Today is November 23, 2024 / /
Today is November 23, 2024 / /
FROM MY JEWISH LEARNING Rabbi Tobias Geffen, an Orthodox rabbi who served Atlanta’s Congregation Shearith Israel from 1910 until his death in 1970 at the age of 99, is responsible for kashering Coke. Geffen was an unlikely contributor to the worldwide success of the beverage. Born in Kovno, Lithuania, in 1870, he immigrated to Canton, Ohio, in Continue Reading »
While North America is home to Jewish communities hailing from around the world, certain Ashkenazi dishes have been immortalized by New York Jewish delis and appetizing stores, as well as pop culture (“Seinfeld,” I’m looking at you) as “American Jewish food” — and, by extension, “Jewish food.” Try ordering these foods in Israel, however, and Continue Reading »
Why Do Some Condiments Need To Be Refrigerated? Most condiments available for purchase at the grocery store are processed to be shelf stable, meaning the product can sit on shelves for extended periods of time without spoiling. Some shelf-stable condiments can sit in the pantry for a couple months after opening while others are clearly Continue Reading »
Many will advise you to steer clear of the tuna at a Jewish deli, but there’s a reason almost every Jewish deli has tuna salad on their menu: American Jews love it. A Brief History of Canned Tuna In the United States, tuna became popular about a hundred years ago. Throughout the 19th century, tuna was Continue Reading »
Selecting Fresh Mushrooms Fresh mushrooms are dry, firm, and smooth with a pleasantly earthy smell. Soft, mushy, shriveled or possibly slimy mushrooms are not the best choices. Mushrooms in a supermarket are often imported and have been transported from a considerable distance. They might also be improperly displayed in a store which can further accelerate Continue Reading »
How to Choose Perfect Tomatoes First things first: Start with quality tomatoes. Color and feel are the two best indicators of a good tomato. These signs can vary slightly across different tomato varieties, so we’ve broken it all down for you. Roma and Beefsteak Tomatoes Beefsteak tomatoes are big and plump, while Roma (or plum) Continue Reading »
The only real difference between salted and unsalted butter is literally the salt: All butter is made from milkfat in cream and contains at least 80 percent milkfat, 18 percent water, and 2 percent solids (mainly protein and salt), explains Jen Giambroni, a dairy expert with Real California Milk. The process goes like this: Pasteurized cream Continue Reading »
The mythical origins of the egg cream At some time, at some point, the egg cream was invented — it’s just unclear when and where that was. Some believe that it was invented in the 1880s, when a Yiddish actor asked a Lower East Side restaurant to make him a “chocolate et creme,” a drink Continue Reading »
Take the Kosher Dill Pickle, which was popularized by Jewish immigrants in New York’s Lower East Side in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Initially, their kosher label came from the Jewish Orthodox Congregations of America. Nowadays, “kosher” has little to do with Jewish dietary law, and instead refers to the pickle’s characteristics: pickled in a salt Continue Reading »
The word “bialy” is a shortened version of Bialystoker Kuchen (German) or Byalestoker kukhn (Yiddish), both meaning “bread from Bialystok, Poland.” At the beginning of the 20th century, bialys were a staple of the city and region. They were most often served with butter or soft cheese but were also served with herring and, occasionally, Continue Reading »
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