On the menu of the restaurant that serves Pennsylvania Dutch meals you are quite likely to see “Schnitz un Knepp.” Literally this means apples and dumplings. Specifically, “schnitz” are dried apple slices that are cooked with the dumplings in ham broth and then served with ham. Dried apple slices can be purchased in many stores, but on the farm each cook dries her own, just as she dries her own corn and beans, in the oven, on top of the coal stove or in the sun. Schnitz are also put into pies or served alone as stewed fruit. Probably more apples go into Apple Butter which in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect is called Lottwaerick. Hand in hand with Lottwaerick goes Smiercase, the Dutchman’s version of cottage cheese, but much creamier than the commercial cottage cheese. Wherever Lottwaerick is served, there will be Smiercase. They were made to go together, we think. A thick slice of homemade bread when spread with Lottwaerick and then a layer of Smiercase is a joy to man, woman or child in the Dutch country. Lancaster countians enjoy the flavor and color of saffron. This is the dried stigmata of the crocus-like flowers that bloom from a saffron bulb. Although it is almost extinct in our own cultivation of herbs, we now purchase the imported saffron and use it in breads, potato or noodle dishes, and always with chicken. This is one of the items that is regional within this region. Natives of Lancaster and Lebanon Counties delight in the flavor of saffron as well as its butter color, but no other Dutch cooks seem to appreciate it as we do. [Illustration: Photo by Charles Rice] Throughout all of the Pennsylvania Dutch territory, there is much deep-fat frying. On Shrove Tuesday everyone eats doughnuts called Fasnachts, around which hang many folklore tales. But, apart from this day, there is much frying of doughs and batters. In Lancaster County there is a dough that is rolled to one-eighth inch thickness and cut into strips which are fried in deep fat. They are called Plow-lines, Streivlin, or Snavely Sticks. A generation ago these were made for the mid morning “nine o’clock piece” that was carried to the farmer in the fields. In recent years, however, this indulgence is almost a thing of the past, and so are the Streivlins. What a shame! The visitor will notice that our food is abundant and our appetites are hearty. Traditional cooking that is really an art has been passed from mother to daughter by word of mouth for generations. Each cook uses “a pinch of this and a handful of that”; “sugar, to sweeten,” “butter, the size of a walnut,” and “flour, to stiffen.” Only recently have many of these recipes been written and standardized. More must be done, but there has been some progress made for the preservation of this “wonderful good” cookery. Lancaster—A Prosperous Center of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry