Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Twenty-five years ago, Nathan published The Jewish Holiday Kitchen, a landmark work that juxtaposed recipes with oral histories. Although she acknowledges that the past quarter century has brought some changes to Jewish cooking—e.g., Kosher caterers are lightening their foods; "young American superstar chefs" have come onto the scene; California wineries now produce award-winning kosher wines—Nathan still relies on traditional recipes, such as My Mother’s Brisket, Cabbage Strudel, Romanian Beet Borscht, Vegetable Kugels and Babka in her new volume. Revising and updating recipes from Holiday Kitchen and another previous work, The Jewish Holiday Baker, Nathan shares instructions for making nearly 400 dishes, dividing them by holiday: the Sabbath, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, Shavuot and the minor holidays. Lengthy introductions accompany each recipe, and Nathan’s ability to balance interesting tidbits with useful instructions make this a supremely worthwhile resource. She covers every cuisine of the Jewish tradition, from Central and Eastern European to Middle Eastern to American.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

It has been 25 years since Nathan's Jewish Holiday Kitchen was first published. This volume gathers recipes from that book and from the food writer's Jewish Holiday Baker (1997) for a celebratory revision. And what a collection it is: 400 recipes accompanied by personal commentary and culinary history passed down through generations of Jewish cooks. That's part of the charm here as readers learn that "eating fish symbolizes the hope of redemption for Israel" and other snippets of fact and folklore. Keyed mostly to eight major Jewish holidays-- from Shabbat to Shavuot--the recipes represent both eastern European and Sephardic traditions, and are nicely adapted for modern cooks: processors speed preparation, and ingredients such as packaged onion soup are occasionally used. There's even a recipe for "low-cholesterol challah." It's a tasty assortment for Jewish cooks but also for anyone interested in ethnic cuisine. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Schocken; Rev Upd edition (August 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805242171
• ISBN-13: 978-0805242171
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #450,989 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellently Deep Survey of Jewish Culinary Holidays., January 7, 2006

By	B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

`Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook' by the `Paula Wolfert' of Jewish cooking, Joan Nathan, is an updated composite of two of her earlier books, `The Jewish Holiday Baker' and `The Jewish Holiday Kitchen' on the 25th anniversary of the publication of the latter volume.

I have reviewed only one other book of Jewish cooking, the big `New York Times' book of Jewish recipes and I can unequivocally say that as a first book on Jewish cooking, Nathan's book is a far, far superior starting point. The only reason you may want to buy the `New York Times' volume is if you are already so thoroughly knowledgeable about Jewish cuisine that all you want is a big book of good recipes.

I get the sense from this book that the fact that it deals only with `holiday' cooking does very little to limit the scope of the recipes, as it not only deals with the yearly holidays but also that cooking which is particular to the restrictions on observing the Sabbath.

I think it is no accident that in my survey of cookbooks so far, there are far more Jewish holiday cookbooks than there are for any other ethnic cuisine, as long as you don't count Christmas cookie cookbooks. In my somewhat limited experience with only English language cookbooks, I know of seven for Jewish holidays and only two for that great culinary dynamo, Italian cooking. And, Joan Nathan has written four of those titles!

Not only on holidays but also throughout their whole life, food and religion are more tightly intertwined for the Jews than with any other culture I know. The Christian use of unleavened bread and wine in their most important sacrament pales in comparison to the strictures of orthodox kashrut, the laws governing kosher, parve, and unclean foods and food combinations. I know the Muslims, being fellow Semites from the Middle Eastern deserts have similar strictures against pork, but I believe their rules are not nearly as pervasive.

The book provides seven (7) chapters on the major holidays, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, and Shavuot plus a chapter on `The Minor Holidays' including Israeli Independence Day. The first and longest chapter covers the Sabbath which, in orthodox tradition, requires prohibits any cooking between sundown on Friday evening and sundown on Saturday evening. It's a bit more involved than that, in that what is really prohibited is lighting a flame during that time. That means stoves or ovens can be turned on before sundown to start slow cooking dishes, but no flame can be started in that 24-hour period.

For people who are simply interested in culinary folkways, the book is an excellent study in the intersection of culinary laws and the seasons. Not only were Jewish folk constrained by extreme poverty and the barrenness of winter, they were prohibited from access to the single most tasty and most easily preserved source of fat and protein, the pig. This was an even bigger hardship for the Jews of central Europe who lived outside the range of cheap olive oil, since it forbade them from using the very best animal fat for cooking. Even butter was proscribed in that one could not use butter together with any meat product, due to the kashrut prohibition against mixing meat and dairy. This more than explains the central role of chicken fat in the culinary traditions of Jewish cooks.

Ms. Nathan does not spend much time exploring the anthropological sources of kashrut, but she does an excellent job of showing us how it affected Jewish cuisine.

Not only does she give us dishes appropriate to the various holidays, we are also treated to menus which reflect differences in the Sephardic (Iberian) and Askanazy (Central European) traditions.

I find it eminently satisfying that the very first recipe is for challah bread, the braided egg bread typically made for Sabbath. I also find it very interesting that much more attention is paid to recipes for the American bialys than to the European bagel. I am also interested in the fact that Hanukkah is much more of a culinary and political holiday than it is a religious feast, since, according to an Orthodox Jewish friend, there are not even any standard rituals for the Synagogue for Hanukkah. This is hearsay, but Nathan does confirm that until the late Middle Ages, Hanukkah was a relatively unimportant date on the Jewish calendar.

I have yet to review some other Jewish holiday cookbooks, but for a good understanding of the traditions behind the culinary facts, this book is excellent.

Highly recommended.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious recipes, January 8, 2006

By	Deborah Zakar - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I absolutely love using this cookbook. I use one of the recipes weekly, for Shabbos Challah and, I have also made Rosh Hashana sweet Challah from this cookbook. I have also made other side dishes from this book and everything comes out delicious, with good reviews from my guests! I highly recommend it for any Kosher home.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book for newbies, experts, historians, and foodies, March 28, 2007

By	WordGirl (California, USA) - See all my reviews

Jewish Holiday Kitchen is/was my favorite Jewish cookbook to use and to give, and this is the revised version. I don't know if it has all of her recipes from the first, plus some from her baking book, or if some from Kitchen have been left out. Unless you are looking for specific recipes from the first book (see below) this new one is a safe bet.
Great Gift: the descriptions of holidays include both the basic (for those without much Jewish education), and the deep, fascinating details of traditions unique to regions, history, etc.
Great recipes for the basics: yes, Holiday Kitchen had the best cookie dough hamentaschen of dozens tried, challah, and more. The hamentasch recipe is different from the one in her Holiday Baking, and in her Kids Jewish cooking. I don't know which made it into this revised version.
Great recipes for foodies: I've eaten my way across Morocco and tried dozens upon dozens of recipes for bastilla, the fillo pie from Morocco often filled with pigeon and dusted with powdered sugar. Her version, with chicken, is absolutely positively the best. Her potato kugelettes are another favorite; they are an elegant, simple, delicious addition to Passover, Hanukah, or any meal you want to look special.