Cooking Up History
Kids’ Kosher Cookbook perfectly combines traditional Jewish recipes with new and exciting favourites, creating a syncretic blend of cultures in a changing world.
The book begins with a recipe for challah, a leavened bread which has been a staple of the Jewish diet since before the Middle Ages. It is believed to have originated in Morocco, where women prepared and kneaded the bread in the home before baking it in communal ovens. When bread became widely available for sale in the late Middle Ages, Jewish women continued to make challah at home as an observance of the three mitzvot (religious duties) required for the Sabbath - along with ritualistic cleaning of the body, and the lighting of candles. Kids’ Kosher Cookbook also offers a delightful amendment to the traditional recipe in a rendition of “French Toast Jewish Style” made with leftover challah.
Also included in this book is a recipe for “My Bobie’s Hamentashen”, which declares it is “better than Queen Esther’s!” Hamentashen is a triangular filled pastry intended to resemble the three-cornered hat of Hamen, the villain from whom Queen Esther of Persia saved the Jewish people as recounted in the Book of Esther. The pastries are associated with the Jewish observance of Purim, which is a remembrance of this salvation. Seeing Esther’s victory intrinsically tied to food reminds us that Jewish women are ‘critical keepers’ of Jewish traditions, tasked with keeping the faith alive, and to transmit it to their children. However, in some ways, Kids’ Kosher Cookbook radically contests this idea, as both male and female students contributed recipes, illustrations, and commentary. This indicates a deeper need for the knowledge to be disseminated, and may even indicate a shift to a more egalitarian Jewish kitchen. This is a powerful statement today, and in 1979, it was nothing short of extraordinary.
Kids’ Kosher Cookbook structures much of its meals around observances of Jewish high holidays. It explains that leavened bread (chametz) is forbidden during Passover; a reminder of the Jews’ hasty departure from Egypt. Bread made from wheat, spelt, maize, bairley, or rye that cannot be eaten. Physical leaveners such as egg whites whipped to stiff peaks are used for the book’s Passover recipes, including its “Pesach Sponge Cake” on page 227. Outside of recipes for Passover, baking soda is the primary chemical leavener.
Also included in Kids’ Kosher Cookbook is a recipe for cholent (טשאָלנט), a slow-cooked bean dish traditionally eaten by Ashkenazi Jews on the Sabbath at lunchtime. Prepared on a Friday afternoon and left on the stove top or in the oven overnight, cholent provides a way to circumvent the rule that Jews are forbidden to cook on the Sabbath.
With the rise of Reform Judaism in North America, few ethnic Jews continue to keep kosher, with estimates as low as six percent. Factors such as “over-assimilation, intermarriage, strained intergenerational conflicts, feminism, and the increasing Canadian-ization of young Jewish women” were cited as incentives for Ashkenazi Jewish communities to produce cookbooks. Kids’ Kosher Cookbook is a product of this era where kosher cooking declined, and it attempted to instil a love of kosher food in children so that Jewish culture and customs could be preserved for generations to come. The 1970s saw more women employed outside the home, and subsequently, more agential children. The advent of the latchkey kid meant children were expected to do more around the house, including preparing their own meals. International cuisine began to rise during this time, and Chinese food was becoming increasingly popular. Chinese recipes in the book provided a way for kosher cooking to connect with youth, and gave them assurance that they could enjoy their takeout favourites at home and still adhere to Jewish food laws. Kids’ Kosher Cookbook seamlessly blends the Old Judaism with the New Judaism, creating an exciting and engaging call-to-action.
