Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2019 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Food Writing & Cookbooks Andras Koerner 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 things, 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 traditions 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, and 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.
Trade Review"Throughout his book Koerner will demonstrate that in the case of Hungarian Jews, as probably in that of other Jewish groups, cultural identities and processes are actually more strongly, vividly and immediately felt in a family's kitchen than in its Synagogue. András Koener's Jewish Cuisine in Hungary is richly illustrated with many photos and other reproductions of material-culture artifacts and symbols that together turn this book into a lively tour-guide of sorts to the culinary ethos of predominantly nineteenth-century Hungarian and Central-European secularizing/ed Jews." * Hungarian Cultural Studies *
"Readers looking for a typical cookbook may be alarmed when they dig into this gorgeous volume. While the subtitle advertises eighty-three authentic recipes, neither many of the ingredients (goose, carp, giblets, boiled beef) nor the techniques (stuffing goose necks, making pudding from smoked beef) seem particularly accessible. Yet this book is quite irresistible. Beyond the honesty and charm, it’s Koerner’s commitment to defying Nazi destruction, to saving Hungarian Jewish culture, that makes this book so compelling. Jewish Cuisine in Hungary is righteous scholarship." * Jewish Book Council *
"This is a rigorously researched, engagingly written recreation of daily life filled with rarely seen photographs and pen and ink illustrations by Koerner himself. I adored this book.... Koerner focuses on the objects, food, and people that were an integral part of his great-grandmother’s everyday existence. These alluring pages rescue a way of life from oblivion via an indelible portrait of an observant Jewish woman who serves as a representative of her entire community. Much is illuminated through her recipes and her great-grandson’s loving illustrations." * The Arts Fuse *
"Andras Koerner, author of Jewish Book Award-winning ‘Jewish Cuisine in Hungary,’ uses untouched culinary traditions to explore centuries of cultural history before the Holocaust. The 2019 Jewish Book Award in the inaugural category of food writing and cookbooks has been given to 'Jewish Cuisine in Hungary' by Andras Koerner. As Koerner told The Times of Israel in a phone conversation, the book 'offers a cultural history of the diversity of Hungarian Jewish cuisine before 1945.'” https://www.timesofisrael.com/flavor-of-prewar-hungarian-jewish-life-captured-in… -- Rich Tenorio * The Times of Israel *
Table of ContentsContents Introduction 1. The 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 2. The Ashkenazi Jewish Kitchen Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jewry A Short History of the Ashkenazi Kitchen 3. The Hungarian Jewish Kitchen 17th-Century Sephardi Influence 19th-Century Gastronomic Writers Handwritten Recipe Collections 19th-Century Cookbooks 19th-Century Pioneers of Jewish Ethnography Turn-of-the-Century Recipe Competition Food and Increasing Secularization Cookbooks in the First Half of the 20th 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 4. 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 5. 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 Engagement and Wedding Dishes for Mourning Ceremonies 6. 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 7. Domestic Hospitality and Banquets Dinner- and Supper-Guests, Home-Parties, Salons Banquets, Celebratory Meals Rules of Good Manners at Meals 8. Jewish Places of Hospitality Kosher Restaurants and Boarding Houses Coffeehouses, Coffee Shops, and Pastry Shops Jewish Soup-Kitchens 9. Food Industry and Trade Kosher Food Factories Kosher-Wine Producers and Merchants Food Shops and Street Vendors Food Markets 10. Characteristic Dishes Challah Gefilte Fish Boiled Beef Chopped Eggs Cholent Bread Kugel Ganef Stuffed Goose Neck Tzimmes Goose Giblets with Rice Pilaf Walnut Fish Flodni Kindli Hamantasche Matzo Balls Chremsel Epilogue Appendix 1. Jewish Cookbooks Published in Hungary Before 1945 - A Bibliography 2. Authors of the Handwritten Recipe Collections Used in My Work 3. List of Quoted Recipes Acknowledgements Selected Bibliography Sources of Pictures Index of Names
