Cook­book

100 Best Jew­ish Recipes

Eve­lyn Rose with Judi Rose
  • Review
By – January 26, 2017

Well known for The New Com­plete Inter­na­tion­al Jew­ish Cook­book, Jew­ish cook­book author Eve­lyn Rose passed away in May of 2003. Her daugh­ter Judi cooked with Eve­lyn for over 30 years. Judi is a food writer, con­sul­tant, and culi­nary expert. She divulges that when her moth­er “…was asked for a def­i­n­i­tion of Jew­ish food, her answer was sim­ple. It’s food that Jews eat,’ wher­ev­er they might live or hail from.”

Judi Rose explains the ori­gins of the Jew­ish hol­i­days and the types of foods eat­en for each one in the sec­tion on Fes­ti­vals and Food. In Small Plates, an easy-to-pre­pare Lip­tauer cheese recipe would be per­fect for a dairy intro­duc­tion of a savory spread. For a meat del­i­ca­cy, the excel­lent Chick­en Liv­er Pâté — Jew­ish Style — is improved by a bit of nut­meg and then blend­ed in a food processor.

Soups begin with a tra­di­tion­al chick­en soup — three ways: Chick­en Noo­dle Soup; Chick­en, Zuc­chi­ni, and Let­tuce Soup; and a Chick­en, Mush­room, and Zuc­chi­ni Soup. Each have a base of the defat­ted chick­en stock recipe which appears at the end of the vol­ume, in a sec­tion for Meat Stocks, where the home cook can find reli­able recipes for Beef Bone Stock, Beef and Bone Stock, and Roast Beef Stock. It is a com­fort­ing sec­tion with excel­lent direc­tions. Rose’s Haimis­che Win­ter Soup is nour­ish­ing and fla­vor­ful as it was for the nine­teenth-cen­tu­ry Russ­ian and Pol­ish peas­ants, where win­ters could be brutal.

The Poul­try sec­tion, Judaism’s mul­ti-eth­nic culi­nary oeu­vre is well rep­re­sent­ed with Pol­lo en Pepi­to­ria, a Span­ish chick­en dish that uses ground almonds to thick­en the white wine sauce. Turmer­ic, which nowa­days is praised for its health ben­e­fits and seems to be part of numer­ous food arti­cles, makes its appear­ance here as well. Duck Breasts with a Hon­ey and Gin­ger Glaze reflect notes of Chi­nese style flavors.

The Meat chap­ter starts — where else? — with cholent. Rose quotes a Jew­ish food writer who claimed that this ancient Sab­bath recipe is best defined as any dish that has the sta­mi­na to stand up to 24 hours in the oven.” Rose’s recipe includes but­ter or lima beans for a hearty dish: after eat­ing this fill­ing meal, many will need to takes a Sab­bath rest to recov­er their sta­mi­na for the day! The Albondi­gas al Buy­or are Greek Jew­ish meat­balls in a sweet-and-sour sauce, com­plete with instruc­tions for how long it will keep in the fridge or in the freez­er. A most mouth-water­ing recipe fea­tures Herbed Lamb Chops, mar­i­nat­ed for a while pre-broil­ing them.

The Fish sec­tion offers a Gefilte Fish Provençale — the fish pat­ties are baked or poached in a toma­to and pep­per sauce — and instruc­tions for Poached Salmon in three ways, includ­ing a 15-minute microwave approach. Rose intro­duces Israeli Sal­ad in the Veg­etable and Side Dish­es by not­ing, whether it’s pre­pared for 200 kib­butzniks or by street ven­dors who spoon it in your pita bread along with their fresh­ly fried falafel balls, it’s always made with cubed veg­eta­bles…” An excel­lent veg­e­tar­i­an alter­na­tive to chopped liv­er is the Kat­sis Kishuim, the Israeli zuc­chi­ni spread which is per­fect for meat eaters and veg­e­tar­i­ans alike. A Raw Pas­ta Sauce for two pas­ta dish­es calls for these instruc­tions: But because these sauces are only at room tem­per­a­ture, it’s essen­tial to heat your serv­ing dish and plates so the pas­ta doesn’t become lukewarm.”

Beer enthu­si­asts will appre­ci­ate Rose’s Rye and Car­away Bread. Influ­ences from the Dutch, the Ger­man, the Egypt­ian, the Armen­ian, the Vien­nese, the Ital­ian, the Greek, the Hun­gar­i­an, the Moroc­can, the Eng­lish, the Israeli etc. help to make the cookbook’s Breads secition a most valu­able addi­tion to the kitchen repertoire.

This vol­ume ends with a quote from Eve­lyn Rose: Thus sayeth Kohelet, there is noth­ing new under the sun,’ and of no sphere is this apho­rism from Eccle­si­astes more true than the world of food and cook­ing. My own knowl­edge is only the sum of that accu­mu­lat­ed by hun­dreds of gen­er­a­tions of Jew­ish women who have cooked before me. All I can hope to do is to make that knowl­edge rel­e­vant-and acces­si­ble-to peo­ple cook­ing at this par­tic­u­lar time.”

Relat­ed Content:

Danièle Gor­lin Lass­ner (wife, moth­er, grand­moth­er) retired after 35 years at Ramaz where she served as Dean of Admis­sions, For­eign Lan­guage Depart­ment chair and teacher of French and Span­ish. She owns hun­dreds of cook­books. She has trans­lat­ed sev­er­al chil­dren’s books from French into Eng­lish. She has recent­ly trans­lat­ed “ A Mem­oir of Sanc­ti­ty “ by May­er Moskowitz (Mazo Pub­lish­ers, Jerusalem, Israel) from Hebrew into Eng­lish. No mat­ter the lan­guage, food is a con­stant.”

Discussion Questions