Vas iz das? (Yiddish: What is this?)
A Glossary of Jewish Food Terms
- Bagel (Poland) (Traditional chewy donut shaped roll, boiled then baked, plain, egg, or pumpernickel, with no topping (plain), a single topping, multiple toppings (everything). Sorry, cinnamon raisin doesn't qualify)
- Belly Lox (Salmon belly, salt cured but not smoked)
- Bialy (Poland) (Baked round roll - depressed center usually with onion, texture similar to Pita)
- Blintz (Thin rolled pancake stuffed with cheese or fruit, fried or baked)
- Borscht (Beet soup served cold)
- Challah (Braided loaf of bread with egg wash)
- Charoset (Fruits and nuts chopped or ground to a paste served at Passover)
- Cholent ( Slow-cooked meat and vegetable dish usually for the Sabbath)
- Chopped Liver (Chopped Chicken or Beef Liver with eggs, onions, and schmaltz just short of a pate)
- Chrain (Bitter Herbs, specifically Grated horseradish)
- Egg Cream (a drink that contains neither eggs nor cream, made from chocolate syrup, milk, and seltzer)
- Ess (to eat)
- Eyerlekh (Cooked Unhatched eggs)
- Flanken (Short ribs cut thin across the bone)
- Fleishig (Meat)
- Fress (To eat gluttonously)
- Gefilte Fish (Ground Fish usually in a loaf or cunnelle shape)
- Gravlax (Salmon cured in herbs, low salt, and alcohol but not smoked)
- Gribenes (Fried chicken skin. Modern - Keto snack chip!)
- Greps - (belch)
- Hamantaschen (Triangular sugar cookie with filled center)
- Helzel (Chicken Neck stuffed with a flour stuffing. Modern - just the stuffing.)
- Kasha Varnishkes (Buckwheat groats, onion, schmaltz, and Bowtie-shaped Noodles)
- Kashrut (Literally pure or proper, food handling and eating laws
- Kichel (Sweet Bowtie Shaped Cookie)
- Kishke (Traditional - Cow Intestine with a Matzo/flour based stuffing. Modern - just the stuffing.)
- Knaidel (Matzo Ball)
- Knish (Fried Pastry stuffed with potato, meat or kasha)
- Kosher (You keep kosher by following Kashrut ( literally "fit or proper))
- Kreplach (Filled Dumpling)
- Kugel (Baked casserole usually with noodles or potatoes in a custard)
- Latke (Fried potato patty)
- Lekach (Honey cake)
- Lokshen (Egg noodles)
- Lox (traditionally this is used to refer to smoked salmon; see Belly Lox, Gravlax, Nova, Smoked, Kippered, Pickled. The differences are in where caught, how cured, and how smoked, resulting in differences of taste, color, and oiliness. There are also lox delicacies of collar, wing, and tail)
- Mandelbrot (Almond bread, similar to a biscotti)
- Maror (Bitter herbs, symbolic for Passover. Usually chrain, but it varies by cuisine)
- Matzo (Unleavened bread)
- Matzo Ball (Ground matzo shaped like a meatball and usually served in chicken soup)
- Matzo Brei (Torte or matzo omelette, sweet or savory)
- Milchig (Dairy products)
- Miltz (Stuffed cow spleen)
- Mohn (Poppy seeds , found on bagels, onion rolls, and hamantaschen filling.)
- Montreal-style Bagel (sweeter, more dense, and baked-only version)
- Nashn ( Nosh, a snack or to snack)
- Nova (Cold-smoked Salmon typically from Nova Scotia)
- P'tcha (Jellied Calves Foot)
- Parve (Neither milchig nor fleishig, but kosher)
- Pickled Herring (Herring filets pickled in brine, cut, and served in wine sauce or cream sauce. Whole filets can be rolled and skewered and are called rollmops)
- Pletzel (Crispy flat bread covered with cooked onions and poppy seeds)
- Pupik (Chicken belly button)
- Rugelach (Rolled pastry played with fruit jam and nut)
- Schmaltz (Rendered poultry (traditionally chicken) fat)
- Schmear (A liberal spread i.e., cream cheese)
- Shav (Cold sorrel soup)
- Seltzer (Carbonated (carbon dioxide) water usually without added minerals)
- Shakshuka (Thick spicy tomato sauce with poached egg on top. Colloquial - Shuk)
- Smoked Salmon (Salmon cured in a salt/sugar brine and cold smoked at a low temperature)
- Sufganiyot (Fried dough, a Hanukkah food)
- Tongue (Boiled cow tongue)
- Treif (Not Kosher)
- Zhug (Yeminite Spicy Sauce)
More! Food Terms
Added 7/2022
(New 7/12/22) Mamaliga (Romanian) (Ashkenazi) (Thick cornmeal porridge similar to Polenta. Usually made with cheese, some versions have vegetables.) (Corn was introduced from Mexico to Europe and the Mediterranean by traders in the 15th century.)
(New 7/12/22) Nosh (Yiddish) ( (n.) A snack or small bite of food. (v.) To snack, usually between meals.) (Thought to derive from the Yiddish word Nash, that usually referred to a delicacy like sweets.) (see Nosher)
(New 7/12/22) Nosher (Yiddish) ( A person that eats between meals.) (see Nosh)
(New 7/12/22) Russel or Rosl (Russian/Slavic) (A fermented brine made from beetroot. Used to make a more sour version of Beet Borscht.) (Sometimes compared to a hardy version of the Russian drink Kvass.)
Added 6/2022
Forshpeis, Forshpeiz (Yiddish) - literally, 'before meal', an appetizer. Also Apateyzerz (Yiddish). Often used for hors d'oeuvre as well. Have also seen either used for amuse bouche.
Nok hodchi (Iran) - Chickpeas, Chickpea Flour. Also known as Garbanzos (Italy) and Arbes (Yiddish).
Added June 2022
Bourekas (Mideastern) - A savory serving-sized Middle Eastern pastry wrapped in (phylo) dough. Also … Bourekas (Turkish) - a Saphardic knish (just kidding) Knish (Yiddish) - an Ashkenazi bourekas (just kidding)
Egg Cream (New York by emigrant jews) - A sweet drink made with seltzer, chocolate syrup and milk. No eggs, no cream. One explanation for the name claims that egg is a corruption of the Yiddish echt meaning "genuine or real", making an egg cream a "good cream".
Essen (Yiddish) - eat
Fress (Yiddish) - eat gluttonously
Fresser (Yiddish) - a glutton
B’tayavon (Hebrew) - Enjoy!
Guten appetit! (Yiddish) - Enjoy
Israeli-type Salad (Israel) - chopped salad with Persian cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, olive oil, lemon juice, and onion.
Kitniyot (Hebrew) foods known as rice, corn, millet, legumes, peanuts, and some seed spices. Use during Passover used to be prohibited, but was used by some Saphardic Jews. Recently some Ashkenazi Jews have recognized it as okay for Passover.
Sabich (Iraqi) - sandwich containing fried eggplant, a hard-boiled egg, hummus and Israeli-type salad.
Smetana (Russian) - a thick cream with the consistency of crème fraîche and the flavor of sour cream. A dollop in Borscht is all you need.