The International Jewish Cook Book
- Year
- 1918
- Era
- 20th century
- Origin
- USA · Americas
- Language
- English
- Category
- Jewish/Diaspora
The International Jewish Cook Book, compiled by Florence Kreisler Greenbaum and issued by Bloch Publishing in 1918, gathered some sixteen hundred recipes adhering to Jewish dietary laws while drawing on Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and broader European and American traditions. Widely reprinted through subsequent decades, it became one of the standard kosher household manuals in English, reflecting the culinary integration of immigrant Jewish communities into early twentieth-century American domestic life.
Cooking from this book
Borsht
A classic Eastern European Jewish beet soup, here given in a sweet-sour version thickened with egg yolks and served either hot or cold. The accompanying note on reusing the cooked beets as a relish reflects the resourceful spirit of early twentieth-century kosher home cooking.
Take some red beetroots, wash thoroughly and peel, and then boil in a moderate quantity of water from two to three hours over a slow fire, by which time a strong red liquor should have been obtained. Strain off the liquor, adding lemon juice, sugar, and salt to taste, and when it has cooled a little, stir in sufficient yolks of eggs to slightly thicken it. May be used either cold or hot. In the latter case a little home-made beef stock may be added to the beet soup.
If after straining off the soup the remaining beetroot is not too much boiled away, it may be chopped fine with a little onion, vinegar and dripping, flavored with pepper and salt, and used as a vegetable.
Reproduced from the public-domain text via Project Gutenberg. Spelling lightly modernised; the headnote is editorial.
Schalet or Tscholnt (Shabbas Soup)
Cholent is the iconic Sabbath stew of Ashkenazi Jewry, designed to cook overnight without active tending so as not to violate the prohibition on Sabbath labor. For a modern oven, a very low setting of about 200°F (95°C) for twelve hours or more will reproduce the slow communal-baker method described here.
Wash one pint of white haricot beans and one pint of coarse barley and put them into a covered pot or pan with some pieces of fat meat and some pieces of marrow bone, or the backs of two fat geese which have been skinned and well spiced with ginger and garlic. Season with pepper and salt and add sufficient water to cover. Cover the pot up tightly. If one has a coal range it can be placed in the oven on Friday afternoon and let remain there until Saturday noon. The heat of the oven will be sufficient to bake the Schalet if there was a nice clear fire when the porridge was put in the oven. If this dish cannot be baked at home it may be sent to a neighboring baker to be placed in the oven there to remain until Saturday noon, when it is called for. This takes the place of soup for the Sabbath dinner.
Reproduced from the public-domain text via Project Gutenberg. Spelling lightly modernised; the headnote is editorial.
