amish cuisines.

Granted, I'm pretty used to seeing "Oriental" labels slapped on all kinds of recipes where they don't belong, but I usually have at least a sense of why the recipe writer chose it. Even if the dish is a casserole covered in cream-of-something soup and cheese, it usually at least has rice, water chestnuts, and/or fried noodles-- which was apparently enough to make it seem exotic to midwesterners back in the day. This Oriental Casserole had me squinting, though.

It's basically scalloped potatoes with ground beef and some veggies. What's so "oriental" about that? Then I saw the ground meat was seasoned with a bit of soy sauce, so... I guess that's the angle?

I didn't expect much in the way of spice when I saw a recipe for El Paso Casserole, either. Maybe a packet of taco seasoning, a fraction of a teaspoon of chili powder, or a drop or two of Tabasco sauce would season a family-size casserole. This, however....

This is just ham and cheese with noodles. The spiciest item is the Velveeta! Why is this not just called something like "Cheesy Ham and Noodles"? What does El Paso have to do with this?

At least the El Paso Casserole probably tastes fine, even if the name is misleading. The biggest disappointment might just be the Hamburger Pizza. And no, I'm not all that shocked by hamburger on a pizza. That's been midwest-standard for years.

I'm just put off that the tomato sauce includes catsup, mustard, Worcestershire, onion, brown sugar, and (wait for it!).... Oatmeal! Even those who might defend catsup and mustard on the theory that this could be a cheeseburger pizza have to be a little put off by throwing brown sugar oatmeal into the mix.

In short, Amish Taste suggests to me that these cooks will bend every other type of taste to their will. No matter the starting point of the recipe, it will end up tasting like it came out of a midwest potluck.