Keesing

Jewish cuisine is influenced by the foods in the many countries where Jews have lived. Jewish food is difficult to define. Over time, Jews have eaten many different types of foods, often no different from those of their gentile neighbors. Nonetheless, the foods Jews have eaten bear the stamp of the migratory patterns of the Jewish community, while also reflecting the Jewish dietary laws ( kashrut ) and other religious requirements; for instance, the prohibition against creating fire on Shabbat inspired slow-cooked Sabbath stews in both Sephardic and Ashkenazic cuisine.

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Ashkenazi Jews — those from Europe and Russia —  Ashkenazic food reflects the migration of a community first based in Germany that ultimately spread eastward to Russia and Poland. What is usually refer to as “Jewish food”– bagels, knishes, borscht — are the foods of Ashkenazic Jewry, and in many cases were foods eaten by the non-Jews of Eastern Europe as well. This is where the Keesing culinary background is from.

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Over the centuries, food hasn’t just been a part of Jewish culture—it has also defined Jews apart from other cultures. The result has been both wonderful and tragic. Discussion upon discussion, view upon view it is most likely that Sherpharim cuisine most closely reflects their Mediterranean homeland. Sephardic cooking uses more herbs, more spices, more olive oil, and less chicken fat or butter. Of course, matzo—the traditional Passover “bread” of flour and water—is pretty tasteless in either cuisine.

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A Few Things You Might like to know

Some of the basics of the kosher laws:

• Certain species of animals (and their eggs and milk) are permitted for consumption, while others are forbidden— notably pork and shellfish.

• Meat and milk are never combined. Separate utensils are used for each, and a waiting period is observed between eating them.

• Meat must come from animals that are slaughtered in a specific (and painless) manner known as shechitah, and certain parts of the animal (including the blood) must be removed.

• Fruits, vegetables and grains are basically always kosher, but must be insect free. Wine or grape juice, however, must be certified kosher.

• Since even a small trace of a non-kosher substance can render a food not kosher, all processed foods and eating establishments require certification by a reliable rabbi or kashrut supervision agency.

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Lox is one thing and one thing only: brined salmon—unsmoked, uncooked. In days gone by, fillets of salmon (the Yiddish word is pronounced laks, from the German lochs) cut from the fatty belly were set in barrels of salt brine to cure, then sliced parchment-thin and served cold. Gravlax, is not  Jewish.

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Foie gras was invented by Jews by accident. When Jews moved into Northern France in the Middle Ages, they found themselves without their beloved olive oil—a crucial cooking fat for a community that adhered to kosher rules prohibiting the cooking of meat and milk together. Jews found they could produce gobs of high-quality poultry fat—a perfect substitute—by force feeding ducks and geese. The lobes of liver from force-fed geese, was the side effect. Jews became the purveyors of the best foie gras. Force-feeding geese became so prevalent in the Jewish community.

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