Jewish Cuisine in Hungary: A Cultural History with 83 Authentic Recipes

Jewish Cuisine in Hungary: A Cultural History with 83 Authentic Recipes

by Andr s Koerner
Jewish Cuisine in Hungary: A Cultural History with 83 Authentic Recipes

Jewish Cuisine in Hungary: A Cultural History with 83 Authentic Recipes

by Andr s Koerner

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Overview

Winner of the 2019 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Food Writing & Cookbooks.

The author refuses to accept that the world of pre-Shoah Hungarian Jewry and its cuisine should disappear almost without a trace and feels compelled to reconstruct its culinary culture. His book―with a preface by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett―presents eating habits not as isolated acts, divorced from their social and religious contexts, but as an organic part of a way of life.

According to Kirshenblatt-Gimblett: "While cookbooks abound, there is no other study that can compare with this book. It is simply the most comprehensive account of a Jewish food culture to date." Indeed, no comparable study exists about the Jewish cuisine of any country, or―for that matter―about Hungarian cuisine. It describes the extraordinary diversity that characterized the world of Hungarian Jews, in which what could or could not be eaten was determined not only by absolute rules, but also by dietary traditions of particular religious movements or particular communities. 

Ten chapters cover the culinary culture and eating habits of Hungarian Jewry up to the 1940s, ranging from kashrut (the system of keeping the kitchen kosher) through the history of cookbooks, the food traditions of weekdays and holidays, the diversity of households, and descriptions of food and hospitality industries to the history of some typical dishes. Although this book is primarily a cultural history and not a cookbook, it includes 83 recipes, as well as nearly 200 fascinating pictures of daily life and documents.i


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9789633862735
Publisher: Central European University Press
Publication date: 12/01/2019
Pages: 432
Product dimensions: 7.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

András Koerner was born in 1940 in Budapest. After receiving his degree in architecture he worked for several years as an architect. In 1967, he moved to the United States, where he continued the same career. Since his retirement, he dedicates his time mostly to writing and organizing exhibitions. He is author of the award-winning Jewish Cuisine in Hungary (CEU Press 2019).

Table of Contents

Preface

Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett

Introduction

Kashrut

The Ritual Slaughter of Animals

The Kashering of Meat at Home

Separating Dairy and Meat Dishes

Pareve (Neither Meat, nor Dairy) Dishes and Ingredients

Kosher Wine

Kosher Milk and Dairy Products

Giving up the Kashrut Rules

Christian Views of the Kashrut

Ashkenazi Jewish Kitchen

Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewry

A Short History of the Ashkenazi Kitchen

Hungarian Jewish Kitchen

Seventeenth-Century Sephardi Influence

Nineteenth-Century Gastronomic Writers

Handwritten Recipe Collections

Nineteenth-Century Cookbooks

Nineteenth-Century Pioneers of Jewish Ethnography

Turn-of-the-Century Recipe Competition

Food and Increasing Secularization

Cookbooks in the First Half of the Twentieth Century

Post-1945 Cookbooks about Prewar Cooking

Some Characteristics of the Hungarian Jewish Kitchen

Food and Hungarian Jewish Identity

Hungarian Influence in the Jewish Kitchen of Other Countries

Regional and Cultural Differences

The Northeastern Regions and the Galician/Polish/Ukrainian Influence

Western Hungary and the Austrian/German Influence

The Northwestern Regions and the Bohemian/Moravian/Slovakian Influence

The Southern Regions and the Serbian/Croatian Influence

Transylvania and the Romanian Influence

Weekdays and Holidays

Dishes of the Weekdays

Shabbat Dishes

Dishes for the Holiday of the New Moon

Dishes of Rosh Hashanah

Yom Kippur – Dishes Before and After the Fast

Dishes of Sukkot

Dishes of Simchat Torah

Dishes of Hanukkah

Purim Dishes

Dishes for Pesach

Shavuot Dishes

Dishes for the Dairy Days and for the End of the Tisha B’av Fasting

Dishes for the Birth of a Boy

Cakes for the First Day of Cheder

Cakes to Celebrate a Boy’s Exam in a Cheder

Dishes for Bar Mitzvah

Dishes for Engagements and Weddings

Dishes for Mourning Ceremonies

Households

Rural and Small-Town Households

Keeping Geese

Urban Households

Canning

Maids

The Role of Cooking in the Lives of Jewish Women

Kitchen Furniture and Equipment

Dishes, Tableware, and Tablecloths

Ritual Plates, Cups, and Table Linen

Domestic Hospitality and Banquets

Dinner and Supper Guests, Home Parties, Salons

Banquets, Celebratory Meals

Rules of Good Manners at Meals

Jewish Places of Hospitality

Kosher Restaurants and Boardinghouses

Coffeehouses, Coffee Shops, and Pastry Shops

Jewish Soup Kitchens

Food Industry and Trade

Kosher Food Factories

Kosher Wine Producers and Merchants

Food Shops and Street Vendors

Food Markets

Characteristic Dishes

Challah

Gefilte Fish

Boiled Beef

Chopped Eggs

Cholent

Kugel

Ganef

Stuffed Goose Neck

Tzimmes

Goose Giblets with Rice Pilaf

Walnut Fish

Flódni

Kindli

Hamantasche

Matzo Balls

Chremsel

Epilogue

Appendices

Jewish Cookbooks Published in Hungary before 1945: A Bibliography

Authors of the Handwritten Recipe Collections Used in This Book

List of Quoted Recipes

Acknowledgements

Selected Bibliography

Sources of Pictures

Index of Names

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"András Koerner's Jewish Cuisine in Hungary paints a vivid portrait of prewar Jewish Hungary through its food, its bakers, its home-makers, and more. The focus on Jewish households and local businesses shifts the scholarly gaze from typical historical subjects to the realm of working people and women—fertile ground for meaningful inquiry. The book quotes extensively from memoirs, cookbooks, and periodicals of the time with each rich passage reveling in the minutiae of daily life. Koerner masterfully weaves together photos, objects, and eighty-three recipes plucked from rare historical cookbooks to transport the reader to Budapest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to Hungarian Jewish holiday tables and rural goose farms. Ultimately, Koerner sheds new light on prewar Hungarian Jewish life by exploring the role food plays in its culture in such innovative ways, and so too does he help us understand the Hungarian Jewish place in broader Jewish food culture. Jewish Cuisine in Hungary will no doubt serve as an essential historical reference for years to come, while also modeling what's possible in the field of food scholarship."—National Jewish Book Award

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