The Best Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch Cookbooks (2026 Gift Guide)

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For an Amish cook writing about her own kitchen, use The Essential Amish Cookbook by Lovina Eicher. For the large classic Mennonite collection, use Mennonite Community Cookbook by Mary Emma Showalter. For Lancaster County itself, use the Lancaster Central Market Cookbook by Phyllis Good.

Quick picks

A direct product link is used only where that page was opened on October 23, 2026. The others are search links.

Book	Author	Publisher	Best for
The Essential Amish Cookbook	Lovina Eicher	Herald Press	Everyday Amish home cooking
Amish Cooking	Various Amish families	Pathway Publishers	A large Amish family collection
Mennonite Community Cookbook	Mary Emma Showalter	Herald Press	The classic Mennonite collection
More-with-Less	Doris Janzen Longacre and Rachel Marie Stone	Herald Press	Simpler meals for MCC
Simply in Season	Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert	Herald Press	Seasonal produce cooking
Lancaster Central Market Cookbook	Phyllis Good	Good Books	Central Market stand recipes
Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook, Revised and Updated	Phyllis Good	Good Books	Slow-cooker meals

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Photo: a slice of shoofly pie made at Good N Plenty Restaurant, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, May 31, 2016, by Good N Plenty (Wikimedia user Njvroom), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The Essential Amish Cookbook

Lovina Eicher wrote The Essential Amish Cookbook: Everyday Recipes from Farm and Pantry. MennoMedia lists the Herald Press paperback, 320 pages, April 18, 2017, ISBN 9781513800295. She writes Lovina’s Amish Kitchen from rural Michigan. Herald Press says she learned beside her mother, Elizabeth Coblentz, and still cooks in her own Amish kitchen. More than 100 recipes. Titles only: Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread, Rhubarb Juice, Roast Beef with Veggies, and Oven Crusted Chicken. Amazon. Sources: MennoMedia and Herald Press.

Amish Cooking

Pathway Publishers lists a hardback, Amish Cooking, at 331 pages, with over 1,000 recipes contributed by Amish families and no single author. The page names no town and no Lancaster shop, so this guide adds none. The Amazon page was not confirmed on October 23, 2026, so the button is a search. Amazon. Source: Pathway Publishers.

Mennonite Community Cookbook

Mary Emma Showalter compiled Mennonite Community Cookbook: Favorite Family Recipes. MennoMedia lists the 65th anniversary Herald Press paperback, 526 pages, February 2, 2015, ISBN 9780836199451, first published in 1950. She collected more than 1,100 recipes from Mennonite women in the United States and Canada, from Dutch, German, Swiss, and Russian kitchens. She founded home economics at Eastern Mennonite University and taught there from 1946 to 1972. The publisher does not describe her as Amish. Amazon. Source: MennoMedia.

More-with-Less

More-with-Less is the Mennonite Central Committee cookbook. MCC’s page, dated September 23, 2026, says Doris Janzen Longacre wrote it and Herald Press published it in 1976. By the 25th anniversary, 800,000 copies had sold. The Herald Press 40th anniversary page lists Longacre and Rachel Marie Stone, hundreds of recipes, vegetarian and gluten-free labels, nearly one million copies sold, and a series that benefits MCC. It is not a Lancaster menu. The Amazon page was not confirmed on October 23, 2026, so this is a search. Amazon. Sources: Mennonite Central Committee and Herald Press.

Simply in Season

Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert wrote Simply in Season. MennoMedia lists the 10th anniversary Herald Press paperback, 424 pages, September 27, 2016, ISBN 9781513801674: more than 300 seasonal recipes, a fruit and vegetable guide, and gluten-free and vegetarian labels. It is a World Community Cookbook published with Mennonite Central Committee. Lind is a dietitian and market gardener in West Virginia. Hockman-Wert is a journalist in Corvallis, Oregon. Neither is Lancaster or Amish. Amazon. Source: MennoMedia.

Lancaster Central Market Cookbook

Phyllis Good’s Lancaster Central Market Cookbook is the 25th anniversary Good Books edition, 288 pages, September 1, 2015, ISBN 9781680991048. The publisher says the market, just off the main square and open Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday, is the oldest continually operating farmers’ market in the United States. Good shops there weekly, and she and Merle live in Lancaster. More than 350 standholder recipes. Names only: pumpkin cream soup, Susquehanna Riverman’s Pot Pie, strawberry snowbank pie. See Lancaster Central Market. One printing was not sold by Amazon or the publisher, so this is a search. Amazon. Source: Good Books.

Fix-It and Forget-It, from a Lancaster author

Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook, Revised and Updated is a slow-cooker book. Good Books says Phyllis Good lives in Lancaster and is the original author. The edition is 288 pages, January 27, 2015, ISBN 9781680990133, with 100 added recipes plus prep time, cooking time, and a suggested cooker size. Good Books has been part of Skyhorse since 2014. Those pages do not call the recipes Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch. The Amazon page was not confirmed on October 23, 2026, so this is a search. Amazon. Sources: Good Books and the about page.

Amish, Mennonite, and Pennsylvania Dutch cooking

The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College says the Amish and Mennonites have been separate since 1693, inside a shared Anabaptist heritage. Mennonites are more likely to live in urban and suburban settings. Many drive cars and use modern technology, while almost all Amish groups do not. Some Old Order Mennonites still use a horse and buggy. The groups sometimes cooperate through Mennonite Central Committee.

Pennsylvania Dutch names a language before a menu. The Young Center says Pennsylvania German, popularly called Pennsylvania Dutch, took shape after about 81,000 German speakers came to southeastern Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century. About 96 percent were Lutheran or German Reformed. Of the rest, roughly half were Mennonites and only a few hundred were Amish. Most Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonites still speak it, with English, and are among the last to keep it. The label on a cookbook is regional food, not proof an Amish cook wrote it. Checked October 23, 2026. Sources: Young Center, Mennonites and Young Center, Language.

Recipes to try first

Four names from Discover Lancaster’s Pennsylvania Dutch dishes page. No measures and no methods. Shoofly pie is the molasses pie: a dry-bottom version is cake-like throughout, and a wet-bottom version has a gooey layer under a cake-like top. The photograph above is one finished slice, not a formula.

Chicken pot pie, on that page, has no crust. It is a stew of broth, chicken, carrots, potatoes, and square noodles. Chow-chow is a sweet-and-sour relish of mixed vegetables. Corn, beans, cauliflower, and peppers are the examples. Whoopie pies are a soft filling between two cake-like cookies, usually chocolate with vanilla filling. Source: Discover Lancaster.

To eat before you cook, the family-style tables on this site are Good N Plenty and Plain & Fancy Farm Restaurant. Miller’s Smorgasbord is the long-running buffet.

Where to find cookbooks in Lancaster County

Kitchen Kettle Village’s locally made page lists cookbooks at The Gift House. The same page says the Jam & Relish Kitchen has made jams and jellies since 1954 and sells a shoofly pie mix, and lists pies and whoopie pies at the Bake Shop as made on the premises. See Kitchen Kettle Village. Source: Kitchen Kettle Village.

Lancaster Central Market is the market in Good’s cookbook. A stand selling the book was not confirmed. The Old Country Store is the quilt shop on this site. Good N Plenty is the restaurant in the photograph. Its site did not return a shop page on October 23, 2026, so this guide does not call it a bookstore.

Gifts to pair with a cookbook

A ceramic pie plate is the pan for a shoofly pie or another open pie. An apple butter crock is the jar people set on the table for apple butter. Both links search the category. They do not name a brand. See ceramic pie plates on Amazon. See apple butter crocks on Amazon.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Amish cookbook?

For everyday food from an Amish cook’s own kitchen, start with The Essential Amish Cookbook by Lovina Eicher (Herald Press). For the 1950 Mennonite collection, use Mennonite Community Cookbook by Mary Emma Showalter. For Lancaster County, use the Lancaster Central Market Cookbook by Phyllis Good. These publisher pages do not rank one title first.

Do Amish people write cookbooks?

Some do. Herald Press says Lovina Eicher cooks in her own Amish kitchen and learned from her mother, Elizabeth Coblentz. Pathway Publishers says the recipes in Amish Cooking were contributed by Amish families. Mennonite Community Cookbook, More-with-Less, and Simply in Season are Mennonite projects. The publishers do not describe those three as written by an Old Order Amish cook.

What is Pennsylvania Dutch food?

It is the regional cooking tied to Pennsylvania German culture, popularly called Pennsylvania Dutch. The Young Center says that language was used by Lutheran and German Reformed immigrants as well as by Mennonites and the Amish, so the food is wider than one church. Discover Lancaster’s examples include shoofly pie, crustless chicken pot pie, chow-chow, and whoopie pies.

What is in The Essential Amish Cookbook?

Herald Press and MennoMedia describe more than 100 recipes from Lovina Eicher. They name Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread, Rhubarb Juice, Roast Beef with Veggies, and Oven Crusted Chicken. The paperback is 320 pages, April 18, 2017, ISBN 9781513800295. This page does not reprint a recipe.

Is a cookbook a good gift for someone who loved Lancaster?

The Lancaster Central Market Cookbook is tied to a place a visitor can return to. The publisher says the market is open Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday. The Essential Amish Cookbook fits someone who wants to cook Amish home food afterward. A ceramic pie plate or an apple butter crock can sit beside either book.

Where can I buy a cookbook in Lancaster County?

Kitchen Kettle Village’s locally made page lists cookbooks at The Gift House in Intercourse, checked October 23, 2026. This guide does not claim a cookbook counter at Good N Plenty, because a shop page on the restaurant’s site did not load that day. Lancaster Central Market is the place the market cookbook describes, not a bookstore this page verified.

Is Pennsylvania Dutch chicken pot pie a pie with a crust?

Not in the version Discover Lancaster describes. Its Pennsylvania Dutch dishes page, checked October 23, 2026, says chicken pot pie here has no crust. It is a stew with broth, chicken, carrots, potatoes, and square noodles. This guide names the dish and does not print a recipe.

Each claim above uses the source linked in that section, checked October 23, 2026. The Eicher, Showalter, and Simply in Season buttons open product pages. The other buttons are searches. No recipe is reprinted.