by Gil Marks
Jewish food was all too often the product of poverty and scarcity— housewives endeavored to create filling and flavorful fare from meager supplies and from the least expensive items. Although pricey today, veal, brisket, and fish were once low-cost items and, consequently, emerged as prominent Jewish foods. Even in times of abundance, food retained its importance for Jews. Notably, for Conversos (forcibly converted Iberian Jews, also called Marrano-Anusim) living under threat of the Inquisition, Jewish food remained a socializing, unifying, spiritual, and comforting presence, for which it was worth risking their lives and well-being.
Jewish food is witness to the strength and management skills of untold generations of women who somehow managed to feed their families, frequently also while serving as the wage earner. Food is an expression of affection, a true and abiding gift savored in intimacy. Jewish mothers are legendary for using food as an expression of love. Much more important than the praise a meal may earn are the intangible dividends involved in the act of transforming and enhancing a simple meal or a major occasion through foods. Just as humor is a defense mechanism— surely the Jewish sense of humor emerged in part as a protective tactic— food can be a defense mechanism too, sheltering and investing the Jewish community. "Ess, ess, mein kindt" (eat, eat, my child) and "ess a bisel eppis" (eat a little something), two Yiddish directives repeated by Ashkenazic mothers for countless generations, were not only invitations to partake of physical nourishment, but also expressions of love, concern, fear, and a desire for survival. This behavior is certainly not limited to Ashkenazim; it is repeated in other languages, by Persian, Afghan, and Ethiopian Jewish mothers.
All the while, Jews maintained their historical role of transformation and transmission, a process continuing to this very day. By the end of the twentieth century, Ashkenazic favorites, not to mention the word nosh, had become a ubiquitous component of mainstream American gastronomy and parlance across the country. Meanwhile, American Jews ate standard American fare from hamburgers and hot dogs to salsa and sushi. Today, schmaltz is rarer in the average Ashkenazic kitchen than sushi. Jewish food has never been and is not now either monolithic or static.
Though varied and ever changing, there is a "Jewish food" beyond the generic fare consumed by a community at any one time or place. Jewish food evokes the spirit of a Jewish community as it celebrates the Sabbath, festivals, and life-cycle events. Jewish food is a dish that possesses the power to nostalgically conjure up the joy of millions of Sabbath dinners or resounds with the memory of the myriad of ghettos, shtetlach, and mellahs (Jewish quarters in Morocco) in which for millennia Jews struggled to eke out a living and raise their children as Jews. Jewish food is Ashkenazim serving honey-dipped apple slices, tzimmes, and lekach (honey cake) on Rosh Hashanah; stuffed cabbage, knishes, and strudel on Sukkot; potato latkes and jelly doughnuts on Hanukkah; kreplach and hamantaschen on Purim; matza balls and chremslach (matza pancakes) on Passover; and blintzes and cheesecake on Shavuot. It is Sephardim serving keftes de espinaca (spinach patties), lubiya (black-eyed peas), and membrillo (poached quinces) on Rosh Hashanah; sakayu (eggplant casserole) and dolmas (stuffed vegetables) on Sukkot; shamlias (fried pastry strips) and bimuelos (yeast doughnuts) on Hanukkah; sambusak (savory turnovers), foulares (hard-boiled eggs wrapped in pastry), and oznei haman (Haman's ear pastries) on Purim; keftes de prasa (leek patties), minas (matza pies), and torta de las reyes (flourless orange torte) on Passover; and spanikopita (spinach pie) and sutlach (rice-flour pudding) on Shavuot. It is food elevated to a special status, or perhaps sanctified, by its adoption into and enduring use in the cultural and/or religious life of a Jewish community. It is tradition.
Why Is Jewish Food Important?
Rituals are reassuring— they tell people that things are the same as they always were, although different. The predictable presence of Jewish foods on the table, the clear-cut repetition from week to week and from holiday to holiday, provides a new generation with steady links to the past. It also provides links to the future, as well as a security blanket for the present, giving members of a new generation the sense of who they are and where they fit in a frequently unpredictable world. Cooking and eating together as a group, such as at celebratory feasts and synagogue community meals, allows for bonding, fellowship, building communal identity, and sharing knowledge.
There are some foods that each time we prepare or eat them we cannot help but think of our mother and perhaps grandmothers. A simple bite of matza at the Passover Seder transcends time, linking us through the generations back to the Israelites still struggling under Egyptian bondage and to the diverse Jewish communities of today. Even as we age, or perhaps especially then, we remember the smells of our mother's kitchen, the tastes of her table, the foods lovingly handed down from generation to generation. And even as Jewish foods are redefined and hybridized, the value and meanings invested in them endure, becoming relevant to the present generation as they are passed on to the next. Jewish foods remain an intrinsic part of our individual and communal identity, helping us deal with change and loss, and helping us to transmit our values and hopes to the future.
Unfortunately, the end of the second millennium proved devastating to many Jewish communities. Almost all of the ancient ones, some dating back two thousand to twenty-five hundred years, experienced decimation or outright destruction. The Nazi onslaught laid waste to the great Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Italian centers of Europe and the subsequent Communist control of eastern Europe, for all practical purposes, finished off much of the remaining population. Most of the Jewish communities of the Muslim world were swept away in the face of the nationalism and hatred that emerged in response to the rise of Zionism and as a result of the spread of Nazi philosophy to some Arabs. Assimilation and emigration spelled the end of many other Jewish communities.
Today, once-vibrant Jewish communities exist only in the customs of their descendants living primarily in the two largest extant Jewish centers— Israel and America.
If Jewish communities no longer exist in their place of origin, why are their customs and foods important? Jews possess a sense of history and an intimate connection to that history as part of a diverse, scattered group. The constructive use of historical memory reverberates though the Bible and has directed Jewish life ever since. Judaism transforms historical events both advantageous and horrendous into a stimulus for future good— for personal growth, for family bonding, for community building, and for social justice. The identity and experience of any individual Jew is not based solely on a single family or local community, but rather on the entire Jewish history and people. The traditional Jewish term is Clal Yisrael (community/entirety of Israel). And food is a major part of the Jewish historical memory.
The incomparable aggregation known as Jewish food inspires and shapes the communities that today eat, enjoy, and depend on these dishes, as it has for generations. Understanding what these foods are and how they came to be enables us to better comprehend and appreciate the collective Jewish past and present, while informing the future. Through understanding traditional dishes we can get a taste of the scattered Jewish communities, their nature, history, and customs. Those who cherish a culture, cherish its narratives, and thereby gain a sense of possession and inclusion by learning about its food. Sharing disparate dishes from different communities bolsters a sense of unity, understanding, and inspiration.
About the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food is a cultural odyssey of more than twenty-five hundred years, exploring and embracing traditional Jewish foods from across the globe— their history, etymology, cultural and religious significance, continuing usage in Jewish life, and relationship to the wider culture. It is a unique work in scope, content, and method, drawn from my diverse background and interests.
Regardless of the protests of some chauvinists, political opportunists, and fanatics, nothing in gastronomy is authentic, pure, or exclusive. Culture cannot be stolen nor does it develop in a vacuu
m. Rather, over the course of time, cultures continually and consistently borrow and learn from one another. Vibrant cultures have always adopted the best from others, including, of course, food. Cuisine has no political allegiance or fidelity. As always, Jews were frequently directly or indirectly involved in the spread and introduction of many foods and dishes.
We know much about Jewish dining habits and culinary customs over the past two millennia from numerous references in rabbinic literature and sometimes non-Jewish sources. Questions about kashrut and halacha (Jewish law) remain a constant. Throughout the ages, rabbis have dealt with dietary issues in great detail, so we can glean much of what Jews ate and how they prepared it by studying the Talmud, Midrash, rabbinic literature, and responsa.
Jews did not begin to record their recipes in books until the nineteenth century and, therefore, the exact ingredients and techniques of Talmudic-era and medieval fare frequently remain unknown. Some insight can be garnered by comparisons with medieval non-Jewish cookery and with modern descendants of venerable dishes. Jewish cookbooks from the past two centuries open a window to that time. Even more so, home cooks willing to share the knowledge and experiences of their mothers and grandmothers— a chain of family transmission ensuring stability and authenticity— served as my primary resources for Jewish recipes and culinary habits. I relied on recipes provided by my own extended family as the basis for much of the traditional eastern European fare, then questioned friends, acquaintances, non-Ashkenazic in-laws, Israeli taxi drivers, and anyone who would share their culinary treasures and insights. I also pored over various sources, searching for any additional traditional recipes or variations and food history. Fortunately, the New York City metropolitan area and Israel serve as home to immigrant groups from across the globe and a wealth of culinary lore.
For the past twenty five years, I have amassed in my computer every relevant recipe— after trying them, typically several times, in my home kitchen— and bit of food information coming my way. I also researched various topics, exploring an array of Jewish foods and traditions. I had long wanted to use this data in a reference book on food, but was unsure of when or how. Then in 2007, my editor, Linda Ingroia, and I were discussing the follow-up to our previous successful collaboration, Olive Trees and Honey, and she suggested, "You're a walking encyclopedia of food, so how about an actual encyclopedia?" I certainly needed no convincing. This was a dream assignment.
I ambitiously wanted the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food to be both a detailed reference source as well as a practical cookbook. I began checking my information for accuracy and expanding and organizing it into an A-to-Z work exploring traditional foodstuffs and traditions from Jewish communities across the globe. The most difficult part was reducing it into a single manageable volume. The result is more than 650 entries of global scope. A few are only brief explanations, most consist of about a page in length, while I devoted several pages to very important and international topics— including challah, matza, and Sabbath stews. I was able to include entries on various Jewish holidays and rituals and their related food traditions. I could not, of course, include every traditional Jewish recipe or foodstuff. I choose those things that I consider the most representative, meaningful, and pertinent. A particular dish is included for its historical or sociological relevance and a corresponding recipe is attached to illuminate the entry. I strove to provide adequate space for the mosaic of Jewish communities across the globe for which I have much respect and affection. I wanted these dishes to provide a sense of an individual Jewish community and its cuisine and mindset. I spent much time reading about and discussing with individuals from various communities their perspectives and tried to envision myself a member of those groups in order to include those items held dear and of particular cultural and culinary significance.
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food is my individual voice and is based upon my erudition, experiences, and enthusiasm. I have intended it to be as comprehensive, accurate, and readable as possible. I trust that I was able to sufficiently and correctly reflect the life and history of Jewish food. However, one of the problems with food history is the number of misnomers and outright mistakes in documentation. If I have repeated any of them or made any omissions, please let me know in order that I can correct them at [email protected]. This is a serious reference and recipe book, but is also intended as a smorgasbord (or mezze)—enough for everyone to enjoy.
The collection of information and traditional recipes in Encyclopedia of Jewish Food— the influential and integral parts of ancient and modern Jewish history and culture— tells the story of the past twenty-five hundred years of Clal Yisrael. In addition to testifying to the past and present, a community's food also influences what it will become. In the words of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in The Physiology of Taste, "The destiny of nations depends upon what and how they eat." By our food, we declare and affirm who we are and who we want to be.
Timeline of Jewish History
c. 1230 BCE
The Merneptah Stele, a large black granite slab commemorating the victories of Pharaoh Merneptah, son of Ramses II, contains the earliest extra-biblical reference to Israel.
c. 1000
David captures Jerusalem and makes it the capital of his kingdom. The House of David will reign for about 424 years under twenty-one kings.
c. 1000
A 6-by-6½-inch pottery shard, discovered in 2008 in the remains of a fortified provincial Judean town (modern-day Khirbet Qeiyafa) near the Elah Valley and the site of David's battle with Goliath, bears the earliest extant Hebrew text (written in ink by a trained scribe in Proto-Canaanite script).
c. 960
The First Temple is built.
c. 925
Gezer northwest of Jerusalem, contains the second-earliest Hebrew inscription.
c. 922
The northern tribes, the Kingdom of Israel, secede from Judah.
722
The northern Kingdom of Israel is destroyed by the Assyrians.
597
Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar capture Jerusalem and deport thousands of the upper class and craftsmen to Babylon, including the prophet Ezekiel, initiating the Iraqi Jewish community.
586
After King Zedekiah rebels against Nebuchadnezzar, and following a two-year siege, the Babylonians on the ninth day of Av destroy Jerusalem and the First Temple and more Jews are taken to Babylon.
586 or 582
Gedaliah, the governor of Judea appointed by the Babylonians and governing from Mitzpah, north of Jerusalem, is assassinated. In response, the bulk of the remaining Judeans, perhaps 150,0000, are exiled to Babylon, but a group escapes to Egypt, taking the prophet Jeremiah with them, starting the Egyptian Jewish community.
539
Cyrus the Great conquers Babylonia, engendering the Persian Jewish community.
538
Cyrus permits the Jews to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple, although only a small number accept his offer, resurrecting the Jewish community in Israel.
516
The Second Temple is completed.
c. 458
Ezra the Scribe leads a group of 5,000 Jews from Babylon to Israel. Ezra becomes spiritual leader of Judea and part of a new group of 120 sages known as the Anshei Knesset ha-Gedolah (Members of the Great Assembly), who strengthen Judaism in the wake of the return to Israel, including recording and sealing the biblical canon into twenty-four books (for some books, this process continues until 100 CE) and instituting formalized prayers and benedictions; this group functions until the death of Shimon ha-Tzaddik (c. 300).
332
Alexander the Great conquers the land of Israel on his way to Egypt. Alexander dies in 323 and in 312 his kingdom is divided among three generals, Israel coming under the control of Ptolemy, who reigns from Alexandria.
167
Antiochus IV Epiphanes outlaws the practice of Judaism and, at the beginning of the Saturnalia festival on the twenty-fifth of Kislev, d
esecrates the Temple.
164
Led by Mattathias and his five sons, known as the Hasmoneans or Maccabees, a revolt drives the Seleucids from Jerusalem and, exactly three years after its desecration, they rededicate the Temple (Hanukkah). The fight with the Seleucids continues for nearly a quarter of a century.
63
General Pompey intervenes in a Hasmonean civil war and annexes the land of Israel as part of the Roman Empire.
31
Hillel is appointed head ( nasi ) of the Sanhedrin. His descendants retain this position, as leaders of the Israeli Jewish community, for nearly four centuries.
66
The first revolt against Rome begins. At this time there are an estimated 8 million Jews in the world with about 2.5 million in Israel.
70
Following a lengthy siege, on the ninth day of Av, the Romans destroy Jerusalem and burn the wooden parts of the Second Temple. Large numbers of Jews are killed or sold into slavery.
70
Yochanah ben Zakkai reestablishes the Sanhedrin in the city of Yavneh, south of Jaffa. It will move several more times during the Roman period, until finally ending up in 193 in Tiberias, where it is disbanded by the Romans in 425.
73
Masada falls to the Roman army.
c. 130
Rabbi Yosi ha-Galili dies. Until this time, residents of his rabbinic district could eat fowl with dairy, but afterwards the rabbinic prohibition forbidding this practice, supported by Rabbi Akiva, comes into effect.
