Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine is an assortment of cooking traditions that was developed by the Ashkenazi Jews of Central, Eastern, Northwestern and Northern Europe, and their descendants, particularly in the United States and other Western countries.
Ashkenazi Jewish foods have frequently been unique to Ashkenazi Jewish communities, and they often consist of local ingredients (such as beets, cabbage, and potato). While these ingredients tended to be the same as those in local or neighbouring non-Jewish communities, the preparation methods were very different due to kashrut, which was historically enforced by a law, and a history of limited interaction between Ashkenazi Jews and non-Jews.
The cuisine is largely based on ingredients that were affordable to the historically poor Ashkenazi Jewish community of Europe, and it is frequently composed of ingredients that were readily available and affordable in the regions and communities of Europe in which Ashkenazi Jews lived. Some ingredients were considered less desirable than other ingredients, such as brisket, chicken liver, and artichokes, among other ingredients, and as a result, these items were rarely used by gentile neighbours of Ashkenazi Jews.
Meat is ritually slaughtered in the shechita process, and it is also soaked and salted. Meat dishes are a prominent feature of Shabbat, festivals, and celebratory meals. Braised meats such as brisket feature heavily, as do root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and parsnips which are used in such dishes as latkes, matzo ball soup, and tzimmes (a braised fruit and vegetable dish which may also contain meat). Cooked, stuffed, and baked vegetables such as stuffed cabbage and, in some regions, stuffed peppers are central to the cuisine.
Due to the lack of availability of olive oil and other fats which are commonplace in Jewish cooking, rendered fat from leftover poultry skins (gribenes) called schmaltz is used in fleishig (meat) dishes, while butter is traditionally used in milchig (dairy) dishes. Since the advent of mass-produced vegetable oils (particularly in the United States and Canada) such as canola oil, many baked goods have been made with oils rather than butter, to render them pareve.
History
The cuisine of the Ashkenazi Jews is reflective of their journey from Central Europe to Eastern Europe and then throughout the world, especially to Israel, Western Europe and the Anglosphere. Ashkenazi Jews are a Jewish diaspora population which coalesced in the Holy Roman Empire around the end of the first millennium CE. This population progressively migrated eastward, and established population centres in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (a nation which then consisted of territories currently located in parts of present-day Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine).Mosk (2013), p. 143 Ashkenazi communities have also historically been present in the Banat, a region in central and eastern Europe that consists of parts of present-day Serbia, Romania, and Hungary. As a result, the cuisine of Ashkenazi Jews was highly regional in the past, and has also been influenced by a diverse range of European cooking traditions, including German, French, Italian, Slavic, and Ottoman cuisines.
A common refrain is that the food of Ashkenazi Jews is the food of poverty. Jews in Europe generally lived at the sufferance of the gentile rulers of the lands in which they sojourned, and they were frequently subjected to antisemitic laws that, at certain times and in certain places, limited their participation in the regular economy, or in land ownership and farming. This situation forced many Jews into intergenerational poverty, with the result being that for many Jews, only basic staples were available. Luxury items like meat and imported foods such as spices were not commonplace for anyone but the wealthy. However, the wealthy had access to imported goods like spices, olive oil, and exotic fruits, and they could eat meat more frequently.
While the majority of Jews who have been living in the Western Levant and Turkey since the time of the first diaspora have been Sefardic, Mizrahi, and other non-Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi communities also existed among the Jewish communities of the southern Syrian provinces in the Ottoman period (the Old Yishuv), and Turkey. Evidence of cross-cultural culinary exchange between Ottoman and Ashkenazi cuisines can be seen most readily in the food of Jews in the Banat, Romania, and Moldova, particularly pastrami and karnatzel.
A stereotype of Ashkenazi food is that it contains few vegetables relative to other Jewish cuisines. While there is some truth to this allegation, it was most true in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a period during which many eastern European Ashkenazi Jews experienced particularly extreme deprivation (including in terms of the availability of food), that coincided with the advent of industrial food processing. "Modern kitchen science" and industrial food processing continued and accelerated into the mid-20th century in the United States, leading to a narrowing of the culinary repertoire and a heavier reliance on processed shelf-stable foods.
Root vegetables such as turnips, beets, parsnips, carrots, black radish and potatoes historically made up a large portion of the Ashkenazi diet in Europe. The potato – indigenous to the Americas – had an enormous impact on Ashkenazi cuisine, though it reached most Ashkenazi Jews only in the second half of the 19th century. Other vegetables commonly eaten were cabbage, cucumbers, sorrel, horseradish, and in the Banat, tomatoes and peppers. Cabbage, cucumbers, and other vegetables were frequently preserved through pickling or fermentation. Fruits include stone fruits such as plums and apricots, apples and pears, and berries, which were eaten fresh or preserved. Raisins are also historically an integral part of Ashkenazi cuisine since the 14th century. Staple grains included barley, rye, buckwheat and wheat; barley and buckwheat were generally cooked whole by boiling the grains/groats in water, while rye and wheat were ground into flour and used to make breads and other baked goods. Dairy products were common, including sour cream, and cheeses such as farmer's cheese and brindze, and kashkaval in southeastern regions. Nuts such as almonds and walnuts were eaten as well. Mushrooms were foraged or purchased.
In North America in the 20th century, Ashkenazi food became blander and less regionally-distinct than it had been in Europe, due primarily to the unavailability of certain ingredients and staple foods, the advent of industrial food processing and modern kitchen science, poverty and pressures to assimilate. In the early 21st century, however, increased interest in heritage and food history, including that of Ashkenazi Jews, has resulted in efforts to revitalize this cuisine.
Dishes
Baked goods The hamentash, a triangular cookie or turnover filled with fruit preserves (lekvar), chocolate or honey, and black poppy seed paste, is eaten on the Feast of Purim. It is said to be shaped like the hat of Haman the tyrant. The mohn kichel is a circular or rectangular wafer sprinkled with poppy seeds. Pirushkes, or turnovers, are little cakes fried in honey or dipped in molasses after they are baked. Strudel is served for dessert. Kugels
Kugels are a type of casserole. They come in two types: noodle or vegetable. Lokshn kugl, or noodle kugel, is usually made from wide egg noodles, eggs, sour cream, raisins, and farmer's cheese, and contains some sugar. Vegetable kugels (bulbenikes) are made from chopped or shredded vegetables, onions, salt, and eggs, with oil or schmaltz. The most prominent variation of kugel is potato kugel. A regional specialty, kugel yerushalmi (Jerusalem kugel) is made from long, thin egg noodles, more sugar than a typical noodle kugel, and large quantities of black pepper. It is usually pareve, whereas noodle kugel is dairy and potato kugel may be either pareve or meat-based (if made with schmaltz). Other vegetable kugels were developed more recently, and are generally pareve.
Bread and cake
The dough of challah (called barkhes in Western Yiddish, also known as koilitsh) is often shaped into forms having symbolical meanings; thus on Rosh Hashanah rings and coins are imitated, indicating "May the new year be as round and complete as these"; for Hosha'na Rabbah and the shabbes after pesach, bread is baked in the form of a key, meaning "May the door of heaven open to admit our prayers."
In Eastern Europe, the Jews baked black (proster, or "ordinary") bread, white bread, and challah. The most common form is the twist (koilitch or kidke from the Romanian word încolăci which means "to twist"). The koilitch is oval and about one and a half feet. On special occasions, such as weddings, the koilitch is increased to about two and a half feet.
A ladder-shaped challah is an old custom among Ukrainian Jews for Shavuot. The Torah is likened to a ladder because it serves as a means of spiritual ascent, connecting Heaven and Earth.
The bagel, which originated in Jewish communities of Poland, is a popular Ashkenazi food and became widespread in the United States.Filippone, Peggy Trowbridge. “Bagel History: Bagels date back to the 1600s” , About.com website, retrieved March 27, 2013.Altschuler, Glenn C. (2008). ”Three Centuries of Bagels”, a book review of: 'The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread', by Balinska, Maria, Yale University Press, 2008, Jewish Daily Press website, published online November 05, 2008 in the issue of November 14, 2008
Fats Rendered chicken fat, known as schmaltz, is sometimes kept ready for cooking use when needed. Gribenes or "scraps", also called griven, the cracklings left from the rendering process, were one of the favorite foods of the former Jewish community in Eastern Europe. Schmaltz is eaten spread on bread.
Fish
With kosher meat not always available, fish became an important staple of the Jewish diet. In Eastern Europe, it was sometimes especially reserved for Shabbat. As fish is not considered meat in the same way that beef or poultry are, it can also be eaten with dairy products (although some Sephardim do not mix fish and dairy).
Even though fish is parve, when they are served at the same meal, Orthodox Jews will eat them during separate courses and wash (or replace) the dishes in between. Gefilte fish and lox are popular in Ashkenazi cuisine.
Gefilte fish (from German gefüllte "stuffed" fish) was traditionally made by skinning the fish steaks, usually German or French carp, de-boning the flesh, mincing it and sometimes mixing with finely chopped browned onions (3:1), eggs, salt or pepper and vegetable oil. The fish skin and head were then stuffed with the mixture and poached.Попова, М. Ф., Секреты Одесской кухни, Друк, Одесса, 2004, p.163 (Russian); Popova M.F., Secrets of Odesa kitchen, Druk, Odesa, 2004, p.163
The religious reason for a boneless fish dish for Shabbat is the prohibition of separating bones from food while eating (borer).
A more common commercially packaged product found today is the "Polish" gefilte-fish patties or balls, similar to quenelles, where sugar is added to the broth, resulting in a slightly sweet taste.Satz, Miriam, Heirloom cookbook: recipes handed down by Jewish mothers and modern recipes from daughters and friends, Kar-Ben, 2003, p.14 Strictly speaking, they are the fish filling, rather than the complete filled fish.Goodman, Hanna, Jewish cooking around the World: gourmet and holiday recipes, Varda Books Skokie, Illinois, 2002, p.147 This method of serving evolved from the tradition of removing the stuffing from the skin,Garfunkel, Trudy, Kosher for everybody: the complete guide to understanding, shopping, cooking, and eating the kosher way, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2004, p.11 rather than portioning the entire fish into slices before serving.