Jewish Cooking Basics - Fundamental Jewish Recipes

Jewish cooking is tasty expression of the myriad of places that the Jews have lived throughout their history as an ethnic group. When exploring Jewish cooking you will find Middle Eastern, Eastern European, Western European, Spanish and American influences. Learning more about Jewish recipes is a great way to reconnect with your roots or to understand the people who created many of the deli favorites cherished by American urbanites.

Kosher Cooking

One of the most common cooking techniques that is identified with Jewish cooking is Kosher cooking. Kosher cooking is based on a set of food preparation rules that are governed by Rabbis. Simply stated, Kosher cooking involves the separation of dairy and meat. This separation needs to extend to food storage, preparation, serving and clean-up. This means that if you want to live a Kosher lifestyle, then you will need to have a separate set of cookware, silverware, serving ware, towels, cleaning tools and a separate refrigerator, sink, range and workspace for dairy and meat.

Kosher Jewish recipes are commonly served during Simchat Torah. This holiday is a day that celebrates the Torah. On this day, families gather to read the Torah and to have fun.

Bagels and Lox

Another food combination that is associated with Jewish food is bagels and lox. While bagels are popular with both Jews and non-Jews, they are a very Jewish food. The first reference to bagels was made back in 1610 in Poland. They are made by boiling a ring of dough before baking it. The most common topping for a bagel is cream cheese, however, lox, which are thin slices of smoked salmon, are also a popular topping.

Gefilte Fish

Another food that is linked to Jewish cuisine is gefilte fish. Gefilte fish is made by combining white fish or other white fleshed fish with onions, carrot, parsley, celery, Motzah and eggs. The name "Gefilte" is a German term which basically just means stuffed. While this definition may not reflect how Gefilte fish is served today, it does describe how it was originally served, stuffed inside of the skin of the fish the meat was harvested from.