ogtumble:

sigistrix-elric:

A few months ago, I picked up a little cookbook.  Some of the older Jewish housewives among you may have heard of it.  It’s the “Jewish Festival Cookbook.”.  It’s a slim, innocuous little tome.  And lemme tell you. This little one is special.  More special than any other cookbook in my collection.  Published in 1954, it tries to hide the scars of family lost in the holocaust.  And it does a very good job.  But for what is, in essence, a manual of what to serve and how to observe Jewish holidays and keeping Kashrut/Kosher/Pareve/etc.   But underneath, you see and feel the sadness and scars.  I love this little book, “The Jewish Festival Cookbook”, because unlike my 3 Joy of Cooking and 4 Fannie Famers, or any other of the 100 or so food and cook books I have, this book has soul.  A defiance and a sadness that most books, even fiction or non-fiction never achieve.  And I really love the intense sense of defiance and remembrance this book imparts throughout.

So, without further ado and because I transcribed it for @ogtumble, and he wanted me to post it..  I use it without permission of the authors or their respective estates, and I sincerely apologize for that.  If I knew who you were I’d happily pay you for use.  There are a couple notes at the end that are by me.

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From “The Jewish Festival Cookbook”, by Fannie Engle & Gertrude Blair, (1954), Pgs. 84 to 86.

Among the most famous of these traditional dairy dishes are cheese latkes, and many legends have grown up about them.  It is told that in year gone by Sephardic women of Spain & Portugal would get together on the last night of the festival for a party of their own.  They would enjoy music and laughter and amusing stories, and great quantities of cheese latkes were served throughout the evening.  Instead of being prepared with the familiar spread of jam or syrup, they were sprinkled with olive oil, symbolic of the ancient miracle.

Judith’s Cheese Latkes
(cheese pancakes)

3 Eggs, well beaten

1 cup Milk

1 cup dry Pot Cheese

1 cup Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

½ teaspoon Salt

To the beaten eggs, add milk & cheese. Sift the dry ingredients together and stir into the eggs.  Blend to smoothness.  Drop by spoonfuls into hot fat in a frying pan.  Cook to delicate brown on both sides.  Serve with syrup or jam.  Serves 4 or 5.

In some European countries where Jewish families settled, it was difficult to obtain cottage cheese in wintertime.  Devoted as they might be to latkes made with cottage cheese, they had no choice but to find a worthy substitute for this ingredient.  Their success may be judged by the present-day popularity of potato latkes.  These are an inspired use of the potato, one of the most commonly used vegetables in those parts.  Potato latkes now enjoy international fame.  They are unquestionably the most popular of Chanukah dishes.

Potato Latkes
(Potato Pancakes)

6 medium-sized Potatoes

1 small Onion

1 teaspoon Salt

1 Egg

3 Tablespoons Flour, Matza Meal, or Bread Crumbs

½ teaspoon Baking Powder

Wash, pare, and grate raw Potatoes.  Strain but not too dry, and use the juice for soup or sauce.  If juice is retained, a little more flour will be needed for thickening.  Grate and add the Onions, add Salt and the Egg.  Beat well.  Mix remaining ingredients and beat into Potatoes; mix well.  Drop by spoonfuls into hot fat that is deep enough to almost cover the cake.  Brown on both sides.  Drain on absorbent paper.  Serve with applesauce, if desired.  Serves 4 or 5.

Every country, and often, so it would seem, every family, has its own favorite latkes.  Our Polish butcher who comes from Schochov tells us that his mother taught him this rhyme when he was a boy.

“If latkes you would make,
Salt & eggs and flour take.
Eat with jest and song and rhyme
At the festive Chanukah time.”

His mother’s ratzelach, which are really latkes, are still so vivid in his mind that he cannot think of Chanukah without remembering them.  Here is her recipe as he told it to us, explaining that he had noted the ingredients she used while he helped make them by beating the eggs.

Ratzelach from Poland
(Pancakes from Poland)

1 cup Flour

½ teaspoon Salt

1 cup Milk

3 Eggs, well beaten

Confectioner’s Sugar

Sift together the flour and salt; make a well in the center and pour in the milk; stirring, from center out, to form a smooth batter.  Add eggs and enclose with folding motions.  This should be a very thin batter.  Melt a very little fat in a medium-sized frying pan, greasing the surface well.  When hot, pour in just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan, tilting it from side to side to spread the batter to the edges.  Brown first on one side and then on the other.  Stack 5 or 6 ratzelach, sprinkling confectioner’s sugar or crushed sugar between the layers; then cut in to wedges for serving.  Makes about 15 ratzelach.  Serves 2 or 3.

Crushed sugar has little meaning in a modern recipe, but not many years ago sugar was available only in long hardcones.  Pieces were broken off with a wooden mallet, then pounded fine between towels.  This is the crushed sugar, often a light brown, that used to be served over stacks of ratzelach.

(Personal note:  Two things.  I have no clue what Pot Cheese is.  I’ve never heard of it and can’t find any information on it.  I imagine that you could just use a decent melting cheese.  Also, while I was transcribing this, it hit me.  One of the major patterns of immigration was that adult children emigrated, while parents usually stayed in the home country.  Upper middle class immigrants usually brought mom & dad over.  But for middle middle class and lower, this was a luxury that was frequently unaffordable.  It is entirely possible, that the Polish butcher’s mother was lost in the holocaust, and she should be remembered when you make the ratzelach.)

For a cookbook published in 1954, I think it is very likely that Mmes Engle and Blair, the Polish butcher from Schochov, and his mother are all “of blessed memory” at this point. Blest are we who get to benefit from their lives, stories, and the works of their hands.

Pot cheese:

Pot cheese is a type of soft crumbly, unaged cheese. It is very simple to make and also highly versatile making it a very popular cheese but it may be hard to find in stores. Pot cheese is in the midway stage between cottage cheese and farmer cheese. It is somewhat dry and crumbly but with a neutral, creamy texture and is very high in protein. It is most similar to cream cheese, ricotta, and the Mexican queso blanco. In New York and its environs it was frequently served in a bowl topped with cut-up vegetables.

In Austria, Topfen (pot cheese) is another name for Quark.