Schales

Another type of baked dish is the Schales (“SHAH-less”), the Pennsylvania German equivalent of the shallow-dish casserole. A range of recipes fall into this category. On the one hand, there are baked salads similar to the tian of Provence; on the other are shallow casseroles of layered ingredients over which an egg- or milk-based sauce is poured to bake and set.

Schales is assumed by Palatine linguists to derive from the Palatine Yiddish Schalet or Scholet, a meatless dish baked on Friday to serve on the Sabbath. In the Pfalz, Schales is generally made with potatoes, reflecting the post-1770 influence of the “Potato Revolution” on German cookery.12 Schales came to Pennsylvania long before that and therefore preserved an older, more fluid identity. We know it as a turnip dish or even as a grain dish, like the spelt and cauliflower combination.