by Gil Marks
As early as the eleventh century, in the first medieval records of force-feeding, some rabbinic authorities noted that the geese suffered during the fattening process and that the practice could be considered animal cruelty. However, in general, the practice was accepted by religious authorities, who believed that, due to the hardness of the birds' gullets, they did not actually feel discomfort. Shortly after its founding in 1948, foie gras became one of Israel's first export products. In 2006, however, the Israeli government outlawed the practice of force-feeding, ending the country's foie gras industry, which at the time was producing four hundred tons yearly, and for most intents and purposes, terminating this venerable European Jewish tradition there.
Ashkenazim sometimes accompanied the plain broiled goose liver with sautéed onions. They also mixed the liver with chopped goose meat or veal and stuffed it into the goose neck, making helzel. The favorite Ashkenazic way to enjoy liver, which had originated in Alsace by the fourteenth century, was foie haché—broiled and chopped.
It was in the Slavic areas of eastern Europe— Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania—that chopped liver (gehakte leber), typically from chicken livers, not goose livers, found its greatest popularity. In eastern Europe, chopped liver was mixed with the two most important medieval Ashkenazic staples—onions and hard-boiled eggs. The additions, besides adding flavor and stretching the meat, helped to counter the heaviness of the broiled liver. By the sixteenth century, chickens could be slaughtered on a weekly or monthly basis, transforming chopped liver into more regular fare; it became a standard Friday night or Sabbath lunch appetizer and a popular filling for various savory pastries, such as strudel and knishes. Since it contained no grain products, chopped liver became a favorite dish during Passover alongside the matza.
Chicken, goose, duck, calf, and beef liver can all be used to make chopped liver. In eastern Europe, chicken or beef liver, both less creamy than goose liver (and beef liver is less creamy than chicken liver), were commonly used and, since the small chicken livers typically failed to yield enough meat, they were frequently supplemented with some beef liver or other organs, such as the lung, heart, and spleen (milts). Beef liver is a dark reddish brown and intensely flavored, while calf liver is a paler color and has a more delicate flavor. There is a good deal of disagreement as to the nature of the onions added to the liver—whether they should be raw or sautéed or a combination of both. Sautéed onions contribute a sweet note while raw impart pungency. A once popular practice was to add gribenes (cracklings) to the liver. Some eastern Europeans mixed in grated black radishes or apples.
Whatever type of liver is used, the texture of the eastern European version is rustic and slightly coarse. Historically, gehakte leber was prepared by chopping the ingredients by hand in a large wooden bowl using a hackmeister (curved metal blade) or on a flat board using a cleaver. The resulting dense dish should be a sublime blend of chunky and smooth, sweet and bitter. The name of the dish gave rise to an old Yiddish play on words, "Gehakte leber is besser vi gehakte tsuris" (Chopped liver is better than terrible troubles)."
Eastern European immigrants brought chopped liver to America in the late nineteenth century. It became a favorite Ashkenazic appetizer for the Sabbath and festivals, as well as for buffets at other special occasions. In delicatessens, it was slathered on sandwiches solo or layered in conjunction with sliced meats. By the 1950s, chopped liver smeared on a cracker emerged as popular American cocktail fare. In the movie Godfather II, an old time mobster exclaims, "A kid comes up to me in a white jacket, gives me a Ritz cracker and chopped liver, he says 'Canapes.' I said, 'Can-o-peas, my ass, that's a Ritz cracker and chopped liver.' "
Catskill resorts molded individual servings of chopped liver into swans, chickens, or other whimsical shapes. Some housewives began to fashion the liver into the form of a pineapple, covering it with rows of sliced olives, or to mold tablespoons of liver into the shape of strawberries and coat the "berries" with paprika. This led to extravagant buffets featuring sculptured chopped liver busts of bar mitzvah boys and brides.
As with most traditional foods, Americans frequently adapted chopped liver. The first edition of The Settlement Cook Book (Milwaukee, 1901) included "French Dressing"—made from vinegar, onion, sugar, salt, pepper, a little mustard, and a lot of water—instead of schmaltz in its "Liver and Egg Salad." Later, some cooks used mayonnaise instead of schmaltz for moistness. Toward the end of the twentieth century, as Americans became worried about fat and cholesterol, mock chopped liver made from various pareve substitutes proliferated. Health-conscious Americans frequently began omitting the schmaltz. Chopped liver aficionados responded, "It can be eaten without the fat, but who would want to?"
Then the term "chopped liver" became showbiz lingo for something inferior or trivial used in a comparison, perhaps because the dish is always served as an appetizer or part of another dish and never a main course. The phrase became widespread in 1954 when Jimmy Durante on his television show exclaimed, "Now that ain't chopped liver." Subsequently, the phrase "What am I, chopped liver?" sadly became a common metaphor of derision and insignificance. Generations of Jews, however, know better—properly prepared chopped liver is a delicacy and an important part of the Ashkenazic cultural heritage.
(See also Goose, Radish, and Schmaltz)
Ashkenazic Chopped Liver (Gehakte Leber)
about 5 cups/8 to 10 servings
[MEAT]
2 pounds chicken livers (about 24) or beef liver, or 1 pound chicken livers and 1 pound calf or beef liver
About 1 teaspoon kosher salt for sprinkling
½ to 1 cup schmaltz, vegetable oil, or shortening
2 pounds (4 cups) yellow onions, coarsely chopped
4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
About 2 teaspoons salt
Ground black pepper to taste
Additional schmaltz or oil if needed
1. Cut away any membranes and veins from the livers. If using beef liver, cut several deep crisscross slits in several places or cut into 1-inch pieces. Rinse the liver in cold water. Lightly sprinkle both sides with the kosher salt. Place on an unheated rack on grill or a broiler pan and grill or broil about 4 inches from the heat source, turning once, until the surface no longer appears deep brown and the outer juices cease flowing, about 5 minutes per side for beef liver, or 3 minutes per side for chicken liver. Rinse under cold running water. Let cool.
2. In a large skillet, heat ¼ cup schmaltz over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden but not burnt, about 30 minutes. Let cool.
3. Using a knife, finely chop the liver, onions, and eggs. Or using a food grinder or food processor fitted with a metal blade, roughly or finely chop the liver, onions, and eggs.
4. Stir in the salt, pepper, and, remaining schmaltz to moisten. The liver should be moist enough to hold together. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Serve chilled.
Lobio
Haricot beans, including fresh green and dried white, black, and red, were brought to Europe from South America by the Spanish and Portuguese, and eventually reached Georgia, where they became the staple of the diet and appear at almost every meal. Georgians took a particular fondness to a small red variety of beans, which they used in numerous dishes, especially salads, spreads, and soups, and as a filling for breads.
Lobio, the Georgian word for beans, from the Farsi loobia, refers to both a mushy red bean salad (lobios salati) and a soup (lobios chorba) made from similar ingredients. Lobiani khachapuri, commonly referred to simply as lobiani, is a bread filled with red bean paste. Lobiani nigvsit is a cold salad similar to the bread filling, consisting of roughly mashed red beans dressed with bazha (walnut sauce). Lobio tkemali is a dish of red beans with a sour plum sauce.
These bean dishes should never be bland, but should leave a spicy sensation in the mouth. Georgians have a penchant for rather sour flavors, eschewing sugar in their cooking. Traditionally, dishes made with red bean
s are garnished with red onion rings and crumbled feta. They are served with deda's puri (flatbread), khachapuri (cheese bread), and mchadi (corn cakes).
(See also Beans and Pkhali)
Lokma
Lokma is a fritter often from a yeast-raised batter and soaked in sugar syrup.
Origin: Middle East
Other names: Arabic: awamee, luqma, sfingis, zengoula; Farsi: bamieh, zengol, zúngol; Greece: loukoumas, zvingous; Italy: crispella; Ladino: bimuelos; North Africa: sfenj.
Deep-frying strips of unleavened dough is an an- cient practice, dating back at least as far as the Roman vermiculous. The concept traveled throughout the Mediterranean and Middle East, areas where oil for deep-frying was generally abundant and relatively inexpensive. Medieval Arabs or Persians may have been the first to deep-fry blobs of yeast dough; the earliest record of such a dish is a recipe for luqmat al-qadi (judge's mouthful) in the 1226 Iraqi cookbook Kitab al Tabikh (Book of Dishes) by Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Al- Baghdadi. The medieval Persian name zengol, derived from the Farsi zan "lady" and gulé "ball." The Arabs and Turks spread these irregularly shaped deep-fried yeast batter balls from India to the Maghreb to the Balkans.
The loose dough is made with common wheat flour or, in some areas, fine semolina. What particularly differentiates these ancient Middle Eastern fritters—which are prepared in much the same way today as they were a millennium ago—from European doughnuts is the absence of eggs or dairy products in the batter, although some modern versions do include eggs, making the texture firmer. Moroccans commonly flavor the batter with a little orange zest. There is also a modern version leavened with baking powder. Since the batter is rather plain, the fritters themselves are not particularly interesting. However, drenched in sugar syrup, the Middle Eastern practice, or covered with sugar, the European preference, they became a delectable treat. For a fancier presentation, the lokma are mounded on a platter and sprinkled with chopped pistachio nuts. The same batter is used to make a medieval type of funnel cake, zalabia, which is popular from the Maghreb to India.
Historically, these light fritters were much beloved throughout the Middle East and were typically accompanied with Turkish coffee. Professional fritter makers, called lokmaci in Turkey and lokmatzi in Greece, sold them from small stores, and the Ottoman sultans employed fritter chefs in their kitchens. In his seventeenth-century journal, the Ottoman traveler Evliya Celebi noted, "In the shops of the lokmaci and gozlemehci (sweet cake makers), a Jew is appointed as inspector, because Jews only eat cakes and fritters cooked in oil, while Muslims eat those cooked in butter." Homemade fritters were generally only prepared for special occasions, specifically as a beloved Hanukkah and Purim treat. An unleavened batter made from matza meal is used for Passover versions.
(See also Doughnut, Fritter, Sufganiyah, Zalabia, and Zvingous)
Turkish Fritters (Lokma)
about 24 fritters
[PAREVE]
3 cups (15 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder, or 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup water
¼ cup ouzo or raki (anise liqueur), or 1 tablespoon orange-blossom water and 2 tablespoons grated orange zest
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Vegetable, sesame, peanut, or sunflower oil for deep-frying
Confectioners' sugar for dusting or cooled atar (Middle Eastern Sugar Syrup (Atar/Shira)) for dipping
1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, combine the water, ouzo, egg, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Stir into the flour mixture to make a loose batter. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. In a large pot, heat at least 1 inch oil over medium heat to 375°F.
3. Dip a tablespoon into cold water and use the spoon to drop the batter into the hot oil. In batches, fry the fritters, turning, until golden brown on all sides, about 3 minutes. Remove with a wire mesh-skimmer or tongs and drain on a wire rack. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar or dip the warm fritters into the atar.
Lokshen
Lokshen (loksh singular) are egg noodles.
Origin: China
Other names: lukshen; German: nudel; Hebrew: itriyot; Hungarian: metelt, nudli; Western Yiddish: frimsel.
"Love is grand, but love with lokshen is even better." (A Yiddish proverb.)
Boiling strips of dough in water may seem in hindsight obvious, but the concept only reached Europe sometime during the medieval period. Previously, European dough dishes, except for Moorish Spain, were all fried or baked, not cooked in water.
Noodles and filled dumplings traveled along the Silk Road from China to central Asia and were present in Persia around the fourth or fifth century CE, where they were originally called lakhsha (Farsi for "slippery"; lakhshidan means "to slide"), a word found in Arabic sources in the tenth century. Subsequently, reshteh (string) emerged as the generic Persian term for pasta and lakhsha was relegated to the name of a specific Persian noodle dish. Meanwhile, Arabs took to calling noodles itriya and, even later, shayreeye, and spread the food westward to Spain and Sicily; from Sicily, noodles entered mainland Italy sometime after the tenth century. The first mention of boiled doughs in a European Jewish source outside of Moorish Spain was in the parody Masekhet Purim by Kalonymus ben Kalonymus (c. 1286—1328), a native of Provence who spent much of his career in Rome. He included macaroni (then a generic term for pasta strips) and tortelli (filled pasta) in a list of twenty-seven dishes served at a fantasy Purim feast. Considering the regular interaction between the Jewish communities of Franco-Germany and Italy, noodles probably reached the western Ashkenazim, who called it frimsels, around the fifteenth century.
However, it was still several centuries before the food became popular among non-Jewish Germans, who variously called it spätzle (in southern Germany), knöpfle, and eierteigwaren. The word noodle derived around the sixteenth century from the German nudel, which referred to an enriched grain mixture that was shaped into long rolls and force-fed to geese.
By the sixteenth century, pasta reached northeastern Europe from the East. The Persian lakhsha gave rise to the Slavic name for noodles: the Polish lokszyn, Ukrainian lokschina, and Yiddish lokshen. The Polish sage Rabbi Moses Isserles (d. 1572) explained in his glosses on the Shulchan Arukh that "verimselish are lokshen"; by then the two terms were used exclusively for pasta. Remnants of the name lakhsha did not appear in the two southern routes into eastern Europe: Italy, where noodles were called tagliatelle, and the Balkans, where Romanians referred to noodles as taitei, Greek Jews knew them as hilopites, and Sephardim called them fidéos. Although some contend that eastern Europeans learned of noodles from Byzantines or other Europeans, the name lokshen reveals the ultimate Persian connection and indicates a direct Asian flow from the east, possibly via the Tatars, Mongolian tribes who overran the area.
Egg noodles became an important component of central European cooking, although they were never more significant than dumplings in the diet. In eastern Europe, on the contrary, noodles soon surpassed dumplings in importance; by the fifteenth century, they had become a mainstay of the Sabbath and holiday table. By this point, chicken soup with noodles had replaced fried dough in honey as the first course for the Ashkenazic Friday evening dinner. As refined wheat flour became more prevalent and less expensive in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, noodles emerged as a beloved staple of the diet.
For several centuries, noodle making was a weekly or biweekly ritual in many Jewish households. The dough was mixed by hand on a large wooden cutting board (lokshen bretl). On Passover, the lokshen bretl, which was embedded with chametz and could not be cleaned, was customarily left outside the house and reclaimed after the holiday. To roll the noodles, a little flour was sprinkled over the board and, typically using a broom handle (bezemshtecken), th
e dough was rolled as thinly as desired. The pasta sheet was then rolled up and sliced—the predominant all-purpose Ashkenazic cutting instrument was a curved hackmeister (called a mezzaluna by Italians) or a straight-edged cleaver— into the desired width. The strips were hung over the broomstick set over chairs or scattered over the floured noodle board or a white cloth to dry for at least an hour.
Ashkenazim also commonly grated the fresh dough into small pellets called farfel or cut it into various shapes, most notably fingerhuetchen (thimbles) or oofhalaifers, small rounds cut out with a thimble; plaetschen (little place/spot), small squares; and the relatively late shpaetzlen (from the German spätzle), pasta squares pinched in the middle. On Passover, some cooks make eier lokshen from matza meal and eggs, which were basically rolled up blintzes cut into strips. Filled pasta, such as kreplach and pirogen, were reserved for special occasions, most notably the meal before Yom Kippur, Hoshanah Rabbah, Purim, and Shavuot.
Ashkenazim never developed the faculty of shaping and saucing their pasta like Italians and Se- phardim. In most cases, Ashkenazic pasta dishes were basic, homey, and filling. The favorite Ashkenazic way to use noodles was in a soup—perhaps indicating a central Asian origin. In America, after matza balls became popular at times other than Passover, they were frequently combined with noodles in chicken soup, especially in delicatessens. At dairy meals, noodles were commonly flavored with a little butter or soft cheese. Hungarians and Germans extended the noodles by adding them to cabbage or other vegetables, while Hungarians also transformed it into a simple dessert with sugar and ground nuts or poppy seeds. Eastern Europeans mixed noodles with the predominant Slavic food, buckwheat, to create the still classic kasha varnishkes. Around the sixteenth century, noodles were synthesized with an old Ashkenazic favorite, resulting in what would become the most popular Ashkenazic side dish, lokshen kugel (noodle pudding).
The first Jewish cookbook in English, The Jewish Manual (London, 1846), mentions a dish called "A Luction, or a Rachael," which certainly shares many similarities with the Ashkenazic noodle kugel. Immigrants brought their noodle dishes with them to America. The first American Jewish cookbook, the German-based Jewish Cookery (Philadelphia, 1871), refers to noodles as "frimsels" in a recipe for a sweet noodle-raisin pudding she entitled "A Luxion," which must be an alternate spelling of lokshen. Due to the early predominance of German Jews in America, frimsel remained the most widespread American Jewish term for noodles into the twentieth century. Israel Zangwill, in his tale of Jewish life in late nineteenth-century London, Children of the Ghetto (1892), provides the first verifiable record in English of the term denoting noodles. He mentions "lockshen, which are the apotheosis of vermicelli." With the massive wave of eastern European immigrants, the word lokshen emerged in America to supplant frimsel.
