The New Jewish Holiday Cookbook [Hardcover]

Gloria Kaufer Greene (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 7, 1999

In this second edition of her popular classic, celebrated food editor Gloria Kaufer Greene masterfully combines the delicious foods, the rich traditions, and the interesting histories that are essential components of every Jewish holiday in one cookbook. Readers will learn not only how to make a delicious Passover Seder, but why each dish is prepared for this annual celebration, and where these recipes originated. The 260-plus recipes vary from classic Jewish favorites to brand new discoveries with international flair. The New Jewish Holiday Cookbook is a wonderful resource for chefs, whether they are preparing their very first Hanukkah feast or putting the finishing touches on the weekly Sabbath dinner.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Jewish cookbooks have become a rapidly burgeoning category. Appearing at the beginning of the annual cycle that starts with Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, three of these four new titles focus on Jewish holidays and holy days, while Friedland's concentrates just on the Sabbath. Greene's book, a revision of her 1985 title, is by far the most ambitious of the group, with more than 250 recipes (80 or so entirely new, the others thoroughly revised) for all the major holidays and some minor ones, and including Israel's Independence Day as well as religious celebrations. A cooking teacher and the longtime food editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, Greene also offers extensive background on each holiday, and her diverse recipes are from all around the globe. Highly recommended. Recently, a growing number of Jews have found themselves returning to their religious roots and observances they have let lapse, making Friedland's book on celebrating the Sabbath particularly timely. A cookbook editor and author of The Passover Cookbook, Friedland presents 175 recipes for the three meals of Shabbat (Friday dinner, Saturday lunch, and the "third meal," marking the end of the Sabbath later on Saturday). Like Greene's, her recipes are international in scope, reflecting both the Ashkenazic and Sephardic heritages, and her text is readable and informative. Recommended for most collections. Brownstein, the former art director of Good Housekeeping and House Beautiful, offers a lavishly illustrated crafts book with recipes and ideas for the holidays. For each holiday, there is a menu, several crafts projects, and decorating suggestions. Brownstein's approach will not be to everyone's taste (the three sukkahs for Sukkot, for example, include a "fantasy" Penthouse Sukkah, "high-tech and sleek," but the minimatzo vases for the Passover seder are pretty cute). For larger collections. Rubin seems like a nice woman, but would her cookbooks have been published if she weren't actor/singer Mandy Patinkin's mother? Her second book, which opens with "testimonials" from grandchildren and other family members, includes recipes for Thanksgiving, a bridal luncheon, and a barbecue as well as for four major Jewish holidays. The recipes are simple, and many of them rely on convenience foods; some have little to do with traditional Jewish holiday cooking (the buffet menu includes Mexicali Layered Dip and two shellfish dishes). Only for collections where Rubin's Grandma Doralee Patinkin's Jewish Family Cookbook is popular.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Holidays are the anchor points for Jewish life. They illustrate the ancient Hebrew stories, offering specific lessons about Jewish history, new learning for the young, and recollection for the old. Greene has expanded her earlier cookbook for Jewish holidays, adding new recipes that reflect even more holiday traditions. Starting with the chief and weekly holiday, Sabbath, Greene offers tasty recipes that occasionally draw on ingredients outside traditional ones. Her cornbread uses both cornmeal and canned creamed corn, thus employing two forms of a grain not usually associated with historic Jewish cuisine. Other recipes, such as an Israeli potato-and-ground-beef casserole, seem ordinary and unthreatening even to non-Jewish cooks. Greene labels each recipe as "meat," "dairy," or "pareve" so that readers may determine instantly how the recipe correlates with dietary laws. Recommended for public libraries serving Jewish populations. Mark Knoblauch

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter; Revised edition (September 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812929772
• ISBN-13: 978-0812929775
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #616,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the only Jewish cookbook you'll ever need!, December 21, 1999

By 

Terri Mayers (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Jewish Holiday Cookbook (Hardcover)

Gloria Kaufer Greene has really outdone herself with her New Jewish Holiday Cookbook. Not only do I love the kosher recipes, but I love the way Ms. Greene explains the significance of the particular food to each holiday. Not being a gourmet cook myself, I have found the recipes to be easy to follow and wonderful to eat! This book has allowed me the joy of creating epicurian holiday traditions with my family and friends. It is the only Jewish cookbook that I need (and want) in my kitchen!

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Jews and Non-Jews alike, January 19, 2000

By 

pam d. "pam d." (NePA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The New Jewish Holiday Cookbook (Hardcover)

I know from my name you wouldn't know that I was Jewish, but that is because my husband is not. I had to tell, that my mother-in-law picked up your book and started skimming while we were Kitchen Kibbutzin' and decided it helped her understand the holidays and customs better than anything else. She HAD to have a copy, so we got her one as (of all things)a Christmas gift! She absolutely loves it. She says that it is so easy to read and the recipees are easy to follow! She can't wait to treat me and the gang to some of the goodies she discovered from your book. She said that it isn't just a cookbook. It is her special reference book that helps us celebrate and rejoice in the Jewish customs/traditions together.

As for me.... well let's just say that I never put it away! It is a staple in my kitchen as important to me as salt and pepper! That is why it happenned to be out on the table for my MIL to discover! LOVE IT!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of a very spiritual breed of cookbook. Buy It., January 9, 2006

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The New Jewish Holiday Cookbook (Hardcover)

`The New Jewish Holiday Cookbook' by Gloria Kauler Greene and `The Essential Book of Jewish Festival Cooking' by Phyllis Glazer and Miryam Glazer are two leading representatives of a great cookbook subgenre which may be unique among all cookbook flavors in that they represent that extraordinary relation between Judaism and food. Like the exceptional `Jewish Holiday Cookbook' by Joan Nathan and unlike the encyclopedic `New York Times Cookbook of Jewish Recipes', both books spend much space and words on the practice of kashrut or keeping kosher. But this is not the whole story. There are numerous Jewish culinary traditions which are not directly related to kashrut, such as the traditions surrounding the number of challah loaves baked for the Shabbat or the number of bumps on the challah loaves (The magic number here is 12, representing the 12 tribes of Israel, so the tradition is to have 12 loaves. More practical is the tradition to have two loaves each with 6 bumps created by the braiding of the bread before baking.)

There is one major difference among these three books which is evident in their titles. Ms. Glazer's book deals with `festival' cooking while Nathan and Greene deal with `Holiday' cooking. The subtle difference here is that the festival book does not cover Shabbat and the two `holiday' books do.

To a non-Jew, my guess is that since there are 52 shabbats in a year, while there are at most seven or eight major `festivals', it is much more important to have a book covering Shabbat as well as the yearly holidays. Between Greene and the Glazers, I find at least one other big difference in that Ms. Greene gives far more coverage to the creation of challah, which may be the single most important Jewish holiday recipe in any of these books, as it seems to be the one food which tradition calls for at every Shabbat. In fact, even though Joan Nathan's book combines two books, one of which is on Jewish holiday baking, Ms. Greene's treatment of challah, at least in the details she give for braiding several different numbers of dough strands is the most extensive. Among the recipes from the three books, the amateur bread baker in me prefers Ms. Nathan's recipe, as it uses the least (1 packet) yeast and calls for the longest raising time. She (and Ms. Greene) also use my preferred `active dry yeast' rather than the `rapid rise' yeast.

All three books deal in depth with Jewish holiday traditions, although Ms. Glazer and Ms. Greene seem to have better rabbinical sources and seem to be more dedicated to the details of the traditions. Of the three, Ms. Greene seems to touch me more effectively in her discussion of these traditions than the other two.

All three writers are primarily from the Ashkenazy tradition, although all three also give fair treatment to Sephardic dishes and menus. If you are really interested in Sephardic menus primarily, Ms. Nathan spends much of her space on Sephardic menus.

If you are willing to take a recommendation from a goyem, I recommend Ms. Greene's book most highly, followed by Ms. Nathan's book for her many baking recipes; however, all three are quality books.