What is kuchen? Why this dessert became a South Dakota food favorite

Makenzie Huber
Argus Leader

This article is one of 18 South Dakota food favorites. For the complete list, go here.

Kuchen: German dough pie made with custard and featuring fruits — such as prunes, peaches, raisins or apples — or savory foods, including cottage cheese, sauerkraut or onions. Typically topped with streusel, cinnamon, sugar or slivered almonds. 

Roger Pietz remembers watching his mother make kuchen for him as a child. He'd stand on a chair by the oven and watch as the German dessert cooked. 

Now, he and his wife have transformed his family's recipe into a product sold in 50 South Dakota grocery stores. The Scotland-based couple regularly sell around 2,000 of South Dakota's state dessert a month through their company, Pietz' Kuchen Kitchen, Pietz said. 

Kuchen was established as the state dessert in 2000, after it failed to pass during the 1999 legislative session. Eighteen towns gave written support for the bill, according to the City of Eureka's history on kuchen. 

Kuchen: German dough pie made with custard and featuring fruits — such as prunes, peaches, raisins or apples — or savory foods, including cottage cheese, sauerkraut or onions. Typically topped with streusel, cinnamon, sugar or slivered almonds.

The dessert can be found at a number of bakeries throughout South Dakota, the kuchen festival in Delmont and Schmeckfest in Freeman, which claims to make 150 pies each day of the festival. 

German immigrants brought kuchen to South Dakota in the 1880s. Similar to tea in England, it was typical of Germans to gather for "kaffee and kuchen" throughout the day, and the main staple of the tradition was carried to South Dakota. Many settled in McPherson County in north central South Dakota and southeastern South Dakota. 

"This is a product the German people made when they were growing up and a product most people, even if their parents and grandparents aren't around, remember eating it," Pietz said. "When they hear it, then they want to try it and it brings back memories of all kinds." 

Pietz said he believes his family's recipe was handed down from when his German ancestors immigrated to South Dakota.  

But kuchen isn't just staying inside state borders. Pietz said people identify kuchen with South Dakota after they visit and give the state dessert a try. He's shipped orders to every state except Hawaii and said people regularly stop by Pietz Kuchen Factory with coolers to load up on the product. 

"It's just part of our state," Pietz said. "I hope they associate it with South Dakota." 

The top 18 South Dakota foods