Food -
Eastern European Jewish Cuisines
Most of the dishes cooked by the Jews in
eastern Europe are akin to those of the nations among whom they dwell.
Thus the kasha and blintzes of the Russian Jews, the mămăliga of the
Romanians, the paprika of the Hungarians, are dishes adopted by the Jews
from their Gentile neighbors. Only on religious and ceremonial occasions
do they cook peculiarly Jewish dishes.
The food prepared on Friday for the Sabbath is called sholent (the
Russian equivalent of "shalet"). The most popular form of sholent is
made of potatoes placed in the pot with meat, fat, and water. The
potatoes appear on the table on Saturday glistening with fat, and are of
a dark, brownish color. Some even consider them not alone palatable, but
an excellent remedy for various ills. The commonest form of sholent is
the kugel, a kind of pudding made of almost any article of food; the
magenkugel and the lokshen-kugel are two favorite varieties. The former
consists of an animal's stomach filled with flour, fat, and chopped
meat, peppered and salted to taste. The latter is made of lokshen; often
raisins and spices are added. It is cut as ordinary pudding. Other
kugels are compounded of rice, potatoes, carrots, etc. Lokshen consists
of flour and eggs made into dough, rolled into sheets, and then cut into
long strips. Macaroni is an excellent substitute for it. Cut into small
squares, these strips are called "farfil." They are usually boiled and
served with soup. On the day preceding Tish'ah Be'ab, milchige lokshen
is eaten. This is ordinary lokshen boiled in milk.
tzimes, or compote, consists generally of cooked fruits, such as plums (floymn
tzimes), or of vegetables, well spiced. The most popular vegetable is
the carrot (mehren tzimes), which is cleaned and cut into small slices,
and boiled in water for about three hours. The water is then poured off
and mixed with flour, sugar, and cinnamon. The carrot is then replaced,
a fat piece of meat, preferably from the breast, added, and the
concoction is again cooked for two or three hours. Turnips are also
extensively used for ẓimes, particularly in Lithuania. In southern
Russia, Galicia, and Romania ẓimes is made of pears, apples, figs,
prunes, etc. It is then somewhat like a compound of stewed fruits.
Another dish for Saturday is called petshai in Lithuania, drelies in
South Russia, Galicia, and Romania. This consists of cow's or calf's leg
prepared in a special manner. The hair is burned off, and the leg is
then thoroughly cleaned, and cut into pieces of a convenient size. These
are placed in a pot with water, and pepper, salt, and onions are added.
Then it is placed in the oven just as are the other sholent dishes. When
it is removed from the oven on Saturday morning, it is either served
hot, or it is distributed in plates, hard-boiled eggs being sliced into
it, and it is put in a cool place. When served in the evening for "shalesh
se'udot," it is a semi-solid mass, in which the meat is embedded.
Drelies is made by adding soft-boiled eggs and also some vinegar as soon
as it is removed from the oven, when it is served hot.
Soups are naturally the great standby of the poor. The best known of
these is the krupnik, made of oatmeal, potatoes, and fat. This is the
staple food of the poor students of the yeshibot; in richer families
meat is added to this soup.
Kreplech or krepchen is another dish peculiar to eastern European Jews.
It is prepared in the following manner: Flour and eggs are mixed into a
dough. This is rolled into sheets and cut into three-inch squares. On
each square of dough is placed fine-chopped meat, to which salt, pepper,
and onions are added. The edges of the rolled dough are then brought
together and well pasted. This is then placed in a soup previously
prepared for the purpose. This kreplech is eaten at least three times a
year by every pious Jew—on Purim, on the day preceding the Day of
Atonement, and on Hosha'na Rabbah. On occasions when meat is not eaten,
chopped cheese is placed inside the kreplech.
At weddings "golden" soup is always served. The only reason for its name
is probably the yellow circular pieces of chicken fat floating on its
surface.
The preparations of fish made by the eastern European Jews are famous
even among the Gentiles, the most popular being the gefillte (filled
fish). This is prepared thus: After undergoing the usual processes of
cleaning and washing, the fish is cut into two or three parts. The bones
are then taken out, the skin is removed, and the meat is chopped fine,
eggs, salt, pepper, and onions being added. This mass is then replaced
in the skin, dropped into boiling water, and cooked for about three
hours.
Soups
Besides the very popular dish of groats called krupnik, and many other
grit soups, which are also common among non-Jews, there are still a
number of soups which are more or less characteristically Jewish. The
soup into which "kneidlach" (= "knoedel," dumplings) are put, is the
dish used most often on Saturdays, holidays, and other special
occasions, particularly at Passover, when it corresponds to the "maẓẓah
kloes" of western Europe. The expression "Me meint nit di Haggadah nor
di kneidlach" (It is not the Haggadah that we like so much as the
dumplings) owes its origin to the great favor this soup has attained
among the Jews of eastern Europe. The kneidlach in most cases are made
by grinding maẓẓahs into flour, and adding eggs, water, melted fat,
pepper, and salt. This mixture is then rolled into balls about one and
one-half inches in diameter. The kneidlach are then put into the soup,
and it is ready to be served about half an hour after. Often the
kneidlach are fried in fat and served apart from the soup. Another kind
of kneidlach, made from mashed potatoes put into warm milk, forms a
well-liked soup among Lithuanian Jews. The village folk of some parts of
eastern Europe have still another form of soup, which is made by putting
crisp "beigel" (round cracknel) into hot water and adding butter.
Because of its nutritious qualities it is called michyeh, a corruption
of the Hebrew word "miḥyah" (i.e., food κατ' ἑξοχέν; compare the Latin "victus").
There are, however, a number of soups in the preparation of which
neither meat nor even fat is used. Such soups form the food of the poor
classes. An expression current among Jews of eastern Europe, "soup mit
nisht" (soup with nothing), owes its origin to dissatisfaction with
soups of this kind.
There are a number of sour soups, called borshtsh, the most popular of
which is the "kraut," or cabbage, borshtsh, which is made by cooking
together cabbage, meat, bones, onions, raisins, sour salts, sugar, and
sometimes tomatoes. Before serving, the yolks of eggs are mixed with the
borshtsh. This last process is called "farweissen" (to make white).
Borshtsh is also made from the beet-root and "rossel" (the juice derived
from the beet).
Gebrattens (roasted meat), chopped meat, and essig fleish (vinegar meat)
are the favorite forms in which meats are prepared. The essig or, as it
is sometimes called, "honnig," or "sauer fleish," is made by adding to
meat which has been partially roasted some fish-cake, sugar, bay-leaves,
English pepper, raisins, sour salts, and a little vinegar.
Fat of cattle, because of its cheapness, is used in the preparation of a
great number of dishes. The fat of geese and chickens is used only on
special occasions, but is kept in readiness for use when needed. Fat,
being used so freely during Passover, is prepared in quantities long
before that feast, in many cases as early as Ḥannukah (in December).
Gribenes, or "scraps," form one of the best liked foods among the Jews
of eastern Europe. It is eaten especially on the Feast of Ḥannukah. So
much do the Jews share in the belief "that there is no flavor comparable
with the tawny and well-watched scraps," that it is often suggested as
an inducement to friends to make a visit.
Jews of eastern Europe bake both black ("proster," or "ordinary") bread
and white bread, or ḥallah. Of great interest are the various forms into
which these breads are made; for while the black bread is usually
circular in form, the shapes in which ḥallah is baked vary as the
different holidays pass by. The most common form of the ḥallahs is the
twist ("koilitch" or "kidke"). The koilitch is oval in form, and about
one and a half feet in length. On special occasions, such as weddings,
the koilitch is increased to a length of about two and a half feet. Some
are made in miniature for the small boys, as an inducement to say the "ḳiddush"
(bread benediction) which is required on Friday night.
Bread and Cakes
The dough of ḥallah is often shaped into forms having symbolical
meanings; thus on New-Year rings and coins are imitated, indicating "May
the new year be as round and complete as these"; for Yom Kippur (Day of
Atonement) the ḥallah, which on that occasion is circular, carries a
piece of dough in imitation of a dove, the significance being "May our
sins be carried away by the dove." Ḥallah is also baked in the form of a
ladder for Yom Kippur, expressing thereby the desire, "May our prayers
climb up to heaven"; for Hosha'na Rabbah, bread is baked in the form of
a key, meaning "May the door of heaven open to admit our prayers." The
Haman tash, a kind of a turnover filled with honey and black poppy-seed,
is eaten on the Feast of Purim, but probably has no special meaning.
The mohn kiḥel, a circular or rectangular wafer having in it a quantity
of poppy, forms a part of the Sabbath breakfast. Pirushkes, or
turnovers, are little cakes fried in honey, or sometimes merely dipped
in molasses, after they are baked. The strudel, or single-layered jelly
or fruit cake, takes the place of the pie for dessert. Teigachz, or
pudding, of which the kugel is one variety, is usually made from rice,
noodles, "farfel" (dough crums), and even mashed potatoes. Gehakte
herring (chopped herring). which is usually served as the first dish at
the Sabbath dinner, is made by skinning a few herrings and chopping them
together with hard-boiled eggs, onions, apples, sugar, pepper, and a
little vinegar.
Savories and Candies
Teiglach and ingberlach are the two popular home-made candies. The
teiglach are made by frying in honey pieces of dough about the size of a
marble, the dough being mixed with sugar and ginger. The ingberlach are
ginger candies made into either small sticks or rectangles. Jellies are
made from all juices of fruits, and are used for different purposes;
they are used in making pastry and are often served with tea. Among the
poorer classes jellies are reserved for the use of invalids and
patients, and so well has the practise of making jelly solely for that
purpose been established, that often the words "Allewai zol men dos nit
darfen" (May we not have occasion to use it) are repeated before storing
it away.
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