Encyclopedia of Jewish Food

by Gil Marks

  Flanken is a fatty cut and contains a large amount of connective tissue, making it a very flavorful cut when braised or slow-simmered. Browning the meat imparts additional flavor as well as color. The ribs are usually cooked with aromatic vegetables (onions, garlic, carrots, and celery) to round out the flavors.

  In Europe, flanken was among the cheapest and least desirable cuts; consequently, it became popular holiday and Sabbath fare. In America, it became a mainstay of the deli and for many it was a favorite comfort food. Ashkenazim cook flanken plain, which is called gedempte flanken (boiled beef), or in soups (barley, borscht, cabbage, and split pea), cholent (Sabbath stew), and tzimmes. For very special occasions, flanken was sometimes cooked topped with stuffed cabbage and meatballs, then boned, cut into pieces, and served with the cabbage and meatballs. Many people serve flanken with horseradish as a condiment and kasha varnishkes, farfel, or potatoes as a side dish.

  Fleishig

  The Yiddish adjective fleishig or fleyshik is derived from the Middle High German word for meat (fleish/fleysh). It denotes food that contains kosher meat, including ruminants and poultry, or utensils with which hot meat or poultry have come into contact (the heat causes absorption of the meat). The equivalent term in Hebrew is basari. Any dish that contains meat items is a fleishig dish and any meal that contains any meat foods is a fleishig meal. Eggs found inside a slaughtered chicken are called fleishig eggs and considered to be a meat food. Homes that maintain the dietary laws typically have a separate set of dishes on which to serve fleishig foods and set of utensils with which to cook them. Since the late nineteenth century, the color red has typically been used to designate fleishig soap, utensils, and sometimes kitchen towels.

  Fluden

  Fluden is a layered pastry with a filling.

  Origin: France

  Other names: Hungarian: flodni; Romanian: flandi.

  Ancient Romans enjoyed a variety of savory and sweet curd cheese dishes cooked in dough casings— including tracta, a dough rolled out to make pastries. Both the Jerusalem Talmud and Babylonian Talmud mention t'rahkta and troknin (tracta), although the Babylonians were unfamiliar with the exact nature of the dish. In Judea, which was under Roman domination, a pastry with an upper and lower crust of tracta became traditional Sabbath fare. The Talmud fails to mention the nature of the fillings. These outer dough layers came to represent the double portion of manna collected for the Sabbath, as well as the lower and upper layers of dew that protected the manna. The culinary practice of preparing covered pastries for the Sabbath was adopted by Italians, Sephardim, and later Franco-Germans, most notably in the Ashkenazic pashtida (meat-filled pies) and the favorite dessert of the early Ashkenazim, fluden, which originated amond the Jews of France.

  Fluden initially consisted of layers of dough sandwiching a honey-sweetened cheese filling. The name derived from the Late Latin fladon (flat cake), itself from the Old High German word flado (flat cake), which is also the source of the name of the French flan (an open-faced tart) and Spanish flan (baked custard). The medieval Ashkenazic fluden, however, was quite different than the Teutonic flado. A hard, thick, pastry evolved into one with thinner layers of buttery pastry (muerberteig) or rich yeast dough (heifeteig), the pastry cut into sections to serve.

  The earliest record of fluden occurred in the writings of Rabbi Gershom ben Judah of Mainz (a city on the Rhine River) around the year 1000 CE, in which he discussed an argument between his teacher Rabbi Judah Hacohain ben Meir Leontin (from Lyons, France) and Rabbi Eleazar ben Gilo over whether it was permitted "to eat bread with meat if it [the bread] was baked in an oven with a cheese dish called fluden," and rendering the bread milchig. Since this disagreement persisted for centuries, similar references appear in rabbinic writings on a frequent basis throughout the period. In any case, by the year 1000, cheese fluden was already widespread throughout the Jews of France and western Germany.

  The original cheese version became a traditional Sabbath and Rosh Hashanah treat. Until the sixteenth century, Ashkenazim did not wait between eating meat and dairy, but merely cleared the table and rinsed out their mouths, so a cheese fluden could be served as dessert soon after a meat meal. On Shavuot, a large cheese fluden, sometimes called Mount Sinai cake, was traditionally garnished with white flowers as a symbol of purity and of the blossoms that flourished on the mountain during the giving of the Torah. Cooks eventually developed several other fillings besides cheese, as it was not always available or affordable. Apples or raisins, sometimes combined with cheese, became traditional on Sukkot and Simchat Torah. Jam, nut, fig, and poppy seed fillings were used on other festivals. All these variations were also commonplace on the Sabbath. For Purim, some people cut the fluden into triangles.

  Alsatians prepare a dish, called schalet à la Juive in the Larousse Gastronomique, that is similar to the original apple fluden. It is a sort of deep-dish apple pie made with layers of flaky pastry; they also make a variation, called apfelschalet or apfelbuwele (apple boy), consisting of the apple filling rolled up in the dough.

  With the destruction of the Franco-German Jewish communities—percipitated by the massacres in the wake of the Black Death (1348—1350) and the expulsion of the remaining Jews from France in 1394—the popularity of fluden, particularly cheese fluden, declined. One reason for this change was when the eastern Ashkenazim began upholding the tradition of waiting six hours after eating meat before eating dairy, and by German Jews of the custom of waiting three hours; these stringencies effectively ended the use of dairy desserts on the Sabbath and festivals. Some eastern Europeans even transferred the term fluden to a beef stew containing fruit. However, descendants of cheese fluden are still served by some Ashkenazim with a revamped pastry and filling. In parts of Galicia (now southern Poland) and Ukraine, apple fluden remained a traditional Simchat Torah treat; pieces were presented to the children in the synagogue after the en masse Torah reading.

  It was primarily among Hungarians and Romanians that fluden continued to flourish. Romanians serve flandi on Rosh Hashanah and Purim. Passover versions are made by soaking whole matzas until softened and layering them with fillings or different-colored almond pastes. Some Romanians and Hungarians began referring to a strudel made from muerberteig as a fluden. In addition, some Hungarians use the word fluden to refer to a version of farfel torten—a cookie bar consisting of a pastry base topped by layers of jam, ground nuts, and meringue. All Hungarians enjoy what they call flodni, a dessert typically consisting of three to five pastry layers. When topped with chocolate icing, it is known as zserbo or jerbeau, after the Emile Gerbeaud pastry shop in Budapest. A Budapest specialty is a flodni with a diverse trio of fillings, one for each layer—apples, ground nuts, and poppy seeds. Of the scores of kosher bakeries and cafés that once flourished in Budapest, today only the small Fröhlich Cukrászda, which opened in 1954, survives; it sells traditional Hungarian Jewish baked goods, notably flodni. In Hungary, this type of fluden remains ubiquitous at weddings and other special occasions.

  In general, fluden failed to make any significant impact in America, perhaps because it was replaced with the similar but easier apple pie. Early American Jewish cookbooks omit any reference to fluden, but around the mid-twentieth century, the dish began to make an appearance in America, reflecting a growing Hungarian presence. The fluden in The Jewish Examiner Prize Kosher Recipe Book (Brooklyn, 1937) consisted of eighteen thin pastry layers and was filled with raisins and ground walnuts. A 2005 article in the New York Times featured a Passover "Cashew Nut Strudel with Guava and Lime (Fluden de Pasach)" from Brazil, which was made from matza meal and ground roasted cashews and filled with guava paste.

  Ashkenazic Layered Cheese Pastry (Kaese Fluden)

  12 to 24 servings

  [DAIRY]

  Dough:

  4½ cups (22.5 ounces) all-purpose flour

  2¼ teaspoons double-acting baking powder

  ¾ teaspoon salt

  ½ cup sugar

  1½ cups shortening
, or 1 cup shortening and ½ cup chilled butter

  4 large egg yolks, or 2 large egg yolks and 1 large egg

  About 6 tablespoons water, or 3 tablespoons water and 3 tablespoons milk, sour cream, orange juice, or sweet wine

  2 teaspoons white wine vinegar, mild cider vinegar, or lemon juice

  Filling:

  4 cups (2 pounds) pot, farmer, or drained ricotta cheese, or 1 cup sour cream, quark, or gevina levana

  4 large egg yolks

  About 1 cup sugar

  ¼ cup all-purpose flour or ½ cup fine semolina or farina

  2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

  Pinch of salt

  ½ to 1 cup (3 to 5 ounces) golden raisins (optional)

  Egg wash (1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water)

  About 1/3 cup sugar, or 1/3 cup sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, for sprinkling

  1. To make the dough: In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix in the sugar. Cut in the butter to resemble coarse crumbs. Combine the egg yolks, water, and vinegar. Stir into the flour mixture until the dough just holds together. Form into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle with the narrow end facing you. Fold the top third of the dough toward you, then fold the bottom third upward. Turn the dough 90 degrees so that a narrow end faces front and, using a rolling pin, roll into a rectangle. Fold in thirds again. Press to hold together. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 4 days, or store in the freezer for up to 2 months. Let stand at room temperature until malleable but not soft, about 30 minutes.

  2. Preheat the oven to 350°F (325°F if using a glass pan). Grease a 13-by-9-inch baking pan.

  3. To make the filling: In a large bowl, combine all the filling ingredients.

  4. Cut the dough rectangle into four equal pieces. Place the dough pieces on a lightly floured surface and, using a floured rolling pin, roll out each piece into a 13-by-9-inch rectangle. Fit a dough rectangle into the prepared pan and spread with one-third of the filling. Repeat the layering with the remaining dough and filling, ending with a layer of dough. Brush the top with the egg wash and lightly sprinkle with the sugar. Using the tines of a fork, prick the top repeatedly to vent the steam.

  5. Bake until golden brown, about 45 minutes. Place the pan on a wire rack and let cool for at least 1 hour. Cover and store at room temperature for up to 1 day or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

  Variation

  Ashkenazic Layered Apple Pastry (Apfel Fluden):

  Combine 10 peeled, cored, and grated large apples, 16 ounces apricot preserves or orange marmalade (or ½ cup honey), ½ cup cake, cookie, or bread crumbs, 1 cup chopped walnuts or almonds, and, if desired, 1 cup raisins and/or 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest, and substitute for the cheese filling.

  Forshmak

  Forshmak is salt-cured herring that is soaked, chopped, and mixed with other ingredients. It is served hot and cold.

  Origin: Ukraine

  Herring became an important part of Ashkenazic cookery, although it was almost never found fresh. By the time the herring, pulled from the distant Baltic Sea or the Atlantic Ocean, reached the Jewish cook in eastern Europe, it had been cured with salt to extract the moisture, in a preserving process akin to that utilized for preparing the Mediterranean bacalao/bakala (salt cod). Before they could be used, the cured fillets had to be soaked to remove the excess salt, then flavored in some way. To make the well-known dish pickled herring, cooks marinated the refreshed fish in a vinegar-sugar bath, to which they typically also added sliced raw onions, bay leaves, and peppercorns. An alternative to pickling was to chop the refreshed fillets with various ingredients; in the Ukraine, this dish was called forshmak (literally "foretaste," from the archaic German Vorschmack), reflecting a Teutonic origin and possibly indicating that Jews were the source of its transmission eastward.

  Unlike Polish and Lithuanian gehakte herring (chopped herring), which was always served cold and accented with raw onions, Ukrainians served their versions either cold or hot. Hot forshmak was typically enhanced with sautéed onions and sometimes tart apple, bread, and/or hard-boiled eggs were mixed in. Potatoes became a common addition in the late nineteenth century. Due to a medieval Sephardic and Ashkenazic tradition of not eating meat and fish together, Jews did not emulate the widespread Russian manner of combining chopped herring with chopped meat in their forshmak. Forshmak is eaten either as an appetizer or, accompanied with boiled potatoes, as a main course. Cold forshmak was a typical Sabbath appetizer and it was once common at the Saturday morning kiddush after synagogue services; it is eaten with crackers or lightly sugared kichlach (egg cookies).

  Ukrainian Chopped Salt Herring (Forshmak)

  4 to 6 servings

  [DAIRY]

  4 salt herring fillets

  4 slices white bread, crusts trimmed

  2/3 cup milk or water

  ¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter

  2 medium onions, chopped

  1 large tart apple, peeled and cored

  1 cup sour cream

  1. Soak the herring in water to cover, changing the water twice, for 12 hours. Drain.

  2. Soak the bread in the milk for about 5 minutes, then squeeze dry.

  3. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 2-quart baking dish.

  4. In a large skillet, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until soft and translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat.

  5. Using a knife, meat grinder, or a food processor fitted with a metal blade, finely chop the herring. Add the onions, bread, and apple and finely chop. Stir in the sour cream. Transfer to the prepared dish.

  6. Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Serve hot.

  Forspeis/Forspeizen

  Forspeis, from the German vorspeisen (before food), is the Yiddish term for appetizer. Unlike a Middle Eastern mezze (appetizer assortment) or Sephardic desayuno (brunch) with its many small foods, the forspeis served by Ashkenazic Jews reflects the Teutonic practice of serving one large first course to inaugurate the seudah (meal).

  The typical Ashkenazic Sabbath and festival meal begins with a forspeis, which may be a specially created pastry, such as a knish or piroshki; a chopped bread spread, such as liver, egg salad, black radish, or herring; a fish appetizer, such as gefilte fish or jellied fish; or a smaller portion of a main course, such as offal or stuffed cabbage. The soup and then the main course are served after the forspeis.

  Foulare/Folar

  Foulare is a sweet pastry enwrapping a hard-boiled egg or a Sephardic long-cooked egg.

  Origin: Iberia

  Other names: Greek: folariko; Italian: scalera.

  For a special treat, Sephardim enwrap huevos haminados (long-cooked eggs) or plain hard-boiled eggs in sweet yeast dough; as the pastries bake, the eggs bake into the dough. The dish is called foulare, which is Ladino for "scarf/enwrapping." Cooks take great pride in the artistry of these pastries, frequently creating a different design for every family member. Each person removes the egg from the pastry, then peels and eats it as well as the sweet bread.

  The name of the eggs, haminados, sounds similar to that of the evil Persian prime minister, Haman, in the Purim story and—analogous to the Ashkenazic hamantaschen—eggs are referred to as huevos de Haman (Haman's eggs). The pastry-wrapped eggs are traditionally served on Purim as well as the Sabbath preceding it, Shabbat Zakhor, when the weekly Torah portion mentions Haman's ancestor, Amalek. Consequently, Shabbat Zakhor is referred to as Shabbat de Foulares. For Purim, the shape of the pastry is meant to symbolize either Haman's prison bars (a basket with strips over the top of the egg) and/or parts of his anatomy (Haman's foot and Haman's ear). The pastries are first displayed on fancy plates before being consumed by children and adults, usually for Purim breakfast, as few can wait. Foulares may also be included among the food gifts in a Sephardic Purim misholach manot (sent portions).

  It is also customary to
serve foulares to honor a newborn child; different shapes are prepared for males and females.

  Turkish "Haman's Egg" Yeast Pastries (Foulares/Huevos De Haman)

  12 pastries

  [PAREVE]

  1¼ teaspoons active dry yeast or ½ (0.6-ounce) cake fresh yeast

  ½ cup warm water (105°F to 115°F for dry yeast; 80°F to 85°F for fresh yeast)

  3 tablespoons sugar

  ¼ cup vegetable, olive, or peanut oil

  1 large egg

  ½ teaspoon table salt or 1 teaspoon kosher salt

  About 2 cups (10 ounces) bread or unbleached all-purpose flour

  12 huevos haminados (Sephardic Long-Cooked Eggs (Huevos Haminados)) or hard-boiled eggs in their shells

  Egg wash (1 large egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water)

  1. Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup water. Stir in 1 teaspoon sugar and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, remaining water, remaining sugar, oil, egg, and salt. Blend in 1 cup flour. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a mixture that holds together.

  2. On a lightly floured surface or in an electric mixer with a dough hook, knead the dough until smooth and springy, about 5 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.