The Ox Yoke Inn in Amana has published the first cookbook in the restaurant’s 84-year history.
“Our Recipes, Our Story” includes 67 recipes from the iconic Ox Yoke Inn, from rhubarb meringue pie to pickled ham.
“Since 1940, the Ox Yoke Inn has been serving food ‘family style,’” Ox Yoke Inn president and owner Bill Leichsenring said in a news release. “Now, after 84 years, we want to tell our story the best way we know how – through our food.”
The 90-page cookbook includes stories from the restaurant’s history, including its founders, William and Lina Leichsenring; Amana and its communal past; the area’s German heritage; “the growth and changes we’ve seen and experienced, good memories of the friends and family who’ve dined here and shared a table with us.”
“Family-style dining is not just about the way a meal is served, it’s about the feeling you have when you sit down and share your lives while having a good meal,” Mr. Leichsenring said. “It’s about sharing food, sharing stories, sharing laughter.”
The cookbook includes the recipe for the Ox Yoke Inn’s famous cottage cheese, as well as the slogan “In our business, you’re either good or you’re history. We’re both.”
It also includes photos, illustrations and stories, including:
- The day the restaurant almost burned to the ground;
- The winter William Leichsenring dug out the cellar by hand for the Ox Yoke Inn’s Bierstube;
- Stories about Amana’s “Great Change,” which ended 77 years of communal living in Amana’
- How Mr. Leichsenring’s generation struck out on their own, then were swept up in World War II; and
- Ms. Leichsenring, who learned to cook in a High Amana communal kitchen, managed a cafe in Amana years before they opened the Ox Yoke Inn, and taught the Ox Yoke cooks her best recipes.
The cookbook has a retail price of $24.99, and is available for sale at the Ox Yoke Inn, 4420 220th Trail in Amana, or by mail order via the Ox Yoke Inn’s website, www.oxyokeinn.com
