Notes about Recipes in this book

• Cracker-crust pizza

  • emiliang on December 29, 2013

    This is the thin, crackly crust pizza you can find throughout the Midwest. Very easy to prepare and very good.

• Smoky sauerkraut soup

  • sosayi on February 09, 2018

    Warming, delicious soup. Cut in half, it was perfect for two with leftovers for lunch the next day. Would make anytime when sauerkraut is on hand. I cut the simmering time a bit, to speed up dinner prep, and the soup didn’t seem to suffer.

• Wild rice and smoked chicken soup

  • twoyolks on November 09, 2015

    This is a rather thin soup. The flavor is fine and the wild rice goes well with the smoked chicken.

• Best-ever beer cheese soup

  • NJChicaa on January 25, 2018

    I used red bell pepper and didn't like the flavor. Next time I would just omit. Otherwise it was delicious.

• Double chicken soup with rolled noodles

  • Summerlandsky on March 28, 2014

    I love this chicken noodle soup recipe. It's the perfect way to use our butchered farm chickens without using store broth and the homemade noodles are easy and delicious. I usually double the noodles and leave all the chicken meat in.

• Classic chicken and wild rice hotdish

  • SACarlson on December 21, 2017

    This was my favourite dinner as a kid. I hadn't had it in years until I came across this recipe. It is like Proust's madeleine for a child of the Midwest. Loved it.

• The French-Canadian meat pie (Tourtière)

  • twoyolks on December 26, 2018

    Too much meat. Not anything to balance it.

• Classic beef pot roast with pistachio salt

  • hillsboroks on November 16, 2018

    This was the most flavorful pot roast I have ever made. I used a beef chuck cross rib roast that was about 5 inches thick so I cut it in half before browning. I think doing this helped take the roasting time to about 4 1/2 hours, perfect for a rainy afternoon. I added a teaspoon of Better Than Bullion mushroom stock concentrate to the beef stock to amp up the umami. As Gobegal says the broth is fabulous. I also subbed in regular yellow onions for the Vidalia onions and 3 big parsnips for the turnips. We ended up with plenty of vegetables, perfectly seasoned delicious broth, and meltingly tender beef. I didn't bother to make the pistachio salt but will try it next time.

  • Globegal on October 14, 2017

    This takes 6 hours or so to cook. The broth is delicious & this recipe doesn't have enough vegetables to take advantage of that.

• Nebraskan runzas

  • bching on August 16, 2015

    Runzas are a weekend project and great crowd pleasers! These are the best rolling and shaping instructions I've seen. The instructions say to use 1/2 a cup of filling per runza. I'd say that 1/3 cup fits a little more cleanly. Make them, wrap them in foil, and take to a party. The filling as written is a little bland but can easily be punched up with a little more salt and spice.

  • SKS on November 14, 2018

    I had never heard of these but they are amazing. I liked them with cabbage in the filling.

• Deer camp kefta kebabs

  • MarshaG on June 05, 2018

    good midwestern midwinter mid-East

• Swiss chard with honey-roasted garlic

  • lkgrover on April 15, 2016

    This was excellent! The honey roasted garlic added flavor, and the pine nuts added crunch. This is my new favorite Swiss chard recipe. (The only negative is the extra time it takes to roast the garlic.)

  • twoyolks on November 17, 2016

    I liked the addition of roasted garlic to the Swiss chard. However, the garlic is added after the Swiss chard is cooked so it doesn't really have time to dissolve or meld with the Swiss chard. So you end up with pieces of roasted garlic instead of a roasted garlic flavored dish. I'm not really sure the honey added much of anything.

• Coleslaw with bread-and-butter pickles

  • TrishaCP on July 05, 2017

    This was a big hit. It is pretty much a standard coleslaw, but with bread and butter pickles. Delicious and genius. I did have a really fresh green cabbage, which I'm sure helped a lot to make it taste so good. The recipe didn't say, but I chose to cut my pickles to make smaller pieces that are better distributed throughout the dish.

• Young green beans with lemon-vodka cream

  • NJChicaa on January 25, 2018

    Absolutely amazing!

• Turnips and their greens and bacon

  • JulesLP on June 04, 2015

    A tasty and easy way to prepare turnips. I used hakurei turnips from my CSA; the bacon and maple syrup go nicely with the turnips and greens.

  • TrishaCP on May 01, 2016

    I had baby white turnips from the farmer's market, and this was a great preparation, though I only used half of the maple syrup. This is one of the best turnip dishes that I have made.

• Creamy yellow potato salad

  • twoyolks on June 20, 2016

    This was pretty good but didn't quite hit the spot that I was going for. I omitted the radishes as I didn't have any.

  • Summerlandsky on June 08, 2016

    The perfect potato salad! It takes a smidge longer to make with the boiled dressing, but the result is pure creamy perfection and not overly fatty tasting like you get with a predominantly mayo based dressing. The author was correct that it tastes great both warm or chilled and leftovers hold up really well in the fridge. I used English cucumbers instead of radishes because I thought it had enough crunch with the celery, and I didn't want to make it too spicy for the kids.

  • lkgrover on May 26, 2017

    Used only 2 tablespoons horseradish cream: perfect amount. Used radishes.

• Maple tarte au sucre

  • Summerlandsky on November 08, 2014

    A really delicious and easily made custard pie. Crust gave me no problems. Maple and brandy were a nice touch.

• Chocolate lazy-daisy sheet cake

  • Summerlandsky on June 27, 2014

    This cake is so delicious and very quick and easy to put together. I use unsweetened coconut for the topping as that's what I have on hand. My family loves it!

• Morning buns

  • emiliang on March 22, 2015

    Exquisite even without the final roll in granulated sugar. The first rise takes much longer than suggested in the recipe, though. Start to finish, the buns are ready to eat in about 5 hours. (The dough can also be refrigerated overnight and baked the following morning)

• Cream potato lefse

  • emiliang on July 27, 2014

    These are very good, but a major pain to prepare. I ended up rolling them in-between flour-covered wax paper sheets, and transferring them to the pan with a dough scraper. I think that the best way to make these is to have a couple of helpers minding two hot pans, while you roll each lefse and pass it on.

• One-day buttermilk rye

  • emiliang on December 27, 2013

    The buttermilk and long rising times give this bread some good complexity. Overall, this is a better than average whole grain bread, but doesn't approach the flavor of a slowly fermented, sourdough based recipe. It keeps very well, though, for 3-4 days. Baking time was shorter than indicated in the recipe.

  • Frogcake on April 20, 2018

    We loved this bread. I simplified the rising - due to lack of time and busy schedule, the dough rose only once for four hours. May have benefitted by second rise but it turned out so well- mine was moist and very, very tasty. I sprinkled bulk barn multi-seed on top before baking. Pretty amazing for breakfast toasted with smoked salmon.

• Honey Dutch baby

  • Frogcake on May 22, 2016

    This is so easy and so delicious that I taught my boys to make this. First time I made it as written. Second time I threw in some sliced pears and drizzled maple syrup on top instead of honey butter. This is a very pure, eggy tasting pancake with lovely puffy crispy edges that my family loved!

• Johnson family Swedish pancakes

  • emiliang on April 04, 2014

    Closer to a crepe than other Swedish pancake recipes, but very good. Best accompaniment is some lingonberry, currant, or other berry jam, thinned with a bit of water and warmed to room temperature.

• Potato and three-onion hash with smoked lake trout

  • emiliang on April 25, 2016

    This is greasy perfection. Quintessentially Midwestern. Can substitute smoked salmon if you can't find trout.

• Serious Eats

  So while Thielen's book may not include the most elegant roast or trendiest Brussels sprout preparation, it does offer...hearty, warming food that pleases—the heartland at its best.

  Full review

• Boston Globe by T. Susan Chang

  It’s not every dish that can be spiffed up, repointed, and made new again... But this ardent homage should put to rest some misconceptions and ignite new passion for the heartland’s culinary heritage.

  Full review