Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South [Paperback]

Marcie Cohen Ferris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 2010

From the colonial era to the present, Marcie Cohen Ferris examines the expressive power of food throughout southern Jewish history. She demonstrates with delight and detail how southern Jews reinvented culinary traditions as they adapted to the customs, landscape, and racial codes of the American South. Richly illustrated, this culinary tour of the historic Jewish South is an evocative mixture of history and foodways, including more than thirty recipes to try at home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Many traditional Southern foods—pulled-pork barbecue, crab cakes, fried oyster po' boys, to name a few—violate traditional Jewish dietary laws, which forbid the consumption of pork and shellfish. What's a Southern Jew to do? Anthropological historian Ferris (UNC–Chapel Hill) answers that question in a gustatory tour of the Jewish South. She uncovers many dishes that blend Jewish and Southern foodways (recipes included for such tasties as Temple Israel Brisket and Cornmeal-Fried Fish Fillets with Sephardic Vinagre Sauce). Ferris sees food as a symbol that encompasses the problem of how Jews live in a region dominated by Christians: "The most tangible way to understand Jewish history and culture in the South is at the dinner table." Cynics will wonder if a Jewish kugel (noodle casserole) prepared in the South is really any different from kugel in Chicago. Ferris's answer is an emphatic yes—because Jews in the South face different challenges than those in Chicago. Southern Jews must be more intentional about cooking that kugel and passing the recipe down from generation to generation. If this book were a restaurant, Michelin would award it two out of three stars: not absolutely first-rate, but "excellent cooking, worth a detour." (Oct.)
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Review

"Marcie Cohen Ferris's Matzoh Ball Gumbo is the definitive study on Jewish cooking in the American South, taking the reader on a fascinating journey to dinner tables throughout the Mississippi Delta, Charleston, and beyond. Over four centuries, southern and Jewish cultures have mingled, resulting in Pecan Kugel and Pesach Fried Green Tomatoes. A delicious and sometimes poignant world emerges, complete with the history, stories, and recipes from this unique cultural cross-section of southern Jews."
-Joan Nathan, author of Jewish Cooking in America

"A bountiful feast brimming with well-researched history, loving memories, and unique recipes. This is the perfect introduction to the distinctive faith, culture, and foodways of southern Jews."
-Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University, author of American Judaism: A History

"Delectable, from start to finish. Marcie Cohen Ferris does for the ethnography of food in the Jewish South what Jessica Harris has done for African Diaspora cooking. Matzoh Ball Gumbo tells the story of how Jews who settled south of the Mason Dixon line adjusted their eating habits to their new surroundings and created a unique creole cuisine. At the heart of the story is a paradox: how can there be such a thing as southern Jewish cooking when the laws of kashrut, governing what foods Jews may or may not eat, forbid such staples of southern kitchens as pork, shrimp, oysters, and crab? When you've tried Baked Redfish in Creole Court Bouillon you'll know."
-Dale Rosengarten, curator, Special Collections, College of Charleston, and coeditor of A Portion of the People: Three Hundred Years of Southern Jewish Life

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Product Details

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (August 26, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807871230
• ISBN-13: 978-0807871232
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Read and a Surprise, April 18, 2006

By 

I. King "Renie" (Las Vegas, NV) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South (Hardcover)

I expected a cookbook (which is why it's 4 stars instead of 5, and that's the *only* reason), but got a history book instead.

It's an amazing book. My grandmother worked for Jewish families in the 50s and 60s and I remember accompanying her to their homes when I was a youngster visiting her in NC. There is a certain nostalgia there as the Jewish people always treated her with respect and dignity. All the while they were walking their own precarious tightrope between the gentiles and the black people.

I also found something more while poring over the pages of this book and that is a link to my family's own Jewish past. I have the utmost respect for the amount of research done by Marcie Ferris. It was a herculean task!

Oh. And the recipes (the few) are pretty terrific.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nine-tenths Jewish American history, one-tenth cookbook, November 6, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South (Hardcover)

Nine-tenths Jewish American history, one-tenth cookbook, Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales Of The Jewish South combines tales of growing up and growing old in a Southern Jewish family with vintage black-and-white photographs and mouth-watering recipes. Delights such as Camp Blue Star Claremont Salad, Mimah's Cheesecake, Caper Sauce Fish and more supplement this lengthy and engaging history with a homestyle perspective. Exhaustive research and an index for quick and easy topic or recipe lookup round out this leisurely reading delight.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of research, not many insights, March 11, 2008

By 

Jonathan Groner (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South (Hardcover)

This was a wonderful topic for a book -- how Southernness and Jewishness came together in the Jewish kitchen. Cohen Ferris, herself a Jewish woman from a small town in Arkansas, has done exhaustive research, no doubt a labor of love, and has perpetuated many people's memories.

The problem with the book is that it is quite repetitious. Ferris Cohen correctly points out that the culture and history of Atlanta, New Orleans, the Mississippi Delta, and so on are all distinct from each other. Then, however, she spends much of her time recounting menus of long-ago occasions and concluding, over and over again, that the balance between kosher and non-kosher food and between European and American Southern delicacies was important and hard to navigate, because food is so important in daily life.

It is not so much a question of Ferris Cohen's writing style but of the fact that she seemed compelled to put on paper all of the results of her painstaking interviews. Perhaps a more insightful historian could have made more of Ferris Cohen's material, but this book just seemed too long.