An old Mennonite woman tells me, “If you can’t find it on Google, it doesn’t exist.” Her plain clothes and bonnetted, gray hair impressed upon me ideas about what kind of life she would live. Apparently, I was wrong.
I had taken a regional bus out to a more rural part of Lancaster County in search of more rural folks with more rural knowledge. On the way, the bus had circumvented a couple horse-and-buggies and passed several young Amish men scooting along the shoulder of the road on kick bikes. Some of the strip malls along the bus route had little overhangs where horses can idle in the parking lot as their owners shop. These visions reinforced the expectations I had of this area, but it takes more than a bus window to get an accurate impression.
I disembark from the bus in a small town searching for something called essich schling, a Pennsylvania Dutch term for vinegar punch. The drink appears in several texts on Pennsylvania Dutch beverages, and I wonder if it is still common among the Plain folk today. Down in Lancaster, I had shown some Pennsylvania Dutch women at a farmstand the word scribbled in my notebook. They said they had never heard of it. I figured I could attempt to look further in the countryside.
Mostly, the natives here are small town Americans who wouldn’t know about vinegar punch, but I’m hopeful anyways. I ask the librarian, but she hasn’t heard of it. I ask the town historians, but they don’t know it. I asked the Mennonite woman who runs the local health store, and she knows it. But she tells me that she has only seen that term in “antique books,” and doubts it is still around.
Instead, we stroll over to the vinegar aisle where I receive a lesson on the health benefits of drinking vinegar. Yes, apple cider vinegar features prominently in several well known fad diets. The store owner explains to me that I need a bottle with “mother” in it, the pulp of the apple that turns the cider into vinegar in the first place. Unfortunately, I am not looking to drink vinegar to get skinny, I am looking for essich schling.
“If you can’t find it on Google, it doesn’t exist.” The thing is, essich schling does exist on Google, but the most recent mention is in an Answers.com post from 11 years ago. That response, however, almost definitely quotes a recipe given in a book from 1968.
The 1968 recipe from The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking, the oldest recipe I could find that uses the term essich schling, reads:
Essich Schling
¼ cup vinegar
¾ cup ice water
Sugar to taste
Dash of nutmeg (optional)
¼ teaspoon baking soda (optional)
Mix and serve immediately.
This is an austere recipe, but apparently it was refreshing. The book notes, “A popular choice among harvesters, however, was the vinegar drink called Essich Schling, or vinegar punch.”
A second article, published in Pennsylvania Folklife in 1985, has the same recipe with the inclusion of the same “nutmeg is optional” tidbit. (Selders) It probably also came from the 1968 book. Shortly after 1970, there is another book which cites the beverage as “a hot weather drink made out of vinegar and spices.” (Brendle) But these sources exhaust the use of the term essich schling.
So what evidence, besides The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking, do we have that this vinegar punch drink ever existed?
To start, earlier Pennsylvania Dutch texts describe vinegar beverages that are similar even if they are not called essich schling. A cookbook from 1904 written in a Lancaster County town, Elizabeth Recipe Book: A collection of thoroughly tested recipes compiled and published by sunday school class number two of the reformed church, Elizabethtown, PA, describes a raspberry vinegar which instructs: “Pour 1 pint of vinegar over 3 quarts of raspberries. Let stand overnight. Squeeze through jelly bag, add 3 pounds sugar and boil 15 minutes. Skim off top. Bottle and seal immediately.”
This recipe describes something that is reminiscent of essich schling, but uses natural fruit sugar rather than refined sugar. This could be a version of the recipe that represented a predecessor beverage that was more medicinal, or made in times of scarcity where processed sugar was not available in large quantities.
While no other mentions of essich schling can be found, and no other mentions of drinking sweetened vinegar are found earlier than 1904 in the local resources I perused, we know that vinegar punch did not just exist in Lancaster County.
Vinegar is an ancient medicine on its own, but vinegar punch is some kind of early modern cocktail. The earliest examples of vinegar punch, though, still fall in the realm of medicine. In an article from 1801, which argues against blood-letting as a medical treatment for putrid fevers, a doctor argues, “I have frequently recommended vinegar punch, which may be made as follows: One quart of sage tea, two spoonfuls of good vinegar, and one gill of spirits, of any kind, sweetened similar to punch, to be drank warm; which has often relieved them in six or eight hours, by promoting a cordial moisture which carried off all the different pains.”
The drink also seems to be an alternative to alcohol. Evidence in an 1824 newspaper suggests that prepubescent children might be found drinking cold vinegar punch on Election Day while their older, teenage siblings experimented with brandy. (Gazette & Patriot, vol. IV, no. 23, 5 June 1824) In 1871, a newspaper quips, “A Hartforder drank a mixture of stritch-nine [sic] and water, naturally mistaking it for whisky. A vinegar punch prolonged his earthly career.” Strychnine is a poisonous extract made from a plant, which can induce vomiting. It seems that the health benefits still stand in contrast to alcohol.
Later, in 1885, a Texas publication gives an Orientalizing view on news from India, “The Maharajah of Cashmere has ceased to Maharajah, and his numerous Maharajahesses are now widows, and according to Cashmere etiquette will hereafter have to wear veils and live on cold rice and vinegar punch. Sad, isn’t it?” The mention of vinegar punch here seems to contextualize it as austere food, perhaps even ascetic in nature. It is undesirable and acts as a sort of food of mourning.
Once again, an 1892 news piece that circulated widely in America brings it back to the medicinal realm. “In Ireland a favorite remedy for every kind of internal pain is hot vinegar punch; indeed, vinegar taken either cold or hot is considered almost specific for everything. It must be comforting in some cases. It is much used for a “squeezin’ on the hart,” which is the commonest complaint of all.” (Dallas Morning News, Final Edition ed., 21 Mar. 1892) Also at an 1896 wedding, “The health of the bride was drunk in vinegar punch.” (The Anaconda standard, 27 Sept. 1896.)
Lastly, a satirical piece uses vinegar punch as a metaphor. In this women’s advice column, the woman who criticizes another woman for not following a traditional path (such as not having children, or not getting married) is said to serve “vinegar punch” to her. The article reads, “Why such inoffensive accomplishment should inspire you with a desire to serve her with your vinegar punch is unfathomable. But you prepared the dose…You shot every known irritant, every villainous ingredient into your punch and mixed it with the rage-strong hand of an infuriated woman.” Here, the drink is quasi-medicinal, but also harsh, unpleasant, and ill-suited for hospitality.
So, outside of the Pennsylvania Dutch context, it appears that vinegar punch is either a medicinal beverage or a harsh and humble drink. It makes sense that vinegar could evolve into vinegar punch as a medicine–it is like flavoring cough syrup, or putting a dog’s pill in a piece of meat. The addition of sugar makes the harsh draught more palatable.
On the other hand, the humble nature of the drink is interesting. It seems to mean that a humble life opts not for alcohol, but for a version of alcohol that has soured into something new. It then leaves the realm of luxury and enters the realm of austerity. Here, vinegar punch is for well-behaved women, young children, and the alcoholic.
Yet, in the Pennsylvania Dutch context, it seems that essich schling was a welcome refreshment. Perhaps, vinegar punch could have been a non-alcoholic alternative to the other daily refreshments that contemporary American farmers might have drunk (like hard cider.) Many of the sects of Anabaptists who make up the more conservative base of the Pennsylvania Dutch have long been advocates of abstinence from alcohol.
It seems, though, that if essich schling is still in existence today, it is only known by the most conservative of the Pennsylvania Dutch. These folks, for the time being, are beyond my reach. While it is refreshing to go out into the Lancaster countryside, a taste of the sweet and sour drink eludes me.
Brendle, T.R. and C.W. Unger, Folk Medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans, Augustus M Kelley Publishers, NY, 1970.
“Election Results.” Gazette & Patriot, vol. IV, no. 23, 5 June 1824, p. [1]. Readex: Readex AllSearch, https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/apps/readex/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=ARDX&req_dat=0D0CB535F3149F6A&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage%252Fv2%253A10BB8A9CD522C058%2540EANX-10BF46B1F123ECF0%25402387418-10BF46B206E65798%25400-10BF46B36DA36920%2540Election%252BResults. Accessed 18 Feb. 2023.
Heller, Edna Eby, The Art of Pennsylvania Dutch Cooking, Galahad Books, New York City, 1968.
Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.), 24 Oct. 1871. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85033437/1871-10-24/ed-1/seq-1/>
“[Maharajah; Cashmere].” Texas Siftings, vol. 5, no. 21, 26 Sept. 1885, p. [4]. Readex: Readex AllSearch, https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/apps/readex/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=ARDX&req_dat=0D0CB535F3149F6A&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage%252Fv2%253A10EEA72EDBAC7CE8%2540EANX-10F1CC0A1D480090%25402409811-10F1CC0AC058E5D0%25403-10F1CC0D8BC3CF70%2540%25255BMaharajah%25253B%252BCashmere%25255D. Accessed 18 Feb. 2023.
“Method of Cure.” Commercial Advertiser, vol. IV, no. 1186, 28 July 1801, p. [2]. Readex: Readex AllSearch, https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/apps/readex/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=ARDX&req_dat=0D0CB535F3149F6A&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage%252Fv2%253A1044E924036998A0%2540EANX-106D2103EB9C86AA%25402379070-106D2104393D5699%25401-106D21055E1BB8CC%2540Method%252Bof%252BCure. Accessed 18 Feb. 2023.
“Missing Links.” Dallas Morning News, Final Edition ed., 21 Mar. 1892, p. 6. Readex: Readex AllSearch, https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/apps/readex/openurl?ctx_ver=z39.88-2004&rft_id=info%3Asid/infoweb.newsbank.com&svc_dat=ARDX&req_dat=0D0CB535F3149F6A&rft_val_format=info%3Aofi/fmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Actx&rft_dat=document_id%3Aimage%252Fv2%253A0F99DDB671832188%2540EANX-10741552EF4FA220%25402412179-10741553829679C0%25405-10741554DB62AE60%2540Missing%252BLinks. Accessed 18 Feb. 2023.
Selders, Mary Laycock, et al. “Pennsylvania Folklife Vol. 35, No. 1.” (1985).
The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.), 27 Sept. 1896. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84036012/1896-09-27/ed-1/seq-12/>
The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]), 29 May 1911. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1911-05-29/ed-1/seq-8/>
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