Apple Butter, Worstenbroodjes and Cheesy Smashed Potatoes – all just a taste of the dozens of yummy recipes kids of all ages can learn to make from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press book for young readers, The Flavor of Wisconsin for Kids: A Feast of History.

Authors Terese Allen and Bobbie Malone mix the history of Wisconsin food and tradition with easy recipes and detailed directions for kids and grown-up helpers to learn from together. For example, the “Recipes from Fields and Orchards” chapter shares the history of and recipe for a pioneer family favorite, Apple Butter – a sweet spread that’s perfect for holiday toppings on bread, cake and even ice cream.

The Flavor of Wisconsin for Kids draws from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press’s top-selling cookbook, this one for adults, called The Flavor of Wisconsin: An Informal History of Food and Eating in the Badger State, the authoritative history of Wisconsin’s culinary traditions, by Terese Allen and Harva Hachten.

This truly remarkable exploration of our “the taste of this place,” pairs essays on food history with nearly 350 pages of recipes from Wisconsin kitchens past and present – from lefse to pierogi, Cornish pasties to Ojibwe wild rice, and fruit soup to sauerbraten.

Apple Butter

Apple butter isn’t made with butter. It’s called “apple butter” because it is thick and rich like butter. This sweet spread was a special treat for pioneer children, sort of like what candy bars are today. It was simple to make but it took a long time to cook and needed a lot of stirring, so the whole family took turns.

3 cups apple cider

3 pounds of apples (use an heirloom variety if possible, such as Wealthy, Jonathan or Rome Beauty)

1-1/2 cups of brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

Pour apple cider into a large, wide, heavy pot. Peel an apple. Cut off each side close to the core so that you end up with four pieces. Slice each apple piece very thin, and then place all the slices in the cider. Peel and slice the rest of the apples (you should end up with about 12 cups of apples in the cider).

When all the apples are in the pot, set the heat to medium and start cooking the apples (do NOT cover the pot). Cooking takes a long time – 1 hour or longer. Adjust heat as needed so the mixture simmers briskly but does not boil hard.

Apples will begin to break up and get mushy. It’s important to stir the apples often, otherwise they will burn and stick to the bottom of the pot. (Hint: Set a timer so you remember to stir the apples every 5 minutes.)

After the apples are dissolved and the mixture is thick, stir in the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and allspice, then stir constantly for another 5-10 minutes.

Take the apple butter off the stove and let it cool completely. The butter will keep in the refrigerator, in a tightly covered class jar, for several weeks. Or, it can be frozen in a tightly covered plastic container.

Spread on bread, cake or even ice cream, and enjoy this sweet treat that pioneer Wisconsin children loved!

Worstenbroodjes

(Dutch ‘Pigs in a Blanket’)

These small, savory rolls are popular at the annual Holland Festival in Cedar Grove, Wis., a former fishing village that is proud of its Dutch heritage. You can easily double or triple this recipe.

If you do, you should still bake them one batch at a time so they cook properly.

Makes 12-14 rolls

1 can (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent roll dough

12-14 uncooked breakfast sausage links, about 3 inches long

1 egg

1 tablespoon water

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap the can of dough and unroll the dough on your work surface. You will have 4 rectangles of dough, each about 4-by-7 inches. Depending on the size of the sausages, you should be able to make 3-4 worstenbroodjes from each dough rectangle.

Pat each dough rectangle nice and flat, and use your fingers to press together any seams to close them up. Don’t press too hard – just enough to smooth the dough.

Lay one sausage on the short end of a dough rectangle. Fold the dough up and over the ends of the sausage. (You can stretch the dough a little to do this.) Holding the dough over the ends of the sausage, roll the sausage forward so it is completely covered in dough.

Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut the dough along the length of the sausage. Pinch the dough together a little to seal it. You should have a sausage completely bundled inside dough. Place the sausage bundle seam-side down on a large baking sheet.

Continue making bundles with the rest of the sausages and dough. If you have some scraps of dough left, you can pinch those together to make 1-2 more worstenbroodjes.

Beat the egg and water together in a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to brush a little of the egg mixture over the top of each sausage bundle. This will give the dough a nice, glossy shine when it bakes.

Bake until golden brown, 18-22 minutes. Watch carefully so the bottoms don’t get too brown.

Cheesy Smashed Potatoes with Toasted Nuts

The potato was an important vegetable for Wisconsin’s early settlers. During its long, cold winters, potatoes were easy to store in cellars or basements. Sometimes, when meat and other vegetables were scarce, families ate potatoes three times a day.

They fixed them in many different ways: mashed, fried, baked, roasted and boiled, and in pancakes, soups, salad, bread and dumplings. Today, we don’t eat potatoes as often, but cooks still come up with interesting ways to prepare them.

The idea for this recipe came from a Wisconsin chef, Eric Rupert, who uses many local ingredients in his dishes, like this one where he combines potatoes with cheese and wild hickory nuts.

1/2 cup chopped hickory nuts (or pecans)

2 pounds small Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed (not peeled)

1 tablespoon salt (more to taste as desired)

Ground black pepper (to taste as desired)

4 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature

1/2 cup milk or half-and-half

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Spread out nuts on a baking pan.

Bake nuts for 10 minutes until they are lightly toasted and smell good, stirring them once or twice while they are cooking so that they don’t burn. Let the nuts cool off while you make the potatoes.

Place potatoes and a tablespoon of salt in a large saucepan of water. Bring the water to a boil. Cook potatoes until they are tender when you poke them with a fork (12-15 minutes). Drain potatoes in a colander. Return the potatoes to the pot.

Place the pot over low heat on the stove for a minute or two (this will dry off the rest of the water from the potatoes). Stir gently to keep potatoes from sticking. Remove from heat.

Add butter, milk and some salt and pepper to the potatoes. Use a large fork to smash everything together. Add cheese and nuts and smash a little more. Remove from heat and enjoy!

All materials courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society Press. To buy a copy of The Flavor of Wisconsin for Kids or The Flavor of Wisconsin, visit your favorite bookstore or online retailer, or order through the Wisconsin Historical Museum shop online at www.wisconsinhistory.org/whspress or by phone at 888-999-1669. E-book versions are also available.