Kosher Creole Cookbook [Hardcover]

Mildred Covert (Author), Sylvia Gerson (Author), Rabbi Jonah Gewirtz (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 1989

Blend a dash of Kosher with a pinch of Creole and you have the Kosher Creole Cookbook . The authors have combined two famous culinary traditions: the Creole-a blend of certain aspects of French, Spanish, African, and American cooking-and the Jewish, dating from biblical times. Those who keep Kosher can now savor the Creole cuisine for which New Orleans is famous. Imaginative substitutes that unite to create authentic Creole flavor serve to replace ingredients that are in conflict with the laws of Kashruth. Arranged by month, the recipes highlight feasts and festivals in the Jewish calendar or in the city of New Orleans. Each chapter is also introduced by fascinating sketches about the history, traditions, and culture of the Crescent City. Jewish Week calls this volume "one of the most unusual cookbooks" seen in recent years. Kosher Creole Cookbook "combines two cuisines which would seem to have no business being together-kosher cooking with Creole cooking. This is a delightful and unusual addition to your collection of cookbooks." Mildred L. Covert and Sylvia P. Gerson have carefully researched and created recipes that adapt the characteristic flavors of each cuisine, whether it's Creole, Cajun, or Southern, to ensure that the traditional can keep Kosher without giving up flavor. The two New Orleanians have written three other Kosher cookbooks: Kosher Cajun Cookbook , Kosher Southern-Style Cookbook , and A Kid's Kosher Cooking Cruise (pb), all published by Pelican.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mildred L. Covert has served as president and board member of Congregation Beth Israel Sisterhood, as a board member of the New Orleans Chapter of Hadassah, and as vice president of education at the Beth Israel Hebrew School.

The late Sylvia P. Gerson served as president of the Congregation Beth Israel Sisterhood, was a member of the national board of the American Association for Ethiopian Jews, and was a founder and board member of Willow Wood at Woldenberg Village in New Orleans.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Pelican Publishing (March 2, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882897756
• ISBN-13: 978-0882897752
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,628,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One disappointed New Orleanian Jew, January 18, 2010

By 

Ima "Z." (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kosher Creole Cookbook (Hardcover)

I just ordered this book and was so excited to think that I would be able to finally learn to cook some of our food from home in a kosher manner (instead of just not partaking at all... most times). Really, I wanted it so I could get an idea of what was being suggested int his book and then remove the meat ingredients since I am vegetarian now... At any rate, the blurb about it having little interesting facts about the city was, I thought, a nice added bonus. Unfortunately, they either made my skin crawl or made my face burn with anger. These ladies may know how to make a recipe kosher (I haven't actually tried a recipe yet) but their history is a bit more than questionable and saying that the book was written in the early eighties & then revised in the late eighties... I wonder why the term "Negro" is used like it's 1949 or something. I would like to note that 1)Africans were in Louisiana BEFORE the Louisiana Purchase and the Creole culture is based on the mixture of the original French settlers & their slaves. 2)It was not, as the authors' insinuate in their incorrect time line, a flow of European with a splash of African in the end in "American" kitchens" as slaves... MADDENING! 3)Also, there were freedmen before the reconstruction era and they weren't playing music on the street to make a buck. And 4) Okra is not originally from Acadiana. It IS FROM AFRICA. i mean, really.

Did they look up anything or just assume that they were all knowing. How could they have lived in Louisiana that long and not known some of these things? Do they live in a cave? Their synagogue is on Canal Blvd, for goodness sake! Drive up the street and talk to someone at the French Market and learn something about your adopted home! they are just making up some crap. I found this book really offensive, not just because I am a Jewish, Creole, Native New Orleanian, but because if anyone should know about having respect for someone else's culture it should be a Jewish person (who has had so many people misrepresent their cultures and history and customs over the past 900 years or so).

I think I am more sad to have found such a book than to not have found one at all (which is what I was afraid of happening). Perhaps the recipes are good but the twisted and inaccurate cultural blurbs along with the billion times you see the word "Negro" made me dislike the authors (however much one can dislike a person for writing offensive *explicative*), but also not give my money to people who didn't take the time to research their subject to actually produce a great cookbook and vignette on Louisiana which should have been one more drop in the inspiration to live Kosher wherever you are and in whatever cooking style you choose. Instead, it just kind of hurt my little heart.

If you want to buy it, go for it. The recipes look like they are good but don't read the two pages introductions for each month. you may never want to pick it up again (like me)... or pitch it just on GP.

5.0 out of 5 stars looks great to me, November 3, 2011

By 

MichelleC (Washington) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kosher Creole Cookbook (Hardcover)

The recipes look yummy and I can't wait to try some of them. I purchased all three books and I'm very happy with them. I'm Native American, Scot-Irish, Creole, and Black and I found nothing offensive in any of these books. I'm sorry I listened to another review and delayed ordering these.