How this book began: It began one day when my mother was making Chanukah latkes. I had to stand on tiptoe to see the latkes frying in the oil. What magic to see the batter turn to round, golden-brown pancakes! Could I do it? Could I turn them? I begged my mother and she let me. The wonderment of it still lives. It began at another time when I had to write a story as a child. I wrote about how I loved the Sabbath and our holidays and how sad I was when they were over. The book began when I went to college and studied home economics. Now is the time, I thought, to set down my mother's recipes and my aunt's and some of our neighbors'. My five sisters all wanted copies so that they could really prepare the dishes as Mother made them. The book became a reality when Gertrude Blair said, "Fannie, why don't you do a Jewish Festival Cookbook? You know, of course, how much the traditional dishes are in demand around the holidays." And I said, "Why don't we do it together?" What we have tried to do: In this book we have assembled traditional dishes for the important festival seasons of the year. We have included also a brief word on the history and significance of each festival so that the colorful customs and traditions that have grown up over the years can be seen as a meaningful part of each holiday. Although the book includes recipes from many parts of the world, showing the international character of Jewish dishes, it is not written as a history of Jewish cooking. It is designed to place emphasis on the particular dishes that have a background in the rich customs, legends, and symbols connected with Jewish life. Throughout the book these dishes are placed in their holiday pattern. It is truly a guide in preparing and serving the symbolic and traditional special foods and meals eaten during festival times. We have intentionally taken the Orthodox Jewish observance as our standard, but it is hoped that this book will also be used by Reform and Conservative groups, by non-Jews, by schools, by cooks everywhere.

Should matzo balls be firm or fluffy? Plain or filled? Made with chicken fat, oil, or marrow? These questions and others are addressed in this recipe collection from the celebrated cooks of Hadassah, the Jewish women's volunteer organization. 250 recipes. 76 color photos.

From the award-winning cookbook author and host of the upcoming PBS series "Jewish Cooking in America" comes 250 delicious recipes for main courses, soups, appetizers, breads, and desserts.

What is Jewish cooking in France? In a journey that was a labor of love, Joan Nathan traveled the country to discover the answer and, along the way, unearthed a treasure trove of recipes and the often moving stories behind them. Nathan takes us into kitchens in Paris, Alsace, and the Loire Valley; she visits the bustling Belleville market in Little Tunis in Paris; she breaks bread with Jewish families around the observation of the Sabbath and the celebration of special holidays. All across France, she finds that Jewish cooking is more alive than ever: traditional dishes are honored, yet have acquired a certain French finesse. And completing the circle of influences: following Algerian independence, there has been a huge wave of Jewish immigrants from North Africa, whose stuffed brik and couscous, eggplant dishes and tagines—as well as their hot flavors and Sephardic elegance—have infiltrated contemporary French cooking. All that Joan Nathan has tasted and absorbed is here in this extraordinary book, rich in a history that dates back 2,000 years and alive with the personal stories of Jewish people in France today.

Jewish holidays are defined by food. Yet Jewish cooking is always changing, encompassing the flavors of the world, embracing local culinary traditions of every place in which Jews have lived and adapting them to Jewish observance. This collection, the culmination of Joan Nathan’s decades of gathering Jewish recipes from around the world, is a tour through the Jewish holidays as told in food. For each holiday, Nathan presents menus from different cuisines—Moroccan, Russian, German, and contemporary American are just a few—that show how the traditions of Jewish food have taken on new forms around the world. There are dishes that you will remember from your mother’s table and dishes that go back to the Second Temple, family recipes that you thought were lost and other families’ recipes that you have yet to discover. Explaining their origins and the holidays that have shaped them, Nathan spices these delicious recipes with delightful stories about the people who have kept these traditions alive. Try something exotic—Algerian Chicken Tagine with Quinces or Seven-Fruit Haroset from Surinam—or rediscover an American favorite like Pineapple Noodle Kugel or Charlestonian Broth with “Soup Bunch” and Matzah Balls. No matter what you select, this essential book, which combines and updates Nathan’s classic cookbooks The Jewish Holiday Baker and The Jewish Holiday Kitchen with a new generation of recipes, will bring the rich variety and heritage of Jewish cooking to your table on the holidays and throughout the year.

Traces three centuries of Jewish-American culinary history, with more than three hundred kosher recipes, a historical overview, and an explanation of dietary laws.

Discover the history of chocolate in Jewish food and culture with this unique recipe book, bringing together individual recipes from more than fifty noted Jewish bakers. This is the perfect book for chocoholics, anyone keen to grow their repertoire of chocolate-based recipes, or those with an interest in the diverse ways that chocolate is used around the world. Highlights include Claudia Roden’s Spanish hot chocolate, the Gefilteria’s dark chocolate and roasted beetroot ice-cream, Honey & Co’s marble cake and Joan Nathan’s chocolate almond cake. As well as recipes for sweet-toothed readers, savory dishes include Alan Rosenthal’s chocolate chilli and Denise Phillips' Sicilian caponata. There are also delicious naturally gluten-free and vegan recipes to cater to a variety of dietary requirements. Each recipe helps provide an insight into the important role chocolate has played in Jewish communities across the centuries, from Jewish immigrants and refugees taking chocolate from Spain to France in the 1600s, to contemporary Jewish bakers crossing continents to discover, adapt and share new chocolate recipes for today’s generation. Babka, Boulou & Blintzes is a unique collection published in conjunction with the British Jewish charity Chai Cancer Care.