"We grew up in a rural Northwestern Pennsylvania coal mining area. Our ancestors were from the back woods Carpathian Highlands (Podkarpatý Vrchinie) of Slovakia and came to the The United States about 1900 and the food and method of preparation reflect the type of food eaten in those mountains around 1900. Of course, at that time the area we are talking about was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, particularly Hungary and some of the foods, such as gulaš have a Hungarian flavor and since there were quite a few Germans in the area, their influence is also evident.

Later, they moved to a farm among Pennsylvania Dutch and again the recipes in the booklet may also have a Pennsylvania Dutch tang to them, particularly the soul food recipes. The East Branch Tomatoes are probably a case in point. Speaking of East Branch, there will be many references to this and it is used here in reference to the general area where the farm was located; although in the authors' memory eyes it is also a time and place of growing up and almost a mystical utopia-like place where all the delicious foods were always cooking on the coal/wood stove. Some of you, too, might have your own private East Branch, and this little booklet might bring back memories for you, too. Yes, to be really authentic one should use a wood stove to achieve that slow cook. In addition most of these foods were from the Great Depression days and as money was hard to come by in those days, flour, onions, milk, butter, eggs, potatoes were the staple and often times the only items available.

The authors make no pretense of correct Slovak spelling or grammar. The Slovak writing and spelling is mostly phonetic and is as the authors remembered and is used mostly for color and to give that feeling of authenticity rather than being a treatise on Slovak grammar and spelling. Rather than authentic modern or even antique Slovak it could be more correctly characterized as East Branch Slovak. Somewhat similar to the relationship between Pennsylvania Dutch and real German.

So when you get a nostalgic feeling for the old days or days the elders talk about, leaf through this booklet and try some of those foods that you remember from your childhood or heard about and take a trip down memory lane."

---



Table of Contents continues to page 137

---

Our mother, Maria Bencko Maras, basically learned these recipies from her mother, Maria Mnich Bencko (our grandmother) in their kitchen in Slovinky, Slovakia , around 1900 and brought them to the mining towns around Sagamore, Pennsylvania. There they were expanded upon, and improved through interaction with housewives of other nationalities and eventually carried to the farm near the coal mining town of Helvetia, Pennsylvania. There, on the farm, with unlimited natural raw foodstuffs, the recipes were fine tuned to perfection and passed on to the children--and we have preserved them and wish to pass them on to you--our "Krajane".

To order Slovenske' Jedlo and Pennsylvania Slovak Soul Food by Julianna Romanova' and Pavel Bencko-Maras send $11.00 to MORRIS PUBLISHERS, 99 State Route 149, Lake George, NY, 12845

Back to Slavonic Cookbook