Encyclopedia of Jewish Food

by Gil Marks

Among the prominent professions of medieval Alsatian Jews was charcuterie, the preparation of meat products, which included curing, brining, smoking, and poaching. Using their skill at sausage making, cooks added kosher meats and sausages to sauerkraut to create their own version of choucroute, referred to as choucroute garnie à la Juive. Although the classic recipe uses an assortment of pork cuts and lard, Alsatian Jews substitute kosher meats and goose fat. Jewish-style choucroute is accepted in Alsace as an authentic variation and can sometimes be found in non-kosher restaurants offering a selection of choucroutes.

  There is no official recipe for this dish other than the inclusion of sauerkraut. The amount and types of meat used (cured cuts and fresh and cured sausages) is a matter of personal preference and availability. However, there are certain guidelines and standards. Traditional recipes call for goose fat, cloves, juniper berries, and bay leaves. Alsatians insist on using naturally fermented sauerkraut made without vinegar—the vinegar cannot be removed by washing, while the excess salt can. Fresh sauerkraut remains somewhat crisp and slightly acidic, properties that fade as the cabbage ages. The sauerkraut is then heated in some goose schmaltz or oil and then moistened with Riesling or other dry white wine. Choucroute usually contains potatoes, making it a one-dish meal. A good choucroute is a balance—never too fatty, acidic, dry, or watery.

  Choucroute garnie is cooked overnight over a very low heat as a popular Alsatian Sabbath lunch. Although now served year-round, it remains most prominent in the fall and winter. Choucroute garnie is commonly accompanied with a lentil salad and mustard or horseradish sauce.

  Alsatian Sauerkraut with Cured Meats (Choucroute Garnie À La Juive)

  8 to 10 servings

  [MEAT]

  3 pounds raw cured corned beef

  2 pounds pastrami or smoked goose breast

  6 pounds sauerkraut

  Spice Bag:

  2 cloves garlic, smashed

  8 whole black peppercorns

  2 whole cloves or 1 teaspoon caraway seeds

  2 bay leaves

  10 juniper berries (optional)

  3 tablespoons schmaltz or vegetable oil

  2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped

  4 cups Riesling or other dry white wine

  1 cup chicken broth or water

  1 pound beef knackwurst or knoblewurst (garlic sausage)

  6 to 10 beef frankfurters (optional)

  16 to 24 small new potatoes

  1. In a large pot, simmer the corned beef and pastrami in water to cover for about 1 hour. Drain.

  2. If the sauerkraut is very salty, wash it in cold water to remove most of the salt. Drain and press out the liquid.

  3. Place the garlic, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaves, and, if using, juniper berries on a piece of cheesecloth. Fold the cheesecloth into a bundle and tie.

  4. In a large pot, heat the schmaltz over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until soft and translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the sauerkraut, wine, broth, and cheesecloth bag and bring to a low boil.

  5. Arrange the corned beef, pastrami, sausages, and, if using, frankfurters on top of the sauerkraut. Add the potatoes, cover the pot, and simmer over low heat or bake in a 325°F oven for at least 3 hours or overnight. Choucroute garnie can be prepared a day ahead as it tastes even better reheated.

  6. Slice the corned beef and pastrami against the grain. Place the sauerkraut on a serving platter and arrange the meats, sausages, and potatoes on top.

  Chremsel

  Chremsel is a pancake, primarily for Passover, made from matza meal or mashed potatoes. It can be plain, stuffed, or dipped in honey.

  Origin: Southwestern Germany

  Other names: bubeleh, chremzel, fasputshes, grimsel, khremzl, pfannkuchen, pontshkes.

  Two thousand years ago, a very popular dish among Romans was vermiculos (Latin for "little worms"), known in the Jerusalem Talmud as iytree (strings). The Roman epicure Apicius, in his work De Re Conquinaria Libri Decem (Cuisine in Ten Books), compiled around 400 CE, included a recipe for vermiculos—thin strips of dough fried in oil then coated with honey. Vermiculos would, in the course of time, lead to a beloved Ashkenazic pancake, chremslach.

  During the Middle Ages, the original dish disappeared from Italian kitchens. After the concept of boiling dough in water reached the Mediterranean in the thirteenth century, vermiculos became the source of the Italian vermicelli, long, thin threads of pasta.

  Meanwhile, Italian Jewish merchants and immigrants brought vermiculos to the Rhineland, the seat of early Ashkenazim. By the twelfth century, numerous Franco-German rabbis mentioned the practice of starting the Friday evening meal with an appetizer of fried strips of dough in honey called vermesel or verimslish. This tradition remained in the area for more than three centuries, until it was eventually replaced at Friday night dinner with noodles in chicken soup. Then in the fifteenth century, the term vermesel evolved into frimsel, the Western Yiddish word for noodles. It also became grimsel, denoting various fritters and pancakes. The first Jewish cookbook in America, Jewish Cookery (1871) by Esther Levy, who was of German heritage, includes "Grimslechs (for Passover)." Shortly thereafter, Aunt Babette's (1889), another cookbook by an author from a German background, calls the pancakes "Grimslich"; the pancakes in this recipe are made with bread.

  When the dish reached eastern Europe, it became chremsel. The Yiddish diminutive suffix lach was added to denote the plural. The most widespread version of chremslach are small matza meal pancakes topped with preserves or, like the vermiculos, soaked in honey. The first edition of The Settlement Cook Book (1901) offered five recipes for "Matzos Crimsel." Noble laureate Saul Bellow, in a 1983 New York Times interview by Mimi Sheraton, reminisced about the dishes made by his mother from Riga, Latvia: "My mother made some wonderful dishes that I can still taste, especially her turnip dishes and chremslach, the pancakes of nuts and vegetables that we ate with conserves."

  (See also Latke, Lokshen, and Matza Brei)

  Ashkenazic Matza Meal Pancakes (Chremslach)

  about thirty-six 1-inch or sixteen 3-inch pancakes

  [PAREVE or MEAT]

  1 cup matza meal

  About 1/3 cup finely chopped almonds, hazelnuts, or walnuts

  About 2 tablespoons sugar

  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

  About ½ teaspoon table salt or 1 teaspoon kosher salt

  Pinch of ground ginger (optional)

  4 large eggs, lightly beaten

  1 cup sweet wine or water

  Vegetable oil or schmaltz for frying

  1 pound (11/3 cups) honey

  1. In a medium bowl, combine the matza meal, nuts, sugar, cinnamon, salt, and, if using, ginger. Combine the eggs and wine. Stir into the matza meal mixture and let stand for at least 30 minutes.

  2. In a large skillet, heat about 1/8 inch oil over medium heat. Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls or tablespoonfuls and fry until lightly browned on the bottom, about 1 minute. Turn and fry until browned on the other side, about 30 seconds. Drain on paper towels.

  3. Pour off most of the oil and add the honey to the skillet. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently (the honey may boil up). Add the pancakes and toss to coat. Store the chremslach in the honey at room temperature, tossing occasionally to recoat.

  Cilantro

  Fresh coriander, a member of the Apiaceae family, is commonly called cilantro, which is the Spanish name for the plant. It is also known as Chinese parsley and Mexican parsley. A native of Israel, it is called kuzbara in both Arabic and Hebrew. The leaves, seeds (fruits), and roots are all used in cooking; each of them has a very different flavor and should not be substituted for another. Cilantro is among the fresh herbs recommended for the karpas of the Passover Seder.

  Cilantro has long been one of the world's most widely used herbs and is a popular component of the cuisines of Asia, Mexico, the Middle East, Georgia, and the Caribbean. It adds an herbal note to the essential Yemenite chili paste, s'chug. Although cilantro looks like its relat
ive flat-leaf parsley, the leaves are thinner and lighter green and the flavor (slightly musty-peppery-citrusy) is more pungent. Cilantro complements both cool and hot foods, including citrus, mint, ginger, and chilies. Heat dissipates cilantro's flavor and turns it bitter, so it is usually added near the end of cooking.

  (See also Coriander)

  Cinnamon/Cassia

  Cinnamon is the inner bark of a tropical evergreen tree of the laurel family that is native to Sri Lanka (Ceylon). Cinnamon has a pleasing fragrance, and a sweet-pungent flavor with a hint of citrus and cloves. It contains eugenol, which also gives cloves their characteristic flavor. So cherished was cinnamon, that its source was hidden for centuries and legends were created to deter the curious from searching for it.

  Today, cinnamon is one of the world's favorite spices—at least we might think the spice we enjoy is cinnamon. In the early twentieth century, the price of true cinnamon skyrocketed and American spice companies began to frequently substitute the inexpensive bark of a laurel tree native to Myanmar (Burma) and Assam (northeastern India); this spice is called cassia and Chinese cinnamon. In the United States and France, the terms cinnamon and cassia can legally be used interchangeably, although this is not permitted in England, Australia, and many other countries. True cinnamon has a pale tan color and a sweeter and more delicate flavor than the dark reddish brown, almost coppery, pungent cassia. Cassia sticks are hollow, while cinnamon sticks are filled with thin layers. Although there is only one true cinnamon, there are several types of cassia primarily grown in China, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Each type of cassia has a slightly different flavor. The now-more-prevalent Indonesian cassia tends to be the most complex with a combination of sweetness, sharpness, and bitterness. Chinese cassia is generally stronger (with a note of heat) and sweeter than the other types. Vietnamese cassia tends to be subtler and more balanced with plenty of sweetness and sharpness and only a note of spice.

  Neither the biblical kinamon nor ketziah/keydah is, in all likelihood, identical to what we today call cinnamon and cassia. Nachmanides, relying on the Midrash, noted that "kinamon grew in the land of Israel"—and cinnamon never did. The Midrash is in accord with statements in the Jerusalem Talmud that "the kindling of Jerusalem were of cinnamon... but when Jerusalem was destroyed, they [the cinnamon] were hidden" and "goats in Israel fed on cinnamon and Jews once grew it there." In addition, Nachmanides insisted that kinamon was not a tree, but rather "an aromatic grass, called adbar in Arabic, ascinant in Latin, and saika domika in Old French." Nachmanides, noting its original use in charoset in memory of the straw, continued, "such as kinamon and sanbal, which are similar to straw." Similarly, some Sephardim consider the biblical kinamon to be paja de Mecca (Mecca straw), an aromatic red herb, which is called kyabi shamani in Turkish.

  Ancient non-Jewish sources also point to a Middle Eastern origin for ancient cinnamon and cassia. The Greek writers Herodotus and Theophrastus both recorded that they grew in Arabia. Pliny contended that they came from Ethiopia. The descriptions of these plants by Theophrastus as well as Pliny do not at all reflect contemporary forms of cinnamon and cassia. Apicius never mentioned cinnamon or cassia in his cookbook, so it was certainly absent from imperial Rome.

  No record of what we currently call cinnamon appeared in its homeland of Sri Lanka—where it is called kurundu—before the thirteenth century CE, when it was first noted in Arabic sources.

  In the two centuries after the disappearance around 1000 CE of the Radhanites, an enigmatic group of Jewish merchants, Asian spices disappeared from Europe. Meanwhile, the Middle Eastern spices kinamon and ketziah lost favor. When Asian spices began to again flow into Europe in the twelfth century, two newer arrivals from the Far East subsumed the names of their faded predecessors, probably sparked by a medieval marketing ploy. (It only took a few years in America for cassia to subsume the name of cinnamon.) It was around this time in the twelfth century that cassia and cinnamon first began to proliferate in Arabic cuisine. Kitab al-Tabikh (Book of Dishes) by Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Al-Baghdadi, compiled in Iraq in 1226, referred to both cinnamon and Chinese cinnamon. By this point, the terms cinnamon and cassia had taken on their contemporary meanings.

  The Silk Road was a four-thousand-mile-long network of contiguous thoroughfares and trails proceeding from numerous Chinese cities and villages into a few westward passages. The most important segments of the Silk Road consisted of two major courses running north and south of the Taklamakan Desert, dreaded for its fierce heat and dangerous winds. Caravans once passed through the area bearing the riches of the Orient to Europe, ranging from cinnamon to carp.

  It was not until the Portuguese sailed by ship around the southern tip of Africa to Sri Lanka in the fifteenth century, soon followed by the Dutch in 1640 and then the English in 1796, that cinnamon became a common item in Europe. Cinnamon emerged as the most popular central European spice for baking, including any number of cakes, tarts, and cookies.

  Cinnamon is used in every Jewish community, complementing a myriad of dishes, including stews, Moroccan tagines, soups, pilafs, chutneys, beverages, spiced wines, fruits, and most baked goods. Cinnamon is essential to Indian curries. Ashkenazim use it in tzimmes, babka, and cake rolls. Cinnamon is also incorporated into many variations of charoset.

  (See also Spice and Zimtstern)

  Citrus

  Citrus (from the Greek kedros, "cedar") are evergreen plants of the Rutaceae family with shiny leaves and brightly colored fruit. They originated in eastern Asia and are probably all descended from the citron (etrog). Over the centuries, through continuous crossing, citrus has developed into one of the largest of fruit families. In 1178 CE, Han Yen-Chih in the oldest known treatise on citrus fruits, described the twenty-seven varieties of citrus then in existence, including citrons, kumquats, lemons, mandarins, and oranges. Today, there are thousands of varieties of which only several hundred are grown in any number. Individual citrus varieties vary in flavor and color depending on soil and climate.

  Lemon is a high-acid citrus fruit native to eastern Asia. Lemons appear to be depicted in Italian mosaics beginning toward the end of the first century CE. Initially, the Romans treated lemons like the citron, as a garden decoration.

  Lime, the fruit of an evergreen shrub probably native to Malaysia, is the most acidic of all citrus fruits. Limes thrive in tropical climates, where they are the predominant souring agent, a role played by lemons in the subtropics. Limes contain more citric acid and essential oils than lemons and, therefore, cannot always be substituted in equal amounts.

  What most of the rest of the world refers to as a lime is not the same as the characteristic American fruit by that name. The most common type in America is the Persian lime—also called Bearss lime and Tahitian lime—which is not considered a true lime, but is a hybrid between the lime and citron. The true lime and the most widespread outside of the U.S. is the Key or Mexican lime. Key limes are smaller, thinner-skinned, more yellow, more acidic, more flavorful, and more aromatic than Persian limes. Key limes, however, do not fare as well as Persian limes in milder climates and have a shorter shelf life.

  Limes play a particularly important role in the cuisines of central Asia, where they are used fresh and dried, the latter called limoo omani or loomi in Iran and noumi basra in Iraq. Loomi are made by blanching fresh Key limes in salted water, then sun-drying them. The fruit turns hard, hollow, and brown or black; the darker the color, the more pungent the fruit. They are sold in Middle Eastern and specialty stores, whole or finely ground. Dried limes contribute a distinctive sweet-tart flavor and musty aroma to stews, fish dishes, and rice.

  Following the Lombard invasions of 568 CE, citrus disappeared from Europe and much of the Mediterranean, except among the Jews, who continued to cultivate etrogim for the Sukkot ritual, as well as other citrus trees. As pointed out by Erich Isaac in his article "Influence of Religion on the Spread of Citrus: The Religious Practices of the Jews Helped Effect the Introduction of Citrus to Mediterranean Lands"
(Science, 1959), "that it is the antiquity of citrus culture, originally introduced to these regions [Spain, the Maghreb, Sicily, southern Italy, and Egypt, all of which correspond to the large Jewish centers of the Mediterranean] by Jews, for whom the cultivation of other citrus species was a by-product of citron cultivation which explains the persistence of this horticultural speciality." The first reference in Arabic sources to limes as well as lemons appeared in the tenth century. Subsequently, Arabs spread the lemon and lime west to North Africa and Spain, while Crusaders brought the lemon back to Italy.

  Beginning in the eighth century, Jewish traders began selling citrons and later lemons and oranges to eastern and northern Europe and these traders continued to serve as the primary source of citrus for these regions until the late nineteenth century. Citrus fruit's importance increased as people discovered that it was a cure for scurvy, and the fruit's effect gave rise to the term limey for British sailors. In modern Israel, citrus production, including that of the famous Jaffa orange, provided a vital early source of income for the fledgling economy.

  (See also Etrog (Citron), Lemon, Preserved, and Orange)

  Coconut

  Coconuts are the large fruits of a tropical palm tree, which, throughout much of the Pacific, provides food, clothing, shelter, and more. Some say the Spanish named it after a popular clown of the sixteenth century, Coco, while others contend the name belonged to a legendary Portuguese goblin, the three "eyes" of the coconut reminding them of a clown's or demon's face. The coconut's place of origin is unknown, but it was widely used in India more than twenty-five hundred years ago. Nautical trade between Rome and India brought coconuts to Egypt and remains of coconuts dating to the first century CE have been discovered there. By the sixth century, Arab traders had spread the coconut through Egypt and parts of the Middle East. Thus some medieval sources, such as Marco Polo, called it "Pharaoh's nut."

  Meanwhile, Arab traders were selling the shells to Europeans; the shells had reached Italy by 1250 and had traveled as far as England and King Edward III by 1337. The shells were so rare, however, that they were formed into gold or silver cups or fancy decorations in castles and cathedrals. It is doubtful whether the actual coconut flesh ever reached medieval Europe. In 1498, Vasco da Gama, in his accounts of sailing to India, mentioned seeing coconuts after reaching the Indian Ocean, and Portuguese traders soon introduced them to Europe. It was not, however, until around 1840 that trading schooners on a regular basis brought coconuts from the Pacific to Europe and North America. The flesh soon appeared in a few dishes, and coconut became more than a rarity for the wealthy. Coconut was first mentioned in print in America in 1834, when they had to be peeled and grated by hand at home.