The first recipe in Kids’ Kosher Cookbook is ‘Cuisinart Challah’, which some may consider an oxymoron. Making challah is one of the three mitzvot required for the Sabbath, because it is a long and laborious task. The use of the Cuisinart circumvents the kneading and is indicative of many things, including the many shifts in kitchen technology that happened throughout the 1970s. More work responsibilities for women outside the home may have prevented them from setting aside the time to make challah by hand. The Cuisinart eased the workload, and while the spirit of the mitzvah may have been lost, the task of making the challah could still be completed. Aside from the use of the Cuisinart, the recipe adheres to the same ancient ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, salt, oil, and yeast. The recipe notes that the challah dough can be frozen, which reflects the more reliable freezer technology in the latter half of the twentieth century. 

The recipe for “Raggedy Ann Salad” reflects the Jewish tradition of decorative table setting, and the popularity of commercial children’s toys such as Raggedy Ann in the 1970s. The combination of sweet foods (such as peaches, marshmallows, and raisins) with savoury foods, (such as lettuce and shredded cheese) was typical of these arrangements, where the charm and novelty of the presentation mattered more than the taste of the ingredients together: the dish was likely to be disassembled and eaten in parts, rather than eaten together at once. Raggedy Ann Salad makes use of affordable pantry ingredients, indicating that fresh peaches can be substituted with canned peaches. The use of cheese, celery sticks, and lettuce indicates it is meant to be put together with common foods the cook already has in their kitchen, rather than shopped for exclusively.