References
My Cookbook Library
I have about 100 Jewish cookbooks in my collection of over 300 cookbooks. The earliest is a facsimile of an 1871 book on Jewish Cookery and the newest is a 2021 Indian-Jewish cookbook. A few are innovative, some iconic, and many are repetitive, with the authors tweaking a recipe here and there; as a whole they provide a printed historical trail of food and recipes over the last 150 years.
You usually find Jewish cookbooks in three categories; Commercial, Community, and Individual. I've found five categories that better define the genre of these Cookbooks: Commercial; Community; Reference and Historical; Chef, Cuisine and Region Specific; and General Interest and Historical.
Beyond cookbooks are the myriad Jewish food related websites most crossing multiple categories. Many are celebrity and recipe centric, some are rehashing of published cookbooks, and the rest academic, educational, and "wikipedia" like.
My Categories
Commercial cookbooks for Jewish food are rarely found in modern times. Crisco, JELL-O, and Manischewitz are the earliest known. A few current food magazines list commercial products in their recipes as tie-ins to advertisements.
Community cookbooks have roots in the 1950s through civic clubs, schools, and places of worship, often used for fundraising. Some were produced early in the 20th Century. Most are repetitive with a few interesting recipes, but they are great for understanding the evolution of recipes and American regional differences. I've found a few from other countries as well. Very few are produced currently.
References provide encyclopedic knowledge accentuated with recipes and anecdotes across multiple cuisines. A few are acknowledged as being definitive of Jewish Cuisines. I also have many general reference books on spices, herbs, techniques, and other very specific subjects.
Chef, Cuisine, and Region Specific are just that, focusing on a specific chef, cuisine, region, or county. They often have personal stories or explanations of how the cuisines developed. The popularity of cooking shows on TV has resulted in an explosion of this genre.
General Interest and Historical include, historical, food humor, chef biographies, and travelogues specific to Jewish Cuisines. Recently several books of recipes written by Holocaust survivors, include recipes smuggled out of Concentration Camps.
Bibliography
Coming Soon
