Encyclopedia of Jewish Food

by Gil Marks

  Ashkenazic Poached Dried Fruit (Frucht Kompot)

  about 8 cups/6 to 8 servings

  [PAREVE]

  2 pounds (about 7 cups) mixed dried fruit, any combination of apples, apricots, cherries, figs, peaches, pears, pineapple, plums, and raisins

  8 cups water, or 4 cups dry white wine (such as Riesling or Chenin Blanc) and 4 cups water

  1 cup sugar or honey

  6 thin orange slices

  6 thin lemon slices

  2 (3-inch) cinnamon sticks or 3 whole cloves

  1. In a large, heavy pot, bring all the ingredients to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until just tender, about 20 minutes.

  2. Remove and reserve the fruit. Increase the heat to high and boil until the cooking liquid is reduced to about 3 cups, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and return the fruit. Serve warm or chilled. Store in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.

  Cookbook

  Throughout most of history, books were handwritten and prohibitively expensive and, consequently, Jews never devoted any to gastronomy. The Talmud and subsequent rabbinic literature may be filled with the names of numerous dishes, foods, and even occasionally ingredients, but they do not contain actual recipes. If recipes were not transmitted from mother to daughter, they were lost. The earliest surviving Jewish recipes are six preparations—four poultry concoctions and "A Jewish Dish of Eggplants Stuffed with Meat" and "A Jewish Buried Stuffing"—included in an anonymous Andalusian handwritten cookbook of the thirteenth century. Even after the advent of movable type, printing remained relatively costly and typically was devoted to "serious" subjects. Some Jewish recipes appeared in the 1796 edition of Hannah Glasse's The Art of Cookery, the best-selling English cookbook of the eighteenth century.

  Following the industrialization of printing and the development of pulp paper in the 1800s, books for the first time became much cheaper, leading to the appearance and increasing proliferation of Jewish cookbooks. The earliest Jewish cookbooks emerged in the homeland of printing, Germany, perhaps the first of these being Kochbuch fur Israeliten (Carlsruhe, 1815) by Josef Stolz. Ten more German Jewish cookbooks followed during the nineteenth century, the most impactful being Kochbuch fur Israelitischen Frauen (Berlin, 1856) by Rebekka Wolf, itself inspired by contemporary non-Jewish works. Wolf emphasized thrift, while presenting a variety of German and international recipes. Wolf was reprinted many times through the early 1940s and translated into Dutch in 1881 and Polish in 1904. These volumes, all in accordance with the dietary laws and containing varying numbers of holiday dishes, reflect the continuity and changes in Jewish cuisine in Germany. Pointedly, as the nineteenth century progressed, the fare in Jewish cookbooks changed from thrifty to bourgeois.

  The 24th edition (1941) of the most successful American charity cookbook. It began in 1901 as a fund-raiser for the Jewish Settlement House in Milwaukee.

  The first Jewish cookbook in English was The Jewish Manual (London, 1846) written by Lady Judith Cohen Montefiore, wife of Sir Moses Montefiore, the most famous Jew of his time. The author begins her preface with these words: "Among the numerous works on Culinary Science already in circulation, there have been none which afford the slightest insight to the Cookery of the Hebrew kitchen." This work was meant to appeal to the growing Jewish middle class, offering, in the author's words, dishes that are "sophisticated" and "elegant." The recipes represent a mixture of English and Portuguese Sephardic cuisine.

  Other early Anglo-Jewish cookbooks were Aunt Sarah's Cookery Book for a Jewish Kitchen (Liverpool, 1872) and the 188-page An Easy and Economical Book of Jewish Cookery: Upon Strictly Orthodox Principles (London, 1874) by Mrs. Estella Atrutel, cook to the family of Lionel de Rothschild.

  In mid-nineteenth century Germany, the arduous economic and social conditions and a new wave of anti-Semitism induced many of its Jews to immigrate to America. While most of these newcomers settled in Manhattan, others scattered throughout the country. By the time of the Civil War, the American Jewish population had grown to about one hundred fifty thousand, the bulk coming from Germany. Quite a few of these German Jews obtained the success that had so long been withheld from them in their homeland. By force of their numbers and affluence, German Jews dominated the American Jewish scene until the early twentieth century.

  In the manner of Monterfiore's book, the first American Jewish cookbook, Jewish Cookery Book on Principles of Economy Adapted for Jewish Housekeepers (Philadelphia, 1871) by Esther Jacobs Levy, also offered food for the refined palate; it included primarily contemporary middle-class American and English dishes with a spattering of traditional German Jewish dishes. Levy's book emphasized the kosher kitchen, while reflecting the growing influence of Reform Judaism in the United States. She notes, "Without violating the precepts of our religion, a table can be spread, which will satisfy the appetites of the most fastidious. Some have, from ignorance, been led to believe that a repast, to be sumptuous, must unavoidably admit of forbidden food. We do not venture too much when we assert that our writing clearly refutes that false notion."

  As the German Jews assimilated, their cookbooks mirrored this change. Typical was Aunt Babette's by Bertha F. Kramer (Cincinnati, 1889). Unlike Levy's book, this work not only contained middle-class American fare and some German Jewish dishes, but many of the recipes utilized unkosher ingredients or combinations. The book also presented advice on holding the theme parties so widely popular in the 1890s.

  The first Yiddish cookbook was Kokhbuch far Yudishe Froyen (Vilna, 1896) by Ozer Bloshsteyn, which was reprinted in New York two years later. Clearly inspired by Wolf's German Kochbuch fur Israelitischen Frauen, this work too featured only kosher foods.

  One of America's great contributions to cuisine is the fund-raising community cookbook. It first emerged during the Civil War as a way to raise money for soldiers and their families. Today, these books have become an American institution, with a wide variety of nonprofit organizations offering a staggering array of cookbooks: Some are spiral-bound works, others are beautiful hard-cover volumes; some contain standard American fare, others are a valuable source of ethnic and regional food and culture.

  Jewish women's groups early on recognized the potential for fund-raising cookbooks to support their various programs. Most of these initial works were published in the smaller Jewish communities in the South and West, where participation in Jewish organizations was necessary to maintain Jewish identity and philanthropy was a major component of organizational life. Sometimes cookbooks were published to raise money for the building fund. Although most of these early books contained a few traditional Jewish dishes, few were kosher—almost all featured recipes calling for shrimp and bacon.

  Typical of these early Jewish organizational cookbooks is The Settlement Cook Book, unquestionably the most successful of the genre. First published in 1901, The Settlement Cook Book was meant to introduce eastern European immigrants to the American middle-class milieu. The book was the brainchild of Lizzie Black Kander (1858—1940). Born in Wisconsin to German Jewish immigrants, Kander was one of the founders of the "The Settlement," a neighborhood house in Milwaukee where recent immigrants took classes in English language, citizenship, sewing, and cooking. Kander, who also supervised the cooking classes, wanted to eliminate the laborious process of students copying recipes from the blackboard. Although the men on the house's board refused to fund the project, the women raised the necessary money and set about collecting recipes from members of high society and noted chefs, and from their students. The book's contents reflect the varied sources; it includes many unkosher dishes as well as traditional Jewish fare, such as kugels, gefilte fish, and matza balls. This dichotomy is particularly apparent in the holiday menu section.

  The Settlement Cook Book has gone through thirty-three editions—Kander continued to revise the book until her death—has sold nearly two million copies, and has grown from 174 pages to 563 pages, with more than 3,000 recipes. The many rev
isions over the years have so totally altered the book that it no longer resembles the very Jewish nature of the original volume. However, the effort has been so successful at raising funds that the Settlement Cook Book Company continues to disperse proceeds to educational and recreational projects.

  In the same year that The Settlement Cook Book first came out, so did one of the first Yiddish cookbooks in America, the self-published Ler-bukh vi Azoy tsu Kokhn un (Book for How to Cook and Bake) by Hinde Amkhanitski. Unlike the earlier German-based volumes, this was unabashedly kosher and eastern European, featuring "Kneydlekh [dumplings]," "Khremzlekh [matza meal pancakes]," and "Teyglekh [baked dough balls in honey]." However, for the next couple of decades, the typical American Jewish cookbook tended to be in English, unkosher, and with a tone conveying authors somewhat embarrassed by or even vehemently opposed to traditional Ashkenazic cooking.

  Meanwhile, after the Civil War, Jews started to impact mainstream American cooking. The first generic cookbook to feature a section of "Jewish Receipts" was Jennie June's American Cookery Book (New York, 1866) by Jane Cunningham Croly. The author notes, "These are all original and reliable, the contribution of a superior Jewish housekeeper in New York." This unnamed source was probably Croly's good friend Genie H. Rosenfeld, wife of the dramatist and first editor of Puck, Sydney Rosenfeld. Among the twenty-five recipes in the chapter, reflecting an Americanized German milieu, are "White Stewed Fish," "Brown Fricassee Chicken," "Purim Fritters," "Meringues," and "Pickled Cucumbers." The Purim fritters are an early appearance of what would become known as French toast.

  Sarah Rorer was the grand dame of early twentieth-century American cookery, the head of a Philadelphia cooking school for eighteen years, the domestic editor of the Ladies' Home Journal for fourteen years, and the author of more than seventy-five books and pamphlets. In Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book (Philadelphia, 1902), considered her magnum opus, she included a section called "A Group of Jewish Recipes." Four of the nineteen Jewish recipes are attributed to a Mrs. Henry Cohen and her daughter Katherine and many have a Sephardic accent, including "Spanish Rice," "Okra Soup," and some of the fish dishes. Six of the recipes are Passover related: "Matzot Balls for Soup," "Hot Stewed Fish" (made with "3 matzoth"), "Matzoth Pudding," "Soup Balls" (based on soaking "six matzoths in cold water"), "Passover Raisin Wine," and "Matzoth Sponge Cake."

  Following World War I, Jewish cookbooks began appearing with several notable differences from their predecessors. Like earlier organizational cookbooks, they were developed to raise funds for various causes; unlike those earlier efforts, not only were the contents strictly kosher, but they often stressed other traditional aspects of Jewish home and family life. Some of these volumes contain lengthy sections on Jewish law, holidays, and history meant to transmit Jewish heritage to future generations.

  The first Israeli cookbook, published by WIZO (Women's International Zionist Organization) in Hebrew, German, and English, Wie Kocht man in Erez Israel? (How to Cook in Palestine?) by Dr. Erna Meyer, published in Tel Aviv in 1936, recommends, "We housewives must make an attempt to free our kitchens from European customs, which are not appropriate to Palestine." Meyer, an immigrant from Germany, directed her efforts to helping Europeans adapt to Middle Eastern ingredients and equipment, such as a primus stove.

  The first complete cookbook in modern Hebrew, published in 1948, was Ani Mevashelet (I Am Cooking) by Jerusalem Post columnist Lilian Cornfeld. She had earlier an English book, What and How to Cook in Wartime (Tel Aviv, 1943). During the tzena (austerity), the period of rationing following the founding of the state, she provided recipes for eggless cakes and other dishes with simple ingredients in the 1949 work, Ma Avashel Mimanot Tzena (What to Cook with the Austerity Portions). Cornfeld, born in Montreal and educated at McGill University and Columbia University as a teacher and dietician, immigrated to Israel in the 1920s. She was one of the most popular and influential figures in Israeli food, eventually writing a dozen books emphasizing the emerging Israeli cuisine from a synthesis of the nation's ethnic communities.

  In America, Jewish cookbooks, now issued by major publishing houses, number in the hundreds and can be most easily classified as traditional Ashkenazic, ethnic, or contemporary. Beginning in the 1980s, several food columnists for Jewish newspapers compiled excellent texts with a wealth of valuable information, notably The Jewish Holiday Cookbook (1985) by Gloria Kaufer Greene, Sephardic Holiday Cooking (1986) by Gilda Angel, and International Jewish Cookbook (1991) by Faye Levy. Also at that time, another interesting development in cookbook publishing was the exploration of recipes from a specific ethnic group that put food in a social and cultural context, including The Classic Cuisine of Italian Jews (1981) by Edda Servi Machlin, Sephardic Cookery (1983) by Emile de Vidas Levy, and Cookbook of the Jews of Greece (1986) by Nicholas Stavroulakis.

  Jewish cookbooks now span the culinary spectrum from international to gourmet to healthy. They are self-published or issued from the major publishing houses. They reflect current social trends or traditional fare. The best ones are genuinely informative, evocative of a time and place, and make for great reading.

  Coriander

  The Bible describes manna as follows: "And the house of Israel called its name manna; and it was like zera gad [coriander seed]." A coriander seed is about three millimeters in diameter. Thus it required quite a number of manna to constitute the omer (9.4 cups) designated to feed each person daily.

  Coriander, a relative of parsley, is native to the Levant. Every part of the coriander plant is edible and each contributes a different flavor—the dark green leaves (commonly called cilantro), thin off-white roots, pale pink flowers, and the ridged, globular tan seeds. The plant's English name was derived from the Greek koris (bedbug), either referring to the tiny leg-like sprouts on the husk or to the malodorous smell of immature seeds. Unripe seeds are extremely bitter. Upon ripening, the seeds are dried and threshed in a process similar to that used for grain—a reason why some Ashkenazim abstain from using coriander seeds on Passover. The brittle seeds are ground into an aromatic powder possessing a nutty-peppery-orange flavor quite different from the musty-peppery flavor of the leaves.

  In the ancient Middle East, the coriander seed was far from being merely another spice, as it followed only salt and cumin as the most important and widespread seasoning. The earliest known examples of coriander seeds, dating to prehistoric times, were discovered among human artifacts in the Nahal Hemat cave in Israel. Coriander was among the ingredients in the world's first recorded recipes, which were found on four-thousand-year-old Sumerian tablets. Documents discussing the cultivation of coriander were among those in the library of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (seventh century BCE).

  Unlike the expensive imported spices, commonplace coriander was grown locally in the Levant and in Egypt and was accessible to every level of society. The seeds were used in both savory and sweet dishes, as well as added to many varieties of wine and beer. In addition, coriander was valued for its medicinal properties and its essential oil has long been considered a digestive stimulant. In Egypt, coriander was also used in perfume and as an aphrodisiac. Egypt had a long history with this plant; the Roman naturalist Pliny praised Egyptian coriander for its quality. Its prominence in Egypt also contributes to its usage in describing the manna.

  Whole seeds are relatively mild; ground coriander has a much more pronounced flavor. Toasting or exposing the seeds to acid (as in a brine) brings out the flavor. Coriander is used in foods cooked for a long time, such as roasts, or in foods cooked over a high heat, such as grilled meats. In Indian cooking, coriander is often combined with cumin and turmeric, and is an essential ingredient in curry powder. Middle Easterners add ground coriander to meatballs and stews, Moroccans to roast lamb, Germans to sausages, and Americans to hot dogs. Coriander is also used in pickles, marinades, liquors, fritters, and a variety of baked goods.

  (See also Cilantro)

  Corn/Cornmeal

  Corn, in England a generic
term for any small, hard particle, including grains, refers in North America more specifically to Indian corn, which the English named maize. This native of southern Mexico descended from a thin wild grass called teosinte, which has been cultivated and modified since the late Neolithic Age. Rudimentary corn, after generations of breeding, was still only about three inches long with eight rows of tiny kernels. Nevertheless, when very fresh, the kernels were sweet, a rarity at that time and place and, therefore, of appeal to ancient farmers. Long before Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, corn had spread from Canada to the tip of South America. It had been cultivated to increase dramatically in size and utilization and had become the most essential New World food. Hundreds of varieties had been developed—some to eat fresh, others to dry for popping, but most were intended for grinding. Cornmeal was transformed into fundamental dishes, such as tortillas, cakes, tamales, stews, and porridges.

  Corn, beans, and squash were designated by Native Americans as the "Three Sisters of Life" and formed the staples of the diet, together providing the essential amino acids for complete protein. This trio provided all the necessary nutrients and foods were combined together in various dishes, such as the corn, bean, and vegetable stew called succotash, or corn tortillas served with cooked beans. Moreover, the Aztecs of Mexico learned to boil dried corn kernels in a wood ash solution; the highly alkaline material softens the kernels and loosens the hulls, which slip off during processing. Corn treated with wood ash is easier to grind, cooks up softer, and holds together better for tortillas. As an incredibly beneficial side effect, the alkaline also converts various vitamins, such as niacin, calcium, and potassium, into a form capable of being absorbed by humans.