Encyclopedia of Jewish Food

by Gil Marks

  Dulce blanco (white sweet), also known as sharope (Ladino for "syrup"), is a thick, creamy sugar paste that is akin to fondant, but softer. In the traditional method, dulce blanco is prepared by beating it with a wooden spoon, always stirring in the same direction, for at least twenty minutes. When food coloring is added, it becomes sharope kolorado. Dulce blanco is used as a spread for sweet breads and, on Passover, for matza. Some hosts serve dulce blanco with apples slices to dip into it. Dulce blanco is also a coating for nuts, such as Jordan almonds, as well as the base for a variety of confections.

  Sephardic hospitality is offered on diverse occasions, such as Saturday evening following the Sabbath (starting the new week on a sweet note) or the initial meeting of prospective in-laws. Sephardic hosts customarily offer their guests la tavla de dulce (a silver "tray of sweets") featuring dulce blanco, assorted confections, and homemade fruit preserves, which are presented in glass bowls with small silver spoons arranged on a silver tray. The dulces were typically accompanied with a glass of water (dulce con aqua) to clean the palate. Customarily following the tavla is Turkish coffee, often served with pastries.

  In her 2006 book, The Fortune Teller's Kiss, Brenda Serotte portrayed her bout with polio in 1954 in the Sephardic subculture of New York City, describing hospitality in a Turkish home: "Either the host or a girl of marriageable age brought out the tray with the good demitasse cups, glasses of water, Jordan almonds, Turkish Delights candies, or a rare delicious treat: a white-jelly fondant called sharope."

  Sephardic Fruit Paste Candies (Dulce de Fruta)

  about twenty-five 1-inch candies

  [PAREVE]

  About 4 cups fruit pulp from peeled, cored, chopped, and cooked until soft apples, apricots, berries, mangoes, peaches, pears, or quinces

  About 4 cups (28 ounces) sugar

  2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

  Confectioners' or granulated sugar for coating (optional)

  1. In a medium bowl combine the fruit pulp and sugar and stir until well blended. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand overnight.

  2. Stir in the lemon juice. Transfer the fruit mixture to a large nonreactive pot (do not use iron, copper, or brass) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, stirring frequently and toward the end stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and sputters, 30 to 50 minutes.

  3. Remove from the heat, cover, and let stand for about 10 minutes. Mash the fruit until smooth.

  4. Spread the warm fruit paste to a 1-inch thickness on a greased 13-by-9-inch baking pan or a greased baking sheet. Let cool, then cut into squares or diamonds. Or form the warm fruit paste into 1-inch balls.

  5. Cover loosely with wax paper and let stand at room temperature in a dry place for 12 hours. Turn the candies over and let stand for another 12 hours. At this point, if desired, dredge the candies in the sugar to coat. This helps to keep the candies from sticking together. Store between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container at room temperature.

  Dumpling

  Dumpling is a piece of dough boiled or steamed.

  Origin: Probably China

  Other names: Czech: knedliky; French: quenelle; German: kleise, klopse, kloss, knödel; Hungarian: gomboc; Italian: gnocchi; Polish: kluski; Romanian: papanush; Slavic: halushky; Slovakian: knedliky; Yiddish: halkes, kloese, klopse, knaidel, knedlicky.

  A Yiddish proverb advises, "Dumplings in a dream are not dumplings but a dream."

  The English term dumplings (most sources indicate it came from "dump lump"), initially appearing around 1600, denotes balls of dough simmered or steamed; the primary starch varies from region to region. In related but separate categories are pasta, filled pasta dough, and rudimentary puddings, all containing similar ingredients but prepared in dissimilar ways. European noodles and filled pasta are made from a firm dough made of egg and wheat flour. Medieval puddings, containing varying amounts of chopped meat and frequently omitting any eggs, were simmered or steamed, like sausages, inside of animal intestines and stomachs.

  Among Mizrachim, dumplings were popular with Persians, Kurds, and Georgians and were primarily reserved for special occasions. Dumplings historically were rarely, if ever, found among Sephardim, who had access to durum wheat and olive oil and preferred pasta and fried doughs, such as boyos and bimuelos. Sephardim even fry some noodles before boiling. On the other hand, dumplings formed an important part of the cooking of every Ashkenazic community, but particularly those from central Europe, where they served as both weekday and festive fare.

  Although the concept of boiling clumps and strips of dough in water may seem obvious, the method actually developed relatively late in European history. One reason is that grain pastes, except those made from durum wheat, do not hold together in boiling water without the addition of eggs. Since durum was rare in most of Europe, cooks had to wait for the spread of chicken raising in the twelfth century following the First Crusade and the arrival of the concept of adding eggs to the dough. Once those elements converged, dumplings quickly became a widespread element of late medieval European cookery, especially among peasants. Meanwhile, the forests that then blanketed much of Europe provided plenty of free fuel for extensive boiling. Since much of medieval European food consisted of stews and soups, these dishes proved the ideal environment for dumplings and a tasty way to stretch and enliven a meal.

  As with many medieval European cooking innovations, dumplings first emerged in Italy, probably through contacts with Middle Easterners. The basis for the earliest European dumplings was a basic bread mixture—later in the sixteenth century called a panada (from the Spanish for "boiled bread")—which was a way to utilize stale bread. The earliest Italian records of "macaroni"—either from the Greek makaria (food made from barley) or the Italian maccare (bruise/crush)—in the early thirteenth century referred not to pasta, but rather to dumplings made from "bread paste" and boiled in stews and soups. Shortly thereafter, in other parts of Italy, rudimentary bread dumplings acquired the name gnocchi (Italian for "lumps").

  Dumplings. After the concept of dumplings arrived in medieval Europe, each region adopted it into their culinary repertoire. 1 Northern Germany, Bavaria—kloes, kleis; 2 Southern Germany, Austria—knodel; 3 France—quenelle, boulette; 4 Central and northern Poland, Baltic States—knaidel (kneydl); 5 Southern Poland—halke; 6 Ukraine—galushki; 7 Hungary—gombóc, galuska; 8 Romania—papanash, galusca; 9 Czech—knedliky; 10 Slovakia—knedlicky; 11 Italy—gnocchi

  By the thirteenth century, dumplings had spread to southern Germany, where they were called knödel (akin to the Old High German knoto, meaning "knot") in the south and Austria. Later in Bavaria, Rabbi Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg (1215—1293), the supreme Ashkenazic rabbinical authority of his time, mentioned the consumption of dumplings, so they were ensconced in the southern German Jewish kitchen by that time. Today, central Europeans remain the world's most fanatical and prodigious dumpling consumers. Before the popularization of the potato in northern Europe in the nineteenth century, Ashkenazim relied on dumplings for much of their diet.

  Beginning in the fourteenth century, as Italy and then other parts of Europe began moving out of the medieval period, flour and sometimes semolina were increasingly substituted for the bread in dumplings. Initially, most of these new dishes consisted of loose rudimentary batters, such as the German einlauf (run in) and ribbles (to rub), the Austrian nockerl/nockerlach (perhaps from the Italian gnocchi), the Bavarian and southern German spätzle (little sparrow), and the Hungarian galuska. Unlike the preparation of egg noodles, the rolling and drying stages were omitted and the thick gruel was dropped, cut, or squeezed directly into boiling broth or water. Soon large flour dumplings grew increasingly widespread. To stretch limited resources or use up leftovers, they were sometimes filled (gefullte kloese) with chopped cooked vegetables, chopped meat, or pieces of fruit. Sometimes soft cheese was incorporated into dumplings, both savory and sweet. In the eighteenth century, cornmeal became a popular dumpling ingredient, and
in the nineteenth century, potatoes followed suit.

  For weekday meals, Ashkenazim, particularly those from central Europe, might simmer dumplings in stews, cover them with a sauce, or cook them with sauerkraut. They were also considered proper fare for the Sabbath and holidays, some holidays earning their own special type of dumpling. Cheese dumplings were traditional on Shavuot and Hanukkah. During the eight days of Passover, housewives had to find ways to feed their family using the limited ingredients permitted and available, and matza dumplings were one of their crowning triumphs. Dumplings were slow-cooked in cholent (Sabbath stew), which would evolve into kugels, and the dumplings were whimsically called Shabbos ganif (Sabbath thief), since they stole flavor from the medium in which they were cooked. They were also cooked separately with fruits for the Sabbath.

  In the nineteenth century, Ashkenazic immigrants brought their Jewish-style dumplings to America. Initially, various German terms predominated, but as the twentieth century progressed, eastern European counterparts supplanted them. Jewish Cookery by Esther Levy (1871), reflective of her German heritage, contains five dumplings: "Dampfnudeln, or German Dumplings," "Suet Dumplings," "Yeast Dumplings," "Drop Dumplings for Soup," and "Matzo Cleis Soup."

  The first Yiddish cookbook in America, the self- published Ler-bukh vi Azoy tsu Kokhn un Bakhn (Book for How to Cook and Bake) by Hinde Amkhanitski (1901), offered fare with a pronounced eastern European accent, including "Kneydlekh."

  As many Ashkenazim assimilated in America, they frequently lost touch with the Old World names, calling the dough balls simply "dumplings," and many lost a taste for them as well. For others, a cheese gombóc or potato halke remain a favored comfort food.

  (See also Csipetke, Galuska, Gnocchi, Gombóc, Gundi, Halke, Knaidel/Kneydl, Knedlíky, Kubbeh, Papanash, and Shlishkes)

  E

  Egg

  Humans have been eating eggs since the days of aboriginal hunter-gatherers, but in most areas eggs only gained a prominent role in cooking relatively late in history. Even after people learned how to farm various fowl, domesticated eggs, primarily from geese and ducks, were first and foremost conserved to produce future animals and, therefore, only occasionally eaten. Only with the popularization of the prolific chicken could a sizable number of the eggs be consumed without threatening the reproductive cycle.

  Eggs were rarely mentioned in the Bible and then only in reference to being gathered from the wild. The most common fowl and among the few domesticated species in ancient Israel were turtledoves and their close relative, pigeons, both of which were raised for their flesh and offspring, not for their small eggs. By Talmudic times, chickens were so prominent in Jewish life that the beitzah (egg) was used as a Talmudic standard measure of volume. Beitzah is even the name of one of the Talmudic tractates, which deals with the generic laws of the biblical holidays. Eggs from kosher fowl, except those found inside a slaughtered bird (the latter considered meat), are pareve and, therefore, particularly versatile in Jewish cooking.

  Egyptians were the most prolific consumers of eggs in the ancient world; they even developed a method of incubation. However, eggs were very seldom called for in ancient Greek recipes, and in Rome, even among the wealthy, they were used sparingly and generally reserved for special occasions. In the upper-class Roman cookbook of Apicius (c. 400 CE), eggs are called for in only a few of the work's five hundred recipes. Apicius served hard-boiled eggs (ova elixa) with liquamen (fermented fish sauce), oil, and honey, and prepared fried eggs (ova frixa) in wine sauce. Unlike the Egyptians, who enjoyed any type of eggs, Romans favored those from chickens and pheasants. After the fall of the Roman Empire, however, chickens fell into general disuse, except for their limited use in cockfighting, in much of Europe for nearly a millennium.

  On the other hand, in Arab Spain and on the southern side of the Mediterranean, chickens maintained their widespread popularity during the early medieval period. Newer chicken breeds provided more meat and eggs, leading to increased utilization. Sephardim had a plentiful and relatively inexpensive supply of chicken eggs; even the poor ate them on a regular basis. Every market had at least one huevera (egg dealer) peddling fresh eggs. The Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, a descendant of Portuguese Conversos, in his 1618 painting Old Woman Cooking Eggs, now hanging in the National Gallery of Scotland, depicted a woman frying eggs in hot olive oil in a small cazuela (cooking pot) set over a brazier. The woman is holding a wooden spoon to flick olive oil around the edges of the eggs to create crisp, lacey edges (sin puntilla).

  Medieval Sephardim used eggs (huevos in Ladino) in prodigious amounts and typically in complex and varied ways. A cook's egg dishes were a demonstration of culinary ability and those who executed them well were praised and told that they had manos del oro (hands of gold). Sephardim developed a highly advanced egg cookery, including huevos haminados (long-cooked eggs), fritadas (omelets), agristada (egg-lemon sauce), huevos de Haman (Purim pastry with hard-boiled eggs), pan esponjado (sponge cake), egg matzas, and a host of casseroles and baked goods. Egg dishes could be eaten at breakfast, at dinner, or as part of a light lunch, accompanied by salads. Following the expulsion in 1492, Sephardim spread these dishes throughout the Mediterranean, where subsequently each area added local touches.

  In the Middle East, where eggs were scarcer than in Iberia and generally reserved for special occasions, the egg dishes were simpler and less varied than Sephardic fare. Eggs, primarily paired with various tart items, were hard-cooked and served whole. They were also fried on a bed of greens, cooked as small fritter-like omelets, or scrambled and combined with a few basic ingredients. Mediterranean and Middle Eastern omelets (from the Latin lamella "thin plate"), in contrast to the French type, tend to emphasize the flavorings more than the eggs, using eggs more as a binder. These omelets come in a myriad of variations, generally making use of seasonal produce or leftovers. The Maghrebi shakshuka (tomato stew with eggs) has become a modern Israeli staple. Eggs were particularly prevalent on Passover, which the Arabs nicknamed Id-al-Beid (the egg holiday).

  Egg Dishes. Of the basic methods of preparing eggs—skillet-sized omelets, small egg patties, casseroles, scrambled eggs, and hard-boiled eggs—Jewish communities developed a diverse array of dishes.1 Spain—fritada, haminados, quajado, tortilla de huevos; 2 Morocco—dajada milina, eggah; 3 Tunisia—aijjah, maquda, shakshuka; 4 Italy—fritatta; 5 Greece—sfoungato, avgolemono; 6 Eastern Europe—gehakte eier, gogol mogol; 7 Syria—ijeh (edjeh); 8 Iran—kuku, nargesi, edjeh; 9 Georgia—chizhipizhi; 10 India—mahmoosa

  Chickens began to make a comeback in Europe with the revival of cuisine and agronomy in the twelfth century, following the First Crusade. The Responsa of Rashi (c. 1100) reveals that one of his favorite foods was abbstr (omelets sweetened with honey), which he ate as an appetizer before making the benediction over bread, in order to be able to first recite a benediction "with what I love." Hard-boiled eggs, then considered a luxury, were an early Ashkenazic Sabbath delicacy and among the special treats given to a young boy on his first day of school. By the late fourteenth century, eggs were the primary or secondary ingredients in more than 50 percent of the recipes in European cookbooks.

  The fowl of choice for early Ashkenazim was the goose, a bird that lacked the chicken's egg-laying capacity. Goose eggs are also larger than chicken eggs, and their shells are much harder; if they are boiled for too long or at too high a temperature, they tend to be inedible. In central and eastern Europe in the fifteenth century, chickens emerged as the most important food animal for Ashkenazim; most families keeping at least a few in their yard or in coops to provide a regular supply of eggs. At that time, eggs began appearing in Ashkenazic Sabbath loaves (eier challah). Subsequently, eggs provided much of the protein in Ashkenazic cookery, ranging from simple Polish eier mit tzibbeles (scrambled eggs with onions) to the more sophisticated Alsatian tarte aux oignons (creamy onion tarts). Eggs were essential for classic Ashkenazic fare, such as kugels, knaidlach (dumplings), triflach (egg drops for sou
p), lokshen (noodles), blintzes, latkes, matza brie (fried matza), and eier kichlach (egg cookies). The unhatched eggs in a properly slaughtered bird, called eierlach or ayelach (little eggs) in Yiddish, are considered meat and typically poached in chicken soup.

  By the eleventh century, Franco-German Jews had developed the Sabbath custom of eating hard-boiled eggs and salted raw onions, but separately. At some point, the two items came together in the form of an egg salad. This dish, variously called gehakte eier (chopped eggs) and eier un schmaltz (eggs with poultry fat), remains popular among Ashkenazim for light meals, such as a kiddush (Sabbath morning buffet) or shalosh seudot (Sabbath afternoon meal), and at many life-cycle events. Raw onions are most frequently added, producing a sharper flavor, but some people prefer the caramelized taste of browned onions. Schmaltz was originally added to bind, moisten, and flavor the ingredients, but in the twentieth century pareve mayonnaise became a common substitute. The duo of hard-boiled eggs and raw onions was also mixed with other favorite items to form popular Ashkenazic appetizers, including gehakte leber (chopped liver) and gehakte hirring (chopped herring).