What is your favorite Jewish Food?

Shaldag,yes please do some research. My only reference is "Cholent is a traditional beef stew whose ancestry is traced back to medieval Italy where a great renaissance in Jewish writing and cooking occurred " Horizon Cookbook , 1968
There are many claims made about dishes and it can be frustrating to get the real story so if you have better sources let me know......Looking through some "traditional" recipies of cholent I find such things as potato, paprika,pepper etc. Those are new world foods !! Hardly "traditional" in Europe yet I find this in many ethnic foods of different countries ! Another point is that stews and soups rarely have "original , authentic" recipies.They make it with what they have ! Food hitory can be fun !!
 
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mete said:
Steven , I love your new avatar ! The logo is the most politically incorrect logo I know of .The serpent is eating a man - a saracen [muslim] !
Did you see my post about cholent being invented in renaissance Italy ?
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Thanks Robert I was wondering if anyone would notice the "Milano" logo:D
It is however simply the ALFA logo and not intended to make ANY political statement........;)
I'm not sure about where cholent comes from (I am interested to hear the results of Shaldag's research) I was always under the impression that it was a modern dish invented so one could leave the electric oven on for 24 hours and cook a hot meal for Shabbat lunch. I have not had cholent for ages but I do enjoy it in winter!
 
OK--Cholent.
For those unfamiliar, this is a type of stew that is eaten on the sabbath. Since one is not allowed to cook on the sabbath, it is begun before the candles are lit (18 minutes prior to sunset Friday night), simmers on a hot plate all night, and is eaten for Sabbath lunch.

Jews from different ethnic backgrounds use different ingredients. For Jews of Ashkenazic/European origin, it usually includes meat, potatoes, barley, beans, onion--with other things sometimes added such as kishka (cow intestine cleaned stuffed with dressing similar to that eaten on thanksgiving), whole hardboiled egg, etc. Sephardic Jews (middle-east/African origin) use simliar things as well as vegetables, ful (fava beans) whole hummus (chickpeas), garlic. etc.

The important thing is that the origin is very old, as this was the only hot food eaten on the Sabbath day, as it was forbidden to actually cook something.

I have done several searches for the etymology of the word, with various conflicting results.

The reason that I said that it predates renaissance times is that it is mentioned in various texts on Jewish law (whether it is permissible to remove the poot and replace it on the fire) that predate the renaissance--say the 13th to 15 century CE. I also vaguely recall it being mentioned by a medieval commentator in one of his writings, and am trying to recall where. This fellow (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki) lived in Troyes, France from 1040-1105 CE. He was a very prolific writer, and there is no concordance of his works. So aside from my leaky memory, I will have to ask friends when I get the opportunity--but I am pretty sure that I saw a mention in one of his commentaries. Age and whisky taking their toll.
 
shaldag said:
OK--Cholent.
For those unfamiliar, this is a type of stew that is eaten on the sabbath. Since one is not allowed to cook on the sabbath, it is begun before the candles are lit (18 minutes prior to sunset Friday night), simmers on a hot plate all night, and is eaten for Sabbath lunch.

Jews from different ethnic backgrounds use different ingredients. For Jews of Ashkenazic/European origin, it usually includes meat, potatoes, barley, beans, onion--with other things sometimes added such as kishka (cow intestine cleaned stuffed with dressing similar to that eaten on thanksgiving), whole hardboiled egg, etc. Sephardic Jews (middle-east/African origin) use simliar things as well as vegetables, ful (fava beans) whole hummus (chickpeas), garlic. etc.

The important thing is that the origin is very old, as this was the only hot food eaten on the Sabbath day, as it was forbidden to actually cook something.

I have done several searches for the etymology of the word, with various conflicting results.

The reason that I said that it predates renaissance times is that it is mentioned in various texts on Jewish law (whether it is permissible to remove the poot and replace it on the fire) that predate the renaissance--say the 13th to 15 century CE. I also vaguely recall it being mentioned by a medieval commentator in one of his writings, and am trying to recall where. This fellow (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki) lived in Troyes, France from 1040-1105 CE. He was a very prolific writer, and there is no concordance of his works. So aside from my leaky memory, I will have to ask friends when I get the opportunity--but I am pretty sure that I saw a mention in one of his commentaries. Age and whisky taking their toll.
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Very interesting....I never imagined it was an ancient dish. My mom always made it with lamb shin, onion, carrot, potato, beans etc... She would "skim" the top to reduce the fat. I suppose more of the Ashkenazi influence as her parents were from Lithuania and Latvia
Since adding wood or coal is a no-no one wonders how the ancients regulated the heat for 18 hours without adding fuel.....
 
Ovens are described in the Talmud, redacted 400-500 CE. By the description, some would have been very slow-cooking.

I believe that skimming the fat would be a modern innovation. Back in them day, the fat would have been a luxury. In general, the meat would have been stew meat--pretty fatty cuts. Quite often in Eastern Europe, the cheap stuff went into cholent.

I remember the first time I had it away from home --in a talmudical academy in Jerusalem. Expecting nothing but meat, potatoes, and beans, I draw out a big ladleful and sticking up form it was a chicken leg--claws first. YIKES!!!! Startled the living ---- out of me, I can tell you.
 
Guyon said:
Are there any matzos still alive in the wild, or are they all in captivity now?
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shaldag said:
There are a few in the wild, but they are a protected species. There are a number of kibbutzim (plural of kibbutz) that raise them for slaughter, but the market, aside from the Passover season, is kind of iffy. threads like this give the matzo-marketing people a ray of hope.
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Where I live, rurally in the desert, there are a couple of matzo farms and also some Nauga ranches (good meat and good hide for furniture). Throw in the meth labs that we are famous for, plus some Ostriches, and we are able to provide some solid occupations to keep people off welfare and can feed the masses at the same time.

Every Thursday night there is a free food giveaway by the local co-ops who run the above mentioned farms and ranches to help feed the homeless.
 
Carving those ostriches must be some job. Who got the drumsticks, Esav?

:D


edited to add: Before anyone asks, ostriches are not kosher.
 
shaldag said:
edited to add: Before anyone asks, ostriches are not kosher.
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Why not?

You know the thing that really pisses me off about Judaism and religion in general?(No political rant here, just a discussion amongst the Tribe).

I'm on a plane to Orlando in February this year, and sitting next to a 26 year old Orthodox Rabbi from Rancho Bernardo, on his way to the Holy Land. I ask him why a turkey burger with cheese all of a sudden becomes traif, and he says that this is what the Rabbinical Order has deemed as the interpretation of the rules.

I figure, if you had a cooler group of Rabbis, turkey cheeseburgers could be served in Yashivas!

G-D is cool, so why not Rabbis?

No fun, I tell ya!

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
It's not supposed to be fun, dadburnit! Mortify your flesh! (Oops, wrong religion ... :eek: ) Howabout a soycheeseburger?

:barf:
 
Kohai999 said:
I figure, if you had a cooler group of Rabbis, turkey cheeseburgers could be served in Yashivas!

G-D is cool, so why not Rabbis?

No fun, I tell ya!

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
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Because asking for cool Rabbis is like asking for peace in the middle east. A worthy goal, but probably not achievable till the end-of-days.

:D
 
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