Food - Jewish Specialties - Apfelstrudel to Cream Soda

Apfelstrudel (Apple strudel) is a traditional Austrian pastry, the most widely known kind of strudel.

Apple strudel consists of an oblong strudel pastry jacket with a filling of chopped apples, sugar, cinnamon, raisins and bread crumbs. Rum is also often used to add flavor. Other ingredients include pine nuts or slivered almonds. The art of preparation is in making the pastry very thin and elastic; it is said that a single layer should be so thin you could read a newspaper through it.

The filled Apfelstrudel is baked in an oven and can be served warm, usually sprinkled with icing sugar. The traditional way to serve it is with vanilla custard, though vanilla ice cream or whipped cream are also very popular.

To bake a juicy Apfelstrudel, Elstar apples are recommended. Apples chosen should be good cooking apples, sour, crisp and aromatic.

The bagel (or sometimes beigel, in Poland also bajgiel, bajgel, precel, obwarzanek) is a food traditionally made of yeasted wheat dough in the form of a roughly hand-sized ring which is boiled and then baked. The result is a dense, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior. Fresh bagels can become stale very quickly, sometimes hard and inedible when just one day old.

A related bread product is a bialy.

Bagels should not be confused with doughnuts (donuts).

Bialy is a small roll named for the city of Bialystok, Poland. A traditional bialy has a diameter of up to 6 inches and is a chewy yeast roll similar to a bagel. Unlike a bagel, a bialy is not boiled and instead of a hole in the middle it merely has a depression. This depression is filled with diced onions, garlic and poppy seeds prior to baking.

The name bialy is short for bialystoker kuchen

A blintz, blintze or blin (Russian: блин, блины; Ukrainian: блинці, blyntsi; plural: blintzes, blini, bliny) is a thin pancake.

The word "blin" comes from Old Slavic mlin, that means "to mill", compare the Ukrainian word for blin млинець, mlynets’. Blins had a somewhat ritual significance for early Slavic peoples in pre-Christian times since they were a symbol of the sun, due to their round form. They were traditionally prepared at the end of the winter to honor the rebirth of the new sun (Pancake week, in Russian Масленица). This tradition was adopted by the Orthodox church and is carried on to the present day. Bliny are also served at wakes, to commemorate the recently deceased.

Blins were borrowed into Yiddish as בלינצע (blintse) and came into English in the form of "blintz".

Blins may be prepared and served in three basic ways.

* They may be eaten "as is". In this case the batter may contain various add-ins, from potato to raisins.
* They may be smeared with butter, bacon fat, smetana, jam or caviar and possibly folded or rolled into a tube. In that form they are similar to French Crêpes. The caviar filling is popular during Russian-style cocktail parties.
* (The term "blintz" is mostly applicable to this kind) A filling may be rolled or enveloped into a blintz and lightly fried, sautéed or baked. Possible fillings are jam, fruit, cottage cheese, ground meat or poultry. They are also called nalysnyky in that form (Ukrainian налисники).

Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest and can come from many animals. In some locales, the type of animal the brisket comes from is inherent in the word. In Texas, for example, if brisket is used by itself, it implies that the meat is beef.

Brisket can be cooked many ways, but a popular method in the U.S. Southern States is marinating the meat and cooking slowly over hot coals or wood. Additional basting of the meat is often done during the cooking process. Juices from the meat drip on the heat source. As the juice boils off, the smoke penetrates the meat - adding flavor. Small amounts of certain woods such as hickory or mesquite are sometimes added to the main heat source. The smoke from these woods further enhances the flavor. The finished meat is often referred to as barbecue.

Challah or hallah is a traditional Jewish bread eaten on Shabbat and Jewish holidays (except Passover, when leavened bread is not allowed). This association with Judaism is most prevalent in the United States, as challah is also a traditional bread in numerous European countries, such as Hungary, among local non-Jewish peasant populations.

On Shabbat every Jew is commanded to eat three meals (one on Friday night and two on Saturday). According to Judaism, one is only considered one who consumed a meal if he ate bread. Since of the three meal mandate Jews will traditionally eat a Challah before they eat their Shabbat meal. Like with any other type of bread, the blessing "Baruch atah Adonai, eloheinu melech ha'olam, hamotzi lechem min ha'aretz." is recited. Translated it means "Blessed are You, Lord, our God, King of the Universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth."

The dough is made with an especially large number of eggs, and sweetened with honey. The dough is traditionally cut into three rope-shaped pieces and then braided together before baking. An egg wash is applied to the dough to give a golden color after being baked. Poppy or sesame seeds are sprinkled on the bread before baking; the seeds represent manna that God gave to the Israelites to eat while they wandered in the desert.

On Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, raisins are added to the dough and the Challah is braided into a special crown shape, representing God's crown.

The name refers to a small piece of dough which is reserved and baked separately. This is done in commemoration of when the temple stood in Israel. Originally, during temple times, the dough was given to a Cohen (priest). Since the destruction, the dough is burned and thrown away after a special prayer is said.

Chicken soup is a soup made of chicken broth, typically with chunks of chicken, turnips, carrots, parsnips, onions and other vegetables. Chicken soup is traditionally used in the United States as a folk-remedy for colds and flus, and fondly nicknamed "Jewish penicillin", as this tradition seems to have its origins with European Jews.

Research conducted by Dr. Stephen Rennard, professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and his colleagues at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, has shown that there might be some scientific basis for this folk belief, as the particular blend of nutrients and vitamins in traditional chicken soup can slow the activity of certain white blood cells. This may have an anti-inflammatory effect that could hypothetically lead to temporary ease from symptoms of illness. Their research was published in 2000 in the scientific journal Chest (volume 118, pages 1150-1157: "Chicken Soup Inhibits Neutrophil Chemotaxis In Vitro"). This was not, however, a controlled test, and did not demonstrate that chicken soup was the best foodstuff for this purpose.

Whether or not this is true, chicken soup is easy to prepare, relatively cheap, nutritious, and easy on the digestive system, making it a good food for winter invalids. Probably more significantly, sipping warm soup can clear nasal passages which also relieves symptoms.

The word Cholent (from Eastern Yiddish טשאָלנט tsholnt) or shalet (from Western Yiddish שאלעט shalet) refers to a number of dishes from Ashkenazi Jewish cooking, which can be braised on a very low flame for many hours. Their existence is due to the Jewish Sabbath laws, which do not allow a practicing Jew to light a fire on the Sabbath. However, an existing fire may be used. Therefore, Jewish cooking incorporates a lot of dishes that can slowly braise from late Friday afternoon to noon on the Sabbath. There are many variations containing meat, potatoes, cereals, beans, or vegetables as well as combinations from dumplings and dried fruit. The word cholent is thought by some to be derived from the French words chaud 'hot' and lent 'slow', and by others to be derived from the Latin calientem — a term documented with this exact meaning in the Spanish form caliente in the late Middle Ages.

The historic origin of cholent is the Mishnaic חַמִּין [ḥammin]. Similar dishes exist in many Sephardi groups. The most known of these dishes is probably the Iberian and Moroccan Sephardi dish (a)dafina.

Cream soda is a sweet carbonated soft drink. In the American market it is usually clear or colored brown and vanilla or bubble gum flavored. Canadian cream soda is almost always pink and has a unique taste somewhat reminiscent of grenadine. Red cream sodas also exist, with tastes usually leaning towards the bubble gum variety. They are primarily sold in the South of the U.S., and especially Texas.

In Australia, cream soda is generally known as Creaming Soda and is pink, much like the Canadian version. Australians are also able to enjoy the American "brown vanilla" version as it is also made and marketed locally. The most common manufacturer of creaming soda in Australia is arguably Kirks, a soft drink manufacturer with a variety of other products. As of 2005, Kirks creaming soda is made and distributed by Coca Cola. Up until the mid 1990s, Kirks also produced Snow Cap, which was essentially the vanilla flavored brown version of the drink. The name "Snow Cap" was created to differentiate the pink and brown versions of the drink. Snow Cap is no longer produced.

Another variety is one referred to as Italian cream soda. This is usually a mixture of carbonated water and Half and half or Cream combined with vanilla syrup. Ratios vary widely, but the taste is usually that of sweetened, flavored milk.

The variety of cream soda sold in Japan is almost always green in color, and tastes is reminiscent of melon-flavored Fanta.

In South Africa Cream soda is sold under the name "Creme Soda" and is produced by Coca-Cola under its Sparletta brand. It is green in color and has a vanilla flavor.

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