Jewish Cooking

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a two day celebration that started at sundown on September 9th and ended at sundown on September 11th. It is a mixed holiday, in that it is a celebration of hope for a happy year and the start of the Ten Days of Penitence when observant Jews are to put their houses in order.


Jewish holidays are mainly days of memory, sorrow, joy in creation, celebrations of survival and thanks for God’s assistance in times of trouble or turmoil. Each holiday has some special dish, a special baked item or a pungent delight.

For Rosh Hashanah, as for other Jewish holidays, the feasting begins with a blessing over the Challah, a braided bread; the blessing usually given by the woman of the family. Other foods which are popular are date-nut tortes, poppy seed candy, honey cake (lakach), tzimmes and Herring Salad.

Since Jewish people are found over the whole globe, the question might be asked, “Is there a typical Jewish Cuisine?” The answer is yes and no. Original Jews, the ancient Jews of Old Testament Judea were a nomadic desert people, mostly shepherds. They ate cereals, grapes (from which they made wine), dates, lamb, mutton and some cattle. They also had fruit; probably pomegranates, peaches melons, dates and figs.

Jewish cooking as we think of it, however, is a cuisine of exile and is an evolutionary process of adopting native foods; improving refining or simplifying them to fit into the ritual dietetic rules of the Old Testament. Therefore there is a Jewish version of most of the national dishes of each of the countries they populated.

“Besides an interest in food and its preparation, the hungry, exploited people have—their isolation as groups was always menaced, always in danger; their food in their huddled life took on originality. Ritual food feeding a people engaged in eternal debate and paradox; rueful, wary, witty. A style that extended to their Friday-night candle-lighting, the realistic delight in chopped liver, a good fat herring, the smell of a properly roasted goose.”---

The Joys of Jewish Cooking

Even though the actual New Year celebration is past, I found some interesting recipes for some of the ritual foods in The Joys of Jewish Cooking by Stephen and Ethel Longstreet. I am going to give them a try and thought you might like to, too.

Rosh Hashanah Herring Salad

1 cup cooked diced beets
1 cup cooked diced potato
1 large red apple, peeled, cored, sliced
1 matjes herring, sliced
½ cup diced dill pickle
1 medium onion, minced
½ cup red wine vinegar
Salt, pepper to taste
½ cup sour cream

In a bowl mix beets, potatoes, apple, matjes herring, dill pickle, minced onion, wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. Fold in sour cream. Cover bowl and chill for 3 hours. Toss salad to serve. 2 servings

The tzimmes seems an ethnic invention, a mixture of fruits, vegetables and often meat. Served either with the main course or after, it seems to have no rational function but to remain tasty. The word tzimmes also means mixed up, or to raise trouble: “A regular tzimmes.”

Here are two versions of this interesting dish. The first is Russian and the second is German.

Carrot and Apple Tzimmes

1 ½ pounds flank steak
1 bunch carrots, scraped, diced
2 large apples, cored, quartered, not peeled
1 small onion, diced
1 cup apple cider
½ cup dark brown sugar
½ tsp. salt
1 cup water

Put the steak in a saucepan, add salted water to cover. Boil 5 minutes and drain—wash in cold water. Cut beef strip into 4 parts. Put meat and all ingredients in a 3-quart pot with a lid. Add 1 cup water, bring to boil, lower heat, and simmer gently ¾ hour. While this is cooking, make knaidlach (recipe follows). 6 servings

Knaidlach (farina soup balls)

½ cup flour
½ cup farina
Salt, ground pepper to taste
1 onion, diced
½ cup ground beef fat
¼ tsp. baking powder

Mix all ingredients well. Dough should be sticky but firm. When the soup has cooked ¾ hour, remove lid and, with a tablespoon, drop walnut-sized lumps of dough into soup. Replace lid, return to boil, lower heat and simmer ½ hour.

Apple-Carrot Tzimmes

4 cups grated carrots
1 Tbsp. pearl barley
1 apple, peeled, grated
½ cup butter
½ cup water
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
¼ tsp. nutmeg

Mix all the ingredients together in a pan. Cook covered, simmering over low heat 2 hours until barley is soft. Add more water if needed. 6 servings.

French Lakach (Honey Cake)

3 ½ cups flour
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. powdered cloves
½ tsp. ground ginger
4 eggs
¾ cup sugar
4 Tbsp. salad oil
2 cups dark honey
½ cup strong coffee
1 ½ cups walnuts

Preheat oven to 325. Combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger together. Beat eggs, sugar. Beat thick and light. Beat in the oil, honey, and coffee. Add the flour mixture and nuts. Turn the batter into greased pan. Bake in oven 1 ¼ hours until browned. Cool on a rack before taking from pan. 8 servings.