A Schtickle of Information

Do you really know lox? The word "lox" has approached singularity in describing that salty, pink-orange slice of fish piled on a bagel schmeared with cream cheese and topped with red onion and capers.

There is only one true lox: brined salmon, unsmoked and uncooked. Known as laks in Yiddish,  it's cut from the fatty belly, set in salt brine to cure, and then sliced parchment-thin. Often referred to as Belly Lox.

Gravlax, the Scandinavian version, is brined with herbs like dill, pepper, and juniper berries, and maybe splashes of aquavit—delicious, but not so Jewish.

Nova Scotia salmon, known as Nova, is cold-smoked after brining or curing. Its slightly smoky, salty flavor, and firmer texture makes Nova a popular bagel topping.

Finally, there is smoked salmon, which is cured or brined then hot-smoked at a higher temperature until it is firm and fully cooked. Good for appetizers, not so much for bagels.

Whichever is your favorite, call it what you may, pile it high and enjoy.

  Based on an article from The  Cottage Cafe and other articles. 

Fried green tomatoes are usually associated with the South, but if you were to look in Southern newspapers or cookbooks before the 1970s, you won't find mention of them anywhere. They were most likely brought to the mid-western US in the mid-Nineteenth century by Jewish immigrants. 

Recipes begin to appear in syndicated newspaper columns around 1870, but one of the first cookbook recipes is in the International Jewish Cook Book published in 1918. I have a 1926 printing of the book. Fried green tomatoes only became popular in the South after the release of  Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café book and the Fried Green Tomatoes movie.

First, is Montreal Steak Seasoning Really From Montreal? Absolutely. Second, does it have Jewish Roots? Maybe.  It's a seasoning added to smoked meat that originated in Canada, specifically Montreal, Quebec. It was made popular in the US by McCormick and contains primarily garlic, paprika, mustard seed, coriander, and ground pepper without any of the herbaceousness of other steak blends.

Some culinary historians think it has its origin about 80-100 years ago in the pickling spices of Eastern European used in Jewish cuisine. Early records show it as being used in Montreal's Schwartz's smoked meat restaurant. So does it have Jewish Roots? Ver veyst (Yiddish for Who knows).

People have engaged in the process of purposefully fattening geese since ancient times, both in Egypt and Rome. According to the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food, it may have been Italian Jews who preserved this tradition and transported it to Western Europe, though others believe that the Romans themselves may have originally brought the technique to France.

Either way it became a very Jewish endeavor, such that by the Middle Ages, Ashkenazi Jews specialized in the process of creating foie gras and were recognized as the masters of it.

Interestingly, the foie gras itself was not the primary goal of these Jewish goose farmers. Rather, it was a by-product of the desire to create enough schmaltz — rendered poultry fat — for cooking through the year.  While Jews living around the Mediterranean Basin and across the Middle East had access to olive oil, this was inaccessible to the Jews living in more northern climes, so they would render the fat of geese, ducks and chickens, and use that schmaltz for much of their cooking.
Jews were also amongst the first to mash the foie gras into a paste, and mix in things such as egg and onions. This not only developed into the French pâté de foie gras but also into another traditional Ashkenazic favorite, chopped liver.

Gil Marks is a food historian and a great source for interesting factoids. As the story goes, in 1929, New York restauranteur Arnold Reuben sampled a “cheese pie” at a party and asked for the recipe. He proceeded to modify it, substituting cream cheese for cottage cheese and the new and wildly popular dessert called cheesecake appeared on the menu at Reuben’s restaurants. Reuben’s creation—yes, he also invented the sandwich—went national two decades later when a Jewish baker in Chicago began freezing the confections and selling them in supermarkets under a brand named after his 8-year-old daughter, Sara Lee.

Pickles date back 4000 years to India. The word pickle is most likely derived from German and means salt or brine, both two important components in pickling.

Kosher dills have a unique history of their own. In The Book of Jewish Food, Claudia Roden explains that pickled vegetables were a dietary staple for Jews living in the Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Russia. The sharp flavor of pickles proved a welcome addition to the bland bread-and-potato diet of these cold weather countries. 

When a heavy influx of eastern European Jews arrived in New York City during the late 1800s and early 1900s, immigrants introduced kosher dill pickles to America. 

Cucumbers were washed, then piled in large wooden barrels along with dill, garlic, spices, kosher salt (thus the name) and clean water. They were left to ferment for a few weeks to several months; shorter fermenting time produced brighter green half sours, while longer fermentation resulted in full sours.

The more traditional dill pickle is pickled in a brine (salt water), without garlic, rather than in  water with much less salt.

While not a true Jewish Food no dessert seems more iconic  than a Black and White cookie. A large, soft, round cake-like cookie, slightly dome-shaped on top and flat on the bottom. It's covered in thick fondant, half white vanilla and half dark, almost black, chocolate, with the chocolate slightly overlapping the vanilla. 

It has many origins, none of which are Jewish. Whether you subscribe to the upstate New York "half-moon" origin, the Dutch colonial New York "koekje" origin, or the Bavarian origin, this delicious morsel is a mainstay of Jewish delis.

Modern versions include frosting rather than fondant, harder cookies, smaller sizes, solid colors, and even pastel colors. 

To me nothing beats the old-school original black and white I remember enjoying with a glass of milk,"Seinfeld-style", as a child in Brooklyn.

A mainstay of Texas, as well as slow cooking enthusiasts across the South, is BBQ Brisket. Interestingly, the brisket cut is not  original to America. 

While the barbecue cooking method had been used in the Americas for centuries,the open-fire cooking technique came from the Caribbean in the 17th century when slaves were brought from the Caribbean and spread into Spanish, French and American cultures, it was primarily used for pork and fowl. 

The traditional Jewish Brisket dish was brought to America by emigres from Central and Eastern Europe in the early 20th century. Arriving on the East Coast, but making their way to new Jewish communities in Texas in large numbers, they brought their Old World favorite beef cut with them.  

Barbecue enthusiasts found the cut perfect for long cooking time. Using local sauces and seasoning, BBQ Brisket was born.

The Italian cookie Krumiri comes from the town of Casale Monferrato in the Piedmont region. Some historians say the mustache shape  pays homage to the reigning King. However, the name of the cookie doesn't fit. That's where an alternate theory emerges. The Yiddish word krumm, which means crooked, could account for the name. Jews have lived in Casale Monferrato since 1492, when they arrived from Spain to escape the Inquisition.  So is it the King's mustache or its crooked shape?

Peeps, the famous marshmallow Easter treats have Jewish roots.  Produced by Just Born Confections  in Pennsylvania since 1953, Jewish immigrant Sam Born developed the Peeps we know today. Sam Born, a Ukrainian, ran a successful chain of candy stores beginning in the early 1900s across the country, using "Just Born" to emphasize freshness. Eventually a technique to produce 3D marshmallows was developed and  Peeps were born.

Dietary rules may have started close to the start of the Common Era based on archaeological evidence of Shark and Bovine bone fragments found in trash pits in Israel. (“The Pentateuchal Dietary Proscription against Finless and Scaleless Aquatic Species in Light of Ancient Fish Remains” by Yonatan Adler and Omri Lernau, 24 May 2021, Tel Aviv.)

Spices and herbs have Biblical roots in Jewish food and traditions.  Some Jewish merchants became spice traders in the middle ages using the trade routes between cities to purchase and transport goods to sell. Modern Hebrew calls spices and herbs "food improvers".

Did you know Old Bay Seasoning was invented by a German Jewish immigrant? After fleeing Germany, Gustav Braunn emigrated to Baltimore, Maryland, where he went to work for McCormick. He left them to form his own spice company with one spice blend, eventually becoming Old Bay Space Company, which was eventually bought by McCormick.

If it looks like the ingredients for Agristada are similar to those for Avgolemono, you're right. Avgolemono, the Greek egg and lemon sauce, has its roots in Agristada. Agristada is the Saphardic answer to a Parve "cream" sauce and originated in Spain. Jews leaving Spain during the Inquisition brought it to Greece.

Vegetable dishes are Parve (Safe) in Kosher cuisine; however, Kashrut preparation must be followed. It may fail to be kosher due to lack of inspection for insects,  preparation by non-Jews, with non-kosher equipment, and without kosher supervision.

JELL-O is Kosher or is it? The collagen component of JELL-O is a highly processed by-product of animal parts. That by nature would make it non-Kosher, since the manufacturers don't use Kosher animals. In the early 1900's it was highly marketed to Jews through cookbooks and celebrities as Kosher, but there was controversy. Eventually one Jewish group declared it Kosher, based on a dietary law called ponim chadashos (literally, a new face), which claimed that the product is completely transformed by the chemical manufacturing process. Many Jews do not accept this and still consider it non-Kosher and use a Kosher alternative.

Cilantro, also known as coriander, or Chinese parsley, was extensively used in medieval Spanish Jewish cooking. When meat became unattainable, vegetables would be the sole ingredients. Spices like cumin, thyme, and saffron were used in addition to cilantro. Some Biblical scholars believe Cilantro was referred to as Gad or Manna.