Pella Bologna (from Iowa), and Dutch Cooking

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   This is a follow-up to the "Pella bologna" I cited from ROADFOOD (2002).
   Will "Pella bologna" be in the next volume of DARE?



SOUVENIR HISTORY OF PELLA, IOWA
This book contains a concise story of the founding and life of Pella, Iowa,
with illustrations and short write-up of people and scenes that will be
remembered by hundreds of present and former citizens.  THis piece of history
starts with people and things in 1847, bringing the life and actions of the
people up to the present time in 1922.
Pella, Iowa: The Booster Press
1922?

Pg. 175:
      JOHN ULRICH
   Was born in Wurtenburg, Germany, AUgust 8, 1847.  When a young man he
decided to cast his lot with America and arrived in this country in 1867 and
worked in New York for one year, after which he moved to Pennsylvania, where
he remained one year.  Hearing of the golden opportunities of the western
prairies, he came to Pella in 1869.  Being thrifty, he started making the
bologna that has made Pella famous from north to south and east to west.  He
began in a small way, peddling his product in a basket from door to door.
This he continued for eleven years.  He then started in the butcher business.
 In 1871 he was united in marriage to Miss Bertha van der Zyl.  To this union
two children were born.  Mrs. Ulrich died in 1876.  In 1877 he was united in
marriage to Miss Mary Rynsburger and to this union there were five children
born, three of whom are living in this city.  Mr. Ulrich retired from active
business about three years ago and is now enjoying the fruits of his labors.




HISTORY OF PELLA, IOWA
1847-1987
Sponsored by the Pella Historical Society
Pella, Iowa
1988

VOLUME I:
Pg. 75:  Young Arie later left Apeldoorn to seek his fortune in America.  He
(Arie Schilder--ed.) became well known as the "bologna king" in his own
butcher shop in the little Dutch town in America called Pella.
(...)
_Adapted from a story once printed in the Pella CHronicle about the year 1937
which was a true story in the Schilder family_

Pg. 232:
(Photo caption--ed.)  John Ulrich hired Arie Schilder to work in his Meat
Market.

   _ULRICH'S MEAT MARKET_
   _Arie Schilder_
   Arie Schilder began his career in the meat business as a young boy in The
Netherlands.  He delivered meat for a meat shop in Appledorn.  At the age of
13 he graduated from a school for btuchers and worked as an apprentice in a
meat shop in Kampen.  In (Pg. 233--ed.) Aug. of 1913, he came to the United
States, and Pella. Ia.  He began his work in Pella in the Holland Meat
Market, and after a few years began work for John Ulrich, Sr., in the Ulrich
Meat Market.  He began a partnership with Luke Vander Linden, Ulrich's
son-in-law, whose interest he bought after several years in 1936.  Arie
continued the business as sole owner until Jan. 1, 1947, when he sold it
because of ill health.  His assistants, John Ver Heul and Lester Claussen,
bought the market and Arie continued to work part time until shortly before
his death on June 17, 1948.
   Since John Ulrich, Sr., began the business it has always carried the name
"Ulrich's Meat Market."
   Arie was known widely as the "Bologna King" and was instrumental in making
Pella Bologna and Ulrich's Meat Market famous, having as customers many
famous people including Admiral Richard E. Byrd and President Ronald Reagan.
(...)

Pg. 517:
   _ULRICH, RUDOLPH J._
(...)
   Paternal grandfather is John Ulrich, one of Pella's early founders (1869)
and originator of the world famous Pella Bologna.  Ulrich's Genuine Pella
Bologna is still sold today, using the original copyright recipe of John
Ulrich.  As a boy, Rudy remembers seeing a letter from Admiral Richard E.
Byrd in which he ordered Ulrich's Genuine Pella Bologna to be sent to his
expedition party to the Antarctic.
(...)

VOLUME II:
Pg. 215:
   _DUTCH FOODS REMEMBERED_
(...)
   Leona Witzenberg Brafhart of Orange City, formerly of Pella added her
remembrances.  "There was just one dish that I remembered somewhat from my
mother and it was boiled potatoes, lettuce, butter, a small bunch of green
onions, boiled eggs, bacon lard, and vinegar.  All these were mixed and eaten
with bacon.  I was told this was Dutch but I had never had it in The
Netherlands when I visited there.  Leaf lettuce was generally used; it could
be a sweet-sour sauce and lettuce and/or potatoes or just mixed ingredients."
 Carol Van Klompenburg remembered this also.  "Each of us could make our own
glorious and messy concoction and we each did it differently.  It was quite
an exercise in culinary creativity."
   Pea soup, erwtensoep or snert was a second favorite memory.
(...)
(Pg. 216--ed.)
   Hutspot, hotch potch or hutspot met klopstuk recalls the terrible siege of
Leiden in 1574 when this dish was the first square meal enjoyed by the
half-starved Hollanders. (...)  Closely related to hutsput is stamp pot,
potatoes with cabbage, kale, spinach, or sour kraut.  Smoked sausage, franks,
pork chops, or bacon was added and all mashed together to a smooth
consistency.  Artis Rietveld, Pella, said, "My mother called mashed potatoes
with greens Christmas potatoes (green and white) made 'good' with country
cream and home-churned butter."  Balken Brij was served on the farm and had
cracklings, a breakfast dish Marlya Korver De Wild of Pella never got up for
as a child.  Pigs in blanket or saucijse broodjes was a favorite of many.
Red cabbage or rode kool, cooked with apples and flavored with white or brown
sugar, made red by the acid of the vinegar, perhaps seasoned with cinnamon or
cloves and butter was another favorite.  Others were banket, banket staven,
or dutch letters made as puff pastry or rich pie crust with butter,
margarine, or lard as the fat.  Almond paste filling had sugar, egg, vanilla
or lemon added.
   Dutch dumplings (with yeast), oilie koeken (with baking powder or soda)
are also loosely called oilie bollen, vet bollen or fried cakes.  Currants,
raisins, apples, or citron are added.  It is often an Old Year's evening
treat.
   Rice cooked with milk and raisins or currants and served with butter,
white or brown sugar, and cinnamon is a familiar dish.  And there's
buttermilk or karnemelk pap, thickened with barley flour or oatmeal and
served with sugar or molasses.  Gertrude Van Houweling Vander Wal remembers
this being eaten cold with brown sugar.  Pruim or prune bollen was bread
soaked in milk added to cooked prunes and cooked together, usually served on
house cleaning day.  It was sweetened with brown sugar.
   Dutch spice roll was (and is) generally made with a rib or rump roast
seasoned with cloves, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  A mustard or sherry sauce was
suggested as were thyme and rosemary spices, generally made by butchers.
Snippered beans or sniboonen are traditionally made by alternating cut beans
and salt in a crock and pressing down with a weight.  In cooking, beans
needed to be boiled and drained and then cooked again.
   Dutch pannekoeken are the size of a dinner plate; smoked sausage, bologne,
bacon cracklings or apple slices are put in the bottom of the pan and batter
is poured on top.  Drie in de pan is a unit of three cakes with raisins
added.  Vet en stroop is like peanut butter sandwiches in the U.S.A.
Remembered are slices of bread with spooned-over bacon or salt pork grease
and syrup or sorghum.
   Rusks are from a sweet bread recipe with dough shaped into buns, baked,
then sliced or sali melk (hot milk with sage and sugar) were served before
retiring.  Boeren jongens (raisins, sugar and brandy) or boeren meisjes
(apricots, sugar and brandy) is another drink.  Advokat, a Dutch ladies'
drink, (beaten egg or egg yolk with brandy and sugar) is a favorite.
   There were many other favorites listed on the questionnaires.  Many of
these, most, are in the published Dutch cookbooks available in Pella.  Many
favorites are prepared during Tulip Time and are sold during the festival.
The Historical Society serves Dutch favorites at the time of Sinterklaas Day
and during the Christmas Walk, these being favorite cookies and hot
chocolate.
   Dutch food is unique the world over.




SPECIAL PLACES:
IN SEARCH OF SMALL TOWN AMERICA
by Berton Roueche
Boston: Little, Brown and Company
1983

Pg. 159:  (A ubiquitous bumper sticker in and around Pella asserts "Yer Not
Mutch If Yer Not Dutch.")

Pg. 168:  ...There are three large and fully comprehensive supermarkets in
Pella (and the usual mom-and-pop convenience grocery stores), but the Pellans
also hungrily support two meat markets on the square--In't Veld Bologna, on
Main Street (founded by Klaas In't Veld in 1939), and Ulrich's Pella Bologna,
on Franklin--as well as the Jaarsma and the Vander Ploeg bakeries.

Pg. 171 (Robert Vander Linden, of In't Veld Bologna):  "Bologna is a local
specialty--Dutch bologna.  What it is is smoked, cooked beef sausage, with a
very little pork.  Would you believe me if I said we sold between four and
five thousand rings of bologna every week?  And the other market does well,
too.  I have to prefer ours.  The seasoning and the quality of the meat are
important factors.  And the process.  Those are our secrets.  How it's done
is more important than what's in it.  Some people eat it as it comes.  I
prefer my bologna cooked.  I eat it every morning, boiled or fried, instead
of ham, with eggs."