How Many Jewish Cookbooks are Enough, Already?
The History & Growth of a Heaping, Global Collection
How many cookbooks do you figure you’d want or need of a certain style of food? Two, three? Close to 3,000? If you’re a historian or chef at heart, you may want to wrangle a sizable collection of the food that has traveled most, adapting and surviving, still identifiable by some basic tenants—more on those key features later! Ladies, and gents, the subject of this Substack, Jewish Cookbooks.
Authors and publishers keep turning out these Jewish cookbooks while I obsessing try to procure books of the past. I’m going to need more shelves—
Above, from top-down, The 100 Most Jewish Foods, Edited by Tablet’s Alana Newhouse, The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden, King Solomon’s Table by Joan Nathan
Truly, this must be the most exciting time in Jewish food writing—maybe every generation thought this way—as of now, the New York Public Library keeps a 2,700 book collection of Jewish cookbooks written in 18 languages and published from the 19th century to the present, “representing regions and cuisines from all over the world”. These cookbooks include settlement cookbooks, charity cookbooks, regional, and award-winning books we love. They have an open call for more donations, too!
You can view the entire 2,700 book collection here!
I know what I’m doing the next time I’m in New York, in between meals!
Check out these titles: Gefilte Fish in Lobster Sauce, The Nouvelle Yenta Cookbook, and The Oy of Cooking!
Of course, there have been divers Jewish communities where culture, language, meals, and recipes are shared, but in my scope, Ashkenazi (Jews from Eastern Europe) food was what Ashkenazi Jews ate. I didn’t have opportunities, maybe, in my South Florida scope to try Yemeni soup or the bounty from a Syrian Jewish family’s plate. A best friend’s grandfather plunked down his tub of schmaltz (not Crisco) when preparing green onions and potatoes, but I never knew another Jewish cookbook other than my mom’s—what was it??
Jewish food writers have not only become historians, but those who share the breadth and origin of what we can call, in totality, Jewish food.
These books showcase the nuanced facets of food life in Israel, Sephardic culture (coming from the Iberian Peninsula—Spain and Portugal), and even the American south.
My Shopping Cart & Wallet
Confession: I get jealous of you with library cards in the US and elsewhere where English cookbooks (and any English books) abound.
My Japanese library does not support my reading needs—bless them. You can understand why I have to keep Book Depository & Jeff Bezos so busy.
I keep refreshing my page to see when Abe Books will send me my used copy of the late Gil Marks’ The World of Jewish Entertaining: Recipes for the Sabbath and Family Celebrations. Marks is the author of The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food (a James Beard Foundation Award Finalist) and four other serious books, including Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World, a James Beard Foundation Award Winner. He wrote with the curiosity and knowledge being a food writer and historian, along with the title, rabbi.
Coming Up
More on the other incredible Jewish Food Writing books I keep vigil for, PLUS interviews with key authors & editors.
Look out for subjects like these:
“What exactly is the dish called adafina & why is it important?”
“What is the obsession with fresh dill?”
“Is it appropriation if I cook Sephardic food, but I grew up on Ashkenazi bialys?”
Then, there’s my favorite all of, Jewish Food Memoir!
This is quickly becoming a need and the shipping’s not cheap—-I am in Japan. Send books and enjoy this free subscription!
See the next newsletter and upcoming interview from one such cookbook author and multi-lingual historian!