Aunt Babette's Cook Book
- Year
- 1889
- Era
- 19th century
- Origin
- USA · Americas
- Language
- English
- Category
- Jewish/Diaspora
Aunt Babette's Cook Book, compiled by Bertha Kramer and first issued in 1889, is a landmark of American Reform Jewish domestic literature. Published in the United States, it offers household guidance and recipes drawn from German-Jewish kitchens yet conspicuously disregards kashrut, freely including shellfish and combinations of meat and dairy. The volume documents the culinary assimilation of acculturated Reform families in late nineteenth-century America and remains a key source for studying Jewish foodways in the diaspora.
Cooking from this book
Kuchen
Signature dishAunt Babette's Cook Book is closely identified with the German Jewish coffee cakes known collectively as kuchen, the sweet yeasted and crumb-topped bakes that filled the parlors of late nineteenth century Reform households in Cincinnati and beyond. The book treats kuchen as the centerpiece of hospitality, a symbol of the assimilated, German speaking Jewish American kitchen that Bertha Kramer addressed, where butter, cream and fruit were welcomed without kosher restriction.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
