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The Jewish Manual
- Year
- 1846
- Era
- 19th century
- Origin
- England · Europe
- Language
- English
- Category
- Jewish/Diaspora
The Jewish Manual; or, Practical Information in Jewish and Modern Cookery, attributed to Lady Judith Cohen Montefiore and issued anonymously in London in 1846, holds the distinction of being the earliest known Jewish cookbook published in English. Combining receipts observant of dietary laws with fashionable Anglo-French dishes and household advice, it documents the culinary life of an emerging Anglo-Jewish bourgeoisie and laid the foundation for a Jewish cookery literature in English.
Cooking from this book
Matso Soup
A signature Passover dish from one of the earliest Anglo-Jewish cookbooks, featuring matzo meal dumplings (kneidlach) simmered in a rich beef broth. The shin and gravy beef are best given the full eight hours to yield a deeply flavoured stock; the balls should be shaped no larger than a walnut to ensure lightness.
Boil down half a shin of beef, four pounds of gravy beef, and a calf's foot may be added, if approved, in three or four quarts of water; season with celery, carrots, turnips, pepper and salt, and a bunch of sweet herbs; let the whole stew gently for eight hours, then strain and let it stand to get cold, when the fat must be removed, then return it to the saucepan to warm up. Ten minutes before serving, throw in the balls, from which the soup takes its name, and which are made in the following manner:
Take half a pound of matso flour, two ounces of chopped suet, season with a little pepper, salt, ginger, and nutmeg; mix with this, four beaten eggs, and make it into a paste. A small onion shred and browned in a dessert spoonful of oil is sometimes added; the paste should be made into rather large balls, and care should be taken to make them very light.
Reproduced from the public-domain text via Project Gutenberg. Spelling lightly modernised; the headnote is editorial.
Mulligatawny Soup
A curried chicken soup reflecting the Anglo-Indian taste that had become fashionable in early Victorian London. Simmer gently throughout, and brighten with the lemon juice only at the moment of serving.
Take two chickens, cut them up small, as if for fricassee, flour them well, put them in a saucepan with four onions shred, a piece of clarified fat, pepper, salt, and two tablespoonsful of curry powder; let it simmer for an hour, then add three quarts of strong beef gravy, and let it continue simmering for another hour. Before sent to table, the juice of a lemon should be stirred in it; some persons approve of a little rice being boiled with the stock, and a pinch of saffron is also sometimes added.
Reproduced from the public-domain text via Project Gutenberg. Spelling lightly modernised; the headnote is editorial.
