The New Jewish Cookbook, 1947.

Published in 1947, The New Jewish Cookbook of Favourite Recipes was released into a market and community still recovering from the Second World War. The United States entered the war in 1941, and although not nearly as heavily affected by lingering rationing programs as many countries in Europe were, sugar was only officially removed from the United States' rationing list in June 1947. The postwar years were a time of world-wide recovery and of huge economic growth in America.

The American Jewish community has a long history. There were Jews in America before the Declaration of Independence was signed, and over time the immigration of Sephardic, German, and Eastern European Jews made America in 1918 home to the largest Jewish community in the world. Strict immigration laws passed in 1924 put a stop to large numbers of Jewish immigrants entering the country, but the community that exists in America today was born primariy out of these three founding groups. New York City has always had a large Jewish community, and The New Jewish Cookbook was produced by a publishing company that had been formed on the Lower East Side of the city in 1901. Betty Dean was likely a member of the Jewish community in New York, tying her to the history of the Jewish communities that had lived there for years, even before her new book of recipes for modern Jewish women had been a twinkle in her eye.

This new cookbook was made for the modern Jewish woman coming of age in postwar America. It dedicated itself to the housewife who had mastered modern technologies and amenities like refrigerators, freezers, electric stoves, pasteurized milk, and other kitchen gadgets that her ancestors had not had at their disposal. The New Jewish Cookbook was written to integrate these technologies seamlessly into Jewish cooking, but also to integrate another new tool into the Jewish housewives’ repertoire—the science of dietetics; how the foods we eat contribute to keeping us healthy.

The New Jewish Cookbook, 1947.

In 1917, Casimir Funk first released his theory that there was a “vital amine” present in food, contributing to the health of its consumer. The first vitamin was isolated and chemically defined in 1926, just 21 years before the publishing of Betty Dean’s cookbook. The first half of the 20^th century saw the identification of most essential vitamins and minerals, as well as their various effects on human and animal health. By the end of the 1950s, all the major vitamins had been isolated and synthesized. By happy accident, this huge boom in nutritional research aligned with the Great Depression of the 1930s, as well as the period of food shortages caused by the Second World War.  Emphasis was placed on preventing diseases caused by dietary deficiencies, and considerable scientific effort and resources were poured into nutraceutical research. The first recommended dietary allowances (RDAs) were introduced in the United States in 1941 as a direct result of this research boom.

In Betty Dean’s book, she discusses the efforts introduced in 1940 to improve the nutritive value of bread in the United States; she praises the additions of thiamin, niacin and iron into milled flour in the introduction to her expansive chapter of bread recipes. The five “well-known” vitamins and their value are discussed in many places in The New Jewish Cookbook. In 1947 these were considered to be Vitamins A, B, C, D and G (now called riboflavin).

During the period in which the United States was involved in the Second World War, there was an exponential increase in demand for trained dieticians to serve in the U.S. army. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics introduced new programs and expedited training in order to provide trained dieticians to army and civilian hospitals, while also opening up new routes for individuals with previously completed undergraduate degrees to enter the field. It may be that Betty Dean specialized in dietetics during this time, as recruitment efforts were quickly increased in order to attract interested candidates.

The New Jewish Cookbook of Favourite Recipes is a rich resource, full of information about the way healthy cooking and living could be integrated into Jewish culinary tradition. Betty Dean’s efforts to educate the modern Jewish woman on how to nutritiously and deliciously cook for herself or her family should be commended, and this book thoroughly perused by those with an interest in the history of nutrition, the evolution of Jewish American cuisine, or those who simply want a good wholesome recipe for dinner.