The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Menus & Recipes
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Sleepy Hollow Menu & Recipes
This Halloween, journey back to 1790s New York with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Follow schoolteacher Ichabod Crane as he encounters the legendary Headless Horseman after attending a harvest feast at the Van Tassels’ estate, where Ichabod is particularly taken with Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of the family.
To bring Washington Irving’s legendary tale to life at your own Halloween dinner party, recreate all the traditional Dutch American recipes Ichabod enjoyed at the Van Tassels’ feast. Plus, find tips to prep for your Sleepy Hollow feast and last-minute party menu hacks.
The Dutch Influence on American Food
Exploring the distinctly Dutch food from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, from slapjacks to the Van Tassel feast, is a deliciously fascinating way to explore America’s history. From cookies to doughnuts, pancakes to waffles, we can thank the Dutch settlers of the 17th century, who settled in New Netherland (now New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania) for bringing these treats to America.
Dutch words like koolsla (coleslaw) and koekje (cookie) were also adopted into American English with only slight changes. The Dutch word, koekje, meaning “little cake,” transformed into the word “cookie” we use today. In 1976, several cookie recipes were seen in the first American cookbook, Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, cementing the term.
I hope you all enjoy recreating these traditional foods to reconnect with the past and bring history to life through the The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Complete list of food served at the Van Tassels
Doughnut and oly koek
Cruller
Sweet cakes
Short cakes
Ginger cake
Honey cake
Apple pie
Peach pie
Pumpkin pie
Preserved plums, peaches, pears, quinces
The meats: broiled shad, roast chicken, slices of ham, smoked beef
Milk and cream
Tea
Every Traditional Dutch American Recipe from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
How to Prep for a Sleepy Hollow Feast
Quick & Easy Sleepy Hollow Menu Hacks
Left your Sleepy Hollow Party planning to last minute? Don’t stress! Here are some tips when grocery shopping for a last-minute feast:
- Doughnuts can be found in the bakery section. Apple pies can typically be found in the bakery or found in the frozen section. Replace the sweet cakes with shortbread.
- Make fewer baked goods. It’s better to enjoy one or two treats than stress over trying to make everything last minute! Just try making the oly koek and the cruller, which can’t be replaced by anything you find in stores.
- Preserved plums, peaches and pears can be found in the canned fruit section of your grocery store.
- Many grocery stores precook roast chickens, which you can pick up on the day of your party. Cold cooked ham can be found in the meat section.
Such heaped-up platters of cakes of various and almost indescribable kinds, known only to experienced Dutch housewives! There was the doughty doughnut, the tenderer oly koek, and the crisp and crumbling cruller; sweet cakes and shortcakes, ginger cakes and honey cakes, and the whole family of cakes. And then there were apple pies and peach pies and pumpkin pies; besides slices of ham and smoked beef; and moreover delectable dishes of preserved plums, and peaches, and pears, and quinces; not to mention broiled shad and roasted chickens; together with bowls of milk and cream, all mingled higgledy-piggledy, pretty much as I have enumerated them, with the motherly teapot sending up its clouds of vapor from the midst — Heaven bless the mark! I want breath and time to discuss this banquet as it deserves, and am too eager to get on with my story. Happily, Ichabod Crane was not in so great a hurry as his historian, but did ample justice to every dainty.
-The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving
More Sleepy Hollow Inspiration
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References
If you’re interested in following up with some reading, the following books and cookbooks will provide additional insight into the recipes and cooking styles of the times.
- Food in Colonial and Federal America walks the reader through the availability of foodstuffs and discusses the cultural differences by region.
- The Sensible Cook is an English translation of the favourite 1600s cookbook, ‘De Verstandige Kock’. The author also includes additional ‘modern’ variations from the Dutch colony in the US, providing additional insight and access to recipes likely used during Ichabod Crane’s time.
- Four American cookbooks printed during the 1700s and early 1800s were also referenced, providing additional insight into the era. All of the following are available online through websites like Gutenberg.org.
- The Complete Housewife by Eliza Smith. The first American printed cookbook in 1742. (links to a digital version from University of Michigan)
- American Cookery by Amelia Simmons in 1796 (links to a digital version on Gutenberg.org)
- The Art of Cooking Made Plain and Easy by Hannah Glasse in 1805 (links to digital versions on archive.org)
- and The American Frugal Housewife by Lydia Child in 1829.