Talk:Jewish cuisine/Archive 1

Archive 1

Sources

I was looking at this article's sources, and it seems to all come from the 1901-1906 edition of the Jewish Encyclopedia. It reads that way, too! Someone with more knowledge then me should have a go at editing this article a lot. RoseRose16 08:46, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

The history section is almost verbatim from the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1901-1906 (now in the public domain). Two isues with this:

1. It should be properly referenced - all the biblical refrences and some of the books cited in German are the source material for the Jewish Encyclopedia article and should not be referenced as the primary sources here
2. The information needs to be checked, updated and rewritten in 21st century English

I'll do #1 and try work on #2 at some time in the future.

See Chef Christopher Tanner's comment in discussion item "need some help here" below also Chefallen (talk) 02:57, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

Essig Fleisch

I edited out the addition of "fish-cake, as an ingredient of Essig fliesch-this is impossibe as mixing of fish and meat was not done by any Ashkenazim —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.164.17.166 (talk) 00:41, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Kugel

I don't know what sources were used, but kugel ALWAYS refers to a baked dish. Originally it was baked inside the cholent (stew) and then was baked in a separate dish.

I can only assume the section on food preperation for Shabbat is hopelessly out of date, since I have never heard cholent called "kugel," or kugel called "cholent." Perhaps it was true historically, but certainly not today. If someone knows the history, they should properly fix up that section. --Eliyak 20:09, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

Sefrina and Dafina

In south Africa, a cholent style dish called sefrina or dafina is made for Shabbat.

Bad English

This article is poorly written (it reads like it was written by a non-native English speaker), rather unorganized, and often quite confusing. I hope it will be revised by someone with a better grasp of Jewish cuisine and the English language. Fishanthrope 02:18, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make whatever changes you feel are needed. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in! (Although there are some [[Wikip include several German books from the late 19th Century.

I will not attempt to improve this article myself since I know almost nothing about the subject. TomH 00:11, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

The worst of the stilted language is in th long, boring History section, which reads like a chunk of somebody's dissertation. It's beyond me to revise it at this point. In any case, I think perhaps it ought to be a separate article. I moved it to the end, which may help slightly. I also wonder whether the lists of foods should be separated from the main article somehow.

Pumpkin Soup

Does pumpkin soup really belong on the list?

No. It's gone now. Jayjg ^(talk) 21:25, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

By region?

Does anyone who knows about Yemienite Jewish cuisine comment? Also, I noticed that many israeli foods are not on the list, like falafel...

Foods like falafel are more general middle eastern cuisine, it's not strictly Jewish, so I wouldn't say it belongs here. -- Experimental Hobo Infiltration Droid (talk) 16:13, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

The following "The idea of frying fish in the stereotypically British fish and chips, for example, was introduced to Britain by Sephardic Jewish immigrants." is incorrect. I believe that fried fish was Ashkenazi and the Sephardi considered Ashkenazi cuisine to be low and cheap. It was an Ashkenzazi family, The Isaacs family that are credited with creating the first fish and chip shop, using Ashkenazi cuisine. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.168.112.254 (talk) 03:25, 19 January 2014 (UTC)

hamantaschen

Does anyone know why people think haman wore a three cornered hat, and why the cookies are considered his hat if (i might be wrong, i do not know much yiddish)the word Tash is an ear, not a hat? I just am confused by the explanation that the cookies represent haman's hat when the cookies are called haman's ear...clarify please anyone??

It's just a joke. As are most things on Purim. And you are correct that it's an ear, I think in america they "decided" it was a hat so that you are not eating "Hamans ear" (which doesn't sound good in english, but sounds fine in yiddish). And in Israel three sided hats are, if not commonly worn, at least sung about - there is a popular childrens song about one.

(Lakovah sheli shalosh pinot, shalosh pinot lakovah sheli, ve iloo hayoo lo shalosh pinot lo haya ze hakovah sheli.)

(My hat has three corners, three corners to my hat, and if it didn't have three corners, it would not be my hat.)

71.199.123.24

Tash is actually a pocket in Yiddish. The Hebrew term, Oznei Haman, means Haman's ears. Nothing about a hat. I don't really know where it originates. Did his hat look like a Colonial American tri-cornered hat? Valley2city 08:06, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

It may come from Mohn-tachen a German pastry (poppy-seed pockets). There’s an article about the origins https://seforimblog.com/2008/03/origins-of-hamentashen-in-jewis/

Tricorn hats were popular amoung gentlemen in the 16th and 17th centuries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Samscribe (talk • contribs) 08:00, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

cheapness??

This article needs definite revision. It said that Jews use beef fat because of its cheapness, which is obviousley a terrible sterotype and totally not true. I removed that line because it is anti-semitic.

Also, the article mentions Jewish communities in Eastern and Central Europe in the present tense that sadly no longer exist. It needs to be thoroughly rewritten.

Much more is needed

The content of this article needs a lot of work. It mostly includes discussion of a few dishes from Ashkenazi cuisine. The cuisines of Sephardic, middle-eastern and Israeli cultures should also be incorporated. It would be especially interesting to have an article that compares similar versions of dishes as they appear in different regions. Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food would be a good starting point as a reference. Unfortunately, I am not able to write a revision myself, but I know enough to see that this article is misleading due to the narrow focus and significant gaps in content. (I have a related concern that Jewish cuisine is not included in the listing of "Middle Eastern Cuisines" in the Cuisine article.) WDM 17:37, 6 September 2006 (UTC)WDM

Snakes?

The article currently says Certain foods, such as such as pork, octopus, and snakes are forbidden. Well, that's true, but are those the three best examples we can think of? I'm not aware of snake being commonly eaten among non-Jews in the countries where most Jews live currently or in the countries where most readers of the English Wikipedia live. (Some places, yes.) Wouldn't shrimp or lobster be a better example than snake? --Metropolitan90 05:29, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Grapes as ritual food?

I know I'm not the frumiest of the frum, but what ritual are grapes involved in? I edited the short list of common ritual foods from "grapes, wine and matzoh" to " wine and bread (both leavened and unleavened)." This is more accurate, no?

Adam Holland 17:43, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Ancient Food/Dishes?

If anyone has any archeological info. foods eaten by the ancient Israelite please submit it. I think a section on this should be included for historic reasons.

Bill Leher (Feb 4, 2007) —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 74.98.128.230 (talk) 02:58, 5 February 2007 (UTC).

I think the historic material should go in a separate article. (This one is getting more bloated than I do on yontif.) --RandomHumanoid 16:14, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Chraine

I didn't see Chraine listed in the food list. I hate the stuff but nevertheless it should be added Canking 17:31, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I have already added it, but you could have just put it in too! (And I love the stuff. Have you ever tried homemade? :) --RandomHumanoid 16:11, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

sabbath meal

A typical Sabbath meal is chicken, mashed potatoes...and borscht?? What kind of loony generalization is that? This page needs major revision. --Gilabrand 15:06, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

poorly organized

This article is poorly organized and needs a new layout. I am not an expert at moving large sections of text around, but if someone can do it, I think the long lists of food at the beginning should be moved to the bottom of the page (unless there is some other solution)--Gilabrand 06:43, 30 May 2007 (UTC).

I agree, this article is something of a mess. It is heavily biased toward ashkenazi foods and refers to a second article for sephardi specialties. (That doesn't seem fair.) It also is confusing with respect to particular yom tov foods and issues, such as kitniyos, matzah (there are many different types of matzah -- don't just mean shmura matzah here), gebrokts, etc., and tries to compile a mishmash of issues into a single article, e.g. how families break the yom kippur fast. (I don't know anyone who has "tea and cake" first.) The article is also quite repetitive. It needs a fair amount of work to improve. Probably a complete minimalist rewrite wouldn't hurt. --RandomHumanoid 06:32, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Hear, hear! I agree - but would quibble on your assumption that the tea & cake is wrong. This is a very common way of breaking the fast in Israel (I know lots of people who do this), because many women also spend the day in shul, so when they get home in the evening, they first have to warm up or prepare the food, especially those who serve entire meat meals (where I come from we always had dairy after the fast - and my mother hired a maid to set up before we got home from shul).--Gilabrand 07:33, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Well, chulz l’aretz, I've never seen tea & cake, but I guess that's just one more downside to living in golus. :) Yasher koach on all the reorganizing! I look forward to seeing the finished product. --RandomHumanoid 07:57, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

User:Gilabrand is doing a beautiful job organizing things. I have a few remaining concerns. This is generally the frum or Israeli perspective, e.g., most American families don't use shmura matzah at the seder. (In fact, most American families likely wouldn't even know what it is.) Also, I'm going to suggest separating the discussion of historical (Biblical and Talmudic) periods into a separate article. That has little relevance to what people eat today. Also, while I love that you cite gemorahs, many people will have no idea what these citations mean. This should be explained somewhere. Additionally, this is still Ashkenazi focused. That could be helped by adding in traditional Moroccan, Yemeni, etc., foods to the list; while my Sephardi friends many know what cholent is, it certainly wouldn't occur to them that one might eat knedlach or kishke. Finally, someone might want to cover the historic, economic reasons that so much Ashkenzi food is focused around organ meats. They were less expensive and finer cuts of meat (e.g., steak) were well out of the average budget, even for Shabbos. --RandomHumanoid 14:45, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, Humanoid. It's Shabbat in a couple of minutes so I will be logging off. The stuff I have done today is only organizational, to get the article in some reasonable shape for proper edting, rewriting and adding information. There is a "stub" (if you want to call it that) related to "Sephardic" cuisine that is a real mess - I added something to it today - but if there is anything worthy there (which I am not sure about), it could be incorporated in this article to balance out the Ashkenazi slant. Shabbat shalom--Gilabrand 15:58, 8 June 2007 (UTC).

Need some help here

I went through and properly linked the citations into a "notes" section, however many of these citations are written improperly with many abbreviations and sometimes they just don't make any sense at all. As well, any of these books, including the Bible which is cited numerous times should be listed under references and many are not. In addition, the section that I moved all of the history information into reads completely of original research as much of it is cited from the Bible and not secondary sources which is against Wikipedia policy Wikipedia:No original research. As I wouldn't want to lose some of this information I was hoping someone had some secondary sources that can back up this information.--Chef Christopher Allen Tanner, CCC 20:49, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Part of the problem, as I see it, is that a lot of these references simply don't seem to be widely available any more. A few of them can be found through Amazon, but apart from Montefiore and Kreisler-Greenbaum I don't know if any of them are available as ebooks (which I would say is the most practical form for our purposes, which is why I added them). Roden is still in print (I have a copy), and the Jewish Encyclopedia is available in ebook form but horribly outdated (much of the article comes from there, and the fact is that most of the culture it describes simply doesn't exist anymore because of WWII), making the article itself horribly outdated. Even worse for our purposes is that the bulk of information available in the United States is slanted almost exclusively towards Ashkenazic cooking, which brings up issues of WP:BIAS -- as far as currently-in-print authors go, I would suggest Joyce Goldstein and Edda Servi Machlin, but they don't begin to cover everything. (I would like to suggest Jeff Smith's The Frugal Gourmet Keeps The Feast regarding Biblical foods, but as well-intentioned as it was, I can't, as Smith's historical research was often very Christian-biased and faulty.)

The organizational issues are nontrivial as well, but my strong point is research, not layout. A thing to keep in mind is that Roden's book contains 800 recipes and only scratches the surface of Jewish cuisine -- there's an incredibly large amount of information just on the basics of the subject, and it may be a very tough reorg. Haikupoet 17:06, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

My biggest problem with the article however is not getting current academic information as I know I can pretty easily get a hold of that. My issue is with the "History" section as it seems to be written in a primary source documented manner as the citations mention books of the Bible often, unless this was interpretation from the Jewish Encyclopedia, and if that is the fact then that book should be citied, not the Bible because as is now the entire section violates the no original research policy and might need to be deleted in favor of rewriting it completely as there is also much POV in there as well.--Chef Christopher Allen Tanner, CCC 19:12, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

"Corn"

It says ancient Hebrews ate a paste made of corn and other ingredients. How did they get corn back then? It is cited but it can't be right. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.243.144.178 (talk) 00:46, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

Corn in this context is a general term for grain. What is more specifically refered to as maize got it's common name when the term "Indian corn" (ie "Indian grain") was abbreviated.

Peter ^Isotalo 04:42, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Almost, but not quite. Originally, corn meant the same as the German word Korn, any kind of grain requiring grinding, e.g. wheat, rye, barley etc. It still has this meaning in Britain, as maize does not grow properly that far north (it's a length of day thing, not climate). P.M.Lawrence 203.194.50.250 (talk) 09:10, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Expansion of Holiday Cuisine sections?

Pretty much all the "holiday cuisine" sections are quite short and in bullet forms, excluding Passover. I'm sure they can be expanded, I'm just not exactly sure how to do it. Surely there must be some traditional food particularly for Sukkot, for example? Right now it only mentions meals eaten in the sukkah. The same things could be said for Yom Kippur.

Perspective badly needed

This is a fascinating subject (I know a little about it) but still a pretty terrible article. One of the things it needs is rewriting with a non-Jewish readership in mind, because right now it takes a fair acquaintance with Jewish traditions and culture for granted: for example, the text of the section on Kashrut never explains or even refers to the word itself, or the fact that it's the noun equivalent of the adjective 'kosher', let alone telling anything about the history of the concept or its possible origins. It just sets out the laws of Kashrut as if for the benefit of someone who intended to follow them, which I'm guessing will not be the intention of the average curious reader. Likewise, the coverage is far too biased in favour of Ashkenazi cuisine. In Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food, one of the greatest books on this subject, the section on Sephardic cuisine is about twice as long as the section on Ashkenazi cuisine. Sephardic cuisine is more complex, more diverse and more varied than Ashkenazi, owing to being spread over a far wider geographical area (I'm not saying it's better, just that there are a lot more recipes). The article should reflect this. Lexo (talk) 12:59, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

[following by Emmesdike Yid in Jerusalem, motzaie Shabbos tes zayin Av, yud shin samech ches] If the above poster is correct that non-Jewish readership is important then we should note that the transliteration borders on the useless. I tried to fix it but broke a couple of links- this is an extensive job.

There are problems using English "H" as an equivalent for Hebrew "ches" because you have to know that Hebrew "hey" and "ches" are two completely different letters with completely different sounds and people who don't know Hebrew already can't use the transliteration, which is the whole point. If you don't agree, then tell me how to say food and tent in Hebrew. Ochel and ohel works, if you use "ch" for "ches" and "h" for "hey". Otherwise you get ohel and ohel. That's not helpful. It gets more complicated when you try to transliterate Yiddish, which does have the Hebrew gutteral "ches" and the English "ch" like in chocolate. Now what do you do for cholent? If this article is to be useful, first we have to come up with a coherent transliteration scheme. I propose breaking this into two sections, with different transliterating alphabets for Ashkenazi and Sefardi pronunciations. Of course that doesn't cover everything (the Temamim (Yemenites) are not either) but it would be a good start.

The other thing that's not helpful is mention of Arab cuisines. I know, irreligious Jews are ashamed of their heritage and are always seeking to assimilate with everything around them, but since this is supposed to be about JEWISH cuisine, let's not mention other cuisines. I'm sure the Arabs don't make comparisons to Jewish cuisine on their wiki pages. Maybe I'm wrong... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.69.104.169 (talk) 20:53, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Delicatessen?

I see the Hebrew National link has been removed. Makes sense, since there was no mention of that kind of food in the article. HOWEVER. For a large number of non-jews, the stereotypical kosher deli is the only exposure to "jewish cuisine." There's no mention here of it, or of why that kind of food became associated with Jews (preserved meat, eastern-european recipes adapted to kashrut, knishes and pickles, the diaspora and immigration, etc.). This needs a section. FiveRings (talk) 15:56, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

Sabbath and Holiday Dishes

This section is listed at the end of the article. However, all these meals are related to Biblically mandated observances (halakhic), which is chronologically correctly presented at the start of the article. Hence I moved the section there, particularly since variations on the observance meals in chronologically much later developed diaspora communities listed elsewhere (Ashkenazi, Sephardi, etc.) are derived from these mandated meals, so a reader needs to see the holiday-related information before the diaspora-related content. I'm sorry if the edit comment was not sufficiently explicit. Koakhtzvigad (talk) 05:22, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

Now I understand what you mean. I think we need to deal with two separate but related items: one is the overview of the history of Jewish cuisine and the second is the description of specific foods and dishes served on Shabbat and holidays. I agree with your basic point, and I know that there are sources that describe the connection of food from the Biblical and Talmudic periods to food customs and practices still observed today. However, I think that should be added to the history section under the relevant period, without going into a detailed decription of the food. (I'll look for some examples of this and provide later). The Sabbath an Holiday Dishes section should be where details of these dishes are provided (as they exist today). -- Chefallen (talk) 17:41, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

And I think we could use a section under the Influences on Jewish Cuisine heading to note that Sabbath and Holiday practices had a significant and similar influence on the cuisine of all Jewish communities, whether Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, etc., for example, that to have hot foods for Sabbath lunch, even though cooking is forbidden, Jewish communities all developed very slow-cooking dishes with some combination of grains, legumes, vegetables and/or meat, and had different names for them (Cholent, Hamin, Dfina, etc.) but essentially they are the same dish, with minor variations, all developed for the same reason. Chefallen (talk) 17:52, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

Hmmm, ok, lets see.

A)the overview of the history of Jewish cuisine

B)the description of specific foods and dishes served on Shabbat and holidays

It seems to me that first one has to define what is Jewish cuisine because the List of Jewish cuisine dishes mentions only two foods that is actually uniquely "Jewish".

The reason for confusion is because the article intro states

Jewish Cuisine is a collection of cooking traditions of the Jewish people. It is a diverse cuisine that has evolved over many centuries, shaped by Jewish dietary laws (kashrut) and Jewish Festival and Shabbat traditions. Jewish cooking has also been influenced by the economics, agriculture, and culinary traditions of the many countries where Jewish communities have existed since Late Antiquity. Kashrut and holiday traditions provide unifying elements in the cuisine, while geographic dispersion has led to a diversity of styles.

We therefore seemingly have three categories of foods:

• traditional
• obligatory (dietary laws/kashrut)
• event related

In fact the last category is also obligatory since the keeping of Shabbat and festivals is part of the same laws from which the kashrut is derived from, and are therefore not 'traditions' unless one wants to reflect a specific religious point of view that claims all of laws in the Torah are elective. I would suggest that this POV needs to be edited to reflect a wider view of Jewish treatment of foods.

Not covered by the article, but described in the Torah is the fourth type of Jewish cuisine, the Temple offerings, which were cooked and consumed either there, or sometimes within Jerusalem. For example in the challah article it only very briefly mentions that the word "challah" is of Biblical origin and refers to the portion of dough (not baked bread) set aside for the kohein. It has an entire tractate dedicated to it in the Jerusalem Talmud. In fact there are several Talmudic tractates dedicated to preparation of offerings, including their cooking and consumption.

So, in the order of priorities (sanctity), and historical occurrence we have:

• offerings
• special day meals
• every day meals.

What is termed 'traditional' are recipes that were developed in the Diaspora by various communities, often as variations on the recipes of the host cultures. They are not in any way "Jewish" in that they are not in any way answering the requirements of the three categories that are mandated and therefore defined as uniquely Jewish. Some recipes do have Jewish names in that they are either derived from Yiddish or Ladino speaking communities such as latkes. However, in my experience Jews the world over are happy to adopt any recipe as long as it can be made to satisfy the laws of kashrut, such as for example the kosher meat lasagna made without cheese. One can't claim Lasagna as Jewish until it was made in this way since so far as I know the only other people who may make such a recipe are those who are lactose intolerant. Even so, such a lasagne could not be served in the Temple, and probably not on Shavuot when there is a custom to eat dairy foods, or on Shabbat when the custom is to eat a stew (chollent/hamin) while it is a casserole. Nor is it going to be served on Pesakh due to the difficulty of finding suitable pastry.

In fact the list of Jewish cuisine dishes is extremely short. Even in Talmudic times it was said that the leader of the Talmudic sages, rabbi Yehudah HaNassi was so rich his table lacked nothing found on the table of the Roman Emperor he was friendly with. However, he did one day point out to the Emperor that the taste in foods was different because (alluding to the spiritual realm) his food was prepared for Shabbat, while the Emperor's was not.

I would therefore suggest that the article be edited to have a sub-section on Korbanot added in the Biblical section, followed by the special day meals, and the daily meal obligations.

The Talmudic section needs to be expanded because the Talmud is full of mentions of food which is not reflected in the article. It says for example that "Eggs were so commonly eaten that the quantity of an egg was used as a measure.", but olives were also used as a measure, and there is an entire tractate named "Egg"!

Everything listed in the Jewish cuisine variations section needs to be distributed among the three relevant sections, unless the recipe is unrelated in any way to them, in which case it can be relegated to the weekday meals.

The article outline would look something like this:

• 1 Biblical influences on Jewish Cuisine

• 1.1 Kashrut - Jewish dietary laws
  • 1.1.1 Food selection, preparation & consumption [derived from Talmud]
• 1.2 Laws of sacrifices
  • 1.2.1 Food selection, preparation & consumption [derived from Talmud]
• 1.3 Laws of Shabbat and festivals
  • 1.3.1 Food selection, preparation & consumption [derived from Talmud]
  • 1.3.1 Sabbath
  • 1.3.1.1 Structure of the meals
  • 1.3.1.2 Period and region variations
  • 1.3.2 Rosh Hashana
  • 1.3.2.1 Structure of the meals
  • 1.3.1.2 Period and region variations
  • 1.3.3 Before & after Yom Kippur
  • 1.3.3.1 Period and region variations
  • 1.3.4 Sukkot
  • 1.3.4.1 Structure of the meals
  • 1.3.4.2 Period and region variations
  • 1.3.5 Chanukah
  • 1.3.5.1 Period and region variations
  • 1.3.6 Tu b'Shvat
  • 1.3.6.1 Period and region variations
  • 1.3.7 Purim
  • 1.3.7.1 Period and region variations
  • 1.3.7 Passover
  • 1.3.8.1 Kashrut of Passover
  • 1.3.8.2 Passover Seder plate
  • 1.3.8.3 Structure of the meals
  • 1.3.8.4 Period and region variations
  • 1.3.9 Shavuot
  • 1.3.9.1 Structure of the meals
  • 1.3.9.2 Period and region variations
  • 1.3.10 Before & after Tisha B'Av
  • 1.3.10.1 Period and region variations
• 2 Weekday meals
  • 2.1 Modern influences

This is my suggestionKoakhtzvigad (talk) 02:42, 1 March 2011 (UTC)

Lead

Hello. Nobody in his or her right mind would claim that there is such a thing as "a collection of foods, and methods of their cooking and serving, that is unique to the Jews. Its uniqueness serves to ...", least of all David Kraemer. I have put the lead back to what it was before - with a little editing. The lemma is "Jewish Cuisine", not “Jewish Eating”, as Koakhtzvigad seems to think. The article is heavily Ashkenasi-biased and needs trimming. Ajnem (talk) 12:07, 19 May 2011 (UTC)

Misleading

Wondering how you say Jewish Cuisine?, a thing that a human can eat must be related to a region or a nation or maybe a race, but NOT a religion, so do you consider "Christian Cuisine" or "Islamic Cuisine" as right statements?. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.170.211.146 (talk) 14:40, 28 July 2012 (UTC)

Judaism is a religion that mandates certain dietary restrictions. Outside Israel, Jews are a minority group, defined partly but not exclusively by its practice of Judaism, that has maintained a separate identity and culture. Both factors result in a distinctive cuisine.

I don't know if there is a distinct Christian or Moslem cuisine, but why do you assume there couldn't be?DaveDaytona (talk) 20:38, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

Dubious

"for a year of many blessings (as many as there are seeds in a pomegranate). Also pomegranates are popular on this holiday because the number of seeds in the fruit—613—is the number of mitzvot[commandments] in the Torah." According to the Pomegranate page they have a variable number of seeds. Perhaps they were thought to have the same number? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Silversheep (talk • contribs) 01:54, 6 August 2012 (UTC)

Flour in Haroset?

The section "Middle Ages" states that "the well-known "ḥaroset" is made in those countries from a mixture of herbs, flour, and honey".

This can't possibly be right. Adding flour would render haroset (a passover dish) hametz (i.e., prohibited on passover). In fact, adding flour to haroset is specifically prohibited by the Mishna, Pesahim 2:7. Also, the references are confusing: the text says that this is "according to the Siddur Amram" (which actually should be Seder Amram), but the footnote appears to cite Halakhot Gedolot. DaveDaytona (talk) 21:03, 26 April 2015 (UTC)

Regional Influence of Jewish Cuisine

This is a pretty minor issue, but I want to get it cleared up. Over on the Turkish food article, there is an uncited assertion that Turkish cuisine borrowed from many cuisines, including Jewish cuisine. Now, I know about the influences Central Asian, Balkan and Greek cuisines on Turkish cuisine, but I have not been able to verify that Jewish cuisine has influenced Turkish cuisine. So, I added a citation needed, and I hopped over here to see if I could find more information. I have not been able to. Aside from an uncited sentence that "The Mizrahi Jewish cuisine has many unique dishes that were eaten by Jews in Iraq, Eastern Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran and Yemen." - I can't find any actual evidence to back up either the uniqueness or influence of these dishes in the context of Turkish Cuisine.

Does anyone have any evidence of either the uniqueness of these dishes or their influence on Turkish cuisine? Thanks Seraphimsystem (talk) 13:23, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

Israeli Food

Why is there one article for Jewish food and one article for Israeli food - can they be merged? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seraphimsystem (talk • contribs) 05:22, 24 March 2017 (UTC)

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— This is my first time commenting on wikipedia so I apologize if I'm doing this wrong! As an Ashkenazi Jew in Israel, this article is heavily Ashkenazi biased and goes into a lot of depth on Ashkenazi cuisine while not mentioning some of the most basic elements of Sepharadi or Mizrachi cuisine. The fact that there is no mention of the Mimouna feast is telling. While it's true that there is an external link to articles discussing those more in depth, it leads to the article being unbalanced and strongly biased. I would either remove a large portion of the elaboration on Ashkenazi into separate article as is done with the other cuisines, or go into more elaboration on those cuisines in this article.

I would also find it very interesting if someone could organize some of the way the same dishes are comparably localized to different communities, showing the similar roots of the dishes and the growth and variation within them. I have no real intellectual information on the matter beyond personal anecdotal references, but can someone contributee?

87.70.130.246 (talk) 07:25, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

There is an article Cuisine of the Mizrahi Jews that should probably be merged into this one. Also this article Israeli cuisine has a lot of problems, like why is only Jewish food "cooking style" highlighted, and from a time when there was no State of Israel? These sources are insufficient for a WP:REDFLAG topic. Seraphim System ^(talk) 10:06, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

Sorry, my point is the article Israeli cuisine is obviously about Jewish food so it should be merged with this arti le, the article for its history is Ottoman cuisine. How is it different from Jewish food? Palestinian cuisine has its own article also (rightly so, for now), so there is no meaningful difference here, and if hummuschipsalat needs to be mentioned, probably there is not enough here for a separate article ;) Seraphim System ^(talk) 10:17, 13 July 2017 (UTC)

Roni's Peer review

I like what you wrote about the Jew cuisine, about they types of foods eaten and how they are made and the significance of eating such food. Your article is clear,readable and understandable. However, the part where there are bulleted points for some of the foods in Jewish tradition, if you can explain more the significance of the food, as you did with the other types of foods mentioned. Other than that, the write up is good. Abigail Osunde.Abigail Osunde (talk) 00:28, 19 October 2018 (UTC)

German Concentration Camp Food

The article seems to leave out the food the Jews ate while in the German Concentration Camps, which is the dietary history of an important era for the Jews. 67.78.69.82 (talk) 04:18, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

Edits to the Talmudic era about the Roman influence on Pork

Hi everyone!

I'm planning on making additions under the Talmudic era section of how the Romans influenced the Jew's views on Pork, both as a symbol as well as a cuisine. This section does not mention how pork became such a symbol for Jews and Romans and how Jewish culinary customs were established during the integration with the Roman Empire. I will share how pigs were an animal that Romans would frequently sacrifice and how Jews formed a negative connotation with Pigs. I will also share how in the Talmudic era under the Romans, pork became an identifier of who was Jewish or who was Roman by who was eating pork. I think it is important to share that for Jews under Roman rule, not eating pork showed that they would not be controlled or forced to do something they did not want to do or fully submit to Roman rule and that this cuisine became a way of a silent protest.

I will be referencing Jordan D. Rosenblum's "Why Do You Refuse to Eat Pork? Jews, Food, and Identity in Roman Palestine". Rosenblum is a professor of Jewish Studies and has extensive research after receiving a Bachelors degree in Ancient Judaism and Religion, a Masters degree in Jewish Studies and Religious Studies, and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies. His article was published in The Jewish Quarterly Review in 2010.

If anyone wants to comment on these additions, please let me know on this Talk Page or my Talk Page.

Thanks, Carson Shevitz Carson54321 (talk) 08:32, 15 November 2018 (UTC)

Not exactly clear what you mean by the phrase "how pork became such a symbol for Jews and Romans". Also, please make sure your writing is free of errors (pork/pigs shouldn't be capitalized; and know the difference between Jews, Jew's, and Jews'). Also, the idea of refusing pork as a form of silent protest sounds more interpretative than factual.Chapmansh (talk) 18:31, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

You might want to check the section Ancient Israelite cuisine#Forbidden foods for some historical context about the Jewish taboo on pork-eating; there is evidence that it existed before Roman times. Look up the references there too, if you can, for more information. Chefallen (talk) 19:11, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Teiglach

My great-aunt's teiglach (pronounced TAY-glakh) was small hard balls of egg flour cooked in honey. It was about half and half dough and honey and very sticky. The balls were very hard, so you had to be very slow and careful in eating it, but I loved the taste. It was great fun for a child. David Spector (talk) 18:06, 5 September 2021 (UTC)

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