Encyclopedia of Jewish Food

by Gil Marks

  In the mid-sixteenth century, the modern-day beetroot—fat, red (but paler than modern varieties), inexpensive, and easily grown—was developed in Italy or Germany, and initially received with little enthusiasm. However, eastern Europeans soon began adding beetroots, which grew well in much of the region, to their classic soup. Increasingly, beets supplanted the cow parsnip entirely, although the soup retained the meat and other root vegetables, as well as the name, borshch. Since the erstwhile Russian name for beet soup was borshch malorossisky (the former name for Ukraine), it is probable that the development of beet borshch happened in Ukraine.

  In any case, beet soup quickly spread throughout much of eastern Europe to become the quintessential Slavic dish; as with the original borshch, it was commonly accompanied with sour cream. (Borscht was predominant in Ukraine, while cabbage soup held sway in Russia.) In keeping with the eastern European passion for acidity to compensate for the bland starches, cooks induced a mildly tart flavor to the sweeter beet soups with vinegar or fermented beet juice. Lemons were rare in northern Europe and vinegar often expensive, and people commonly made their own beet vinegar, called rosl in Yiddish. Borshch also contained the basic Slavic seasoning combination of chopped onions and carrots. In Ukraine, the predominant beet-growing region of eastern Europe, borshch was everyday fare. Much farther north, where beets were less accessible, it was generally reserved for special occasions.

  Beetroot soup (boreke borsht) first appeared in Jewish sources, pronounced borscht or borsht in Yiddish, toward the end of the 1500s in eastern Europe, corresponding to its initial usage in the region. Soup was also made with the beet greens, known as botvenye borsht, but this was generally considered a dish for the poor. Borscht was most fundamental among Jews in Ukraine and southeastern Poland. The farther west and north one traveled, the lesser the amount and frequency of borscht consumed. Germans tended to sneer at the red soup, as well as at most eastern fare.

  Jews imitated the Slavic practice of adding meat and bones to borscht, yielding a hearty, sustaining dish. However, in order to enjoy the soup with sour cream, another practice Jews absorbed from the Slavic culture, they also developed a vegetarian version. This borsht, typically containing only beets and the Jewish favorite, onion, produces a translucent, bright red liquid, which turns pink when blended with sour cream. In the Slavic vein, Jews added tartness with vinegar or the less-expensive rosl. Following the establishment of the first sugar beet refineries in the early 1800s, which resulted in inexpensive sugar becoming accessible in the region, many Jews in those areas started adding sugar, turning Jewish vegetarian borscht into a distinctive sweet-and-sour dish. Galician Jews tended to add a large—some might say copious—amount of sugar, while most Ukrainians preferred more vinegar. In the mid-nineteenth century, after the potato became accepted in eastern Europe, it became a ubiquitous accompaniment to Jewish borscht, along with the sour cream.

  When eastern European Jews immigrated in huge numbers to America beginning in the 1880s, they brought both their meat and vegetarian versions of borscht with them. Thus the original edition of The Settlement Cookbook (1901), a work primarily aimed at eastern European immigrants, included both a "Beet Soup Russian Style (Fleischik)," consisting of beets, brisket, onions, sugar, and citric acid, and a "Beet Soup Russian Style (Milchik)," made with beets, citric acid, sugar, and either sour cream or milk thickened with egg yolks. Within decades of The Settlement Cookbook, Jewish companies, notably Rokeach and Gold's, began producing borscht in jars. As the Jewish simple sweet-and-sour borscht appeared on American grocery shelves, it became associated with the name. And since Jewish immigrants initially popularized this soup in America, it took on the Yiddish terminology, borscht, rather than the Russian or other Slavic names.

  For many centuries, beets, along with cabbages (frequently added to meat borscht) and potatoes, were among the few produce items in eastern Europe capable of storage through the winter. Thus at the end of the winter enough beets remained, as well as remnants in the barrel once full of fermented rosl, to provide a peysakhdiker borsht, a note of brightness and sweetness for the Passover holiday. This season, corresponding to the birth of new calves, also meant a renewed supply of fresh sour cream. The classic combo of borscht, boiled potatoes, and sour cream emerged toward the end of the nineteenth century as a quintessential Ashkenazic comfort food. Today, in most eastern European households, no Passover would seem complete without borscht. Many mothers, like their mother before them, each year order a case or more of the red liquid, using any leftovers for the following months, though rarely having enough to last till the next Passover. Some people, however, find commercial brands too sweet and prepare their own.

  Beginning on Passover eve, when the household is busy with preparations for the Seder, and continuing for much of the ensuing week, many lunches and dinners consist of ice-cold borscht paired with soft, hot, boiled potatoes and creamy, cool sour cream. Borscht is the lifeblood of Ashkenazic Passover cuisine. Borscht emerged not only as traditional fare among eastern Europeans on Passover, but also seven weeks later on Shavuot, on the third meal of the Sabbath, and at the festivities immediately following the Sabbath.

  Eastern European Beet Soup with Meat (Fleishidik Borscht)

  6 to 8 servings

  [MEAT]

  2 pounds beef brisket, flanken, or stewing meat, cubed

  2 beef marrow bones

  8 cups water

  2 pounds (8 medium) beets, peeled and diced

  2 medium yellow onions, chopped

  1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced

  2 tablespoons tomato paste or ¼ cup tomato puree

  3 to 6 tablespoons cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, or fresh lemon juice

  1 to 3 tablespoons granulated or brown sugar

  About 2 teaspoons table salt or 4 teaspoons kosher salt

  Ground black pepper to taste

  2 bay leaves

  12 ounces (4 large) carrots, peeled and sliced or coarsely grated (optional)

  1 cup shredded turnips or rutabagas (optional)

  1. Place the meat, bones, and water in a large, heavy pot. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer, skimming the foam from the surface occasionally, for 1 hour.

  2. Add the beets, onions, and garlic. Cover and simmer for an additional 1 hour.

  3. Stir in the tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, bay leaves, and, if using, carrots and/or turnips. Simmer until the meat is tender, about 30 minutes. Serve hot with boiled potatoes.

  Borscht Belt

  As early as the 1820s, the Jewish Agricultural Society settled new Jewish immigrants as farmers in Sullivan and Ulster counties in the Catskill Mountain region of eastern New York, about one hundred miles from New York City. Some of these settlers in this 250-square-mile area joined together to form agricultural communities akin to a kibbutz, while others went it alone. By the 1870s, the wealthier residents of New York City began escaping the summer heat by heading to resorts in the Pocono and Catskill mountains. At that time and for the following century, however, Jews were excluded from most American hotels, especially resorts, due to open and unabashed discrimination, as dramatized in the precedent-breaking 1947 film Gentleman's Agreement. Seeing a lucrative situation, beginning in the late 1890s, some Jewish farmers in the Catskills divided their homes into boarding houses, while others built small bungalows on their land to house wealthy Jewish guests. Some of these evolved into small hotels, kuchaleyns (self-catered boarding houses), or large bungalow colonies.

  Beginning in the 1930s, the popularization of the automobile led to an annual mass exodus of New York City Jews to the Catskills. As housing guests proved much more profitable than tilling the land, many of the farmers gave up agriculture for hospitality. As disposable income grew following World War II, so did the demand for summertime in the country. Typically, the women and children stayed in the bungalow or kuchaleyn throughout the week, while the husbands spent only the weekend, returning to the city early Monday morning i
n a commute called "the bull run." Jewish summer camps tended to the children. Large resorts emerged to cater to the growing crowds by hiring numerous Jewish entertainers and musicians, as well as providing jobs for college students, all of whom were excluded from similar opportunities elsewhere due to anti-Semitism. The Catskills emerged as a center of Jewish entertainment and culture, which, as these entertainers were increasingly accepted into mainstream America, became part of American culture.

  Eastern European Jewish fare was prominent in the area's resorts, many offering all-you-can-eat kosher (or kosher-style) fare. Non-Jewish cooks and bakers learned traditional Jewish dishes in the kitchens of the Catskills' resorts and subsequently spread this cuisine throughout the country. Dairy meals were popular in the morning and at lunch; dining rooms offered classics such as blintzes, kugels, gefilte fish, and borscht. At Grossinger's, borscht was served all day long, 365 days a year, giving rise to the region's nickname, attributed to Abel Green, longtime editor of Variety—the Borscht Belt. The term was originally intended at least partly in derision, but eventually emerged as one of affection.

  At its heyday in the 1950s, more than a million people spent their summers in the Catskills in more than three hundred hotels and another couple hundred boarding houses. Then in the late 1960s, changing holiday norms, the accessibility of airplane travel, the increasing number of women entering the workplace, and a major lessening in discrimination in the hotel and travel industry led to a quick and dramatic decline of the Borscht Belt, as portrayed in the popular 1987 movie Dirty Dancing. By the turn of the twenty-first century, less than a dozen old-time Jewish resorts remained and all the great ones had disappeared. Nevertheless, the impact of the Borscht Belt on American culture and cuisine endures.

  Boterkoeke

  Boterkoeke is a mildly sweet butter cookie.

  Origin: Holland

  Other names: Danish: Jodekager; Dutch: bolusse, Joodse boterkoeke.

  Historically, few Dutch houses had an oven. Most home baking was done in a Dutch oven, a raised cast-iron pot set over coals, which was not exactly conducive to sophisticated pastries. Instead, the populace relied on high-quality neighborhood bakeries for its breads and pastries. Consequently, there were few home-baking experiments.

  In the years following the expulsion from Spain and forced conversion of Portuguese Jews, the Netherlands became a haven for beset Sephardim and Conversos. Sephardim in Holland more commonly baked at home, merging their Moorish-influenced Iberian fare with the local Scandinavian cuisine. Instead of olive oil, they used the butter found in great quantity in Dutch cookery to create small rich morsels, still called Joodse boterkoeke (Jewish butter cookie) in Holland. The addition of egg makes butter cookies less crisp and more fragile than the English shortbread. Because the dough contains no leavening, the cookies hold their basic shape during baking. The Dutch, through their vast shipping enterprises to the Far East and Caribbean, had access to fresh ginger and its various offshoots, such as preserved and candied ginger, and these were frequently added to butter cookies. Later, Sephardic culture and cuisine in Holland were overwhelmed by Ashkenazim. However, several Dutch Sephardic innovations, notably these cookies, remain ubiquitous in Dutch bakeries and culture. Dutch Jews serve butter cookies on Hanukkah and Shavuot, and at other dairy meals.

  Jewish butter cookies spread to other parts of Scandinavia. In Denmark, round or scalloped butter cookies sprinkled with cinnamon and chopped almonds or hazelnuts are called Jodekager (Jewish cookies); these are firmer and crisper than the Dutch version, a longtime traditional Danish pre-Christmas treat. Dutch Sephardim also brought boterkoeke to England, as evidenced by the "Butter Cakes" Judith Montefiore included in The Jewish Manual (London, 1846), a synthesis of Portuguese Sephardic and contemporary English cuisines. Tellingly, in 2005, a group of Danish Muslims demanded that the traditional name be changed from Jodekager, as they found it offensive. Certain Danish officials, fearful it could hurt sales, were inclined to go along with this intolerance. Nevertheless, most Danes continued to refer to them as Jodekager.

  Danish Jewish Cookies (Jodekager)

  about thirty 3-inch cookies

  [DAIRY or PAREVE]

  2½ cups (12.5 ounces) all-purpose flour

  1 teaspoon ammonium carbonate, or ½ teaspoon baking powder and ½ teaspoon baking soda

  ½ teaspoon salt

  1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, softened

  ¾ cup granulated sugar, 1 cup confectioners' sugar, or 2/3 cup confectioners' sugar and ¼ cup granulated sugar

  1 large egg

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

  About 1 cup finely chopped almonds or hazelnuts

  Cinnamon-sugar (¼ cup ground cinnamon mixed with ¼ cup pearl sugar or crystal sugar) or ¼ cup granulated sugar

  1 large egg white, lightly beaten

  1. Sift together the flour, ammonium carbonate, and salt. In a large bowl, beat the butter until smooth, about 1 minute. Gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in the egg. Add the vanilla. Stir in the flour mixture.

  2. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

  3. Combine the nuts and cinnamon-sugar. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough 1/8 inch thick (the "thickness of a straw"). Cut into 3-inch rounds or rounds with scalloped edges. Place close together on ungreased baking sheets. Brush the tops lightly with the egg white and sprinkle with the nut mixture.

  4. Bake until lightly browned, 8 to 10 minutes. Let the cookies stand until firm, about 1 minute, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 6 months.

  Bougatsa

  Bougatsa is a phyllo-dough pie with a creamy, savory or sweet, cheese filling.

  Origin: Greece

  Other names: Bulgaria: banitsa; Greece: staka; Syria: bugacho.

  With the spread of the Ottoman Empire into North Africa and southeastern Europe came its Middle Eastern foods, including pogaca/bogaca, a category of savory and sweet yeast breads, many with a filling. In Greece, phyllo dough was substituted for the bread dough while retaining the filling, giving rise to the very popular treat bougatsa, a large pie akin to the semolina-custard-filled Turkish galactoboureko. Bougatsa seems to have originated among the Sephardim of Thessaloniki. It originally featured a cheese filling, the type predominant in the Turkish pogaca. Today, custard fillings are the most popular type in the specialty shops of Thessaloniki found on nearly every street. An almond-paste-filled version is known as Copenhagen. Bugacho, a savory Syrian variation of the Greek bougatsa, is a traditional Shavuot dish.

  Sephardic bougatsa features a creamy cheese filling wedged between crispy phyllo, served fresh and cut into hefty slices. The Greek version was originally made from water buffalo or sheep cheese or fresh mitzithra (a Greek cheese made from feta and kefalotyri byproducts). Modern Western versions use cow's milk cheese. The filling can be savory, even combining feta and spinach, but the sweetened type is far and away more popular. Occasionally, bougatsa is drenched in sugar syrup in the Middle Eastern manner, but most shops and home cooks simply sprinkle it with a little confectioners' sugar, sometimes mixed with cinnamon. Some also like the filling with a hint of cinnamon or nutmeg, while many prefer a purer cheese flavor.

  After finishing the large pie, any leftover filling and phyllo are customarily mixed together, rolled into ropes, formed into rings, and baked to make cookies called bougatsokouloura.

  In Greece, bougatsa are popular breakfast pastries typically consumed with coffee. Among Sephardim from Salonika, they are a traditional Shavuot dessert or part of the desayuno (brunch).

  (See also Galaktoboureko and Pogaca)

  Boyo

  Boyos are an assortment of fried and baked cheese pastries, made from either flour or bread.

  Origin: Spain and Portugal

  Other names: boyiko, prenesa.

  Sephardim generally made bread—for much of hi
story an arduous, time-consuming process—only twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. After a few days, the bread would become stale and innovative cooks would seek ways to utilize it, as nothing was wasted. A favorite of these methods was to soak dry bread in water or milk, season the mixture with cheese and spices, then fry dollops of the batter in hot olive oil, producing a dish called bollos de pan (balls of bread). Judith Montefiore, in the first Jewish cookbook in English, The Jewish Manual (1846), containing numerous Portuguese Jewish dishes, provides a recipe for fritters called "Prenesas," which is another type of boyo: "Take one pint of milk, stir in as much flour as will bring it to the consistency of hasty pudding; boil it till it becomes thick, let it cool, and beat it up with ten eggs; when smooth, take a spoonful at a time, and drop it into a frying-pan, in which there is a good quantity of boiling clarified butter, fry of a light brown, and serve with clarified sugar, flavored with lemon essence."

  After the Sephardim arrived in Turkey and the Balkans, they slightly changed the pronunciation to boyos de pan or simply boyos. Over the centuries, more sophisticated variations of boyo developed, including different fried and baked pastries, the common denominators being a bread or flour base.

  Boyos, along with borekas and bulemas, comprise "the three Bs," the most characteristic and popular of Sephardic baked goods in the eastern Mediterranean. They are an integral part of Sephardic desayuno (brunch), accompanied with haminados (long-cooked eggs) and olives. Boyos are also served during the period before Tisha b'Av and on other dairy occasions. In Salonika, a leftover boyo, along with a hot cup of salep/sachlav (orchid drink), constituted a comforting winter breakfast.

  (See also Bola, Boreka, and Bulema)

  Sephardic Cheese-Filled Squares in Yeast Dough (Boyos De Queso)

  about 12 pastries

  [DAIRY]

  Pastry:

  1¼ teaspoons active dry yeast or ½ (0.6-ounce) cake fresh yeast