The Adventures Of An Alte Cocker In The Kitchen

An Alte Cocker’s Adventure In Jewish Soul Food

I grew up in a very Jewish place. I went to a public high school where the student body was 90% Jewish. Knowing that the real world was nothing like that, I went to a college where I could see what it would be like to live in the real world where the percentage would be what it really is - 2%. Where I went to college, Clemson University in Northwest South Carolina, it was actually less. Now, my college days were some of the best times of my life. I made great friends there that I am still close with today. But it was a welcome to the real-world experience for me. When I entered Clemson University in the fall of 1970, there were more Jewish members of the faculty than there were Jewish students. And I am sure that I met kids while I was there that had never seen a Jew before. Seriously, girls would try to look for my horns. My guess is that they had been warned about horny Jewish boys. Sorry, couldn’t pass up a shot at a dumb joke. I did get both a great formal and practical education there, but it came at a price. Challah was replaced by cornbread. Corned Beef was replaced by pulled pork. At an Easter dinner at my girlfriend’s house, I mistook mustard greens for spinach and gagged. Not a good look. We broke up shortly after that. Hey, I loved/love Clemson. …BUT I MISSED MY JEW FOOD. So, I clicked my ruby slippers and said the magic words, “There’s no place like home where I can get my mother’s great Jewish soul food,”

While “Soul Food” specifically refers to the ethnic cuisine of African Americans, particularly those of the Southern United States, and is not a term that applies to other ethnic food cultures, it can be said that ethnic foods are indeed a powerful reflection of an ethnic group’s culture, representing traditions, values, and history, and serving as a vital link between generations.

Cultural Identity and Heritage:

Food traditions, including ingredients, preparation methods, and consumption rituals, are deeply intertwined with ethnic identity.

Transmission of Culture:

Sharing and preparing traditional dishes within ethnic communities reinforces cultural values and traditions, passing them down through generations.

And in that sense, every ethnic and religious food culture is indeed a vital part of the “soul” of the ethnic and/or religious culture. It is in that sense that I take “poetic license” using the term to describe the Jewish food I love to make and eat.

My great grandmother’s wooden bowl

Has played a significant role

In many delicious

Jewish “soul food” dishes…

And it’s the bowl that gives them the “soul!”

Doing some backtracking to determine the age of this wooden bowl and mezzaluna, I have determined that it is likely that my great grandmother who was born in 1891 probably acquired it when she got married around 1915, making this wooden bowl around 115 years old. My mom probably came by it as a gift from her grandmother when she got married in 1951. There has been lots of chopping in that bowl -chopped liver, of course, chicken salad, tuna salad, egg salad and my mom’s fave taste treat, chopped eggs and onions with chicken shmaltz, which is basically chopped liver sans the chicken liver which had to have been a luxury during the Depression when she was being raised by her grandmother. I have had it over twenty years, getting it in 2001 or 2002. It is my most prized kitchen item.

I told you about my wooden chopping bowl. This more than a century old family heirloom has been a part of the creation of lots of delicious things, and undoubtably, the thing that has come out of it the most (and my favorite thing to make in it) is ...

CHOPPED LIVER.

“Chopped liver is a liver pâté popular in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. This dish is a common menu item in Jewish delicatessens in Britain, Canada, South Africa, Argentina and the United States.

The dish is often made by sautéing or broiling liver and onions, adding hard-boiled eggs, salt and pepper, and grinding that mixture. The liver used is generally chicken.

The quintessential fat used is schmaltz, but different methods and materials exist, and the exact process and ingredients may vary from chef to chef.” – Wikipedia

Chopped Liver is something that you either love or something you wouldn’t eat on a dare.

And Chopped Liver has been getting a bad rap, metaphorically speaking. “The saying ‘chopped liver’ idiomatically means someone or something that is unimportant, insignificant, or not worth considering. It’s often used in the phrase “What am I, chopped liver?” to express annoyance at being ignored or overlooked. Here’s a more detailed explanation:

The phrase likely stems from the fact that chopped liver is traditionally served as a side dish or appetizer, rather than a main course, in Yiddish-speaking Jewish culture. Because it’s a less prominent dish, “chopped liver” became a metaphor for something that’s easily overlooked or dismissed.

But Chopped Liver is a significant part of the Jewish food culture, and it will appear on the table at almost every Jewish holiday festive meal. On the whole, we Jews love the stuff.

This appetizer’s delicious and incredible.

And it’s flavorful, rich and spreadable.

Something Jews love to serve,

An iconic hors d’hourve…

Chopped Liver even makes matzo edible!

MATZO BALL SOUP

My favorite Jewish food to make is chicken vegetable with mushrooms, leeks, celery and carrots and with matzo balls, noodles and rice. A bowl of this is a meal unto itself. I can’t imagine how many big blue pots I have made in the last 28 years since I’ve had it. It is a two-day project to make it. And every time I make a pot, it is always “the best pot I ever made.”

My blue pot has chicken soup history

And every pot I’ve made’s special to me

It would sure mean a lot

If my Big Blue Pot

Was a part of my legacy!

It’s does the trick when you’re feeling sick….and more

Matzo ball soup does more than just please.

It has mystical healing properties…

And your pronunciation

Can develop this variation…

You could start to pronounce “W’s” like “V’s.”……

And “S’s” like “SH” and talk with your hands and answer a question with a question……

GEFILTE FISH

Continuing with our journey through the world of Jewish food, today we take a look at gefilte fish, a Jewish dish of ground fish that’s poached and served with horseradish. The word “gefilte” is Yiddish for “stuffed”. It is something that is an essential in the Jewish food culture. Gefilte Fish is one of those acquired taste things. It is eaten year round, but it goes from a supporting actor to a starring role during Passover and is on probably every seder table.

My beloved wife is from Azerbaijan, which is an amazing place. It has a small but vibrant thriving Jewish population. Her father was a scientist and an intellectual who had many Jewish friends and associates, and she was exposed to Jewish food through them. Nevertheless, it took me by surprise to find her sitting at our kitchen table snacking on gefilte fish, which I love and always have on hand in the fridge and the pantry. My previous experience with gefilte fish and women who were not Jewish was usually their thinking that it was gross and not wanting to have anything to do with it. Not the case with my wife. She loves the stuff.

I must admit I was a bit in shock

When my wife asked me to stock -

Gelfilte Fish ????

She grew up on the dish…

Where she’s from they call it Forshmak!

Forshmak is originally an East European dish made of salty minced fish. Different variants of this dish are especially common in Ashkenazi Jewish and Finnish cuisine. Some varieties are also known in Russian and Polish cuisine.

I hope you enjoyed my alte cocker’s adventure in Jewish Soul Food.