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How Food Defines Jews
Written by Linda Esterson
As Jews, we seem to link everything to food. Holiday gatherings are always associated with eating. We get together with friends, visit relatives or take the kids out and tie it to a meal. We even go on vacation, planning where we’re going to have the next meal, even before we’ve finished this one.
“Jews have been obsessing about food for thousands of years,” explains Karen Falk, curator of the Jewish Museum of Maryland’s upcoming exhibit called “Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture, and American Jewish Identity,” scheduled to open in fall 2011. “Jewish dietary laws define a standard of purity, but they also serve to divide Jews and non-Jews.”
Certain foods have become identifiably Jewish due to the ancient rules many still follow today. Falk says brisket, for instance, became identified as Jewish and a “great holiday food” because it is cooked in advance, sliced cold, topped with gravy and reheated during the holiday. “It became identifiable because it was appropriate for the needs of observant Jewish life.”
For the non-observant, foods like brisket provide a “touchstone of Jewish identity,” she adds.
Rachel Kassman, 27, remembers that traditional holiday meals featured brisket and turkey especially for those holidays that spread over two days like Rosh Hashanah and Passover. Brisket, she says, was such a staple that her mom made it for Thanksgiving and birthday celebrations as well.
“Every holiday in our household had the same exact menu,” says Jobi Zink, 38, who hails from northern New Jersey. They too ate brisket and turkey for the main Jewish holidays and Thanksgiving. The menu also included matzoh ball soup and two potato pies, one that was eaten and one that was available for leftovers for relatives to take home.
“My family has always had it,” says Zink about the potato pie made from mashed potatoes, onions and bread crumbs or matzoh meal, which has graced the holiday table for over 30 years. “My uncle swears it is called kugel; my mom calls it potato pie.”
Zink’s grandmother’s brisket was so identifiably Jewish — and delicious — that the family insisted she make it for her granddaughter’s bat mitzvah. (The caterer provided the rest of the food.) It was such a hit that the caterer’s employees stole the leftovers, she recalls.
Falk notes gefilte fish is another food tied to Jewish culture. It is prepared in advance, like most Jewish staples. Because the fish cannot be deboned on Shabbat or a holiday, it is prepared beforehand like brisket, then chopped and stuffed back into the skin and served cold. It too is so identifiable to a holiday celebration that Zink’s family often served gefilte fish on Thanksgiving as well.
No discussion of traditional Jewish food would be complete without mentioning the bagel, which is a mandatory part of Jewish life, according to Zink. Before their rise in popularity among non-Jews, bagels were used to identify whether an acquaintance was Jewish, a practice called “bageling.” Those who knew about bagels were considered Jewish, according to Falk.
Today, the bagel comes in so many varieties, some as non-traditional as jalapeno and chocolate chip.
Although many non-Jews prefer bagels to rolls or breads, and they are available at stores and restaurants of all types, they are still a mark of Judaism. All of life’s rituals require bagels, notes Green, 37. “That’s what we do — the family gets together and has bagels,” she says. “Somebody dies and you have bagels. Someone’s born and you have bagels,” she says.
Green recalls fighting with her siblings over licking the honey and ginger from the bowl following their making teiglach for Rosh Hashanah. She also remembers when her mother made sweet potato latkes one year during Chanukah. The response was not pleasant.
“How dare you ruin the holiday!” Green recalls remarking. “Even though the recipe came from a famous Dallas chef, I still couldn’t believe that she did it. We still tease her about it.”
Now that Green lives apart from her immediate family, she hosts the holidays. Chicken soup with matzoh balls is on every holiday menu, and even though the balls are not her favorite, her husband, Mark, insists they appear.
Mark Green is so adamant about the balls that he recently made sure they accompanied the family to Baltimore Hebrew Congregation’s “Rosh Hashanah under the Stars” at Oregon Ridge.
“He didn’t want to miss them,” laughs his wife. “It wouldn’t be Rosh Hashanah without them.”
In preparing traditional Jewish foods, Green remembers calling her father often for many of her grandmother’s recipes, including apple and nut kugel. He always provided each recipe with several variations.
“It was sad when my grandmother passed away,” she recalls. “The recipes were all in her head. Now a lot of the recipes are gone.”
Her father, a cookbook collector, has also since passed away. She has half of his beloved cookbooks and the few family recipes he recited to her for her use. She enjoys making challah with her children, just like she did with her mother.
“It’s about passing it down. I’m hoping that I can pass down that fun-ness,” she says.
Zink, meanwhile, says her favorite childhood memory is sitting around the kitchen table, eating.
“I don’t know why, but it is,” she says and laughs that her parents always offered food when she came home or friends came over, whether 10 p.m. or 10 a.m. “It’s probably a Jewish thing. I find myself (always) offering food to others.”
Beet And Carrot Latkes
From Rachel Kassman (Originally from Edible Finger Lakes Magazine, Winter 2008)
2 medium beets, coarsely grated
2 medium carrots, coarsely grated
1 medium onion, coarsely grated
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Coarse salt and pepper to taste
3 Tbsp olive oil
Sour cream or creme fraiche, plus chopped chives, for serving
1. Combine the grated vegetables in a bowl. Add the beaten eggs, stir to combine, then stir in the flour and salt and pepper.
2. Preheat the oven to 300-degrees, and set a cooling rack on a sheet pan.
3. Heat 1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, scoop 1/3 cup of the latke mixture into the skillet and flatten to 1/4 inch thick. Scoop 3 more latkes into the skillet. Cook the 4 latkes until golden brown, about 4-6 minutes per side. Remove the latkes to the cooling rack on the sheet pan and place them in the oven to keep the latkes warm.
4. Add another 1 1/2 Tbsp oil to the skillet and cook the remaining latkes.
5. When all the latkes are done, serve warm with a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche and a sprinkling of chives.
Makes 8 latkes.
Grandma Bock’s Noodle Kugel
(from Rebecca Green)
1 lb wide egg noodles
3 eggs
1 pint sour cream
Walnuts, coarsely crushed, to taste
1-2 apples, thinly sliced (peeled if you prefer)
Cinnamon sugar, to taste
Butter, optional
1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
2. Make noodles according to package directions, drain and place in large bowl.
3. Beat eggs. Add eggs, sour cream, apples and nuts to noodles. Add some cinnamon sugar to taste (about 1/4 cup). Mix until everything is coated. Place in 9x13 buttered dish. Dab butter on top and sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar.
4. Bake for about 45 minutes. If you’re worried about the top being too done, cover with foil for the first 30 minutes.
Jobi Zink enjoys bagels, which at one point in history were used to identify whether an acquaintance was Jewish, a practice called “bageling."
Photography by Kirsten Beckerman
