Encyclopedia of Jewish Food

by Gil Marks

  Traditional bulemas use a thinly stretched homemade yeast dough. The dough is shaped into balls, then coated with oil and left to briefly rest before being rolled out. As commercial phyllo became widely accessible, many substituted it for an easier version. Others, however, insist on using the traditional yeast dough, as it coils easier and tears less than phyllo. Spinach-cheese, eggplant-cheese, and plain cheese are the most common fillings. Sweet versions are called bulemas dulces.

  Bulemas, along with borekas and boyos, constitute the triumvirate of Sephardic pastries, served at a desayuno (brunch) and other important Sephardic dairy occasions. However, unlike borekas, which became ubiquitous in modern Israel, the bulema remains largely obscure beyond the Sephardic community. According to Sephardic lore, the spiral shape of the bulema symbolizes the life cycle and the ascent of the soul to Eden.

  A sweet pumpkin filling (kalavasa) is traditional on Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot. Cheese filling is customary on Hanukkah and spinach filling, utilizing the new crop, is eaten on Purim. Eggplant filling is enjoyed throughout the summer. Moroccans feature almond-filled coils (rose aux amandes) at weddings and other special occasions. Bulemas are typically accompanied with a glass of arak.

  Sephardic Cheese Coils (Bulemas)

  about 12 large or 18 medium pastries

  [DAIRY]

  Dough:

  1 teaspoon active dry yeast or ½ (0.6-ounce) cake fresh yeast

  1 cup warm water (105 to 115°F for dry yeast; 80 to 85°F for fresh yeast)

  Pinch of sugar

  1¼ teaspoons table salt or 2½ teaspoons kosher salt

  1 tablespoon vegetable oil or melted butter

  About 3 cups (15 ounces) bread or unbleached all-purpose flour

  ½ cup vegetable oil

  About 2 cups Gomo (Sephardic Pastry Fillings)

  1.5 ounces (½ cup) grated Parmesan, Romano, or kefalotiri cheese, or any combination, for sprinkling (optional)

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease 2 large baking sheets.

  2. To make the dough: Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup water. Stir in the sugar and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, remaining water, salt, 1 tablespoon oil, and 2 cups flour. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a mixture that holds together. The dough can also be blended in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook or a food processor. Knead until smooth and elastic.

  3. Pour the ½ cup oil into a large shallow pan. Divide the dough into eighteen 1-inch balls or twelve larger balls. Place the balls in the oil and turn to coat all over. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let stand for about 30 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.

  4. Working with one dough ball at a time, place each ball on an oiled surface (use any remaining oil from the shallow pan) and flatten. Roll and stretch the smaller balls into rounds about 7 inches in diameter or the large balls into very thin rounds about 10 inches in diameter. Brush with oil. Spread a generous tablespoon of filling in a thin line along one edge of the dough. From the filling side, roll up jelly-roll style into a long tube. Starting from one end of the roll, curl up into a coil, seam side in.

  5. Place the coils on the prepared baking sheets, leaving a little space between the coils for rising. Brush with oil and, if using, sprinkle with the cheese.

  6. Bake until golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

  Bulgur

  Six millennia ago, people in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean, after discovering beer and bread, developed a combination process for preparing whole grains by parboiling them, then drying them in the sun; thus bulgur was one of the first processed foods, if not the first. By far the favorite of these sun-dried grains was durum wheat groats, now commonly known as bulgur; the Turkish pronunciation of the Arabic burghul, which comes itself from the Farsi barghul. It is mentioned twice in the Bible as rifot, including an instance of a woman hiding two allies of King David from the forces of the rebellious Absalom by spreading a cloth over a well and scattering bulgur over the top, a natural way of drying the grain and, therefore, unsuspicious. It is most commonly referred to as burghul in modern Israel.

  For millennia and even today in many rural areas, families prepared their own bulgur each summer, typically as part of a communal effort. After removing the chaff, the kernels were boiled in a large open kettle for about two and a half hours until nearly tender, then drained and sun-dried on the flat roofs of the houses for at least a week, occasionally being turned and separated by hand. After drying, the kernels were typically rubbed to remove some or all of the outer bran layers. The more layers of bran removed, the less nutty the flavor. The dried kernels were usually cracked in a mortar or by stone, thus the statement in Book of Proverbs: "Even if you pound a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with bulgur, his foolishness will not depart from him."

  Today, bulgur is generally taken to a nearby mill for crushing. Finally, it is sieved to separate various degrees of fineness, then stored to feed the family for much of the year. In Turkey, Kurdistan, and some other parts of the Middle East, after parboiling, part of the wheat is dried as bulgur, while the remainder is fermented with the whey drained from yogurt and then sun-dried, creating an ancient processed food called tarhana in Turkey, kutach in the Talmud, and kashk in Persia.

  The bulgur form of wheat allows for easy preparation (soaking in liquid or quick simmering), as well as a long storage period of at least eight months, even in humid conditions. The heat kills any insect eggs and mold in the wheat, while its new hard nature hinders insect attacks from outside. The partial processing of the wheat berries imparts a nutty flavor as well as gelatinizing the starch, while removing very little of the kernel's protein, vitamins, and minerals. Another attribute of bulgur is that it can be prepared well after the wheat harvest and, therefore, is not a distraction.

  Sun-dried grains were a staple of ancient Mesopotamia and have been found in early Egyptian tombs. For millennia, bulgur along with kashk provided the principal winter meals throughout much of the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean. Turks remain the predominant producers and consumers of bulgur. The average rural family in Turkey and Kurdistan still purchases, toward the end of the summer, about fifty kilos of wheat to prepare their own bulgur and kashk.

  The situation was quite different in America, where bulgur was practically unknown until well into the twentieth century. Commercial bulgur was first introduced in 1945 as a means of utilizing part of the country's wheat surplus, although little was consumed domestically. To support declining farm prices, the U.S. Congress enacted the Agricultural Act of 1948, making surplus foods available to the needy abroad through registered volunteer agencies (RVA). Although the food supplies were free, the voluntary agency had to bear all shipping and distribution costs. In order to arrange for surplus American foods to go to the young state of Israel, undergoing its rationing period known as the tzena (austerity), Hadassah and its medical organization, known for its humanitarian activities, registered in 1950 as an RVA with the State Department, which attempted at every turn to prevent this development.

  Nevertheless, after several months of wrangling, Hadassah won approval and, in the years until 1955, boxes of dried skim milk, dried eggs, cheese, butter, and potatoes—the shipping costs covered by the Jewish Agency for Israel—arrived in Israel marked "Donated by the People of the United States" and "Not for Resale." After the first year, other goods were added, including rice, corn, and bulgur. The latter was primarily due to the efforts of Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota, who even read a statement on the Senate floor calling attention to the nutritional and economic advantages of bulgur. When the Congressional Record recorded the article, it did so in Hebrew, certainly the first and possibly only instance of Hebrew in the official record of Congress, as well as the first time bulgur was mentioned in the Congressional Record. Subsequently, bulgur remained a common food in Israel, found packaged in supermarkets along with unprocessed wheat berries.
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  The rise of the health food movement led to an increased American interest in bulgur. Correspondingly, the sudden popularity in America of the Lebanese herb salad tabbouleh led to the widespread discovery of bulgur.

  Bulgur served as a staple "poor person's dish" among Middle Eastern Jews, especially the very impoverished communities of Kurdistan and Yemen. It was paired with other inexpensive items, such as lentils, in dishes similar to the more upscale mengedarrah (rice with lentils). Fine bulgur is generally utilized for cooked cereals, breads, and some salads. Medium can be used for anything and is preferred for kibbeh (ground meat dishes), tabbouleh, salads, and soups. Fine- and medium-grain bulgur can generally be substituted for each other and prepared by simply soaking in liquid, although a little cooking improves the texture. In Israel, a little soaked bulgur is sometimes added to falafel and meat loaf for texture and binding. The coarse type of bulgur, requiring a brief cooking period, is commonly used for pilafs, cooked salads, casseroles, stuffings, and stews. Bulgur can be substituted for rice in most recipes.

  (See also Bazargan, Beleela, Kashk/Kutach, Kibbeh, Kibbeh Mahshi, Kubbeh, and Tabbouleh)

  Bundt Cake

  Bundt cakes are coffee cakes baked in round, high, scalloped pans with a hole in the center. Firm, yet moist, they are most often served without a frosting.

  Origin: Germany, central Europe

  Other names: bundkuchen.

  For generations, central Europeans baked butter- and egg-rich yeast doughs in ceramic bowls, calling the cakes kugelhopfs (gugelhopf in Austria and southern Germany). However, the centers of those dense cakes tended to turn out doughy. Then centuries ago, someone came up with the idea of constructing a hole in the center of the mold, guaranteeing uniform cooking. In addition, a scalloped surface was added, exposing more of the batter to the heat and giving a cake or bread baked in the pan the appearance of a wound turban. The fluted pan, a large, glazed, bowl-shaped terra-cotta mold with a central tube, became known as a Turk's Cap or Turk's Head.

  In the mid-nineteenth century, craftsmen began producing a fluted cast-iron version of the Turk's Cap, the first metal tube pan; this heavy pan was necessary for the dense, Teutonic butter cakes and was less fragile than pottery. Around the same time, cooks in northern Germany began referring to it as a bund pan and to coffee cakes baked in it as bundkuchen. The name bund (German for "bundle/band") probably connoted the banded appearance of the flutes, which resembled a bundle of straw or twigs, but as the word also came to mean a "gathering of people," a deeper meaning was added: a large baked good shared by many.

  The first American records of bund and Bundt cakes were all in Jewish sources. Bertha F. Kramer, the German Jewish author of Aunt Babette's (Cincinnati, 1889), included a recipe, immediately following "Abgeruehrter Gugelhopf," for "Plain Bund, or Napf Kuchen," a butter-and egg-rich yeast cake akin to the kugelhopf but without the traditional raisins and candied citron. Kramer provided no explanation of the type of pan used, stating only "Butter the form well that the cake is to be baked in," presuming that her readers would know the appropriate baking vessel.

  Shortly thereafter, the original edition of The Settlement Cook Book (1901) by another Midwestern German Jew, Lizzie Kander, contained three recipes for "Bundt Kuchen," all made from a butter-and-egg-rich yeast dough. The "Spice Bundt Kuchen" simply called for adding cinnamon and raisins to "Bundt Kuchen No. 1." The directions in "Bundt Kuchen No. 2," somewhat richer than No. 1, direct "Grease Bundt form (a heavy round fluted pan with tube in center) well, and flour lightly." This was the first description of the pan and first record of the word Bundt with the t suffix. All of Kander's Bundt cakes were yeast-raised. On the other hand, The Neighborhood Cook Book by the Council of Jewish Women (Portland, Oregon, 1912) offered a recipe for a yeast-raised, kugelhopf-like "Rum Bund," as well as a "Plain Bund Kuchen," made from a pound cake—like batter without any yeast baked in a "bund form."

  As acculturation led to the adoption of American layer cakes, Bundt cakes began disappearing from Jewish cookbooks and kitchens. Bundt forms were all manufactured in Europe and, as the twentieth century progressed, were unobtainable in America. Yet a few children of immigrants grew nostalgic for the dense, moist, and flavorful Teutonic butter cakes their mothers and grandmothers lovingly produced. Thus in 1950, when a Hadassah chapter in Minneapolis, Minnesota, wanted to experiment with some Old World bundkuchen, they could not find any appropriate pans. Undeterred, the women forwarded a request to nearby Northland Aluminum Products, then a small struggling firm manufacturing Scandinavian pastry molds and bakeware under the Nordic Ware trademark, asking if the company could create a pan similar to the bund but using lighter-weight aluminum.

  H. David Dalquist, who had purchased the company two years before, was mystified until one of the Hadassah members, Rose Joshua, brought over her grandmother's German kugelhopf pan. Using Joshua's mold as a prototype, Dalquist added folds to the flutes and trademarked the name Bundt, as well as patenting the pan's design. Thus was born, or more precisely reborn, the now classic American Bundt pan.

  Initially, the Bundt pan attracted little attention and most of them were purchased by Hadassah women. In the 1960 edition of the Good Housekeeping Cookbook, a picture of a pound cake baked in a Bundt pan sparked somewhat wider interest. Then a popular entry in the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off, the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, which required a Bundt pan, suddenly ignited a Bundt craze. Ironically, the Tunnel of Fudge Cake only earned second prize, losing to the now-disregarded Golden Gate Snack Bread. Within a few weeks, Pillsbury received more than two hundred thousand requests from people trying to locate the then relatively unknown Bundt pan. Northland went into twenty-four-hour production to meet the demand and, within a year, was churning out thirty thousand pans a day. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the Bundt pan had become the top-selling cake pan in the world and a standard piece of equipment in American kitchens.

  In gratitude for its input, Northland for many years afterward donated the Bundt pan seconds to Hadassah, which sold them at fundraisers and donated much of the proceeds to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem and other charitable projects.

  Technically, anything baked in a Bundt pan is considered a Bundt cake. However, by its nature, the pan lends itself to a particular type of cake, one that stands high and erect. Bundt cakes, partway between a pound cake and American butter cake, contain less butter and sugar than pound cakes and more than layer cakes. They are firm, yet moist, and rich enough to not require a frosting. Therefore, Bundt cakes are best when focusing on simple flavors, such as vanilla, chocolate, and citrus. Buttermilk or sour cream is commonly used as the liquid, the acid producing a pleasant tang and tender texture. Bundt cakes are now universal and a recognized American comfort food, yet they remain an important part of American Jewish cuisine, not only served at Hadassah meetings but at Sabbath meals and various life-cycle events.

  Burag

  Burag is a fried or baked square or roll of phyllo dough filled with mildly spiced meat or vegetables.

  Origin: Iraq

  Other names: bourag.

  When the Turks relocated from central Asia to the area that now bears their name, among the foods they brought with them was a deep-fried filled dumpling called bugra, which, by the fifteenth century had evolved into a large number of filled pastries collectively known as börek or burek. The standard pastry for these dishes was yufka, called fila by the Arabs and phyllo by the Greeks. After Iraq was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, a form of börek emerged there, filled phyllo squares or cylinders called burag, which became some of Iraq's most popular pastries. The most common fillings are ground meat, ground chicken, potatoes, and cheese. Like most Iraqi appetizers, burag were originally deep-fried, but today baked versions are also common. Iraqi Jews typically commence meals for special occasions with burag and several other appetizers. Burag is typically accompanied with turshi (pickles) and amba (curried mango condiment).

  (See also Boreka)

  B
uricche

  Buricche are turnovers made with puff pastry and filled with vegetables or meat.

  Origin: Italy

  Other names: burchita, burriche.

  Pasta sfoglia (puff pastry) originated in Florence, Italy, during the Renaissance, as ingenious bakers, using techniques from Iberia, found a way to produce layered pastry as with phyllo dough but without the necessity of the time-consuming and skilled art of rolling each piece paper-thin. The water and butter embedded in the dough steam and puff up during baking, resulting in numerous flaky layers. Sephardic exiles introduced Italian Jews to Iberian turnovers, such as empanadas, and their various fillings, especially seasonal vegetables—spinach, eggplant, and pumpkin. Other popular Italian fillings included meat, liver, chicken, anchovy, tuna, and almond. Eventually, the concept of the boreka (filled pastries) arrived from Turkey, giving rise to the Italian buricche, utilizing the Italian Jewish version of puff pastry and distinctively Italian fillings to make small turnovers. For meat meals, goose or veal fat was substituted for the butter in the dough, although today margarine is more prominent. You can use store-bought puff pastry or standard flaky pie pastry. Buricche are among the favorite Italian Purim foods.

  Italian Turnovers (Buricche)

  about 20 pastries

  [PAREVE or DAIRY]

  Pastry:

  ½ cup olive or vegetable oil

  ½ cup lukewarm water (80 to 90°F)

  ½ teaspoon table salt or 1 teaspoon kosher salt

  About 2½ cups (12.5 ounces) pastry or all-purpose flour, sifted