What do Amish people eat? If you’ve driven through Ohio’s Amish Country and stopped at a roadside restaurant, you already have a sense of the answer: hearty, from-scratch comfort food — roast chicken, mashed potatoes, shoofly pie — served in portions that assume you did farm work today. But Amish food is more than the restaurant version. Here’s what’s actually on the table.
The Everyday Amish Table
Amish cooking is built on what the farm and garden produce: eggs, dairy, pork and chicken, potatoes, and seasonal vegetables put up for winter. Meals are substantial because the work is physical. A typical supper might be baked chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans canned from the summer garden, homemade bread, and pie — always pie.
Breakfast is the biggest meal of the day in many Amish homes: eggs, fried potatoes, sausage or bacon, pancakes, and coffee. Nothing fancy, everything filling.
What Do Amish People Eat: Signature Amish Dishes
- Shoofly pie — the iconic one: molasses and brown sugar in a flaky crust, with a crumb topping. Legend says the name comes from flies attracted to the sweet filling cooling on windowsills.
- Chicken pot pie (the Pennsylvania Dutch kind) — not the baked-crust version; this is a thick stew of chicken, potatoes, and square-cut homemade noodles in broth.
- Whoopie pies — chocolate cake rounds sandwiching creamy filling; a lunchbox staple.
- Chow-chow — pickled mixed vegetables, spooned over almost everything as a relish.
- Scrapple — pork scraps and cornmeal formed into a loaf, sliced and fried crisp for breakfast.
- Haystack supper — a build-your-own layered dish: rice or crackers, then beef or chicken, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and sauces. A church-gathering favorite.
- Fry pies — hand-held fruit pies, fried golden and glazed; the Amish Country convenience food.
Where the Food Comes From
A lot of it comes from the backyard. Most Amish families keep large gardens, can and preserve the harvest, bake their own bread, and butcher their own meat. Bulk food stores — common across Holmes and Wayne counties — sell flour, spices, and staples in 25- and 50-pound bags. It’s a food system built on self-sufficiency rather than supermarkets, and the cooking reflects it: recipes designed to feed a crowd, use what’s on hand, and waste nothing. In short, what do Amish people eat? Whatever the farm, garden, and pantry provide through the seasons.
What Do Amish People Drink?
Coffee — lots of it, strong and black — is the undisputed king of Amish beverages. Mealtimes run on coffee, and visitors are almost always offered a cup. Beyond that: milk from the family cow, homemade root beer (a summer staple at gatherings), fresh cider in the fall, and sweet tea. Alcohol is where affiliations diverge sharply — most Old Order groups prohibit it, while some more progressive groups are lenient. As a visitor, don’t offer it; as a guest, follow your hosts’ lead.
Restaurant Amish Food vs. Home Amish Food
The family-style restaurants along Route 62 in Berlin and Walnut Creek serve a real version of this cooking — many are Amish-owned or Amish-staffed — but it’s the celebration version: broasted chicken, multiple meats, salad bars, and pie cases. Home cooking is simpler and more seasonal. Both are worth trying; just know the restaurant spread is the Sunday-best edition.
What to Try on a Visit
Wedding and Gathering Food
Amish weddings — held at home, with hundreds of guests — are the ultimate showcase of this cooking: roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and pie on a scale most catering companies would flinch at. The cooking is done communally, with neighbors arriving the day before to prep. Church suppers and benefit auctions run on the same logic — long tables, simple food, enormous quantities. If you’re ever invited to an Amish-hosted benefit dinner (many are open to the public as fundraisers), go hungry. It’s the best version of this cuisine you’ll find anywhere. These gatherings are rooted in faith — learn more about whether the Amish are Christian.
If you only try three things in Amish Country: a slice of shoofly pie, a fry pie from a roadside stand (apple or cherry), and a family-style dinner with broasted chicken. Then walk it off on a back road — preferably behind a buggy, at buggy speed.
