Deli Maven`s Cookbook

Table of Contents
Genesis
What is a Deli?
Deli Food is Comfort Food
Is Deli Food bad for you?
I’m a Deli Maven
Exodus
Where’s the Deli?
My Quest for a Good Deli (Part One)
My Quest for a Good Deli (Part Two)
My Quest for a Good Deli (Part
Three)
How I Nearly Burned My House
Down
The Lack-of-Deli Problem Resolved
True Tales of the Deli
The Zaftig Waitress
The Zhlub
The Cashier
Van Houten
Deli Quotes
Deli Jokes
Meats
Pastrami
Store-bought Corned Beef
Home-cured Corned Beef
To-Die-For Corned Beef
Corned Beef Pâté
Pickled Tongue
Roasted Tongue
Brisket of Beef
Roasted Turkey
Smoked Meat
Homemade Beef Salami
Fish
Belly Lox, Nova, and Gravlax
Belly Lox
Nova
Gravlax
Dijon Mustard Sauce
Salmon Bacon
Pastrami Lox
Pickled Herring
Pickled Herring – from Fresh Herring
Pickled Herring – from Salt Herring
Mort
the
Mench’s
Grandma
Gertrude’s Famous Creamed Pickled
Herring
Chopped Herring
Chubs, Whitefish, and other Smoked
Fish
Whitefish Salad
Gefilte Fish
Fish Stock
Deli Sandwiches
Sandwiches by Name or Number
Reuben and Rachel
Soups
Chicken Soup
Old-fashioned Chicken Soup
Fast-and-Easy Chicken Soup
Matzo Balls (Knaidlach)
Kreplach
Quick & Easy Kreplach
Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup
Mushroom-Barley Soup
Chicken Stock
Beef Stock
Borscht
Navy Bean and Pastrami Soup
Salads
Potato Salad
Potato Salad Dressing
Macaroni Salad
Cole Slaw
Cole Slaw Dressing
Egg Salad
Perfect Hard-Cooked Eggs
Chicken Salad
Chinese Chicken Salad
Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing
Farmer’s Chop Suey
Entrées
and
Specialties
Deli
Chicken-in-the-Pot
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Sweet and Sour Cabbage Rolls
(Holishkes)
Short Ribs
Flanken
Kasha Varnishkes
Knishes
Potato Knishes
Chicken Liver Knish Filling
Beef Knish Filling
Cream Cheese Knish Filling
Kishka (Stuffed Derma)
Vegetarian Kishka
Knocks or Franks and Beans
Lox, Eggs, and Onions
Salami and Eggs
Matzo Brei
Cheese Blintzes
Potatoes
Latkes (Potato Pancakes)
French Fries
Hash Brown Potatoes
Pickles, Sauerkraut, and
Condiments
Dill Pickles
Bread-and-Butter Pickles
Sauerkraut
Horseradish
Prepared Horseradish
Whipped-Cream Horseradish
Mustard
Dilly Deli Horseradish Mustard
Thousand Island Dressing
Russian Dressing
Odds and Ends
Chicken Liver Pâté
Gravy
Brown Gravy
Poultry Gravy
Egg Cream
The Original Brooklyn Egg Cream
Cream Cheese
Hoop Cheese, Farmers’ Cheese,
Queso Blanco, Paneer
Neufchatel Cheese
Spices, Etc.
Save Money on Spices
Seasoned Salt
Seasoned Pepper
Pickling Spice
Seafood Seasoning
Curry Powder
A Pinch of Salt
Kosher Salt
Iodized Salt
Morton Lite Salt
Sea Salt
Which type of Salt to use
MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)
The Many Uses of Citric Acid
Bagels,
Breads
Bialys,
and
Beware of Fake Bagels!
Fairfax Avenue Bagels
Brooklyn Bialys
Challah (Braided Egg Bread)
Rye Bread
New York Deli Rye
Sandwich Rye
Kaplan’s Jewish Rye
Aunt Barb’s Easy Sandwich Rye
Rye Sour
Altus
Cornstarch Glaze
Pastries
Tel Aviv Hilton Cheesecake
Lindy’s New York Cheesecake
Pound Cake
Cookies
Black and White Cookies
Vanilla Fondant
Chocolate Ganache
Chinese Cookies
Hamantashen
Cookie Dough Hamantashen
Yeast Dough Hamantashen
Poppy Seed Filling
Prune Filling
Apricot Filling
Mandelbrot
Lemon Butter Cookies
Rugelach
Oatmeal Cookies
Desserts
Noodle Kugel (Lokshen Kugel)
Challah Bread Pudding
Bourbon Sauce
Rice Pudding
Applesauce
Awesome Applesauce Dessert
Whipped Cream
Ingredients
Special Ingredients
Photo Credits
Genesis
What is a Deli?
Once upon a time, many years ago, I
worked behind the counter of the camera
department at the May Company
Wilshire department store in Los
Angeles. Across the street from May
Company, on the west side of Fairfax
Avenue and one block north of Wilshire
Boulevard, was a small mom-and-pop
grocery. It was housed in a nondescript
stuccoed building that was home to a
few retail stores on the first floor and
offered walk-up apartments on the
second.
The entire grocery occupied no more
than a thousand square feet, probably
less. Two adjoining refrigerated cases
were in the rear of the store. One
contained a variety of cheeses and
smoked
fish:
whitefish;
chubs;
barbecued cod; baked salmon; sable;
pickled herring; herring in sour cream;
and, sometimes, sturgeon. The case also
displayed stainless steel trays of cole
slaw; potato, macaroni, and egg salads;
olives; whipped cream cheese; and
more.
The other case was filled with a
variety of deli meats: pastrami; corned
beef; tongue, both smoked and pickled;
roasted turkey; salamis and other
sausages; a tray of chopped liver; and
assorted knishes.
Behind the display cases, on a heavy
wooden butcher’s table, sat two electric
slicers—one for meats, one for cheeses
—and a steamer, in which the proprietor
kept slabs of corned beef and pastrami
warm and juicy.
At least once a week (or whenever I
could afford to do so) I’d walk to the
grocery for lunch. I usually ordered a
piled-high corned beef sandwich on
wonderfully crunchy, crusty rye bread,
onto which some horseradish mustard
was schmeared without the need to ask
for it. The sandwich was handed to me
loosely wrapped in a piece of pink
butcher paper. A whole dill pickle, fresh
from the barrel, accompanied the
sandwich, its garlicky juices more-orless retained by another scrap of butcher
paper.
As there were no tables or chairs in
the grocery, the food had to be taken
outside to eat somewhere else, or
devoured while standing up in the store.
Eventually, for his customers’
convenience, the owner placed two
small Formica-topped tables with
chrome-plated legs and four matching
chairs with red vinyl seats across the
aisle from the refrigerated cases. That
small investment increased sales
dramatically, for when customers didn’t
have to juggle their meal they were far
more likely to order a small container of
potato salad or cole slaw to go with
their sandwich, and perhaps a bottle of
Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda with which
to wash the food down.
It was as rudimentary a deli as one
can be, but the memories of the tastes
and aromas still linger on, and my
gastric juices start flowing whenever I
think of the delicious sandwiches and
garlicky pickles.
Most early-day Jewish delis began
just that way: by making impromptu
sandwiches, then adding a few tables or
booths, and, if and when business
warranted it, hiring a counterman and
waitress. Eventually, the sit-down
business exceeded the take-out business,
and the first deli-restaurants were born.
An establishment doesn’t need seating
arrangements to be a deli. However, a
deli without display cases where one
can pick and choose (“I’ll take that chub
… no, not that one, the one in front of
it.”) is not a deli. It may have deli-style
food, it may have brash, sarcastic, older
waitresses with flat feet and their hair up
in buns, but it’s not a deli, it’s just a
restaurant.
Pickles alone do not a deli make. Nor
do pastrami and seeded rye bread, even
if imported from New York. Though a
restaurant’s menu lists latkes, chopped
liver, herring in sour cream, and pickled
tongue, it’s still not enough. Sure, a deli
has to have those things. Sure, a deli has
to have attitude. But, more than that, a
deli has to have heart.
The
word delicatessen (fondly
shortened to the familiar deli) is
generally considered to be Germanic in
origin, a combination of the words
delikates (meaning delicious) and essen
(meaning to eat); though some argue that
the word is derived from the French
w o r d delicatesse, also meaning
delicious things to eat.
Jewish delicatessens, as we know
them today, are 100% American. They
were born in New York in the late
1800s, evolving almost-by-accident
from meat markets and grocery stores
started by immigrants from Russia,
Romania, Poland, and other East
European countries.
Each reflected the native cuisines of
the proprietors and their neighborhood
customers, with family recipes handed
down through generations and across
oceans. Accordingly, some delis were
more Russian in influence; others more
Romanian, or Polish. And, each kept
kosher, as the owners and customers, for
the most part Orthodox Jews, would
have it no other way.
The early delis were located on the
Lower East Side of Manhattan, where
the Jewish population was centered. As
the population spread to other areas,
delis cropped up in Brooklyn, The
Bronx, and other New York boroughs.
Because a kosher establishment
selling meats could not sell cheeses and
other dairy products, appetizing stores
were created to provide lox, herring,
smoked fish, blintzes, cheeses, sour
cream, and other dairy and pareve
products favored by the Jewish
population.
Basically,
the
term
appetizing refers to the type of food one
customarily eats with bagels.
Joel Russ, an immigrant from Eastern
Europe, started out with a pushcart in
1914. Russ and Daughters appetizing
store, on Houston Street in Manhattan, is
now run by the fourth generation of the
Russ family.
Specialty companies sprang up to
provide a wide variety of foodstuffs.
Yonah Schimmel Knishery, founded by a
rabbi from Romania, has been making
knishes in the Lower East Side since
1910.
Izzy Guss arrived in the United States
in 1910. He soon had his own pickle
business, founding a company that’s still
in business today.
And there were others. Delis
outsourced breads, bagels, and bialys to
Jewish-owned bakeries. Often, they
were conveniently located immediately
next door—a true symbiosis.
Some bakeries specialized in
cheesecakes. Other purveyors smoked
pastrami, pickled corned beef, or cured
salmon into lox.
It was not long before delis
developed a sizeable non-Jewish
clientele. Eventually, menus were
changed to accommodate the newlyfound customers—after all, business is
business. Meat sandwiches were served
with slices of cheese; a good example is
the Reuben sandwich. BLTs were added
to the menu, as were ham sandwiches.
Bacon and eggs were served for
breakfast. Clam chowder became
Friday’s soup of the day.
A few Jewish delis are still kosher,
but most today are what is known as
kosher
style. That unlikely and
inaccurate designation—actually, an
oxymoron—means they make no
pretense of maintaining kashrut.
During the 20th century, delis
proliferated in Miami, Chicago, Los
Angeles, and other locales that had a
Jewish population large enough to
support them.
Outside of New York, appetizing
stores never took hold, for by the time
delis were being opened elsewhere,
appetizing products had been fully
integrated with the other deli fare. At
one time there were at least thirty
appetizing stores in New York City.
Today there are few remaining, the most
notable being Russ & Daughters.
A typical Jewish delicatessen today is
a place where a variety of ready-to-eat
foods and a few basic staples are sold—
not quite a fast-food restaurant, far from
being a full-fledged grocery store.
In addition to Jewish delicatessens
there are Italian and German
delicatessens and even Greek and
Russian and Thai and Vietnamese delis,
each with foods of interest to that
particular ethnic group. Today, most
every supermarket has what it brashly
pretends to be a delicatessen section,
with non-deli-like food as varied as
barbecued pork ribs, prime rib of beef,
shrimp salad, and sushi.
Jewish deli food has always
consisted, for the most part, of
traditional foods that were popular
among Ashkenazic Jews, such as
pastrami, knishes, cheese blintzes, and
matzo ball soup. Simply stated, deli food
is East European Jewish home cooking.
Today, there is a nod to modernity,
with menu items such as Chinese chicken
salad, hamburgers, french fries, and even
Philly cheesesteak sandwiches. Some
delis now feature a few Israeli favorites,
such as falafel and hummus—which are
totally foreign to the East European
Jewish palate.
A Jewish delicatessen is an explosion
of sensory stimulation, nothing less. All
five senses are totally involved.
Start with the sense of smell. From the
moment you step inside the doors of a
deli your olfactory nerves are assaulted
with a unique steamy, heady aroma that
begins with the freshness of dill weed,
the pungency of garlic, and the sourness
of pickling vinegar; pastrami, brisket,
and corned beef steaming behind the
counter; a variety of foods cooking on
the grill; breads and cakes baking in the
ovens, somewhere out of sight; soups
simmering; perhaps turkeys roasting;
coffee brewing. And much, much more.
Next comes the cacophony of a deli,
exciting the sense of hearing: Dishes
rattling, countermen yelling to (or at)
each other, wisecracking waitresses
bantering
with
their
customers.
Conversations held at high volume, so
they can be heard above the rest of the
noise. A dozen different tongues—
English, Yiddish, Hebrew, German,
French, Russian, and a myriad of Eastern
European languages. Oh, yes, Spanish is
also spoken extensively in delis, mostly
by the kitchen help.
A deli is a place to schmooze and
kibitz—with the owner, your dining
companion, the customers at the next
table. Many lifelong friendships have
started over an impromptu deli
conversation.
The sense of sight begins with the deli
cases, filled with bountiful displays of
meats, smoked fish, salads, and cheeses.
There may be a cooler with assorted
kosher soft drinks, such as Dr. Brown’s
Cream Soda and Cel-Ray Soda
(formerly called Cel-Ray Tonic).
Watch the waitresses bringing out
armloads of plates filled with the most
delectable food that man can create and
money can buy. Observe the array of
diners, from geriatrics sharing an
overstuffed sandwich to toddlers playing
with a pile of french fries.
The sense of touch isn’t forgotten,
either. Are the vinyl-covered seats in the
booths slick or rough? Is the rye bread
soft on the inside, with crusts so hard
and sharp they cut the inside of your
mouth? Is the kneidlach rubbery, or does
it break apart easily on your tongue?
Does the pastrami have enough fat to
give it good mouth feel?
Finally, the sense of taste. No food,
anywhere, can compare with deli food.
It runs the gamut from sweet to savory,
from salty to sour, from pungent to
bland. There’s a gansa megillah of
flavors, often on the same plate: Lox and
cream cheese. A pastrami or turkey
sandwich with a schmear of chopped
chicken liver. Sweet and sour cabbage
soup. Dill pickles, pickled green
tomatoes, and sauerkraut, brought to the
table even before you’ve had a chance to
peruse the menu. Cheesecake, perhaps
topped with pineapple, strawberries, or
blueberries.
Unless a restaurant excites the whole
spectrum of senses, it cannot be a deli.
BRENT’S DELI, NORTHRIDGE CA
Deli Food is
Comfort Food
Food, like a loving touch or a glimpse
of divine power, has that ability to
comfort.
… Norman Kolpas, author
Princeton
University’s
online
dictionary describes comfort food as
“food that is simply prepared and gives
a sense of wellbeing; typically food with
a high sugar or carbohydrate content that
is associated with childhood or home
cooking.”
But comfort food is much more than
that.
Comfort food is food that provides a
sense of contentment.
Comfort food makes us feel better
when we’re not up to par. Indeed, many
comfort foods are the same foods our
mothers fed us—not only when we were
well, but especially when we were sick.
Comfort food is an edible security
blanket.
There’s an emotional, nostalgic, or
sentimental element to comfort food. It’s
the type of food that was prepared by
one’s mother, aunt, or grandmother.
Holiday meals, such as served on Rosh
Hashanah and at the Passover Seder,
evoke memories of family and friends.
The familiarity of the sights, smells,
and flavors of comfort food evokes a
strong sense of déjà vu and helps us
recall our childhood, presumably a more
innocent, carefree time in our lives.
Comfort food warms us on cold, damp
winter days. It is simple, solid, filling
food, replete with familiar tastes and
textures.
Comfort food is often in the form of a
casserole, a one-dish meal that combines
meat or other protein with vegetables
and starch. Many comfort foods are
comprised primarily of carbohydrates,
which some say induce an opiate-like
effect in the brain and which may
account for their soothing nature.
Comfort food is frequently soft and/or
requires little in the way of effort to eat
—there’s minimal cutting and chewing.
Comfort food is food prepared in a
traditional, ethnically-related style.
What’s comfort food to an Italian is
quite different from comfort food to a
German, Mexican, Russian, or Jew.
Comfort food is connected to and
helps us recall specific personal events;
a hot dog brings back memories of a
baseball game, a seafood cocktail
recollects a trip to San Francisco’s
Fisherman’s Wharf.
Comfort food is somewhat different
for men than it is for women. Women
tend to find more comfort in snacks and
sweets than men, who prefer hearty,
savory dishes.
Deli food is the epitome of comfort
food. It makes us feel good about
ourselves. It makes us feel at home.
Is Deli Food bad for
you?
Anyone who says deli is bad for you: I
pity the fool. That's a bunch of junk.
… Mel Brooks
It was at a convention of food writers
held in New York, back in 1995. Max
Federman (of Russ & Daughters
appetizing store) and Abe Lebewohl
(owner of the famed 2nd Avenue Deli)
were scheduled speakers.
Federman gave a well-prepared—
some say a bit too lengthy—speech
extolling the virtues of a diet based on
his company’s appetizing products.
“Fish,” he concluded unequivocally,
“are good for you.”
Lebewohl appeared to be totally
unprepared for his duties on the dais. He
stood before the audience for a full
minute, as if trying to think of something
to say, then shrugged his shoulders and
addressed the crowd. “What am I gonna
tell you? My food will kill you.”
Deli food has long had an undeserved
reputation for being unhealthful. Perhaps
people believe that anything so
delicious, filling, and satisfying must be
bad for you—or, at least, sinful.
On the other hand, chicken soup—also
known as Jewish penicillin—has long
been praised for its beneficial effects.
No less an authority than Maimonides (a
12th century rabbi and physician to the
Sultan of Egypt) expounded on the
medicinal properties of chicken soup in
his writings, most notably in his book,
“On the Causes of Symptoms.”
“Chicken soup is good for you, but
bad for the chicken,” Maimonides
supposedly quipped. So much for 900year-old humor.
No matter. Maimonides’ evaluation of
chicken soup has been seconded by
Jewish grandmothers worldwide. And
it’s true. Both anecdotal evidence and
clinical trials have proven that chicken
soup relieves the symptoms of the
common cold, as well as many other
ailments.
Most everyone agrees that chicken
soup is alleviative and restorative; good
for both body and soul. What makes it so
effective? Is it the electrolytes? The
schmaltz? The hot steam emanating from
the bowl? Or just the great taste? Who
knows, who cares. It works, and that’s
all that matters.
Chicken-in-the-pot,
another
deli
staple, is even more nourishing. One gets
not only the beneficial broth and a matzo
ball or two, but also the chicken meat
itself, both light and dark, surrounded by
succulent root vegetables and perhaps a
small kreplach. That’s a high-protein,
low carbohydrate meal.
But, what about the rest of deli food?
Is it salutary or injurious?
Some criticism of delicatessen food
stems from the nitrates and nitrites used
to cure and preserve deli meats. You
can’t make pastrami, corned beef, or
pickled tongue without them.
Nitrates and nitrites are naturallyoccurring inorganic ions. There’s no
dearth of nitrates in our diet.
Cauliflower, spinach, broccoli, collard
greens, and a number of other vegetables
have a high nitrate content.
And we can get nitrates from our
drinking water. Often, shallow wells and
public water systems using surface
water have a high concentration of
nitrates and nitrites due to the extensive
use of nitrogen fertilizers.
Most nitrates are metabolized and
excreted without producing any harmful
effects.
There
are
occasional
physiological effects of exposure to
them,
primarily
the
result
of
contaminated water or nitrate/nitrite
based medicines.
Ingestion of food containing small
amounts of nitrates and nitrites—such as
in deli meats—is rarely a problem. In
fact, a certain amount of nitrates in the
diet may even enhance defenses against
gastrointestinal pathogens.
Now, let’s take a brief look at a few
other popular deli foods.
One of my favorite deli lunches is
Farmer’s chop suey: Raw veggies, a
small boiled red potato, and a healthy
dollop of sour cream. Undoubtedly, this
is one of the most wholesome meals one
can have.
Sweet and sour cabbage (holishkes):
Ground beef, rice, and cabbage leaves,
in a savory tomato sauce. Delicious and
nutritious.
Brisket of beef dinner: Lean, juicy
roast brisket of beef, a couple of potato
latkes, and a side of applesauce. The
essence of goodness and delectability.
Roast turkey sandwich: Lean roasted
turkey, piled high on a freshly-baked
Kaiser roll, with a slice of beefsteak
tomato, a leaf of lettuce, and a schmear
of Thousand Island dressing. Low-fat,
high protein.
Lox and cream cheese on a bagel:
Salmon is filled with polyunsaturated
Omega-3 fatty acids, so good for you!
Omega-3 fatty acids are found in
cabbage, also, so have a side of cole
slaw to boost your intake.
Peruse the table of contents of this
cookbook (or any deli menu) and you’ll
be hard pressed to find an item that is
not made from nutritious, healthful
ingredients.
What can make deli food detrimental
is eating too much of it—and delis often
serve huge portions, such as on their
overstuffed sandwiches. But, that’s a
matter of self-control. If you’re a glutton,
it really doesn’t matter what you eat; it’s
all bad for you!
I’m a Deli Maven
The somewhat derogatory term
Gastronomic Jew is occasionally
appended to a person of Jewish lineage
who seldom, if ever, attends synagogue,
perhaps not even on the High Holidays;
a person who doesn’t keep kosher or
observe any of the Jewish dietary laws;
a person who may be agnostic, or even
atheist; yet that person delights in the
cuisine we call Jewish Delicatessen and
maintains a semblance of Jewish identity
by regularly eating lox and bagels,
slurping matzo ball soup, ingesting
pastrami sandwiches, and downing
noodle kugel. Yes, Judaism is sometimes
a menu item.
My own fondness for delis and deli
food is as much a matter of nostalgia as
it is from eating habits—that is, years of
dining in delis on a regular basis. Just
stepping inside a good Jewish deli and
inhaling the heady aroma takes me back
in time to my youth.
I cannot speak with authority for New
York delicatessens. I’ve never lived in
the Big Apple, but have visited there and
eaten in several of the tourist-oriented
delis. And, I’ve dined in delis in
Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Oregon, Arizona,
London, and other venues.
I grew up in Southern California, and
delis were an important part of my life
—especially from the late teens on.
Accordingly, most of my deli
experiences have been in the Greater
Los Angeles area.
The Jewish population in Los Angeles
was originally concentrated in Boyle
Heights, a neighborhood east of
downtown Los Angeles. In the 1920s,
Jews started migrating west to an area of
the city centered on Fairfax Avenue,
primarily between Santa Monica and
Pico boulevards—an area that would
become known as the Fairfax District
(and sometimes jokingly referred to as
Kosher Canyon or the Bagel District).
The exodus from Boyle Heights
continued throughout the thirties and
forties. The Fairfax District became the
center of Jewish activity in Los Angeles
until the late 1950s, when the next
generation of Jews once again began
relocating—this time to the San
Fernando Valley and other suburbs in the
Los Angeles Basin. Whenever enough
Jews were concentrated in one area, a
deli opened up to feed them.
I tell you this brief history because it
relates directly to the tale of my first
piece of cheesecake—one of my earliest
childhood memories, which I still
remember in great detail.
It was about the same time that
Elimelich Solomon moved his Hebrew
and English Book Store from Boyle
Heights to Fairfax Avenue, and a full ten
years before Canter’s delicatessen made
its move westward from Boyle Heights
to a location a few doors away from
Solomon’s.
I was a small child living in a
Craftsman-style bungalow at 711 North
Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood. My
parents didn’t own the house, nor even
occupy it entirely. Rather, we all lived
in one room rented from the owner, Mrs.
Cullen—a rather irascible old woman,
who obviously resented the necessity of
having to let part of her home to
strangers; such were the times during the
Great Depression.
One day I accompanied my parents on
what seemed to me to be a long drive out
in the country. There were many open
fields, where crops of some sort were
growing or cows grazing. We passed by
Gilmore Stadium, where midget car
races, football games, and other sporting
events were held. CBS Television City
occupies the site today.
Next to Gilmore Stadium was Pan
Pacific Auditorium, a landmark structure
built in the Streamline Moderne style,
the short-lived successor to Art Deco.
The building opened in May of 1935,
closed in 1972, and burned down in a
spectacular fire on May 24, 1989. Today
the property is the location of PanPacific Park.
What was to become the worldfamous Farmers Market was located a
few blocks away. That phenomenon
started rather casually in May 1934,
when farmers pulled their trucks onto a
vacant patch of land owned by Arthur
Gilmore at Third and Fairfax and
displayed their produce on the tailgates
of their vehicles.
We turned north on Fairfax, and soon
the car was parked. I remained in the
back seat while my mother and father
went inside a storefront bakery. They
came out a short while later and handed
me a small piece of cheesecake, about
two inches square and an inch or two
thick.
I can still taste that delicious
cheesecake today, just by thinking about
it! It’s the standard by which I judge all
other cheesecakes. It wasn’t overly
sweet. It was, in fact, slightly tart, and
had a tang of citrus. Most remarkable,
though, was the texture. Unlike the
smooth, sticky, heavy cheesecakes of
today, it had a unique crumbly texture
and exquisite mouth feel.
That’s because cheesecakes were
originally made with curd cheeses, such
as hoop, pot, and, especially, cottage
cheese. That type of cheesecake was
sold in Fairfax Avenue bakeries until the
early seventies, but has been replaced in
delis and restaurants with a heavier,
stickier, extremely smooth version made
entirely with cream cheese.
Although cream cheese has been
manufactured since 1872, it was a long
time before it became the cheese of
choice in most cheesecakes.
One
more
thing.
Originally,
cheesecakes were not circular in shape
—they were rectangular, baked in large
pans measuring about eighteen by
twenty-four inches. Customers told the
bakery clerk how much cheesecake they
wanted to buy, and it was then cut to size
and weighed to determine the price.
As I matured, my love affair with
Jewish delis continued to grow.
Whenever I found myself in an
unfamiliar part of town at lunch or
dinnertime, I knew if I located a deli I
would have a good, substantial meal
within my budget.
I am not guilty of contributing to the
proliferation of McDonalds, Taco Bell,
Burger King, Jack-in-the-Box and other
fast food joints. Rather, I lunched at a
deli most every day, for in Los Angeles
and the San Fernando Valley where I
lived and worked there was a deli in
every neighborhood. Brent’s, one of the
best, was a block and a half from my
office, well within walking distance.
For me, Sunday mornings meant deli
mornings. The Men’s Club at my Temple
often met at a deli on Sunday mornings,
both for nutrition and camaraderie.
Eventually, Sunday morning deli
became a tradition in my family. Every
week, my wife and I and as many of the
eight hers-mine-and-ours children as we
could round up had brunch together at a
deli—usually Noshorama, which was
near our home in Woodland Hills.
Occasionally we would make the trek
over the hill to Nate’n Al Deli
Restaurant in Beverly Hills. There was
always a long line for a table on Sunday
morning, and it was so crowded inside
the deli we often had to stand outside on
the sidewalk until our name was called.
But the food was worth the wait.
Movie and television stars frequented
Nate’n Al, and sometimes we would see
Milton Berle, Jesse White, Leonard
Nimoy, Phil Silvers, or others.
International House of Pancakes or
Denny’s? Fuhgeddaboudit!
As I’ve pointed out, my deli
experiences are based on the delis in
Southern California, and I firmly believe
Los Angeles has the best delis in the
world.
There’s always much affection and
nostalgia associated with places of
origin, and that’s particularly true with
delicatessen food. New York rye bread.
New York bagels. New York knishes.
New York bialys. New York pastrami.
New York dill pickles. And so on. To
people living in and hailing from New
York, New York deli foods are always
the best.
But are they, really? Langer’s, in Los
Angeles, is generally said to have even
better pastrami than Katz’s in New
York. Art’s Deli in the San Fernando
Valley is known for its superb corned
beef. Bea’s Bakery in Tarzana is famous
for rye bread and pastries.
I could go on and on, but I think I’ve
already made my point. To me, Los
Angeles is the best deli city in the entire
world.
Exodus
Where’s the Deli?
In early 2006, shortly after my wife JJ
and I sold our Las Vegas business, we
took a much-needed vacation in the form
of a leisurely road trip up the Pacific
Coast. When we reached Gig Harbor,
Washington, both of us fell in love with
the area. Almost immediately we
decided to leave Las Vegas, where we’d
lived for nearly thirty years, and relocate
to Gig Harbor.
Gig Harbor is a quaint little town on a
peninsula abutting Puget Sound, across
the Narrows Bridge from the city of
Tacoma. Gig Harbor reminded us of the
fictional town of Cabot Cove, Maine as
depicted in the TV series, Murder She
Wrote. (Actually, the outdoor shots in
that series were filmed in the Northern
California town of Mendocino.)
A real estate agent soon located a
wonderful new house for us, up a small
hill just a couple of blocks from the
water, amid a forest of pine and other
trees, with a magnificent view of Puget
Sound. From our bedroom and living
room windows we could watch ferry
boats traversing regularly between Point
Defiance and Vashon Island, and see
pleasure craft idly cruising by or
anchored, fishing, near Point Defiance. It
was idyllic!
We did our homework and checked
out the area thoroughly before buying.
Despite the small-town atmosphere,
most everything one could need or want
was within a mile or so of our new
home: three supermarkets, a hardware
store, restaurants and fast food joints,
drug stores, barber and beauty shops,
and doctors of most every specialty.
Most important, there was an established
synagogue less than twenty minutes
away, just across the Narrows Bridge in
Tacoma.
The only thing we forgot to inquire
about was the proximity to a Jewish
deli. Big mistake. After we moved,
whenever we asked, “Where’s a good
deli?” everyone laughed and shook their
heads.
And so, my search for a good deli
began. I was a Jew wandering in the
wilderness.
My Quest for a
Good Deli (Part
One)
There aren't any Jewish delicatessens
in Gig Harbor, Washington. Nor are
there any delis across the Narrows
Bridge in Tacoma. According to the
Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle,
more than 40,000 Jews live in the city,
so I thought I should be able to find at
least one good deli there. I recalled
eating in a near-downtown Seattle deli
many years previously, while on a
vacation trip.
I checked online, and, sure enough, I
ran across the website of a deli that
showed promise. Their menu looked
great. Customer comments on their
website heaped praise on the
establishment, and there were links to
several laudatory restaurant reviews.
Better still, the deli was fairly close
to the Bellevue Mall. I knew my wife JJ
wouldn’t want to take the forty-sevenmile-each-way, one-hour drive just to
get a couple of pastramis on rye. But, if I
put the trip in the context of browsing
Macy’s, Nordstrom’s, Chico’s, and
some of her other favorites, all in one
large and beautiful shopping palace—
well, that was a different matter
altogether. How could she say no? I
couldn’t care less how much she might
spend at the mall, as long as we went to
the deli afterwards. All I was interested
in was a good deli sandwich. It had been
a long, long time.
After JJ finished shopping, we were
ready for a late lunch or early dinner. I
drove a few miles to the newly-found
deli, which was located in a somewhat
run-down shopping mall.
The place was fancy-schmantzy—
expensively decorated in what might be
called nouveau-art deco, with lots of
lemon yellow and bilious green on the
tables and booths. A plethora of huge
modern-art paintings hung on the walls.
To my amazement, there was even a
full bar, if you can believe that. I’d
never seen a large bar positioned smack-
dab in the middle of a deli restaurant
before, the central point of attention,
though I suppose there might be a few
others somewhere. After all, it’s a big
country.
The kitchen, from what little I could
see of it, seemed as if it had been put in
as an afterthought; it was tucked behind a
small door near the bar. I much prefer
delis where I can watch my sandwich
being built by the counterman, even if the
majority of cooking is done out of sight
in a back room.
There was a small, unattended deli
case near the front of the restaurant,
adjacent to the hostess and cashier. It
seemed perfunctory, almost more of a
decorative item than a place to store
cold cuts. I checked out its contents. The
noodle kugel looked as if had been there
for weeks. I decided not to take a chance
on the smoked whitefish, which was
wrinkled and slimy.
Sadly, the restaurant was completely
devoid of typical deli aromas.
There weren't many customers seated
at the time we arrived, around 4:00 pm.
Our waiter was a pleasant enough gay
goy guy with the Jewish name of David,
the same as my name. He apparently
knew
nothing whatsoever
about
delicatessen food.
I asked pointed questions about the
kishka, as several times I'd been served
only the smooshy part of the kishka, not
the derma part. That's like ordering a
roast turkey dinner and being served
stuffing, but no turkey.
A few years ago there was a valid
reason for the lack of kishka
completeness. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture had banned the sale of small
beef intestines because it was thought
they might have been a source of Mad
Cow disease. But that problem has
apparently been resolved and beef
casings are again legal, so there’s no
longer an excuse for not making kishka
by the time-honored method.
The waiter assured me there was,
indeed, derma around the stuffing. He
was wrong. There wasn't. Aarrgh! I sent
the order back.
Our iced teas came out as tasteless,
lukewarm colored water with just a
couple of mostly melted ice cubes. I
asked for more ice. My wife had
requested extra lemon but didn't get it,
and we repeated our request for that,
also. So much for good service.
I ordered a chopped chicken liver
sandwich. The liver was tasty enough,
but I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut it was
beef liver, not chicken liver. For all I
know, it could have even been pork
liver.
The rye bread wasn't as good as you
can get in any supermarket—it was too
dense and heavy, and served chilled, as
if the bread had been stored in a
refrigerator until it was time to schmear
on the liver spread. Apparently, the deli
didn’t make many sandwiches on rye.
I was beginning to believe the joint
specialized in sandwiches made on
white bread, and recalled Milton
Berle’s famous line, “Anytime a person
goes into a delicatessen and orders a
pastrami on white bread, somewhere a
Jew dies.”
The promised pickles never arrived,
though I could see bowls of them sitting
on other tables, even tables that were
unoccupied. Duvud had forgotten to
bring them. Or, maybe he was getting
even with us because of the kishka and
iced tea complaints.
A small paper cup accompanying my
sandwich held about three tablespoons
of potato salad. Thank goodness the
container was small, as the potato salad
was gross. Cubed potatoes, undercooked
and chewy, with a thin coating of a
tasteless mayonnaise-based dressing. I
assumed the paper cups had been filled
for the lunch hour trade and they’d been
sitting somewhere without refrigeration
ever since, as the potato salad was dried
out and at room temperature—a
veritable Petri dish of breeding bacteria.
Aarrgh again!
My wife ordered a knockwurst and
beans platter. The obviously from-a-can
beans appeared to have been reheated
repeatedly for several days before being
plopped onto her plate, as they were
thick and sticky. The supposed knocks
were not the customary shape (short and
fat). Rather, they were the size and shape
of frankfurters (long and thin).
Thinking that someone in the kitchen
had made a mistake, my wife politely
asked Duvud if they were frankfurters or
knockwurst.
When he replied, “Both,” JJ knew that
questioning the waiter further would be
futile.
The knockwurstfurters had been
served cool to the touch, so she had to
send them back to the kitchen for heating.
Aarrgh the third time!
JJ's daughter Jan was with us. She’d
ordered a Reuben. Jan said it was okay,
but to me it looked far too greasy and
soggy.
The bill for the three of us came to a
pricey $50.93. And that didn't include
the tip.
There was, however, great music in
the background. Mostly swing sounds
and vocals from the forties through the
sixties.
In retrospect, perhaps I should have
been suspicious of the information on the
website. One of the glowing reviews
talked about matzo brie, not matzo brei.
Do you remember your elementary
school teacher repeating the mantra, “I
before E, except after C, except for the
exceptions?” Brei, as in matzo brei, is
one of those exceptions.
As everyone knows (or so I thought)
Brie is a soft cheese made from cow’s
milk, named after the French province
where it originated. (Actually, Brie
might go pretty well with matzos. I’ll
have to try it next Passover.)
Also, kippered salmon was described
on the website, incorrectly, as baked
salmon. There is a difference. Kippered
salmon is smoked, baked salmon is not.
I concluded that the highly
complimentary customer comments were
probably created by the restaurant’s ad
agency or the owner’s wife, not by
satisfied diners. After I returned home,
further checking on the Internet provided
an abundance of putrid reviews of the
deli, from the time it first opened to the
present. I shoulda known. I shoulda done
my due diligence. But I was too anxious
to have a deli meal.
Surely, somewhere in the state of
Washington, there must be at least one
decent Jewish deli, I thought. But the
place in Bellevue definitely wasn’t it. I
would have to continue my odyssey.
My Quest for a
Good Deli (Part
Two)
Except for ersatz bagel shops, I could
find only two possible Jewish
delicatessens left in the entire state of
Washington for me to sample. One of
them was located a short distance north
of downtown Seattle, across the Lake
Washington ship canal, amid many
cosmopolitan
ethnic
restaurants,
microbreweries and bistros, in the leftleaning Seattle neighborhood of
Fremont. And so late one Sunday
morning my wife and I climbed in our
car and made the 48-mile-each-way trek
from our home in Gig Harbor to try
Roxy’s Diner.
The eclectic, artsy, funky urban
village called Fremont is an icon of
counterculture, complete with a seven-
ton, sixteen-foot bronze statue of
Vladimir Lenin—the largest statue of
Lenin in the United States. And, lurking
beneath the Aurora Avenue bridge, an
eighteen-foot-high concrete troll with a
hubcap for an eye crushes a Volkswagen
Beetle in its left hand.
The sign at the drawbridge leading
into town proclaims Fremont to be the
“Center of The Universe” and urges
visitors to “Throw your watch away!”
The locals pretentiously proclaim the
skyscrapers of nearby downtown Seattle
to be their own personal suburb.
Fremont’s well-known motto is
“Delibertas Quirkas”—Free to be
Peculiar. That might help account for the
town’s annual solstice parade, which is
known for its many nude bicyclists.
I was a little concerned because,
according to the map, the deli was
approximately equidistant from Seattle’s
Gas Works Park and Shilshole Avenue.
(In Hebrew, the word shilshole means
diarrhea.)
Several large junkyard-style dogs
were tied down in front of the restaurant.
A street musician, accompanied by but
not playing a wind instrument of some
sort, sat outside on one of the benches
intended for diners awaiting a table.
Perhaps he was taking a break.
The glass entry door had numerous
cracks, but, miraculously, the sharp
shards had not yet started sliding out.
The sole encouraging sign was a
completely full dining area—unlike the
deli I’d visited in Bellevue, which was
nearly empty when I was there. A busy
restaurant usually portends a good meal.
It was a warm, beautiful Pacific
Northwest day, and the fifteen-minute
wait for a table passed quickly. Once we
were inside and seated, I immediately
felt as if I’d been teleported back to the
mid nineteen-sixties. A mural with
stylized orange umbrellas and purple
palm trees (I think that’s what they were
supposed to be) filled one wall. To me,
the decorations seemed more suited to a
Parisian brothel than a Jewish deli.
Okay. I’ve never been to a Parisian
brothel, so I really don’t know what one
looks like, but I can use my imagination.
A large cowboy painting, replete with
a motley herd of cattle, dominated
another wall. Obviously, the decor
consisted of remains left behind by one
or more former tenants.
The well-worn tables had heavy black
cast-iron bases and Formica tops in
assorted bright colors. There was a
counter with limited seating.
Everything oozed the feeling of old,
clutter, and, with the possible exception
of the tableware, not very clean.
One
restaurant
reviewer
had
described the place as “a spectacular
collision of typical New York diner and
hippie Fremont weirdness.” So much for
ambience.
The noise level was deafening, all
from conversations, none from Muzak.
There was nary a deli aroma. As in the
other Washington deli I’d visited, the
food preparation area was out of sight—
which, in this instance, may have been
fortunate.
No children were in the restaurant,
which we thought strange for an early
Sunday afternoon. Most of the diners
appeared to be twenty- or thirtysomething, and were clothed and coifed
as if they were reincarnates from San
Francisco’s
1965
Haight-Ashbury
district. The waitresses—some with
prominent tattoos—were young and
attractive, but much too thin and poorly
endowed to qualify them for a job at
Hooters.
There was a tiny bar inside the deli,
in a location where one would normally
expect to see a deli case filled with
meats, fishes, and cheeses. On top of one
corner of the counter sat a framed
photograph of a man who resembled the
cartoon character depicted on the deli’s
menu.
“Is that a photo of the owner?” I
queried our waitress.
“No, it’s just a picture we found in a
thrift shop,” was her glib answer.
Somehow, I didn’t believe her. She’d
obviously been asked the question many
times before.
I noted that the menu listed smoked
whitefish. But, no chubs. “Do you have
any chubs?” I asked. “My wife loves
chubs.”
“I don’t know what they are,” the
waitress admitted, matter-of-factly. So
much for that.
The menu had a full array of the
expected deli sandwiches, sides, soups,
and entrees. Plus more. A whole lot
more. A Reuben wrap—described as
pastrami, sauerkraut, and Swiss cheese,
rolled inside a spring roll wrapper, fried
crispy, and served with Russian
dressing. Muffuletta sandwiches. Fried
pierogies. Calamari. Huevos rancheros.
And, a number of other foods that
definitely did not belong in a traditional
Jewish deli.
Instead of Splenda in the familiar
yellow packets, the waitress brought a
chrome-topped glass sugar dispenser
filled with white powder. I wasn’t sure
if it was a bulk version of the artificial
sweetener or something else, and
wondered whether I was expected to put
the powder in my coffee or inhale it.
I settled on the smoked whitefish,
which was offered either as a plate or a
sandwich. I asked for the plate, but was
brought the sandwich: A toasted bagel,
with a modest amount of cream cheese,
tomato slices, a large pile of thinlysliced onions that appeared to have been
sitting in water to keep them from drying
out, and an extremely generous helping
of capers.
Oh, yes. There was some white fish,
mostly hidden by the capers. However,
I’m not sure it was whitefish. From the
texture and taste, I suspected it might
have been Chicken-of-the-Sea albacore,
straight from the can. But it was fish, and
it was white.
Was it a real deli? No. Despite a
menu filled with supposed deli foods, a
deli it was not.
I had only one more deli to try out in
the entire state of Washington.
My Quest for a
Good Deli (Part
Three)
Pike Place Market is a nine-acre,
100-year-old
farmers-market-style
operation near the Seattle waterfront.
It’s an extremely popular tourist
attraction filled with handicrafts, floral
arrangements, and souvenirs. It’s also a
place where locals shop for the highest
quality and widest variety of fresh
seafood, meats, produce, and hard-tofind comestibles.
Jon Jacobs has done an amazing job in
a minuscule 105-square-foot stall near
the main entrance to Pike Place market.
H i s I Love New York Deli (which
opened in November of 2007) is
squeezed in between a booth that sells
Lebanese-style whipped garlic and one
that fries miniature donuts while you
wait; and, he’s within earshot of the
famous Pike Place Fish Market, where
fishmongers toss huge freshly-caught
salmon back and forth to entertain
customers.
Jon grew up in the Flatbush section of
Brooklyn but has lived in the Pacific
Northwest since 1977. He’d long
agonized over the lack of deli food in
Seattle.
For twelve long years Jon dreamed of
owning a New York-style Jewish
delicatessen, though he’d never even
worked in one. No matter. Jon’s love
and knowledge of deli food shines
through and more than makes up for any
lack of behind-the-counter experience.
Moreover, he looks the part of a
stereotypical deli man, with his round,
smiling, mustached face, his head
perched atop a burly frame and beefy
carcass that proclaims he greatly enjoys
his own food.
I Love New York Deli is strictly a togo operation, but there’s a small area
nearby with stools and counters where
you can sit down and more or less relax
while you’re enjoying your sandwich.
Jacobs carries no appetizing, but he’ll
build just about any kind of overstuffed
deli sandwich you want: corned beef,
pastrami, beef brisket, turkey breast,
pickled tongue, roast beef, chopped
liver, Kosher salami, and, of course, a
Reuben.
Jon brings in most of the meats from
East Coast purveyors. A local bakery
bakes two types of rye bread especially
for him. He makes the chopped liver
himself on the premises, as well as real
matzo ball soup, potato salad, cole slaw,
and a wide variety of knishes, both
sweet and savory.
Jon does all the buying, cooking,
slices the meat, builds sandwiches, runs
the cash register, and schmoozes with
customers in a space measuring 10 x
10.5 feet, with just one helper!
I Love New York Deli is not a fullservice sit-down delicatessen, it’s a
sandwich shop. It had good deli
sandwiches, but it was a long drive from
home.
And, that was it—there was not
another deli in the entire state of
Washington! Three times at bat, and I
struck out on all three. The state of
Washington was virtually a deli-free
zone.
I LOVE NEW YORK DELI AT PIKE PLACE
MARKET, SEATTLE WA
How I Nearly
Burned My House
Down
David Sax is a Canadian in his early
thirties who is more than just a deli
maven,
he’s
the
acknowledged
worldwide expert on smoked meats and
Jewish delicatessens—and a terrific
writer besides. While researching for
his award-winning best-seller Save the
Deli, Sax dined in more delis than
anyone else in recorded history—and, as
they say, lived to tell the tale, proving
that deli food really isn’t unhealthy, as
some people proclaim.
David’s
book Save the Deli is
educational and entertaining—and, most
of all, it’s delightful reading. I
recommend it highly to anyone who
loves delis, deli food, and great stories.
Sax
also
writes
a
blog
—savethedeli.com—wherein he reports
deli openings, deli news, and, on a
sadder note, deli closings and the deaths
of deli owners.
Nick Zukin and Kenny Gordon made
pastramis and sold them at a farmer’s
market in Hillsdale, Oregon. They soon
parlayed that adventure into Kenny &
Zuke’s Delicatessen in Portland. Please
read the entire story on their website:
http://www.kennyandzukes.com/
Kenny & Zuke’s, located in a slightly
seedy section of downtown Portland, has
some of the same 1960’s hippie-type
atmosphere as Roxy’s Diner in Fremont,
Washington. But there the similarities
end.
Unlike Roxy’s, Kenny & Zuke’s is a
genuine delicatessen—perhaps more so
than most. Not only do they smoke their
own pastrami, they cure salmon into lox,
cream herring, bake bagels, breads, and
knishes, and make most everything else
served in the artisanal deli—just as all
the foods were made in-house in the
great New York delis of yore.
Kenny & Zuke’s enjoys a very
cosmopolitan clientele. When I visited
the deli in winter, it was packed with
mostly young people wearing heavy
woolen Pacific Northwest clothing.
Asian, Native American, and other
readily identifiable ethnic groups far
exceeded those diners who could
reasonably be presumed to be Jewish.
David Sax spotlighted Kenny &
Zuke's in Gourmet Magazine as one of
two shops that represent the future of
delicatessen. He also named Kenny &
Zuke's as one of the top 10 delicatessens
in
North
America.
Such
an
acknowledgment by Sax is a compliment
of extreme magnitude.
I had made David aware of the dearth
of delis in the state of Washington, and
how hungry I was for deli food. Still, I
was surprised to receive an email from
Nick Zukin (whom I had never met)
saying he would soon be passing through
my area on vacation, and wanted to
know if I’d like him to bring me a “Care
Package” of deli food.
Naturally, I responded with an
immediate and thankful “Yes!” and gave
Nick my phone number.
He called a few weeks later. We
made arrangements to meet at an auto
dealership just off of I-5, the freeway
that passes through Tacoma. The time it
would take to have my car serviced
would provide a window for Nick’s
arrival, give or take an hour or two.
True to his word, Nick brought me
large bags containing pastrami, corned
beef, dill pickles, pickled green
tomatoes, breads and bagels, cookies,
macaroons, rugelach, and more. It was a
veritable deli feast! I estimated the total
value of the “Care Package” to be in
excess of $100, yet Nick wouldn’t take a
penny from me.
At that time my wife was in a nursing
home a few miles from our house. JJ
detested the food there, so I prepared
dinner and took it to her every day. The
day of Nick’s delivery was a special
dinner indeed, which she greatly
enjoyed! I steamed a slab of the pastrami
for three hours, then prepared an
overstuffed sandwich with all the
accompaniments.
It was my custom to stay with JJ after
she ate until visiting hours were over,
then return home and have my own
evening meal.
The minute I drove into my garage I
knew something was wrong. Terribly
wrong. Dangerously wrong. There was a
strong stench of burned meat. When I
opened the door to the house, I was
enveloped in dense acrid smoke. All the
smoke alarms were screaming, and I
could see no more than a few feet in
front of me.
I probably should have backed out
immediately, but instead I foolhardily
proceeded inside. By the time I worked
my way to the kitchen I realized what I
had done. I’d thought that before leaving
the house I’d turned off the heat beneath
the pot in which I’d steamed the
pastrami. Apparently I’d turned the dial
in the wrong direction. The gas burner
was at full blast. All the water had
evaporated. The bottom of the pot
glowed red, completely ruined. The
pastrami inside had turned to charcoal,
ready to burst into flames at any moment.
I opened all the doors and windows.
Eventually, hours later, the smoke
dissipated. I was surprised one of the
neighbors didn’t call the fire department
when they saw smoke pouring out of my
house.
Despite over $50 in deodorants and
air sprays, the house still had a burnt
odor months later. The white window
blinds had taken on a tan tone, as had
some of the walls.
Fortunately, I still had most of the
pastrami in my refrigerator, for I’d
steamed only enough for a few
sandwiches.
I would have loved to visit Kenny &
Zuke’s Delicatessen on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, it was more than 160
miles from my home in Gig Harbor.
KENNY & ZUKE’S DELICATESSEN,
PORTLAND OR
KENNY & ZUKE’S MADE-IN-HOUSE
ARTISANAL DELI FOODS
The Lack-of-Deli
Problem Resolved
I found myself suffering from a severe
case of deli deprivation, and realized I
was on the verge of coming down with a
full-scale deli deficit disorder (DDD).
I couldn’t drive to Portland or fly to
L. A. whenever I hungered for a
pastrami on rye, and it was too
expensive to fly food in from New York
on a regular basis.
There was only one thing to do. I was
a good cook. I merely needed to acquire
recipes for all the wonderful deli foods
and make them myself.
I already made the best latkes in the
land. One Hanukkah, my fresser friend
George Smith (may he rest in peace) ate
37 of them at one sitting. That was really
too many, even for him; he ended up that
night in the emergency hospital with
severe stomach cramps and bloating.
Sometimes, there’s just too much of a
good thing..
I also knew how to make great cheese
blintzes, cheesecake, Chinese cookies,
stuffed bell peppers, dill pickles, and
more. It was just a matter of doing the
research and trying out various recipes
and their variations for the rest of the
foods. That proved to be timeconsuming, but each new recipe was a
culinary adventure and accomplishment.
Before long, my house even started to
smell like a deli, between the various
meats and pastries cooking and cabinets
full of spices.
Bottom line: My homemade lox, made
with the wonderful wild salmon readily
available in the state of Washington, was
to die for! Not only was it delicious, it
cost me a fraction of the price of lox in a
deli. But as I just told you, there was no
deli.
Katz’s (New York) and Langer’s (Los
Angeles) are world-famous for their
pastrami. I’ll stack my homemade
pastrami up against theirs any time! It’s
easy to make in your kitchen—you don’t
need a smoker. My easy recipe
magically transforms $20 worth of
brisket into nearly $100 worth of the
most delicious pastrami you’ve ever
tasted. That’s even better than alchemy!
My pickled tongue is a delicacy you
have to taste to believe. Again, the cost
to make it is ridiculously low.
I haven’t had bagels as delicious as
mine since I was a teenager and bought
them on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles.
The stuff they call bagels at
supermarkets,
wholesale
food
warehouses, and bagel franchises may
be the size and shape of bagels, and even
a similar color, but they sure don’t taste
like bagels. They may be plastic. I’ll
have to remember to check the list of
ingredients some time.
In my opinion, the person who came
up with the hideous idea of adding
jalapeño peppers, blueberries, chocolate
chips,
and
other
non-traditional
ingredients to bagels needs to be drawn
and quartered. Or, at the minimum,
tarred and feathered and sent out of town
on a rail.
Chicken-in-the-pot; matzo ball soup;
knishes;
macaroni
salad;
kasha
varnishkes—those recipes and more are
in this book, easy and inexpensive to
make.
After I perfected the recipes, I taught
an eight-week, one evening a week
hands-on class on cooking deli foods at
Temple Beth El in Tacoma, Washington.
This book is not a comprehensively
detailed history of that great, venerable
American institution, the Jewish
delicatessen. Nor is it an encyclopedia
of Jewish recipes gathered from the
entire diaspora. It is not a recipe book of
Israeli cuisine. It is not a summary of
kosher foods and dietary laws. It has no
recipes for Jewish holiday foods, unless
they’re served year-round in a deli. Yet,
by necessity, it touches on all of the
above.
And this book is not intended to
replace Jewish delicatessens, for which
there are no acceptable substitutes.
There’s a lot more to delis than just the
food—such as the ambrosial aromas, the
noisy ambience, and the camaraderie.
Delis are a social institution, a way of
life.
Rather, this book is the self-help
answer for those unfortunate souls who
—as I once was—are stranded hundreds
of miles from the nearest Jewish deli, so
hungry for real deli food they want to
scream. If you live in an area that
doesn’t have a good deli—or perhaps
none at all—fret no more. This book is
the solution to your troubles.
You’ll learn how to quickly, easily,
and inexpensively prepare authentic deli
food at home … including genuine
pastrami; corned beef; pickled tongue;
lox (made from fresh salmon); matzo
ball soup; kasha varnishkas; matzo brei;
bagels and bialys; New York style
cheesecake; black & white cookies; and
scores of other deli delights—all made
from “scratch.”
But first (drum roll), a little
entertainment.
True Tales of the
Deli
The Zaftig Waitress
I can’t recall ever seeing a gorgeous
young woman tending tables in a deli. I
think deli waitresses must start their
restaurant careers somewhere else—
Hooter’s, perhaps, or even Denny’s—
and not make a move to the deli business
until they’re well into their mid- to latethirties.
The best deli waitresses appear to be
near retirement age. They’re brash,
almost but not quite irascible, with the
innate ability to juggle plates and silver
with one hand while writing an order
with the other—all the time laying a guilt
trip on you with their motherly
conversation.
And then, there was the zaftig
waitress. If you don’t know what zaftig
means, you might as well quit reading
right now, as this story will have no
meaning for you.
My friend and business partner
Raymond Jacob and I had lunch most
every day in the same deli where the
zaftig waitress worked. From some of
Ray’s comments, I’m sure she inspired
fantasies for him, just as she inspired
fantasies for me.
She reminded me somewhat of a fullfigured Marilyn Monroe. Her hair was
bleached platinum blonde and worn in a
popular 1960s style that reminded me of
the cartoon character Judy Jetson. Never
a hair was out of place, perhaps due to
an extra-heavy application of hair spray,
which made her commodious coiffure
greatly resemble a helmet. Or, perhaps,
the thing on top of her head was a
polyester wig. When it comes to women,
I’ve never been very good at
determining what’s real and what’s not.
Of course, neither Raymond nor I ever
made any inappropriate remarks or
sexual overtures to the zaftig waitress.
Everything was strictly on the up-andup. She brought our meals, we gave her
a good tip. Perhaps, sometimes, a little
too good.
And then one day she was gone from
the deli. None of the other employees
seemed to know what happened to her,
or perhaps they just weren’t talking.
Someone speculated she might have
gotten married. Another hinted she’d had
a run-in with the deli’s owner, who had
a reputation for being a hothead.
That, of course, would be good reason
for the other employees to keep their
silence. After all, the busboy rumored to
have been caught peeing in the pickle
barrel was fired on the spot.
About twenty years later I had
breakfast at another deli, one which I
didn’t go to very often. Lo and behold,
there she was! No longer the zaftig,
buxom blonde waitress, she had
metamorphosed into the typical motherly
deli waitress with the brash demeanor.
From years of working on her feet all
day, the formerly zaftig waitress had
developed very visible varicose veins.
Her hips had grown wider, her thighs
and abdomen thicker. And her
previously flawless skin had become
wrinkled! She still had the identical hair
style I’d remembered; perhaps it was the
same wig.
I was so shocked at her appearance
that I failed to ask what she had been
doing for the past twenty years. Perhaps
she did get married and the marriage
didn’t work out and she had to go back
to waitressing. Perhaps she’d merely
changed her place of employment and
had been working all those years at the
deli where I found her.
When I left the deli I realized my
appearance had probably changed, also.
Despite feeding me most every day for
several years, I’m not sure she even
recognized me.
The Zhlub
The same delicatessen where
Raymond and I had been served lunch
most every day by the zaftig waitress
had a goofy-looking counterman who
was a dead ringer for the character
Francis in Mell Lazarus’s comic strip
M o m m a . Accordingly, we always
thought of the counterman as a zhlub, as
was the comic strip character.
But then, what skills are required to
make a deli sandwich? Simply slice
meat and stick it between two pieces of
bread, cut the sandwich in half, and
throw a dill pickle and a paper cup of
potato salad on the side of the plate. Or,
so we thought at the time. I have since
learned to greatly respect the hardworking and dedicated men and
occasional woman who work behind
deli cases.
One afternoon Ray and I went to the
deli for a very late lunch; it was almost
time for dinner, actually. I wanted
something not too heavy, so it wouldn’t
spoil my appetite for later. I ordered the
deli’s featured diet plate, which
consisted of a hamburger patty, a scoop
of cottage cheese, a peach half, and
assorted garnishes. As I’ve already
mentioned, most Jewish delis these days
are kosher-style and not actually kosher,
so nobody thought twice about the meatdairy combination.
We were sitting where we could see
the grill. Soon the zhlub had my
hamburger patty sizzling and starting to
smell really good. And then, he did a
most improbable thing. Apparently, he
had a maintenance chore to complete
before he ended his shift for the day, and
it was already getting late. So, instead of
waiting a few minutes until my
hamburger patty was cooked, the zhlub
went directly to his task. Using a small
step ladder, he climbed up and stood on
the edge of the grill and sprayed
degreaser into the filter in the hood
above the grill. Naturally, the detergent
and old grease started dripping down—
right onto my hamburger patty.
I was mortified. We left the deli
immediately and never returned.
A few months later we heard that the
zhlub had quit and opened his own deli
in a neighboring town. Fortunately for
his customers, he didn’t stay in business
very long.
The Cashier
It was a well-known fact that the
cashier at a very famous deli was the
wife of the owner. An older woman,
perhaps in her late sixties, with one
deadpan expression—never a smile,
never a thank you. She spoke as little as
possible. If a response was absolutely
necessary to a customer’s attempt at
conversation, most likely it would be a
grunt.
She was heavyset, as women of her
age tend to be, yet not what one would
call obese or even fat. Her face was
always covered with a thick application
of a very pale powder. Her cheeks were
pink rounds of rouge and her lips were
covered with bright red lipstick. Each
day she wore a dignified dark dress
(usually black) and conservative gold
jewelry, as if she had just come from a
funeral.
The woman always sat on a high stool
directly behind the cash register. The
register itself was surrounded by
voluminous displays of chewing gum,
mints, halvah, and candy bars, leaving
but a small space on the counter—
perhaps the size of a place mat—to
exchange money or sign a credit slip.
No matter the time of day, from early
morning to closing, she was always
there. I never saw her leave the stool,
not even for a moment. For all I know,
someone could have carried her in like
an automaton the first thing every day
and out every night after the deli closed,
much as a window dresser might move a
mannequin.
Invariably, she short-changed me.
Sometimes just a few pennies,
sometimes several dollars. When I
pointed the error out to her, she would
grunt and make the appropriate
restitution. Finally, to avoid further
confrontations, whenever I ate in that
deli I made certain I had the exact
number of bills and coins to pay for my
meal without requiring change; or else, I
would put the tab on a credit card.
She’s no longer at the deli. Perhaps
she retired, perhaps she returned to her
maker. I never knew her name, but I miss
her.
Van Houten
At one time I owned a photo supply
manufacturing business in the San
Fernando Valley and a color film
processing lab in Las Vegas. At the same
time, I was attending law school in the
Valley. I maintained homes in both
locations, though my wife and family
were living full-time in Vegas. Most of
my studying for the bar was on Western
Airlines, during the several-trips-eachweek commutes. I didn’t have much time
for cooking, so when I was in L.A. I
spent a lot of time in delis.
I would often stop in at Eddie Saul’s
on Ventura Boulevard in Encino for
breakfast. Eddie was the brother of the
late Marvin Saul, the founder and owner
of Junior’s in Westwood. My typical
breakfast consisted of a toasted buttered
water bagel, two slices of muenster
cheese, a small glass of orange juice,
and coffee. While eating, I’d catch up on
what was going on in the world by
reading the Los Angeles Times.
More often than not, some melted
butter would drip from the hole in the
middle of the bagel onto my tie. Once, a
particularly large glop of softened butter
found a path all the way down my jacket,
tie, shirt, and trousers, finally landing on
top of one shoe.
Perhaps I should have paid more
attention to my eating habits than to the
newspaper and the conversations at
other tables.
One morning two alta kockers sitting
at the next booth were engaged in
conversation.
I
couldn’t
help
overhearing them, as one said, with a
heavy Eastern European accent, “Hymie,
I wish you had gone to Las Vegas with
me. I saw the most wonderful
entertainer, Van Hooten.”
“Van Hooten?” questioned the other,
somewhat disinterestedly. “I never heard
of him. What does he do, Abe?”
“Oh, he’s a marvelous singer,” Abe
replied ebulliently. “He sings all kinds
of songs and the audience goes wild.
He’s every bit as talented as Al Jolson
was.”
Hymie speared a bit of lox with his
fork and moved it to his mouth. “Nu,
what else does he do? I still never heard
of him.”
“I think he plays every instrument ever
made,” continued Abe, gesticulating as
he spoke. “He puts one down and picks
another up, and never misses a note.
He’s the greatest musician I ever heard!”
“So, where did you see this Van
Hooten fellow?” asked Hymie, while
schmearing some cream cheese on his
bagel.
“He was at Caesar’s Palace. He’s a
big star.” said Abe.
Hymie must have had an epiphany.
“Abe! You don’t mean Van Hooten, you
mean Wayne Newton!”
To which Abe replied, somewhat
exasperated, “That’s what I said! Van
Hooten!”
Deli Quotes
“People think of Jewish food as
cholesterol-laden, vein-clogging, and
weight-producing
food—which
is
basically what it is.” … David W.
Young
But then, who goes into a deli to eat
healthy food?
*****
“I love Jewish food, but when you eat
it, 72 hours later you’re hungry again.”
… Richard F. Shepard, New York Times
reporter and deli aficionado
*****
“I'm going to marry a Jewish woman
because I like the idea of getting up
Sunday morning and going to the deli.”
… Michael J. Fox
*****
“I used to work part time in a deli, in
those days when your parents made you
work just so you should know what
work was like. And you'd make 4, 5, 6,
ten dollars.” … Hector Elizondo
*****
“I’ll have what she’s having!”
… Estelle Reiner (wife of Carl and
mother of Rob Reiner), portraying a
diner in Katz’s Deli in the movie When
Harry Met Sally. This is generally
considered to be the funniest line ever
uttered in a motion picture.
*****
“Jewish
delicatessens
are
disappearing faster than chicken fingers
at a bar mitzvah buffet.” … David Sax,
author of the book Save The Deli
Deli Jokes
These classic deli jokes have been
circulating so long they’ve grown
whiskers. Yet, even though you’ve heard
them a dozen times or more, they still
bring a chuckle or two.
HANUKKAH AT THE DELI
It was Hanukkah. Two elderly Jewish
men were sitting in a wonderful New
York City deli frequented almost
exclusively by Jews. They were talking
in Yiddish—the colorful language of
Jews who came over from Eastern
Europe.
A Chinese waiter, only one year in
New York, came up and in fluent,
impeccable Yiddish asked them if
everything was okay and if they were
enjoying the holiday.
The Jewish men were dumbfounded.
“Where did he ever learn such perfect
Yiddish?” they both thought. After they
paid the bill they asked the restaurant
manager, an old friend of theirs, “Where
did our waiter learn such fabulous
Yiddish?”
The manager looked around and
leaned in so no one else could hear and
said, “Shhhh … He thinks we're teaching
him English.”
MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
A man walked into a deli and took a
seat at a table.
“Give me a corned beef sandwich,”
he told the waiter.
“We don’t have a corned beef
sandwich on the menu, but I can give you
a sandwich with corned beef in it, like
our Midnight Special,” the waiter said.
“What’s a Midnight Special?”
“A triple decker with corned beef,
tongue, bologna, tomato, lettuce, onion,
pickle and mayonnaise, on toasted raisin
bread.”
“Could you just place a piece of
corned beef between two slices of rye
bread and serve it to me on a plate?”
“Why, sure!” Then, turning to the
sandwich man, the waiter sang out: “One
Midnight Special. Make it one deck,
hold the tongue, bologna, tomato, lettuce,
onion, pickle and mayonnaise, and make
the raisin bread rye, untoasted!”
TRIPS TO BERMUDA
The owner of a small deli was being
questioned by the IRS about his tax
return. He had reported a net profit of
$80,000 for the year.
“Why don't you people leave me
alone?” the deli owner said. “I work
like a dog, everyone in my family helps
out, the place is closed only three days a
year. And you want to know how I made
$80,000?”
“No, no, no. It's not your income that
bothers us,” the agent said. “It's these
deductions. For example, you listed six
trips to Bermuda for you and your wife.”
“Oh, that,” the owner said. “I forgot to
tell you. We also deliver.”
MYRON COHEN
Do you remember one of the top
comedians of the 20th century, Bronxborn Myron Cohen? The following two
Myron Cohen stories are said to have
started at the Stage Deli in New York
City, a restaurant founded by Max
Asnas, who bore the nickname The Corn
beef Confucius.
Cohen claims a customer asked Max
why he didn't have a parking lot in
connection with his restaurant.
Max snorted: “Jerk! If I had a parking
lot, I wouldn't need a restaurant!”
Here’s another: Three gentlemen were
eating in a deli the other afternoon. One,
noticing an unclean glass on his table,
called the waiter over, handed it to him,
and said, “Make sure my glass is clean.”
A few seconds later the waiter
returned. “Which one of you guys,” he
asked, “ordered the clean glass?”
Meats
Pastrami
Even if you have a great deli within
walking distance, there are two good
reasons why you should make pastrami
instead of buying it. First, no storebought pastrami is as delicious as that
which you can make at home. Second,
you’ll save money—a whole lot of
money. Depending on the deli, pastrami
sandwiches cost $10 to $15. By the
pound, good pastrami costs $16 to $23.
At home, you can make great pastrami
for a fraction of that amount. Yes,
making pastrami is well worth the effort.
Don’t confuse pastrami with corned
beef. They’re entirely different, though
both are cured and either can be made
from the same cuts of beef. Corned beef
is cured in a brine solution; pastrami is
cured with a dry rub. Corned beef is
seasoned with pickling spices; pastrami
is flavored with coriander, black
pepper, and garlic. Pastrami has a
smoked flavor; corned beef does not.
And, no, you can’t convert corned beef
into pastrami. I’ve read recipes that
claim you can, but they’re wrong, wrong,
wrong!
Pastrami originated in Turkey as a
means of preserving meat (usually
camel) in the days long before
refrigeration. In nearby Romania, the
idea of spicing and drying meat was
adapted by Jewish butchers, and the
process eventually developed into the
tender, peppery, garlicky delicacy we
call pastrami.
The name pastrami comes from the
Romanian Pastramă, probably from the
verb "a păstra" (to preserve, to keep),
and was brought to the English language
via Yiddish. The English ending "-mi"
was perhaps influenced by the word
salami.
Patricia Volk (in her book Stuffed)
asserts her great-grandfather introduced
pastrami to the New World, and tells
this story:
Sussman Volk, a miller, left Lithuania
and immigrated to the United States in
1887. But New York City didn’t have a
need for millers. To support his wife
and seven children, Volk became a
tinker. He traveled from place to place
selling pots and pans, which he carried
on his back. At night he slept in the barns
of his customers.
Volk wasn’t happy with the lowly job,
and he especially didn’t like being away
from his family. One morning, while
saying his prayers, he was kicked by a
horse. That was the final straw. He tore
his hair and shouted, “My life lacks
dignity!”
Once again, Volk changed careers. He
opened a kosher butcher shop on
Delancy Street.
Not long afterwards, a Romanian
friend stopped by to visit.
“Could you store a trunk for me in
your basement?” his friend asked. “I’ve
got to go back to Romania for a few
years. If you’ll store my trunk, I’ll give
you my recipe for making pastrami.”
Sussman took the trunk and the recipe.
At first, he sold pastrami by the hunk.
Then, by the slice. Then, he put it
between two pieces of rye bread. The
first New York deli was born!
It didn’t take long for competition to
spring up. Katz’s Delicatessen was
started in 1888 by a Russian immigrant
family on the Lower East Side. The
restaurant is frequented by politicians,
entertainers, and celebrities of all types.
Al Gore took the Russian Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin there to lunch.
Barbra Streisand, Kathleen Turner,
Bruce Willis, and Dan Aykroyd are just
a few of the entertainers who enjoy the
deli’s food.
The “I’ll have what she’s having”
scene in the movie When Harry Met
Sally was filmed at Katz’s. So was the
scene when Johnny Depp met his FBI
contact in Donnie Brasco, and the scene
where Judge Reinhold goes out to eat in
Off Beat. Episodes of Law and Order
have also been filmed at Katz’s.
Today, it’s generally conceded that
Katz’s Delicatessen has the best
pastrami in New York, though there are
some who would argue otherwise.
Carnegie Deli and Artie’s New York
Delicatessen are definitely contenders
for the title, along with a few others.
Jeffrey Bank, one of the founders of
Artie’s, acquired—almost accidentally
—the secret pastrami recipe from the
late and lamented Kosher-Chinese deli
and pastrami emporium Schmulke
Bernstein’s. Artie’s now sells nearly a
ton of pastrami every week.
New Yorkers may be partial to
Katz’s, but the reputation for having the
best pastrami in the United States (and
probably the entire world) goes to
Langer’s, a Los Angeles institution that’s
been around since 1947. Actually,
Langer’s is more of a sandwich shop
than a full-service deli. It closes every
day at 4:00 pm and is not open on
Sundays.
Langer’s is located at 7th and
Alvarado near downtown, across the
street from MacArthur Park, in what has
become a heavily Latino neighborhood.
The founder, Al Langer, passed away in
June of 2007; he was 94 years old. Right
up until he died, he went in to the deli
several times a week for a few hours to
help with the lunch crowd and to greet
old customers. His son, Norm Langer,
now runs the place. Norm has worked
the deli—a family affair—since 1963.
I first ate at Langer’s in 1952, when I
worked in downtown L. A. for a baitand-switch vacuum cleaner company. I
can’t recall ever ordering a pastrami
sandwich at Langer’s in those days,
however. At the time, my favorite deli
sandwich was rare roast beef with
chicken schmaltz.
At Langer’s, you order sandwiches by
the number. Number 1 is pastrami, cole
slaw, and Russian dressing. Add Swiss
cheese and the number changes to 19.
Pastrami, chopped liver, and Russian
dressing is number 6. A grilled pastrami,
sauerkraut, and “nippy” (American)
cheese is number 44. And there are many
more. These sandwiches are with the
meat piled high on rye bread baked by
Bea’s Bakery in Tarzana.
Pastrami can be made from several
cuts of beef: the brisket, the beef plate
adjacent to the brisket (also called the
navel), the bottom round, the eye of the
round, and the top round. As the rounds
are thick, they require injection of the
curing spices in order to cure completely
through to the center of the meat. That’s
too much work to do at home. Let’s
forget about using those cuts of meat.
Besides, they’re much too lean for most
people.
The beef plate has quite a bit more fat
than the brisket and makes great
pastrami, but it’s rarely available from
supermarkets and retail meat sources.
That leaves the brisket, which makes
wonderful pastrami. We’ll work with
that, but not an entire brisket—just the
brisket flat.
I like the briskets available at Sam’s
Club and Costco. Packaged in Cryovac,
brisket flats are $2.79 per pound as of
this writing. Taken from the Cryovac and
repackaged in white plastic trays, the
very same meat is offered at $3.99 per
pound. I won’t give the butcher an extra
$9.00 or $10.00 per brisket for an
unnecessary repackaging procedure, and
hope that you won’t, either.
There are three distinct steps to
making pastrami: The curing process, the
cooking process, and the steaming
process.
They
say
everything
worthwhile is worth waiting for, and
pastrami is no exception. It will be a
week between the time you’ve brought
the meat home and the time you’re able
to sit down to a pastrami sandwich. That
gives you quite a bit of time to work up a
big appetite in anticipation—especially
when you smell the meat cooking!
This easy method of making pastrami
eliminates the need to smoke the meat
out-of-doors—instead, you cook it in
your kitchen oven. I guarantee you won’t
be able to tell the difference.
PASTRAMI INGREDIENTS
1 brisket of beef flat, about 7 or 8
pounds
1 dry cure recipe
1 cooking rub recipe
PASTRAMI DRY CURE
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup Morton Tender Quick
1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup black pepper, coarsely ground
2 tablespoons coriander seeds, freshly
ground
2 tablespoons granulated garlic
PREPARATION
Mix all the ingredients together.
Although you can buy coriander seeds
already ground, it’s much better to start
with the whole seeds and grind them in
an electric spice grinder, such as the
Krups GX-4100 coffee/spice grinder.
By grinding the seeds as you need them,
the oils are freshly released. And, you
can control the coarseness of the grind.
PASTRAMI COOKING RUB
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons black pepper, coarsely
ground
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, freshly
ground
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon (or more) powdered
hickory smoke flavor
PREPARATION
Mix all of the ingredients together.
THE CURING PROCESS
Trim the fat cap on the brisket to no
more than 1/8 inch thick, so the curing
agent can penetrate the meat fully. Don’t
remove all the fat, however—some is
needed for tenderness and flavor.
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT: Save the
removed fat to use when making french
fries. Just render it in hot cooking oil. It
will greatly improve the flavor of the
fries. (Keep the fat in a Ziploc bag in
your freezer until you’re ready to use it.)
Using a sharp knife, stab the brisket at
2-inch intervals on both sides, to help
the curing agent penetrate the meat.
Apply half of the dry cure mix to one
side of the brisket, rubbing it evenly
over the surface and the edges. Repeat
on the other side. Use all of the dry cure
mix.
Place the brisket in a large plastic
bag, such as a 2-gallon Ziploc bag or an
oven roasting bag. Seal the bag and set it
on a rimmed sheet pan. Refrigerate.
Twice a day, turn the bag over.
On the seventh day, it’s time for the
cooking process.
THE COOKING PROCESS
Remove the brisket from the plastic
bag and rinse it under cold running
water. While rinsing, rub the surface to
remove as much of the seasonings as you
can from the meat.
Place the meat in a container of cold
water. Soak the meat for thirty minutes.
Change the water, and soak for an
additional thirty minutes. Soaking is
necessary to remove excess salt.
Dry the brisket with paper towels.
Coat the brisket on both sides with the
cooking rub.
Place the meat on a wire rack sitting
in a rimmed sheet pan. Pour several cups
of water into the sheet pan. If all the
water evaporates during cooking, add
some more.
Bake the pastrami at 250° F. Turn the
meat every hour or so until the internal
temperature of the brisket reaches
165° F—approximately 1 hour per
pound of meat. Important: Don’t
guess—use a meat thermometer, inserted
into the thickest portion of the brisket.
WRAPPING THINGS UP
Remove the brisket from the oven.
Wrap it in heavy-duty aluminum foil.
Allow the meat to rest for two hours.
Congratulations! Your pastrami is
now fully cooked and ready to eat, hot or
cold.
However, at this stage the pastrami is
hard and dry. There’s one more step if
you want the meat to be juicy and tender:
Steam it, to add back some of the
moisture that was removed during the
cooking process.
THE STEAMING PROCESS
Cut off a chunk of as much pastrami as
you intend to serve and steam it for at
least three hours. Some delis steam
pastrami for five or six hours before
slicing it. Most any type of steamer will
do.
Hand-slice pastrami as thin as
possible, against the grain.
Pastrami will keep for several weeks
in your refrigerator. For longer storage,
wrap it in plastic and store it in your
freezer.
Pastrami is best when freshly
steamed. However, you can refrigerate
pastrami that’s been steamed and
reconstitute it in a microwave. Slice the
meat, put it one layer thick on a large
plate, cover it with a wet paper towel,
and heat for 1 or 2 minutes. It’s ready to
make into a sandwich!
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
There are many ways to use pastrami,
such as pastrami and eggs, navy bean
soup with pastrami, and so on. But most
people prefer their pastrami in
sandwiches.
It’s probably illegal in some parts of
the country to serve pastrami on anything
other than seeded rye bread. If it’s not a
felony, it should be, at least, a
misdemeanor. The bread must be fresh
and, preferably, warmed. I wrap as
many slices as are needed in aluminum
foil and heat them for several minutes in
a 350° F oven.
It’s mandatory to serve a topnotch deli
mustard with pastrami—a mustard that
contains a goodly amount of horseradish.
Dilly deli horseradish mustard (recipe in
this book) is perfect.
Serving mayonnaise with pastrami
may be, in some jurisdictions, a capital
crime. However, Russian dressing, even
though it usually contains mayonnaise, is
legal.
I don’t consider it gilding the lily to
add a schmear of chicken liver pâté to
my pastrami sandwich. Not at all. The
two meats complement each other
perfectly.
Some people like cole slaw on their
pastrami sandwiches. I much prefer mine
on the side, as cole slaw makes the
bread soggy. Other people add Swiss
cheese, sliced tomatoes, even sauerkraut
to their pastrami sandwiches. De
gustibus non est disputandum. (That's
Latin for there's no accounting for
tastes. Or, so I’ve been told.)
Store-bought
Corned Beef
It makes a lot of sense to cure your
own pastrami. Homemade pastrami is
superior to most deli pastrami and miles
above the paper-thin garbage that
supermarkets sell in sealed plastic. Not
only that, you can take $20.00 or so of
beef brisket and spices and, with a
minimum of effort, make it into a product
worth many times that amount. Knowing
what I now know, I should have been in
the pastrami business!
On the other hand, it rarely pays to
cure your own corned beef—though if
you’re more concerned with flavor than
price, of course you will cure your own.
Corned beef is available year-round
at a price not much more (and sometimes
less) than uncured beef brisket. But …
timing is everything! Each year just
before St. Patrick’s day most
supermarkets sell Cryovac-packaged
corned beef at ridiculously low prices.
What does corned beef have to do
with St. Patrick's Day? According to the
United States Department of Agriculture,
corned beef and cabbage was a
traditional dish served for Easter Sunday
dinner in rural Ireland. The beef, which
was salted or brined during the winter to
preserve it, could then be eaten after the
long, meatless Lenten fast.
I’ve seen corned beef on sale as low
as 59¢ per pound, and prices of less than
$1.00 per pound are not unusual, though
$1.50 per pound is more the norm.
Mostly, the price depends on how
competitive the supermarkets are in your
city. Corned beef is often a loss leader
designed to get people in the store.
The week or two before Saint
Patrick’s day is the time to stock up for
your freezer, and say a berakhah for the
Irish saint who made the bargain
possible. I generally buy a dozen
packages or more, enough to tide me
over until the following year’s big sale.
Always buy corned beef brisket flats
or points. The flat is the leaner cut, and
generally costs more per pound. Never
buy corned beef rounds—they’re much
too lean. You’d never find one in a good
Jewish deli.
INGREDIENTS
Corned beef brisket
Pickling spice
White (distilled) vinegar
PREPARATION
Remove the corned beef from the
plastic shrink-wrap package. Place the
corned beef, together with any juices that
came in the package, into a large pot.
Look for a small cellophane package
of pickling spices inside the package of
corned beef—most corned beef briskets
come with one. Open it, and empty the
spices into the pot with the corned beef.
The packers of corned beef are, in my
opinion, too stingy with the pickling
spices. So, I always add more—another
two tablespoons.
Pour one cup of vinegar into the pot.
It’s not required, but the corned beef
always seems to taste better when you
do.
Add enough water to cover the corned
beef by at least an inch. (You can cook
more than one corned beef in the same
pot.)
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat
immediately—never cook corned beef
with the water at a full rolling boil.
Instead, simmer on low, covered, for
three hours or until an inserted fork
indicates that the meat is tender. This
means you have several hours of free
time to watch a DVD or ???
When the corned beef is fork-tender,
turn off the heat. This is very important:
Do not remove the corned beef from the
water until it has cooled substantially
—at least an hour, and longer is okay. If
you take the corned beef out when it’s
still hot, the meat fibers will instantly
dry and toughen. Aarrgh!
Slice thinly against the grain, and pile
high on rye bread for sandwiches.
Home-cured Corned
Beef
This curing process is similar to that
used for pickling tongue. Indeed, you can
corn a brisket of beef in the same brine
and at the same time you pickle a tongue.
There are some differences in
preparation and in pickling time,
however, so be sure to read both
recipes.
INGREDIENTS
1 fresh beef brisket (6–8 pounds)
1 cup kosher salt
5 tablespoons Morton Tender Quick
1/4 cup pickling spice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon black pepper, coarse grind
PREPARATION
Remove any excess fat.
Using a sharp knife, stab the brisket at
2-inch intervals on both sides, to help
the curing agent penetrate the meat.
Place the meat in a stone crock, foodgrade plastic container, or other nonmetallic container.
Mix the salts and spices with 1 quart
water and pour over the meat. Then, add
enough additional water to completely
cover.
Weigh the brisket down with a heavy
plate to keep it submerged.
Cover the container and refrigerate
for 10 days.
Turn the meat over daily.
TO COOK THE CORNED BEEF
Rinse the meat thoroughly under cool
running water to remove excess salt; or,
soak it in cool water for an hour or so,
changing the water several times.
Place it in a large pot, together with
1/2 cup vinegar and 2 tablespoons
pickling spice. Add water to cover by at
least an inch.
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat.
Cover, and simmer until the meat is fork-
tender, about 3 hours.
Allow the cooking water to cool to
lukewarm before removing the corned
beef, in order to prevent the meat fibers
from instantly drying and toughening
when the hot meat is exposed to air.
To-Die-For Corned
Beef
This isn’t a deli recipe, but it makes a
corned beef dinner your friends and
family will rave about for years. This is
the ultimate corned beef recipe. It never
fails to please and it never fails to
generate compliment after compliment.
Your guests will literally moan and
groan when they taste “To Die For”
corned beef. The secret is the bubbling
glaze applied just prior to serving.
Best of all, it’s easy to make,
requiring very little time in the kitchen to
get a complete corned beef dinner on the
table. What’s more, this can be a very
inexpensive meal, especially if you’ve
bought the corned beef on sale.
Prepare plenty—at least a pound of
meat (uncooked) per person. If the
brisket is small, perhaps made from the
point, you’ll need one for every two to
three people.
There is some shrinkage during
cooking, but that isn’t the main reason
you’ll want to have an abundance of
corned beef. It will disappear off the
serving platter much faster than you
could ever imagine. Should there be any
left over, cold corned beef sandwiches
for lunch will be as much appreciated as
the hot corned beef was at dinnertime.
Or, you might want to make some corned
beef hash for breakfast. Thus, it’s a very,
very good idea for you to intentionally
make more than you think will be eaten
at dinner.
INGREDIENTS
Corned beef, cooked, cooled to
lukewarm
Prepared (yellow ballpark) mustard
Brown sugar
PREPARATION
Make a glaze by mixing equal
quantities of brown sugar and yellow
mustard. About a cup of each should
suffice, depending upon the size of the
corned beef brisket. You can always
freeze any glaze that’s left over, saving it
for next time.
Remove the corned beef from the
water and place it, fat side up, in a
shallow baking dish.
Scrape off and discard any excess fat.
Cover the corned beef with a layer of
the glaze.
Broil on the middle rack of your oven
until the glaze bubbles and starts to
caramelize, about ten minutes. Watch
closely—you don’t want to turn the glaze
into charcoal!
Slice thinly against the grain with an
electric knife. Serve immediately.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Steam small red potatoes (unpeeled)
and peeled carrots, cut to 2 inch lengths,
until tender. Finish the vegetables off in
the broiler (at the same time you broil
the meat) by surrounding the corned beef
with the potatoes and carrots and
dribbling a little of the mustard glaze on
top of them.
Serve with steamed white cabbage
wedges, about 1/4 to 1/6 cabbage per
person, depending on size of the
cabbage. Cut the cabbage in half, then
cut each half in half again, or in thirds. I
always provide a bottle of Trappey’s
Peppers in Vinegar, so guests can put a
few dashes of the spicy vinegar on the
steamed cabbage to heighten the flavor.
Accompany with fresh deli rye bread
and deli mustard.
Corned Beef Pâté
It’s so easy to make a tasty pâté with
leftover corned beef! Trim off any
excess fat and smoosh the corned beef in
your food processor. Add a little deli
mustard for flavor and some mayonnaise
to provide a smooth texture. If desired,
stir in a little pickle relish. Serve on
crackers as an appetizer.
Pickled Tongue
When the woman asked the deli
counterman if the tongue was good, he
replied, “It speaks for itself.”
Years ago I often had lunch at Brent’s
Deli in Northridge, California, which
was conveniently located a short blockand-a-half stroll from my office. The
food was good and the service typical
deli—that is, wisecracking waitresses
with an assumed attitude. Most of the
time I’d be joined by my friend and
business partner Ray Jacob. Quite often,
my wife JJ would accompany us.
Being raised in Brooklyn and dining
frequently in delis, JJ loved tongue. On
one particular, well-remembered day
she was greatly enjoying a tongue on rye,
when Raymond—who always tried to
find humor in everything, even when
there was none—made a remark he
probably thought was quite funny. I don’t
remember what he said, exactly, but it
had something to do with the cow licking
JJ’s face with its big tongue.
JJ dropped the sandwich back on her
plate, wiped her mouth with her napkin,
and never ate tongue again. Not only
that, she didn’t even want to look at one.
Many people, otherwise omnivores,
won’t try tongue because it comes from
an animal’s mouth. To them, I ask: Do
you eat eggs? Do you drink milk? What
about kishka?
I’m of the opinion that—because of its
appearance—tongue, like possum and
cat, should never be brought to the table
whole. It’s best presented on a platter,
already sliced.
I prefer the silky and velvety lean tip
of the tongue. Some people enjoy the
fatter, flavorful center cut near the back.
When you slice tongue, don’t just start at
one end or the other and work your way
in the opposite direction. Instead, cut
from both ends, so your family or guests
can choose the texture they like most.
In the days of neighborhood kosher
butchers, tongue was a popular meat.
Today most people prefer corned beef
or pastrami, but they’re missing out on
the subtle nuances of flavor and texture
that can only come from tongue—
whether it’s served hot or cold.
There used to be three types of beef
tongue commonly available in delis and
kosher meat markets: smoked, fresh, and
pickled. I haven’t seen genuine smoked
tongue in years. However, fresh tongue
is readily available in supermarkets, as
it’s used extensively in many Hispanic
dishes (tacos de lingua, for example)
and Asian foods.
You can either roast a fresh tongue asis or pickle it. The pickling process is
the same as for making corned beef.
Indeed, you can corn a brisket of beef in
the same brine and at the same time you
pickle a tongue.
INGREDIENTS
1 fresh beef tongue (4–5 pounds)
1 cup kosher salt
5 tablespoons Morton Tender Quick
1/4 cup pickling spice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon black pepper, coarse grind
PREPARATION
Using a paring knife, stab the tongue at
1-inch intervals to help the pickling
brine penetrate the skin.
Place the meat in a stone crock, foodgrade plastic container, or other nonmetallic container.
Mix the salts and spices with 1 quart
water and pour over the tongue. Then,
add enough additional water to
completely cover the meat.
Weigh the tongue down with a heavy
plate to keep it submerged.
Cover the container and refrigerate
for 14 days. Turn the tongue over daily.
TO COOK THE PICKLED TONGUE
Rinse the tongue thoroughly under
cool running water to remove excess
salt; or, soak it in cool water for an hour
or so, changing the water several times.
Place it in a pot large enough to hold
the tongue comfortably, together with 1/2
cup vinegar and 2 tablespoons pickling
spice. Add water to cover the tongue by
at least an inch.
Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat.
Cover, and simmer until the meat is forktender, about 2–3 hours.
Allow the cooking water to cool to
lukewarm before removing the tongue, in
order to prevent the meat fibers from
instantly drying and toughening when the
hot meat is exposed to air.
Use a paring knife to peel off the skin.
Slice thinly across the grain.
Serve hot with sweet-and-sour sauce
or brown sugar-yellow mustard sauce;
or, serve cold with horseradish mustard.
Roasted Tongue
First, boil a fresh (uncured) beef
tongue in salted water or chicken broth
until it’s fork-tender, about 2-1/2 hours.
Allow the tongue to cool in the cooking
liquid to lukewarm. Use a paring knife to
carefully peel away the skin.
Season the tongue with salt, pepper,
granulated garlic, and paprika. Place it
on a rack in a large pan and surround it
with potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips,
onions, celery, and other vegetables of
choice or availability. Add 1/2 inch of
water to the bottom of the pan, to
provide liquid for gravy.
Finally, roast the mélange in a 350° F
oven until the vegetables are thoroughly
cooked—about an hour. You’ll want the
potatoes lightly browned and the carrots
partially caramelized.
Make gravy from the drippings.
Brisket of Beef
You don’t go to a deli for roast prime
rib of beef, a thick, juicy Porterhouse
steak, or veal Marsala. You go to a deli
for deli food. Without a doubt, the
number one deli meat is brisket of beef
—roasted deli-style, or made into
corned beef or pastrami.
Deli-style brisket can be served many
different ways:
As the main feature of a deli plate,
accompanied by horseradish sauce,
latkes (potato pancakes) and applesauce
—a filling, traditional roast brisket
dinner.
For a fantastic hot roast beef
sandwich, top two slices of white bread
with sliced brisket, put a scoop of
mashed potatoes on the side, and cover
everything with brown gravy.
Stack thinly-sliced brisket high on rye
bread and schmear it with horseradishmustard, for a superb “overstuffed”
sandwich.
Cut a French baguette roll in half. Dip
the cut sides briefly in au jus. Then,
place a generous portion of thinly sliced
brisket inside the roll. Accompany the
sandwich with a small ramekin of au jus
for dipping. Voilà! You’ve just created a
French Dip sandwich!
Slice or chop brisket, drench it with
your favorite barbecue sauce, and serve
it on toasted sesame-seed hamburger
buns for a wonderful barbecue beef
sandwich.
Brisket is also great cold, either as a
roast beef sandwich or as part of a deli
cold cuts platter.
Yes, there’s a whole lot you can do
with a brisket of beef.
Brisket has a tendency to be tough if
not properly cooked. Ah, but when it’s
cooked slowly at a low temperature
using moist heat, it literally melts into a
tender and delicious treat.
INGREDIENTS
1 brisket of beef, 6–8 pounds
1 large white onion, chopped
Seasoned Salt (or kosher salt)
Seasoned Pepper (or coarsely-ground
black pepper)
2 ounces Kitchen Bouquet (or 1/4 cup
ketchup)
1 tablespoon granulated garlic or 3
cloves of garlic, smooshed (optional)
PREPARATION
Spread half of the chopped onion and
2 cups water on the bottom of a large
Dutch oven, a slow cooker, or roasting
pan.
Rub Kitchen Bouquet over both sides
of the meat. Sprinkle both sides
generously with Seasoned Salt and
Seasoned Pepper.
Place the brisket on top of the bed of
onions, fat side up.
Spread the remaining chopped onion
on top of the brisket.
Cover the container, or seal it with
heavy-duty aluminum foil. The goals are
to cook the meat with steam, and not let
the delicious juices evaporate and dry
out. Check every half hour and add more
water if needed.
Bake in a 300° F oven for 30–45
minutes per pound, or until fork-tender.
After cooking, allow the brisket to
cool for a minimum of 30 minutes before
opening the roasting container. If you
remove the brisket too soon, when the
hot meat is exposed to air the juices will
evaporate and the meat fibers will
instantly dry and toughen. Aarrgh!
Trim off excess fat. Slice the brisket
against the grain.
Serve the au jus (meat juices) with
the brisket—either with the onion bits or
with the onion bits strained out. If you
prefer, thicken the au jus with a slurry of
flour and water to make perfect brown
gravy.
To learn all about buying and
trimming beef briskets—and much more
—check out this informative website:
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/briske
Roasted Turkey
Roasted turkey has become one of the
top choices in deli meats, probably the
only deli meat not of East European
origin. In some delis, turkey is even
more popular than pastrami or corned
beef.
I know of only one delicatessen
(Nate’n Al, in Beverly Hills, California)
that roasts entire turkeys, though there
may be more.
I’ve enjoyed many a lunch or dinner at
Nate’n Al of a mixed meat (both dark
and light) turkey sandwich on a Kaiser
roll with Thousand Island dressing. They
also serve fantastic turkey leg and turkey
wing cold plates.
Most delis buy turkey breasts.
Sometimes they’re roasted by a purveyor
in a factory somewhere; at other delis,
the turkey breasts are roasted on the
premises.
You can easily do the same.
Supermarkets sell frozen turkey breasts
ready to go in the oven. Just follow the
instructions on the box.
A great combination sandwich is
roasted turkey and chicken liver pâté (or
chopped chicken liver) on challah.
Smoked Meat
Smoked meat is, to Canadians, what
pastrami is to Americans. There is
constant rivalry between delis, and
fevered opinions about which one has
the best smoked meat.
I won’t take sides about whether
Schwartz’s in Montreal or Caplansky’s
in Toronto is the pinnacle of perfection,
because I’ve never had the privilege of
tasting either of their smoked meats.
However, Zane Caplansky told his
secret of making perfect smoked meat to
David Sax, author of the wonderful book
Save the Deli. Sax made the recipe
public, and I’m reproducing it here,
verbatim.
1. Buy a fatty double brisket. Rub
with three parts Morton Tender Quick
pickling salt and one part coarse sugar.
Place fat side down in Tupperware, then
coat the rest with four parts black
pepper, and one part each coriander
seed, mustard seed, celery seed, and dill
seed, all ground together and mixed with
dried garlic and onion flakes.
2. Refrigerate meat. Turn and massage
daily.
3. After two weeks, remove meat and
drain the liquid. Fill the container with
cold water, and submerge the meat for
three hours. Drain and refrigerate
overnight, uncovered.
4. Rub with another generous layer of
spice, and heat the smoker to 180°–
200° F. Cook for eight to nine hours. If
you don’t have a smoker (they’re cheap)
fill a tray with wet wood chips, cover
with foil, and place next to your brisket
on the barbecue (heating the wood, not
the brisket).
5. Cool the meat, then steam it,
covered, for three hours over a large pot
of boiling water on a rack. Meat should
be soft enough to sink a carving fork into
effortlessly, but not flaking apart.
6. Carve it while hot, against the
grain, with a carving fork and knife.
Serve on rye bread with mustard.
Homemade Beef
Salami
To retain respect for sausages and
laws, one must not watch them in the
making.
… Prince Otto Von Bismarck, Duke of
Lauenburg (1815-98)
He offered us … small, neat sausages,
of which we could have swallowed
several yards if we had chosen to try,
but we suspected that each link
contained the corpse of a mouse, and
therefore refrained.
… Mark Twain, Roughing It
Bismarck and Twain were right. It’s
certainly better to make sausages
yourself than to worry about what exotic
and moribund items someone else might
have dumped into the mix. Here’s a
recipe for savory salami made from
ingredients you can trust. Amaze your
friends and family! Be the subject of
their raves and compliments!
You’ll probably like this easy-tomake salami better than the salami or
summer sausage they sell at the deli or
supermarket, and the cost is far less.
This salami makes great sandwiches.
Include it on antipasto platters. Fry it
with eggs for breakfast. Use it as a pizza
topping.
Once you’ve tasted homemade salami
you may want to explore other
homemade sausages as well. If so, I
refer you to Len Poli of Sonoma,
California, a genuine sausage maven.
Sausage making isn’t just a hobby for
Poli, it’s a way of life. What Poli
doesn’t know about sausages isn’t worth
knowing.
His fascinating website is not only
good reading, it’s informative and
educational as well. Poli’s website has
recipes for sausages from Alsatian to
Zampone:
http://lpoli.50webs.com/
Want even more information about
sausage making? Read the book
Charcuterie—The Craft of Salting,
Smoking, and Curing, available from
Butcher & Packer:
http://www.butcher-packer.com/
INGREDIENTS
2 pounds ground beef, 20% fat
preferred
1 tablespoon Morton Tender Quick
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon coarsely-ground black
pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/4 teaspoon Old Bay or Seafood
Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch cayenne pepper
Pinch powdered hickory smoke flavor
(optional)
PREPARATION
Place all ingredients except the
ground beef in a medium size bowl. Add
1/4 cup water and stir.
Add the ground beef and knead by
hand to thoroughly blend.
Divide into four portions. Shape each
portion into a slender roll about 1-1/2
inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic or
foil and refrigerate overnight.
Unwrap. Bake on broiler pan at
325° F until a meat thermometer inserted
in the center of a roll reads 160° F
(about one hour).
When cool, wrap in plastic wrap, then
package in Ziploc bags. Store in your
refrigerator a week or two, or freeze for
later use.
Fish
RON PESKIN OF BRENT’S DELI –
NORTHRIDGE AND WESTLAKE VILLAGE
CA
Belly Lox, Nova,
and Gravlax
FISH PLATTER AT BRENT’S DELI IN
WESTLAKE VILLAGE CA
To me, the essence of a Jewish deli is
an open-faced sandwich of lox and
whipped cream cheese on a toasted
bagel, with a paper-thin slice of
Bermuda onion, a slice of ripe tomato,
and perhaps a few capers and a wedge
of lemon for decoration.
Belly lox is salmon cured in brine. It’s
generally made from salmon caught in
the Pacific Northwest.
The fancier-sounding N o v a has a
slightly different cure and a lightly
smoked flavor. Nova is usually made
from Atlantic salmon; the name Nova is
derived from Nova Scotia.
The Scandinavian delicacy gravlax
(salmon cured in a salt-sugar-dill
mixture) is similar to and every bit as
delicious as costly imported-fromEurope smoked salmon. Gravlax can be
used any way you use lox, such as on
bagels with cream cheese or in
scrambled eggs. It also makes wonderful
hors d’oeuvres and canapés.
Cold-smoked salmon is similar in
appearance to belly lox or Nova. Hotsmoked (kippered) salmon has a texture
similar to baked salmon. Kippered or
baked salmon can be toothsome, but
neither is very popular in a deli.
Cold-smoked salmon is sold presliced in the deli section of supermarkets
and wholesale food warehouses such as
Sam’s Club and Costco. It’s a poor
substitute for genuine belly lox or Nova,
but will suffice when the real thing isn’t
available. To a starving man, even a
McDonald’s hamburger is a gourmet
treat!
Lox, Nova, and gravlax are quick and
easy to prepare. You’ll be pleasantly
surprised to learn how inexpensive it is
to make your own!
The following recipes provide many
options and variations. Try them all (but
not all at once), then settle in on the ones
you prefer.
IMPORTANT: Always insist on wild
salmon. In my opinion, farm-raised
salmon isn’t fit for human consumption.
And make sure that the salmon is
impeccably fresh.
CURED-IN-HOUSE LOX AT KENNY &
ZUKE’S, PORTLAND OR
Belly Lox
INGREDIENTS
1 salmon fillet, whole, about 12–16
inches long
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon olive or other vegetable
oil
PREPARATION
Use a wire brush to remove scales
from the salmon skin. Run your fingers
down the fillet, feeling for small pin
bones. Remove them, using a pair of
needle-nose pliers or tweezers. Rinse
the salmon and pat it dry with a paper
towel.
Place the salmon skin-side down in a
large flat baking dish.
Mix the salt and sugar. Spread the
mixture evenly over the salmon flesh.
Cover the dish and refrigerate for 24
hours. Periodically baste with the thick,
clear brine that develops.
Remove the lox from the baking dish.
Scrape it gently with a table knife to
remove and discard any undissolved salt
and sugar mix. Rinse and pat dry. Coat
the lox with the oil. Wrap tightly in
plastic wrap, and refrigerate (up to a
week) until ready to serve.
Lay the fillet on a flat cutting board.
Using a long, sharp, thin-bladed knife,
held at an angle almost parallel to the
cutting surface, cut thin, wide, slanting
slices away from the skin, leaving the
skin uncut.
Nova
INGREDIENTS
1 salmon fillet, whole, about 12–16
inches long
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/4
teaspoon powdered hickory
smoke
1 tablespoon olive or other vegetable
oil
PREPARATION
Use a wire brush to remove scales
from the salmon skin. Run your fingers
down the fillet, feeling for small pin
bones. Remove them, using a pair of
needle-nose pliers or tweezers. Rinse
the salmon and pat it dry with a paper
towel.
Place the salmon skin-side down in a
large flat baking dish.
Mix the salt, sugar, and powdered
hickory smoke. Spread the mixture
evenly over the salmon flesh. Cover the
dish and refrigerate for 24 hours.
Periodically baste with the thick, clear
brine that develops.
Remove the Nova from the baking
dish. Scrape it gently with a table knife
to remove and discard any undissolved
salt and sugar mix. Rinse and pat dry.
Coat the Nova with the oil. Wrap tightly
in plastic wrap, and refrigerate (up to a
week) until ready to serve.
Lay the fillet on a flat cutting board.
Using a long, sharp, thin-bladed knife,
held at an angle almost parallel to the
cutting surface, cut thin, wide, slanting
slices away from the skin, leaving the
skin uncut.
Gravlax
INGREDIENTS
1 salmon fillet, whole, about 12–16
inches long
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup sugar (white or dark brown)
3 tablespoons finely-snipped fresh
dill (or 1 teaspoon dried dill weed or 1
teaspoon crushed dill seeds)
1 tablespoon olive or other vegetable
oil
Aquavit, brandy, cognac, vodka,
tequila, or gin (optional)
PREPARATION
Use a wire brush to remove scales
from the salmon skin. Run your fingers
down the fillet, feeling for small pin
bones. Remove them, using a pair of
needle-nose pliers or tweezers. Rinse
the salmon and pat it dry with a paper
towel.
Place the salmon skin-side down in a
large flat baking dish. If desired, splash
it with a little brandy or other liquor.
Mix the salt, sugar, and dill weed.
Optionally, add 1 teaspoon crushed
white peppercorns and / or two
tablespoons
finely-chopped
fresh
cilantro.
Spread the mixture evenly over the
salmon flesh. Cover the dish and
refrigerate for 24 hours. Periodically
baste with the thick, clear brine that
develops.
Remove the gravlax from the baking
dish. Scrape it gently with a table knife
to remove and discard any undissolved
salt and sugar mix and seasonings. Rinse
and pat dry. Coat the gravlax with the
oil. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and
refrigerate (up to a week) until ready to
serve.
Lay the fillet on a flat cutting board.
Using a long, sharp, thin-bladed knife,
held at an angle almost parallel to the
cutting surface, cut thin, wide, slanting
slices away from the skin, leaving the
skin uncut.
GRAVLAX AS AN APPETIZER
Gravlax makes a superb party
appetizer. Just one salmon fillet
provides enough gravlax canapés (50–
60) to satisfy two dozen people—more,
if some of your guests won’t eat raw
fish. But, what do they know? Actually,
even though the salmon isn’t cooked, it’s
fully cured.
Place a single layer of gravlax on
cocktail-size pumpernickel or quarterslices of whole wheat bread (crusts
removed optional). Drizzle with Dijon
mustard sauce and dot the canapés with
capers. If desired, add a pinch of
chopped red onion or shallots.
Or, arrange sliced gravlax on a
platter, decorating the fish with paperthin lemon and cucumber slices, sprigs
of dill, and capers. Serve the bread and
mustard sauce separately.
You may also wish to serve slices of
gravlax over chilled steamed asparagus
spears with a Dijon mustard-mayonnaise
(ordinary mayonnaise to which you’ve
blended in the mustard and some
capers). Yummy!
Dijon Mustard
Sauce
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1-1/2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh dill
(or 1/2 teaspoon dill weed)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg (optional)
PREPARATION
In a small bowl, mix all ingredients
except the oil. Then, add the oil a little
at a time, beating the mixture with a wire
whisk until it’s smooth and creamy.
Refrigerate until ready to use.
If you prefer a thicker sauce, start
with one raw egg, beating with a wire
whisk as each ingredient is added, in
this order: Dijon mustard, sugar and salt,
vinegar, lemon juice, dill weed, oil.
Salmon Bacon
Waste not, want not: After removing
all the lox, Nova, or gravlax from the
salmon skin, cut the skin into one-inchwide strips and deep-fry them in salad
oil until crisp.
Serve each strip warm with a cold
boiled red potato (skin still on), sitting
on top of a leaf of red butter lettuce.
Splash with a little Dijon mustard sauce
or your favorite vinaigrette dressing and
a dollop of sour cream. It’s wonderful!
Pastrami Lox
No, what you just read isn’t a mistake.
Yes, Sarah, there i s such a thing as
pastrami lox. I’m from the West Coast
and until recently I’d never heard of
pastrami lox either, but it’s a popular
item at appetizing stores in New York.
Pastrami lox is salmon that’s cured
with the garlicky, peppery spices and
smoky flavor of pastrami. It’s a
delicious change-of-pace from belly lox
or Nova.
Pastrami lox is easy to make. Start
one on Friday afternoon and it’ll be
ready to eat for brunch on Sunday.
What’s more, when you make pastrami
lox at home it’ll cost you a fraction of
the price you’d pay for it in a deli.
One word of caution. Whenever you
buy salmon, no matter how you’re going
to eat it, always make sure you get wild
salmon and not farmed salmon. In my
opinion, farmed salmon (usually it’s
artificially colored) has a nasty taste and
isn’t fit for human consumption.
INGREDIENTS
1 salmon fillet, about 2-1/2 to 3
pounds
1 recipe pastrami lox curing mix (see
below)
1 tablespoon cooking oil (olive or
canola preferred)
2–3 tablespoons pastrami lox spice
blend (recipe below)
PREPARATION
Using a wire brush or paring knife,
remove all the scales from the skin of the
salmon fillet. Rinse the fillet thoroughly,
pat it dry with paper towels, and place it
skin side down in a flat baking dish.
Using the entire recipe of pastrami lox
curing mix, apply a thick, even coat of
the curing mix on top of the salmon. Rub
some of the curing mix on the edges of
the salmon.
Cover
and
refrigerate
for
approximately 36 hours.
Rinse to remove the curing mix. Pat
the salmon dry with paper towels.
Apply a thin coat of cooking oil to the
fleshy side of the fillet. Then, rub a light
coating of pastrami lox spice blend onto
the salmon.
Cut the pastrami lox in thin slices,
holding the knife at a sharp angle to
maximize the width of the slices.
Pastrami lox keeps for several days in
the refrigerator, several months in your
freezer.
PASTRAMI LOX CURING MIX
INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup kosher salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup pastrami lox spice blend
(recipe below)
1/2
teaspoon powdered
smoke flavor
hickory
PREPARATION
Mix all ingredients thoroughly.
PASTRAMI LOX SPICE BLEND
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup black peppercorns, whole
2 tablespoons coriander seeds, whole
2 tablespoons granulated garlic
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon dry mustard
PREPARATION
Using a spice grinder, reduce the
peppercorns and coriander seeds to a
fine powder. Mix thoroughly with the
other ingredients.
Pickled Herring
Unlike gefilte fish (which is fish balls
made with ground whitefish, pike or
carp mixed with matzo meal and eggs),
there actually is a fish called herring. In
fact, there are fifteen species of herring,
the most abundant of which is the
Atlantic herring.
Some fish sold as sardines or sprats
may actually be herring. But those are
canned—not pickled, salted, or fresh.
Pickled herring is a universal treat.
It’s served in places as disparate as
Scandinavia, Iceland, Poland, England,
Germany, Russia, and even Japan. More
to the point, pickled herring is available
—with or without sour cream—in every
Jewish delicatessen worthy of the name.
Pickled herring is delicious any time
of the year as an appetizer, snack,
cracker topper, or fish course; it’s great
on rye bread or challah; and, it’s a
traditional food to break the fast of Yom
Kippur. According to some, it will bring
good luck if eaten on New Year’s Eve.
Pickled herring can be made from
either fresh or salted herring. The
trouble these days is finding either in
your grocery store. I once bought some
delicious herring, still alive and
swimming, at a bait shop on the
waterfront in Tacoma, Washington.
Jarred pickled herring is usually quite
good, and it’s generally available in
supermarkets and wholesale food
warehouses. If the sour cream version is
not stocked, pickled herring can be
quickly and easily converted into it.
Pickled Herring –
from Fresh Herring
INGREDIENTS
7 pounds fresh herring fillets
2-1/2 quarts white (distilled) or white
wine vinegar
1-3/4 cups white (granulated) sugar
6 cinnamon sticks
6 bay leaves
1/4 cup allspice berries
1/4 cup mace
1/4 cup black peppercorns
2 tablespoons whole cloves
3 large onions, sliced thinly
PREPARATION
Remove scales from herring fillets;
cut into 3/4-inch to 1-inch (bite-size)
pieces.
Combine all ingredients except the
herring and boil for 15 minutes. Add the
herring, and simmer for 15 minutes.
Let cool in the liquid, then refrigerate.
Pickled Herring –
from Salt Herring
INGREDIENTS
6 salt herring fillets
3 large onions, thinly sliced
1 cup white (distilled) or white wine
vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon pickling spice
1
tablespoon
whole
black
peppercorns
4 bay leaves
PREPARATION
Rinse the herring fillets well under
running cold water. Soak in water to
cover overnight, changing the water
twice.
Cut the fillets into 3/4-inch to 1-inch
(bite-size) pieces.
In a ceramic baking dish, glass bowl,
jars, or food-grade plastic containers,
arrange layers of herring alternated with
the sliced onions.
In a saucepan, make a marinade by
combining the vinegar, water, sugar,
pickling spice, and bay leaves. Bring to
a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5
minutes.
Pour the marinade over the herring
fillets.
Cover and refrigerate. Marinate for
48–72 hours.
Pick out and remove the bay leaves
and as much of the pickling spices as
possible before serving.
Mort the Mench’s
Grandma
Gertrude’s Famous
Creamed Pickled
Herring
INGREDIENTS
8 ounces (1 cup) pickled herring
1 medium-size sweet onion (Walla
Walla, Maui, or Vidalia)
1 medium-size tart apple, peeled and
cored (Granny Smith preferred)
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
PREPARATION
Thinly slice the apple and onion; cut
into bite-size pieces.
In a mixing bowl, combine the
herring, apple, and onion. Add the sour
cream, sugar, and enough of the pickling
marinade to provide the consistency
desired.
Mix well. Refrigerate for at least one
hour before serving, to give the flavors
time to blend.
Store in glass or plastic containers in
the refrigerator.
Chopped Herring
INGREDIENTS
8 ounces (1 cup) pickled herring
fillets
1 small tart apple—peeled, cored,
and cut into chunks
2 tablespoons onion, chopped
1 slice of challah or rye bread
2 hard-cooked eggs, quartered
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon canola or other salad oil
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
PREPARATION
Place herring fillets in a colander.
Discard any pickling spices. Rinse the
herring under cold running water.
Using the steel blade on a food
processor, process the apple until
minced, about 10 seconds.
Combine the vinegar, oil, and sugar,
using the mixture to moisten the bread.
Add the bread, herring, and onions to
the food processor bowl. Process until
coarsely chopped, about 8 seconds.
Add the eggs and process 6 seconds
longer, or until finely chopped.
Refrigerate. Keeps about 10 days to 2
weeks. Do not freeze.
Chubs, Whitefish,
and other Smoked
Fish
If you’re in an Israeli restaurant and
order a soft drink, I’ll bet you shekels to
sufganiyot that it will be served without
ice. Yes, they do have ice machines in
Israel, and, if you ask, they’ll probably
give you some kerakh (Hebrew for ice).
There’s a good reason why the soda
will be ice-free. Israelis are firmly
convinced that when ice is put into their
glass they’re getting less soda, and, thus,
they’re
being cheated
by the
establishment.
My wife JJ felt the same way about
smoked chubs. She got very upset when
she ordered a chub and someone behind
the deli counter skinned, boned, and
beheaded the little fish, leaving just a
pair of fillets ready to plop onto a
cream-cheese covered bagel.
What JJ wanted was to be able to
personally peel the skin off and chew the
goodness out of it. Next, she’d remove
the flesh from the bones, then suck them
clean, so not a single morsel of fish
remained uneaten. I don’t dare tell you
what she did with the head, including the
brains and eyeballs. You don’t want to
hear it. Let me just say nothing went to
waste.
Usually, informing the waitress of her
desire at the time she placed the order
was sufficient. But, these days, that’s the
least of the chub problem. You see,
smoked chubs have been in short supply
for several years now.
Delis will order a hundred chubs and
their supplier will ship them ten—if any
at all. And there’s a good reason why.
Chubs come from the Great Lakes.
Smoked chubs are similar in appearance
and taste to smoked whitefish, but
they’re smaller and actually a different
species.
Seems that a few years back some
foreign ship discharged part of its bilge
water into one of the lakes, thus
introducing a number of zebra mussels
into the environment. The mussels
quickly multiplied and became a
nuisance of great proportion. Among
other things, they block intake pipes
needed for water supply and power
generation.
For a number of reasons, the
proliferation of zebra mussels has
caused a dire shortage of chubs. I
recently phoned a dozen smoked fish
companies that sell online. None had any
chubs, nor could they offer me any hope
for when I might be able to buy them in
the future.
I figured that if there was one
company in the country that had enough
buying power to corner the market on
whatever smoked chubs were available,
it would be Russ & Daughters in New
York, one of the few remaining
appetizing stores.
Appetizing stores are similar to
delicatessens, but they sell smoked fish
and dairy products only, no meats. You
see, the early Jewish delis, being kosher,
did not sell dairy products. Today,
however, most every deli is only kosherstyle, selling both fleishig and milkhig,
to use the Yiddish words. (In Hebrew,
the terms are basar and khalav.)
Once popular in New York,
appetizing
stores
have
almost
disappeared. To my knowledge, they
never did take hold in other parts of the
country. Rather, smoked fish, as well as
dairy foods, became a major part of a
deli’s menu.
When I called Russ & Daughters to
place an order I was told they were out
of chubs at the moment, but that I should
try again on Monday of the next week.
No luck on Monday, either. But I was
persistent. I hinted that I wanted to buy
other items as well, but intended to
order everything together so that I
wouldn’t have to pay two shipping
charges.
After more than a month of making
weekly phone calls, I was told that some
smoked chubs just might possibly be
arriving on the following Thursday. I
marked my calendar and made the
callback early in the day.
David answered their telephone. I
made a gansa megillah over the fact that
we had the same first name, hoping to
establish a little camaraderie. Sure
enough, he told me that the chub
shipment had arrived, but he wasn’t sure
he could sell me any.
“I’ve got to ask my boss, and he’s
busy right now being interviewed on
television by Martha Stewart,” he said.
“Could you please call back in two
hours?”
I agreed, hoping that in the meantime
Martha wouldn’t confiscate all of the
chubs.
When I spoke with David again, he
informed me that I was in good luck. His
boss would let him sell me the quantity
I’d asked for, four pounds (about 14
fish). I thanked him profusely and
ordered a pound of pastrami lox, a half
pound of sable, and a dozen New York
bagels to complete my order.
Everything was shipped the following
Monday and arrived at my home in Gig
Harbor, Washington at 10:00 am
Tuesday morning—just in time for
brunch.
I doubt if a new gold necklace could
have pleased JJ any more than the
golden smoked chubs.
It’s easy to make delicious lox from
fresh salmon, right in your own kitchen.
When it comes to other types of smoked
fish, however, if you don’t have a deli in
your neighborhood you’ll have to go
online.
I can’t think of a better place to start
than Russ & Daughters in Manhattan.
Founded in 1914, the popular New York
appetizing shop has been run by four
generations of the Russ family.
Here are some of the fish products
carried by Russ & Daughters, as
described by them on their website:
http://russanddaughters.com/
Gaspé Nova. Mild and succulent, this
is our most popular smoked salmon. The
pure, satiny and fresh North Atlantic
taste will be savored by any palate.
Wild Western Nova. This is a wild
king salmon from the Pacific. Its lean
body has very little fat and captures the
light wood smoke wonderfully.
Double Smoked Danish. Imported
exclusively by Russ & Daughters, this
organic salmon has a rich smoke, velvet
texture and champagne color. Prepare to
be wowed.
Scottish Salmon. The perfect union
between silky texture and rich smoky
taste. Scottish salmon has an interesting
complexity and total sophistication.
Norwegian Salmon. A lovely balance
of smoke, salt, and firm texture. One of
our least expensive salmon, but one of
our best.
Kippered Salmon. One of the crown
jewels of appetizing foods. The special
slow, hot smoking process renders the
salmon amazingly tender and moist.
Balik Salmon. Considered the most
prized cut of salmon, balik was
traditionally reserved for the Tsars.
Now, everyone can enjoy the “filet
mignon” of salmon with its delicate
richness and buttery texture. Unlike other
smoked salmons, balik is sliced sashimistyle in 1/2” thick medallions. Its size
and taste make this perfect for hors
d’oeuvres.
Scandinavian Gravlax with Dill.
Gravlax is not smoked, but cured and
coated in a delicate brine of salt, sugar
and dill. Goes best with a touch of
mustard sauce.
Pastrami Cured Salmon. Here you
get to enjoy a good smoked salmon and
New York Pastrami in one … without
the cholesterol! Our salmon is smoked to
perfection and then covered in a special
pastrami rub of eight different herbs and
spices.
Traditional Belly Lox. This is the
most traditional appetizing staple, which
will bring nostalgia and smiles to all
those who grew up on it. We take the
juicy mid-section of a side of salmon
and cure it in a special salt brine, just as
it came off of Joel Russ’ pushcart.
Old-Fashioned Pickled Lox. A real
nostalgic treat that will take you back to
the homeland. Wild cured salmon is
cured in a century-old Russ recipe of
pickling spices and marinade. This
tangy, yet succulent treat, can be enjoyed
with wine sauce or cream sauce and
pickled onions.
Sable. Traditionally called “the poor
man’s sturgeon,” this smoked black cod
is now being served in some of the best
restaurants around the country. Sable is
divinely mild and juicy. The light coat of
paprika keeps in the taste while adding a
mild spiced flavor.
Sturgeon. The queen of all smoked
fish. A slice of sturgeon will melt in
your mouth like butter. Truly a delicacy.
Whole Whitefish. An ethnic delight.
Have the fun of scooping this succulent
meat right out of the fish. For an
additional dollar per pound we’ll take
all of the bones out so all you have to do
is enjoy. Weight varies between 2–3
pounds per fish.
Chubs. A smaller version of a
whitefish with tender and mild meat that
you can enjoy all for yourself.
Yellow Fin Tuna. Mild, smoke flavor.
Serve on a bed of lettuce with squeezed
lemon and pepper. Or on a thin cracker
with crème fraîche and flying fish roe
with wasabi.
Peppered Mackerel. Infused with
honey, lemon, orange, black pepper and
spices, this small fillet has wonderfully
soft and delicious meat. Serve
individually for a lovely presentation.
In addition to the fish selections
described above, Russ & Daughters
carries many other specialty products,
including caviar; herring; imported and
domestic cheeses; fish salads; cream
cheese spreads; pastries (babka, halvah,
rugelach); sweets; and nuts.
Their prices are reasonable and the
quality unsurpassed. I was amazed by
the perfection in slicing and packaging
of the orders I’ve received.
Be aware, however, that overnight
FedEx shipping charges, necessary for
such perishable products, can easily
exceed the cost of the foodstuffs
purchased. To save on shipping charges,
I suggest you order enough food for
several meals at a time. Smoked fish can
be stored in your freezer for up to a year.
Whitefish Salad
Whitefish salad on a toasted bagel …
oh, so delicious! But, if you’re not near a
deli, enjoying a whitefish salad
sandwich can be difficult. You’ll need to
order a smoked whitefish from your
favorite deli or appetizing store, such as
Russ and Daughters in New York City,
and have it shipped to you.
This recipe can be modified to make
salmon salad from baked or even canned
salmon.
INGREDIENTS
1 whole smoked whitefish, about 2
pounds
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
1/4 cup minced red onion or 2
scallions, finely chopped
3/4 cup Best Foods or Hellman’s
mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
(optional)
2 hard-cooked eggs, grated (optional)
2 tablespoon fresh dill weed, snipped
PREPARATION
Remove the skin and bones. Flake the
whitefish, watching carefully for and
removing any small bones.
Mix all ingredients. Refrigerate until
served.
Gefilte Fish
Gefilte fish (fish balls held together
with egg and matzo meal) is a must at
every Passover Seder. It’s also a
traditional feature of Shabbat dinners.
And, it’s always available in a Jewish
deli.
Many people have never tasted other
than the supermarket version of gefilte
fish, which comes in glass jars and is
often doctored up by the chef by
recooking with fresh carrots, onions,
celery, and perhaps a touch of dill weed.
Gefilte fish is customarily served
before the soup and entrée, chilled,
positioned on a leaf of lettuce together
with a few slices of cooked carrots, also
chilled, and accompanied by red
horseradish and perhaps a hard-cooked
egg.
INGREDIENTS
2 pounds freshwater fish fillets
(whitefish, pike, carp, perch, or a
combination)
2 onions, grated or smooshed in a
food processor
1 stalk celery, grated or smooshed in
a food processor
3 carrots—1 grated or smooshed in a
food processor, 2 sliced to 1/4 inch
3 large eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup canola or other cooking oil
1 cup matzo meal
PREPARATION
Grind the fish in a food processor or
food grinder.
In a large bowl, combine thoroughly
the fish with the onions, celery, grated
carrot, eggs, sugar, salt, pepper, oil, and
matzo meal.
Refrigerate for one hour or more.
Divide into twelve portions. Wet your
hands, and shape each portion (about 1/3
cup) of the mixture into an oval shape.
Transfer each ball to a slotted spoon
and gently lower into a simmering
stockpot of fish-and-vegetable stock.
Add the sliced carrots to the pot.
Simmer for 50 minutes, or until the
fish balls are white and firm and the
carrots are tender.
Turn off the heat and allow to cool in
the fish stock.
Remove the gefilte fish and carrots
from the stock pot and place them in a
storage container. Cover with some of
the cooking liquid, to keep them from
drying out.
Refrigerate until served.
Fish Stock
INGREDIENTS
3 quarts water
Fish heads and bones (from the
filleted fish—be sure to ask the
fishmonger for them)
3 onions, peeled and quartered
2 stalks celery and celery leaves,
chopped into 2-inch pieces
2 carrots, peeled, cut into 2-inch
pieces
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon dried dill weed (optional)
PREPARATION
Place all ingredients in a large (10–12
quart) stockpot over high heat. Bring to a
boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for
1 hour or longer.
Strain, discarding the solids.
Deli Sandwiches
Sandwiches by
Name or Number
The mainstay of a Jewish delicatessen
is sandwiches. Corned beef and
pastrami are the hands-down favorites,
sliced thin and piled high (traditionally
referred to as over-stuffed) on seeded
rye bread. Other sandwiches usually
served on rye bread include brisket of
beef, chopped chicken liver, liverwurst,
and salami. Turkey breast is often
served on challah or a Kaiser roll dotted
with poppy seeds.
In most delis, a wide variety of
breads and rolls are available on
request: seeded rye, challah, onion rolls,
Kaiser rolls, seedless rye, and
pumpernickel. White and whole wheat
breads are not appropriate for real deli
sandwiches (ugh!), but are usually
available for non-Jewish customers who
request them and making toast to
accompany breakfast plates.
On a regular meat sandwich, lettuce,
tomato, or condiments are never added
by the counterman. There’s always a jar
of spicy brown mustard on the table,
probably
Gulden’s
brand,
and
sometimes a jar of horseradish.
Then there are the bagel sandwiches,
often served open-faced—the most
popular of which is belly lox (or Nova)
and cream cheese. Lox and cream cheese
on a bagel (usually toasted) are
accompanied
with sliced
onion
(Bermuda, red, or white), a slice of
tomato, and sometimes capers—what’s
standard depends on the traditions at the
particular deli. Sturgeon, sable, cod,
whitefish salad, salmon salad, and
turkey salad are other favorites served
on a bagel.
Delis have a long list of specialty or
combination sandwiches, which are
often numbered. Sometimes they’re
named after a regular customer of the
deli who orders the sandwich regularly;
or for movie stars, politicians, and other
celebrities.
Here is a list of Langer’s (Los
Angeles)
numbered
combination
sandwiches, taken directly from their
menu:
#1 – PASTRAMI, Cole Slaw,
Russian Style Dressing
#2 - CORNED BEEF and TOMATO,
Russian Style Dressing
#3 - CORNED BEEF, SWISS
CHEESE and SAUERKRAUT
#4 - ROAST BEEF and SWISS
CHEESE, Russian Style Dressing
#5 - CORNED BEEF and SWISS
CHEESE, Russian Style Dressing
#6 - CHOPPED LIVER and
PASTRAMI, Russian Style Dressing
#7 - HAM and SWISS CHEESE,
Russian Style Dressing
#8 - SLICED TURKEY and HAM,
Russian Style Dressing
#9 - TURKEY, TONGUE and
ROAST BEEF – Three Decker with
Tomato and Russian Style Dressing
#10 - PASTRAMI and SWISS
CHEESE, Russian Style Dressing
#11 - TURKEY, HAM and SWISS
CHEESE, Russian Style Dressing
#19 - PASTRAMI, SWISS CHEESE
and COLE SLAW, Russian Style
Dressing
#24 - ROAST BEEF Lettuce and
Tomato, Russian Style Dressing
#26 - THREE DECKER Turkey,
Ham, Swiss Cheese, Tomato, Russian
Style Dressing
#27 - CHOPPED EGG and
CHOPPED LIVER, Open Face
#28 - FRESSER'S SPECIAL
SANDWICH – Pastrami, Corned Beef,
Tongue, Swiss Cheese and Turkey,
Lettuce, Tomato, and Russian Style
Dressing
#29 - HOT PASTRAMI and
TOMATO Russian Style Dressing
#33 - PATTY MELT on Rye or
Sourdough – Juicy Ground Beef, Melted
American Cheese, Served with Onions,
Pickles, Cole Slaw and French Fries
#44 - HOT PASTRAMI, Sauerkraut
and Nippy Cheese Grilled on Rye
#54 - PASTRAMI and CORNED
BEEF COMBO
#55 - CORNED BEEF with Cole
Slaw and Russian Style Dressing
#65 - HOT PASTRAMI with Cream
Cheese and Sliced Tomato
#66 - BURGER MELT on a Bun –
Juicy Ground Beef, Melted American
Cheese, Served with Onions, Pickles,
Cole Slaw and French Fries
#88 - HOT CORNED BEEF,
Sauerkraut and Swiss Cheese Grilled on
Rye
#89 - SWISS, BACON and TOMATO
Grilled on Rye
Note that most of Langer’s
combination sandwiches come with
Russian style dressing.
What happened to the missing
numbers in the above list? Ah, that’s one
of the great mysteries of life!
Now we’ll go bicoastal and list the
creatively-named
combination
sandwiches at Carnegie Deli in New
York:
1. LEO’S DELIGHTIN Triple decker
turkey, corned beef, and tongue, with
cole slaw and Russian dressing
2. CARNEGIE HAUL Triple decker
pastrami, tongue, and salami with relish
3. TONGUE’S FOR THE MEMORY
Tongue, corned beef, and imported
Swiss cheese, with cole slaw and
Russian dressing
4. BEEF ENCOUNTER Triple decker
roast beef, chopped liver, and sliced
onion
6. NOVA ON SUNDAY Nova Scotia
salmon, lake sturgeon, onion, lettuce,
tomato, olives, and cream cheese
7. FIFTY WAYS TO LOVE YOUR
LIVER Chopped liver, hard boiled egg,
onion, lettuce and tomato
8 THE EGG AND OY! Chicken
salad, sliced egg, lettuce and tomato
9 THE MOUTH THAT ROARED
Prime roast beef, onion, lettuce and
tomato
10 CLUB DEAR Three decks of
sliced roast turkey, grilled bacon,
lettuce, tomato on white toast
11 BACON WHOOPEE Triple
decker chicken salad with crisp bacon,
lettuce, tomato on white toast
12 HENNY’S HEAVEN Nova Scotia
salmon and cream cheese, served on a
jumbo toasted bagel, with lettuce, tomato
and onion
13 JEFF’S TATALAH Turkey,
corned beef, Swiss on pumpernickel,
with creamy cole slaw, Russian dressing
14 AH, THERE’S THE REUBEN A
savory sandwich piled high with corned
beef or pastrami or turkey with melted
Swiss cheese and sauerkraut, open style
15 BRISKETBALL Brisket of beef
and white meat turkey, with onion,
lettuce and tomato
No, I didn’t leave out number 5. For
some reason, that combination isn’t on
Carnegie’s menu.
Note that neither of these delis makes
any pretense at being kosher—nor do
most other delis in the United States
these days.
Nate’n Al in Beverly Hills names
many of their sandwiches after
locations:
NATE’N AL Hot Pastrami, Lettuce,
Tomato, Russian Dressing
NEW YORK Hot Pastrami, Cole
Slaw, Russian Dressing
BEVERLY Roast Beef, Cole Slaw,
Russian Dressing
HOLLYWOOD Hot Corned Beef,
Cole Slaw, Russian Dressing
WESTWOOD Roast Turkey, Cole
Slaw, Russian Dressing
BRENTWOOD Brisket of Beef, Cole
Slaw, Russian Dressing
STUDIO Tongue, Cole Slaw, Russian
Dressing
However, Nate’n Al’s combination
sandwiches—served on three slices of
thin rye with potato salad or cole slaw
—are merely numbered:
1. BAKED HAM, TURKEY and
SWISS CHEESE Cole Slaw, Russian
Dressing
2. CHOPPED CHICKEN LIVERS
Sliced Hard Boiled Eggs, Sliced
Onions, Chicken Fat
3. HAM, ITALIAN SALAMI and
PROVOLONE Lettuce, Tomato, Russian
Dressing
4. ROAST BEEF, TURKEY and
SWISS CHEESE Cole Slaw, Russian
Dressing
5. HOT CORNED BEEF Lettuce,
Tomato, Russian Dressing
6. HOT PASTRAMI Sliced Sweet
Pickle, Lettuce, Tomato, Russian
Dressing
7. ROAST TURKEY, TONGUE Cole
Slaw, Russian Dressing
8. ROAST TURKEY, BACON
Lettuce ,Tomato, Mayonnaise
9. HOT CORNED BEEF and
TONGUE Cole Slaw, Russian Dressing
10. PASTRAMI, TONGUE and
SWISS CHEESE Cole, Slaw, Russian
Dressing
11. HOT CORNED BEEF,
PASTRAMI and SWISS CHEESE Cole
Slaw, Russian Dressing
These are just a sampling of creative
deli sandwiches, to whet your appetite.
Most delis have a full selection of
hamburgers, grilled sandwiches, melts,
hot sandwiches (with mashed potatoes
and gravy), and chicken sandwiches. Of
course, they’ll make any combination
you can think of—but you already know
that.
Now that you know what’s on them,
you can make any of these combination
sandwiches at home. Are you hungry
yet?
LANGER’S #19—THEIR MOST POPULAR
SANDWICH
Reuben and Rachel
One deli sandwich deserves special
attention: The Reuben, usually the most
expensive sandwich on a delicatessen’s
menu. As with the French Dip sandwich
and Chinese fortune cookies, there is
fierce contention over who first created
the Reuben.
One school of thought contends the
Reuben was first made in 1914 by
Arnold Reuben at his eponymous
restaurant in New York City for Annette
Seelos, the leading lady in a Charlie
Chaplin film then in production. But that
sandwich, according to legend, was
made with ham and not corned beef.
Another story is that the Reuben was
created by Jacob Reuben in his Brooklyn
deli. It’s been said that Jacob was a nonobservant Jew and did not keep kosher
—which might account for the
combination of meat and cheese in the
sandwich.
The most widely accepted version,
however, is that Omaha grocer Reuben
Kulakofsky (also known as Reuben Kay)
was the probable originator, and that he
devised the sandwich sometime in the
1920s for his buddies at a weekly poker
game held in the downtown Blackstone
Hotel.
This account gained support by being
mentioned in the movie Quiz Show. In
that film, the Reuben was called “the
only truly invented sandwich in the
world,” and Reuben Kay was given
credit for inventing it.
In fact, the inventor of the Reuben
sandwich is unknown and the recipe
goes back to 1908, which is about 20
years before Mr. Kay supposedly
invented it.
There are many variations of a
Reuben sandwich, but all include meat,
cheese, a cabbage product, and a
dressing, grilled or served on toasted
bread.
The meat is either corned beef or
pastrami. Purists state that if pastrami is
used, the sandwich should properly be
called a Rachel, not a Reuben. (Other
meats, such as ham or turkey, remove the
sandwich from the Reuben category
entirely, as far as I’m concerned.)
The cabbage product is usually welldrained sauerkraut, but sometimes cole
slaw is substituted. Russian dressing is
more common, but some places dab on
Thousand Island dressing.
The bread is typically rye, but
pumpernickel is used on occasion.
Traditionally, the cheese is Swiss. Most
delis grill the entire sandwich, so that
the cheese melts; some take the easy
route and just toast the bread.
In other words, when you make a
Reuben sandwich at home you have a lot
of flexibility, both in ingredients and in
preparation.
Soups
Chicken Soup
Beautiful Soup, so rich and green,
Waiting in a hot tureen!
Who for such dainties would not stoop?
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!
Beau - ootiful Soo - oop!
Beau - ootiful Soo - oop!
Soo - oop of the e - e - evening,
Beautiful, beautiful Soup!
… Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
There’s no way I can start this section
without first regaling you with two
famous chicken soup stories:
A man comes in to the same deli for
twelve years every night and orders
matzo ball soup. One night he pulls on
the waiter’s sleeve and says, “Taste the
soup.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the
soup,” the waiter says.
“Taste the soup!” the man insists,
shoving the bowl toward the waiter.
“What the heck are you talking
about?” the waiter says. “It’s the same
soup you’ve been eating every night for
twelve years. Nothing’s the matter with
it. We make it the same way every day.”
“Taste the soup!” he says again,
sending the waiter over the edge.
“Okay, okay. Stop hollering. I’ll taste
the soup. … Where’s your spoon?”
“Ah Ha!”
*****
Moments before a famous Yiddish
actor was to perform to a packed house
on Second Avenue in New York, the
theater manager stepped out from behind
the curtains and stood before the
audience.
“Ladies
and
gentlemen,”
he
announced solemnly, “I am distressed to
have to tell you that tonight’s show must
be cancelled. The beloved actor,
Mendel Feinstein, has just had a fatal
heart attack in his dressing room.”
From the back of the theater a shrill
female voice cried out, “Give him some
chicken soup!”
The manager, surprised, said,
“Madam, I don’t think you heard me
correctly. The great Mendel Feinstein is
dead. Chicken soup couldn’t possibly
help.”
To which the woman retorted, “It
couldn’t hurt!”
*****
I don’t think there’s a deli anywhere
that doesn’t feature chicken soup. It’s as
much a part of the deli experience as
pastrami on rye and lox and cream
cheese on a bagel.
What is it about chicken soup—
sometimes called Jewish penicillin—
that makes one with a cold or the flu feel
better? Perhaps it’s the heat of the broth,
or the aromatic steam rising from the
bowl. Perhaps it’s the electrolytes,
bringing the body’s chemistry back into
balance. Perhaps it’s just the delicious
taste. No matter. Chicken soup is the
perfect remedy. Be prepared for
emergencies! Always keep a supply of
homemade chicken soup in your freezer.
Serve it with matzo balls, kreplach,
noodles, or even rice. Or, just plain,
nothing but broth containing little bits of
chicken and vegetables. You can thicken
it with flour and milk to make cream of
chicken soup (definitely not kosher!), or
with cornstarch and a slightly beaten egg
to make Chinese egg drop soup. It’s all
up to you.
But first, you have to make the basic
chicken soup.
There are two ways to do so: The
old-fashioned way and the fast-and-easy
method. I’ll teach you both.
CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP WITH MATZO
BALL, BRENT’S DELI
Old-fashioned
Chicken Soup
INGREDIENTS
8 chicken feet
2 packages chicken backs (2–3
pounds)
2 packages chicken necks (2–3
pounds)
4 stalks celery, together with celery
leaves
3 carrots, large
2 white onions, medium-size
2 cloves garlic
1 small turnip
1 parsnip
1 cup chopped parsley
several sprigs of fresh dill weed
2 tablespoons kosher salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, coarsely
ground, or to taste
1 bay leaf
Pinch sage
Pinch marjoram
Pinch thyme
PREPARATION
Scrub the chicken feet thoroughly, then
score the flesh down to the bone with a
paring knife. Chicken feet add a lot of
flavor to the soup. If you can get yellow
feet, they also add color. These days,
however, chicken feet are often difficult
to find. If your supermarket doesn’t carry
them, try ethnic meat markets.
Cut the carrots, turnip, and parsnip
into small chunks. Chop the onions and
dice the celery and celery leaves.
Smoosh the garlic.
Put all ingredients in a large stock pot
and cover with at least one inch of
water.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and
simmer 6 or 7 hours, until the vegetables
turn to mush and the meat has completely
fallen off the bones. Add more water if
needed.
Cool. Skim off most of the schmaltz
(chicken fat). Strain the schmaltz and put
it in a plastic container in your
refrigerator or freezer for seasoning
vegetables, making chopped chicken
liver, making matzo balls, and using on
meat sandwiches in place of butter.
Strain the chicken and vegetable
medley and pour the soup—in essence,
just the concentrated broth—back into
the big pot.
Pick through the strainer and remove
and discard as many bones as possible.
Put some of the vegetables and little bits
of chicken back into the broth, to give it
a modicum of texture and color.
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT:
Pulverize the remaining particles of
chicken meat and vegetables in a food
processor. Add a dollop of the chickenveggie mix to your dog’s kibble every
day. He’ll love it!
SERVING SUGGESTION: Add one
or two matzo balls or kreplach to each
cup of soup, together with (optional)
some cooked and drained egg noodles.
Fast-and-Easy
Chicken Soup
INGREDIENTS
12 chicken wings, whole
2 stalks celery and celery leaves,
diced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/16 inch
thick
1 small turnip, peeled and cubed
1 parsnip, peeled and cubed
1/2 white onion, diced
1/2 cup parsley, finely minced
1 clove garlic, smooshed
2 tablespoons Knorr concentrated
chicken flavor broth or 1 quart chicken
stock
2 teaspoons kosher salt or Seasoned
Salt, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon Seasoned Pepper or
coarsely-ground black pepper, or to
taste
Pinch poultry seasoning
Pinch dried dill weed
PREPARATION
Place all ingredients in a large pot.
Cover with water.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a
simmer.
Cook until the chicken wings are
tender, but not falling off the bones
(about an hour).
Serve with one chicken wing and
some of the vegetables in each bowl.
Add matzo balls, kreplach, and/or
cooked egg noodles, as desired.
Finally, here’s a little trick that can be
used with either the old-fashioned or the
fast-and-easy chicken soups:
Add just enough yellow food color to
give the soup a pleasant color. You’ll be
amazed at how many more compliments
your chicken soup will generate with a
few drops of food coloring!
Matzo Balls
(Knaidlach)
These days, not many people eat
matzos except at Passover—especially
in delis. Oh, there’s the occasional
breakfast of matzo brei, and perhaps
some might crumble a few matzos in a
dish of Israeli shakshuka. But at home,
the matzo box will probably sit on a high
shelf in the pantry gathering dust until the
next Passover, when the matzos will be
thrown out because they’ve become stale
and new matzos purchased.
Matzo balls are another matter,
however. Not only are they mandatory at
Passover, they’re de rigueur in every
bowl of chicken soup, regardless of the
season, wherever eaten.
Some people prefer their matzo balls
as heavy as a solid rubber ball. I don’t. I
like mine light as a feather; floaters,
they’re called, as opposed to sinkers.
Matzo balls should never be cooked
in the soup itself, as that makes the soup
cloudy. Rather, simmer them in a
separate pot of slightly-salted water and
add them to the individual soup bowls
just before the soup is poured.
INGREDIENTS
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 cup chicken broth (or water)
1/4 cup schmaltz (or canola oil)
1 cup matzo meal
1 tablespoon finely-minced parsley
1/2 teaspoon dill weed (optional)
PREPARATION
Using a wire whisk, beat the eggs,
salt, broth, and schmaltz. Stir in the
matzo meal, parsley, and optional dill
weed. Place the mixture in the
refrigerator for thirty minutes (or longer)
to firm up.
Bring a pot of slightly-salted water to
a gentle boil.
Shape matzo balls with your hands,
making each the size of a golf ball—
larger, if you prefer. Using a slotted
spoon, ease them one-by-one into the
water.
Cover and simmer for 45 minutes.
Don’t peek until they’re done!
Makes 12 regular-size or 8 extralarge matzo balls.
Matzo balls may be frozen for future
use. Store them in Ziploc plastic bags.
NOTE: If you don’t have any matzo
meal, just grind up your leftover
Passover matzos in a food processor.
Process the matzos long enough to
reduce them to a fine granular form.
Kreplach
Kreplach are wonderful little stuffed
dumplings—pockets of dough with a
savory meat filling. They greatly
resemble wonton—except wonton filling
is made from ground pork and shrimp,
whereas kreplach filling is made from
ground beef, chicken, other kosher
meats, even just veggies.
Kreplach are traditionally served on
Erev Yom Kippur, Hoshana Raba, and
Purim. Most delis have them on the menu
year-round. Put a kreplach or two in
each bowl of chicken soup and with
each serving of chicken-in-the-pot.
Deep-fry them as an appetizer or side
dish.
DOUGH INGREDIENTS
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 cup water
1 teaspoon kosher salt
PREPARATION
Place the flour in a large bowl and
make a well in the center. Drop the eggs,
water, and salt into it.
By hand, work the eggs and water into
the flour. Knead the dough until it is
smooth and elastic.
Divide the dough into 10 pieces. Roll
each piece flat, and then cut into five 3inch circles or squares.
MEAT FILLING INGREDIENTS
1 pound ground beef, chicken, or
turkey
1 cup minced onions
1 garlic clove, smooshed
2 tablespoons schmaltz (chicken fat)
or cooking oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
PREPARATION
In a saucepan over medium heat, cook
the meat, onions, and garlic in the
schmaltz. Work the ground meat
vigorously with a potato masher to
reduce the size of the granules. Add the
salt and pepper. Remove from heat and
set aside to cool.
CHICKEN LIVER FILLING
INGREDIENTS
1 pound chicken livers
1 cup minced onions
1/4 cup schmaltz (chicken fat) or
cooking oil
4 hard-cooked egg yolks
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, coarsely
ground
PREPARATION
In a saucepan over medium heat, cook
the liver and onions in the schmaltz for
ten minutes, stirring frequently. Grind or
chop the livers, onions, and egg yolks.
Add the salt and pepper. Cool.
TO ASSEMBLE THE KREPLACH
Place one tablespoon filling in the
middle of each square or circle of
dough. Fold the dough over and seal the
edges, using a little water. You can also
fold the dough into triangles, like
hamantashen. Or, use two portions of
dough to make larger kreplach.
Let the filled kreplach stand on a
floured surface for 15 minutes to help
prevent sticking or opening during
boiling.
Drop up to 12 kreplach at a time into
slightly salted, barely boiling water.
Cook for 15 minutes. Remove with a
slotted spoon.
Place into chicken soup a few minutes
before serving.
Kreplach may be frozen either
uncooked or cooked. To freeze kreplach,
place them one inch apart on a cookie
sheet lined with parchment paper. When
they’re completely frozen, remove them
from the cookie sheet and store in Ziploc
bags. Thaw and use as needed.
Quick & Easy
Kreplach
You can make kreplach dough from
scratch, using the recipe above. Or, you
can cheat and save yourself a whole lot
of work by using wonton skins, which
are readily available in most
supermarkets. And, with this recipe,
there’s no need to cook the onions and
meat—the filling will cook during the
boiling process.
INGREDIENTS
1 package wonton skins (square)
1 pound ground beef
1 cup minced onions
1 garlic clove, smooshed
2 tablespoons schmaltz (chicken fat)
or cooking oil
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, coarsely
ground
PREPARATION
Chop the onions in a food processor.
Then (still using the food processor) mix
in all of the other ingredients except the
wonton skins.
Put one teaspoon filling in the center
of a wonton skin. Using a pastry brush
and water, dampen the wonton skin
around the filling.
Fold in half, forming a triangle. Press
the edges to seal the filling tightly inside.
Freeze individually (uncooked) on a
plate or tray. Then, transfer to a plastic
bag and return to the freezer until
needed.
To cook: Place up to 12 kreplach in a
large pot of barely-boiling salted water.
Simmer for 10 minutes, then remove
with a slotted spoon. Add to soup just
before serving.
Sweet and Sour
Cabbage Soup
CABBAGE SOUP, BRENT’S DELI
Sweet and sour cabbage soup is a deli
favorite. It’s hearty, flavorful, and
filling, almost like having cabbage rolls
(holishkes) in a bowl.
Serve with rye bread, and perhaps
some brisket, horseradish, and a boiled
potato on the side.
INGREDIENTS
1 pound stew beef or brisket, cut into
1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons olive or canola oil
2 cups onion, chopped
2 quarts water
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
8 cups white cabbage, coarsely
chopped (about 1 large head)
1 cup green bell pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup sultanas (white raisins)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon beef base (or replace 1
quart water with 1 quart beef stock)
2 teaspoons citric acid (sour salt)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt (optional)
1/2 teaspoon coarsely-ground black
pepper, or 1 teaspoon Seasoned Pepper
3 tablespoons flour for thickening
PREPARATION
In a large soup pot or kettle over
medium heat, brown the beef in the oil.
Add the onion, and sauté until
translucent.
Add the other ingredients, except the
flour. Bring to a boil, then reduce the
heat and simmer for 2–3 hours, or until
the meat is very tender.
Taste and adjust the seasoning as
needed.
Finally, make a slurry of the flour and
1 cup water. Add to the soup and stir.
Simmer a few minutes longer, until the
soup thickens very slightly.
Mushroom-Barley
Soup
Mushroom barley soup is a venerable
favorite at most every Jewish
delicatessen. If it isn’t on the menu every
day (as is matzo ball soup), it’s
probably the soup-of-the-day at least
once a week.
A bowl of hot, hearty, and filling
mushroom barley soup, together with a
few slices of rye bread or challah, can
be a complete meal all by itself. Or, by
the cup, it’s a starter for a sandwich or
salad.
Mushroom barley soup can be made
with either beef or chicken stock.
INGREDIENTS
10 cups beef or chicken stock
1 cup barley
2 cups onions, chopped
2 cups mushrooms, sliced 1/8 inch
thick
1 cup celery, diced to 1/4 inch
1 cup carrots, diced to 1/4 inch
1 parsnip, diced to 1/4 inch
4 cloves garlic, smooshed
1/4 cup canola oil
Kosher salt to taste
1 teaspoon Seasoned Pepper or 1/2
teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
PREPARATION
Place the beef or chicken stock and
the barley in a large stockpot. Bring to a
boil, then reduce heat and simmer.
Sauté the onions in the oil until lightly
browned.
Add the onions, mushrooms, celery,
carrots, parsnip, and garlic to the
stockpot and simmer until all ingredients
are thoroughly cooked, about 1
additional hour.
Add the salt and pepper. The amount
of salt needed will depend on the
saltiness of the stock.
Chicken Stock
Chicken stock can be purchased in
cans or aseptic boxes. Or, you can make
your own.
Place 5–6 pounds of chicken backs,
necks, chicken skin, chicken fat, wing
tips, and giblets (as available) in 1
gallon water in a large stockpot. Add 3
large bay leaves, and an assortment of
chopped vegetables: onion, parsley,
celery or celery leaves, parsnip, turnip,
carrots, and garlic.
Add 1 tablespoon kosher salt and
simmer for 3–4 hours. Strain.
Beef Stock
Beef stock can be purchased in cans
or aseptic boxes. Or, you can make your
own.
Place 5–6 pounds of beef soup bones
(marrow bones) and an assortment of
various vegetables (onion, parsley,
celery or celery leaves, parsnip, turnip,
carrots, and garlic) in a large roasting
pan. Bake at 450° F for 45 minutes,
turning several times. Transfer to a large
stockpot, and add 1 gallon water, 3 large
bay leaves, and 1 tablespoon kosher salt.
Deglaze the roasting pan with 2 cups
water, scraping to loosen the fond
(browned vegetable and meat tidbits),
and add to the stockpot.
Simmer for 2–3 hours. Strain.
Return stock to pot and add 1 pound
stew meat cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
Simmer for an additional hour.
If desired, chicken or beef stock base,
bouillon cubes, or other ingredients such
as Kitchen Bouquet may be added to the
above stocks to augment the flavor.
When adding commercially prepared
ingredients, add a little at a time and
taste-test to make sure they do not make
the stock too salty.
Borscht
Borscht is cold beet soup, of East
European origin. When served with a
dollop of sour cream and a chunk of rye
or pumpernickel bread, it’s a delightful
dairy lunch.
This recipe is attributed to worldfamous Katz’s Deli in New York City.
INGREDIENTS
1 quart water
4 fresh beets, grated
1 cup chopped onion
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Salt, to taste
Sour cream, for serving
PREPARATION
Combine the water, beets, onion, and
salt in a large stockpot and bring to a
boil. Cook for 30 minutes on low heat.
Stir in the sugar and lemon juice, and
simmer an additional ten minutes. Chill.
Serve with a dollop of sour cream.
Navy Bean and
Pastrami Soup
A deli can usually be judged by its
soups. Whether it’s matzo ball soup,
sweet-and-sour cabbage soup, beef and
barley soup, borscht, or some other
favorite, soup is an important component
of deli cuisine.
Brent’s, with locations in Northridge
and Westlake Village, California, has
consistently made some of the best soups
I’ve ever tasted in a restaurant, and
that’s reason enough for them to be
known as one of the premier delis in
Southern California. Brent’s has been
owned and operated by the Ron Peskin
family for more than forty years, and in
that time they’ve perfected everything on
their menu.
This hearty soup recipe, however,
comes from the other side of the
continent: Artie’s Deli in New York
City. Artie’s is nearly as well known for
pastrami as Katz’s in New York or
Langer’s in Los Angeles.
INGREDIENTS
1 pound (2 cups) dried navy beans
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large onions, diced
3 garlic cloves, smooshed
2 carrots, peeled and diced
3 celery stalks, diced
10 cups chicken stock
1/4 pound pastrami, in 1/4-inch dice
2 bay leaves
3 sprigs fresh thyme
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
PREPARATION
Rinse and pick through beans, looking
for and discarding broken beans and any
small stones. Place them in a large pot,
cover with cold water, and soak
overnight.
Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot
over medium heat. Cook onions until soft
and translucent, about 7 minutes. Add
garlic and cook another 2 minutes.
Drain the beans and add to the onion
and garlic mixture. Add carrots, celery,
chicken stock, pastrami, bay leaves,
thyme, parsley, salt, and pepper. Bring
to a boil, then lower heat and simmer
until the beans and vegetables are soft
and the soup begins to thicken, about 21/2 hours.
If desired, the soup can be pureed
with a hand blender or in batches in a
food processor.
Taste and adjust for seasoning.
Salads
Potato Salad
Different varieties of potatoes have
different textures. Texture should be of
prime consideration when selecting
which potato to use for a particular
purpose. For baked, mashed, or fries,
russet potatoes are the best. For soups,
chowders, and potato salad, potatoes
must be waxy and not crumble and fall
apart, either in the bowl or in the mouth.
I greatly enjoy the potato salad at
Nate’n Al Delicatessen Restaurant on
North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills.
For a number of reasons, Nate’n Al is
my favorite deli anywhere. Their latkes
(potato pancakes) were the inspiration
for my own recipe. And, I ask you:
Where else can you get a turkey
sandwich made with white, dark, or
mixed meat, your choice, from freshly
roasted whole turkeys? Or a roasted
turkey leg platter? Or orange juice,
freshly squeezed after you order it, not
before? Check out the Nate’n Al website
and get hungry:
http://natenal.com/index.html
But I digress.
One day my wife and I happened to sit
in a booth next to the owner of the
restaurant, a grandson of the founder. We
started talking, and when I complimented
him on the potato salad, he let me in on
his secret: The potatoes—always White
Rose potatoes—aren’t boiled at Nate’n
Al’s, they’re steamed. That way, they
never overcook or absorb too much
water.
The dressing for Nate’n Al’s potato
salad is very simple. With potatoes
cooked to perfection, anything else
would be gilding the lily. In other
words, you don’t need a lot of other
ingredients to disguise the potatoes.
The following recipe is mine, not
Nate’n Al’s, but it’s close to theirs in
concept, mouth feel, and taste. You may
want to use even less celery, scallions,
and bell pepper than the recipe calls for
—they’re included only to add a little
color and texture and just a smidgen of
flavor.
INGREDIENTS
4 cups of steamed White Rose
potatoes, chilled, peeled, and cubed to
1/2 inch
2 large stalks celery, diced very small
2 scallions (both white and green
part), sliced very thin
4 tablespoons green bell pepper,
minced
6
hard-boiled
eggs,
chopped
(optional)
Potato Salad Dressing
Paprika
PREPARATION
Mix the potatoes with the celery,
scallions, and bell pepper. Add just
enough of the dressing to lightly coat the
potatoes, no more. Dust with paprika.
Potato Salad
Dressing
INGREDIENTS
2 cups Best Foods or Hellman’s
mayonnaise
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
1/4 cup distilled (white) vinegar
1 (4-oz) jar chopped pimientos
3 tablespoons yellow “ballpark”
mustard
Seasoned Salt, to taste
Seasoned Pepper, to taste
PREPARATION
Using a wire whisk, mix all dressing
ingredients.
Macaroni Salad
This easily prepared side dish is
hearty and delicious, and better than any
I’ve ever had in a deli. The full recipe
makes a whole lot of macaroni salad—
enough to serve generous portions to at
least two dozen people.
This macaroni salad is always a hit
for buffet dinners. For family use, cut the
recipe in half. You’ll still have enough
for several meals!
INGREDIENTS
1 (16 ounce) package salad macaroni
1 green bell pepper
5 scallions
5 stalks celery
6 ounces canned pimientos
2 cups Best Foods or Hellman’s
mayonnaise
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons prepared mustard
1 tablespoon Seasoned Salt
1 teaspoon Seasoned Pepper
Paprika
PREPARATION
Following
the
manufacturer’s
directions, cook the macaroni, rinse it in
cold water, and drain. Place the
macaroni in the refrigerator to chill.
Blend the mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar,
mustard, Seasoned Salt, and Seasoned
Pepper.
Coarsely chop the bell pepper. Slice
the scallions 1/4 inch thin. Cut the celery
into 3/8 inch cubes. Mix together the
chilled macaroni, fresh vegetables,
pimientos, and the mayonnaise mixture.
Place in serving containers and sprinkle
with paprika.
Cole Slaw
Making cole slaw is an art, not a
science. Start with this basic recipe, then
modify the ingredients to suit your
personal preferences.
I usually slice and shred the cabbage
by hand. If your prefer your slaw with
grated cabbage, use the grater attachment
on a KitchenAid or other stand mixer.
This recipe makes a great deli-style
cole slaw. For me, it’s perfect. For you,
it should be a starting point.
INGREDIENTS
1 large head white cabbage
1/6 small head red cabbage (or less)
3 medium carrots, peeled
1/2 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
Cole Slaw Dressing
PREPARATION
Grate the cabbages and carrots and
put them in a large bowl. Add the bell
pepper.
Add the cole slaw dressing a little at
a time and mix thoroughly. Repeat until
the slaw has the consistency (moistness)
you like.
Optional ingredients you may wish to
add to the cole slaw include: yellow
mustard powder; granulated garlic;
cayenne pepper; paprika; red or yellow
bell peppers; chopped onions or
scallions; parsley; apples or dried
apples; lemon juice; dried cranberries;
and crushed pineapple.
If the slaw will not be eaten with
meat, or if kashrut is not a concern, you
may wish to add 1/2 cup sour cream to
the dressing.
Finally, fine-tune your slaw. Taste
and adjust, adding more sugar, spices,
mayonnaise, or vinegar if necessary.
Drain off any excess liquid before
serving.
NOTES
Some delis omit the mayonnaise
entirely, making a vinegar-based cole
slaw.
It’s tempting to put an entire head of
red cabbage into the slaw, but don’t.
That will turn the slaw an unattractive
purple. You need just enough red
cabbage to decorate the slaw, not
overwhelm it.
Cole Slaw Dressing
INGREDIENTS
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup white (distilled) vinegar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon whole celery seed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely-ground black
pepper or Seasoned Pepper
PREPARATION
Using a wire whisk, combine all
ingredients.
Egg Salad
My wife JJ became famous for her
delicious deli-style egg salad. At our
business in Las Vegas it was the practice
to furnish a lunch for all employees
whenever one of them had a birthday.
Invariably, instead of pizza, fried
chicken, or other take-out foods, the
birthday person would request JJ’s egg
salad sandwiches. Eventually, JJ’s egg
salad was included as an employee perk
and written into the company’s benefits
manual.
JJ’s recipe is simplicity itself:
Coarsely chop hard-cooked eggs, add a
l i t t l e Seasoned Salt
and Seasoned
Pepper (or kosher salt and coarsely-
ground black pepper), and enough
genuine mayonnaise (Best Foods or
Hellman’s) to give the mixture the right
texture—not too dry, not too moist.
Nothing more. I assure you, no other egg
salad is as satisfying as that made from
JJ’s recipe.
Yes, there are many ingredients that
can be added to egg salad, including
onions, shallots, scallions, chives, dill,
mustard (dry or prepared), pickle relish,
celery, stuffed green olives, paprika,
even caviar. But, why bother? JJ’s
simple recipe is the best!
To make the sandwiches, schmear a
generous dollop of egg salad on the
bottom half of a large Kaiser roll, cover
it with a layer of iceberg lettuce, then the
top of the poppy seed-covered roll.
Accompany the sandwiches with sweet
gherkin pickles, black olives, and potato
chips.
Perfect HardCooked Eggs
Part of the secret of JJ’s egg salad is
perfectly hard-cooked eggs. Note that I
s a i d cooked, not hard-boiled. Here’s
how to make them:
Place eight to twelve large raw eggs
in a medium-size pot, in a single layer.
Add 1/2 cup of kosher salt and cover
the eggs with half an inch of cold water.
The salt serves two purposes: It
increases the temperature of the boiling
water, and helps congeal any egg white
that creeps out of the shell of a cracked
egg.
Bring the water to a boil over low
heat, then immediately turn the heat off.
Place a lid on the pot, and keep the eggs
in the hot water for exactly 20 minutes.
Then, remove the lid and immediately
place the pot under a tap of cold running
water. Continue running cold water over
the eggs until they’re cool to the touch.
Cooked in this manner, the whites
will be firm yet tender, not tough and
rubbery. The yolks will be perfectly
cooked without any of the ugly greygreen layer around them—which is
caused by a chemical reaction between
the iron in the yolk and sulfur in the
white when eggs are boiled or cooked
too long.
Chicken Salad
Chicken salad is a staple in Jewish
delis. It can be made from leftover
roasted, boiled, or stewed chicken, or
from chicken cooked especially for the
purpose.
INGREDIENTS
5 cups cooked chicken—white meat,
dark meat, or mixed
3/4 cup Best Foods or Hellman’s
mayonnaise
1/2 cup celery, diced to 1/4 inch
1/2 cup red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup apple, peeled, cored, and
diced into 1/2 inch pieces (optional)
1/2 cup white seedless grapes, halved
(optional)
1/4 cup bell pepper, finely diced
(optional)
1/4 cup pickle relish
1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt or kosher
salt
1/2 teaspoon Seasoned Pepper or
coarsely-ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon Curry Powder (optional)
PREPARATION
Dice chicken into small pieces, no
larger than 1/2 inch. Mix all ingredients
thoroughly.
Refrigerate until served.
Chinese Chicken
Salad
Jews know two things: suffering, and
where to find great Chinese food.
… My Favorite Year (movie)
For 5,000 years, Jews have been eating
in Chinese restaurants. Have you ever
once noticed a Chinaman in a Jewish
restaurant asking for a piece of gefilte
fish?
… Jackie Mason
My wife JJ loved Chinese chicken
salad. She said that the best she’d had in
any restaurant was at Bagel Cafe, a
Jewish deli in Las Vegas.
It makes sense that Chinese Chicken
Salad and Farmer’s Chop Suey can be
found in Jewish delis. The two cultures
have much in common.
Kreplach and wonton are almost the
same, and Chinese cookies (the giant
almond-flavored cookies with the little
dab of chocolate on top) can be bought
only in Jewish bakeries and delis.
Similarly, the game mahjong is of
Chinese origin, but it’s now played
extensively by Jewish dowagers.
Which reminds me of what the
Chinese rabbi said when he was
introduced to an American Jew visiting
Beijing, “Funny, you don’t look Jewish!”
It’s easy to make wonderful Chinese
chicken salad at home, and it costs a lot
less than in restaurants and delis.
Usually this salad is served in large
portions as an entrée.
INGREDIENTS
Romaine lettuce
Napa cabbage
Scallions
Mandarin orange segments (canned)
Chinese noodles, fried (can be
purchased in a can)
Almonds, slivered
Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing
Cooked chicken
PREPARATION
Coarsely chop the lettuce and Napa
cabbage and put it in a large salad bowl.
Add the scallions (coarsely chopped),
Mandarin orange segments, Chinese
noodles, and almonds.
Pour some Chinese chicken salad
dressing on top and mix.
Place slices of grilled chicken breast
or chunks of cooked chicken (hot or
cold) on top of each individual salad,
rather than mixing the chicken into the
salad.
OPTIONAL, TO TASTE: Substitute
cashews for the almonds. Add water
chestnuts; red, yellow, or green bell
pepper slices; Chinese pea pods, raw or
briefly blanched.
Chinese Chicken
Salad Dressing
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons Kikkoman Aji-Marin
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
1 teaspoon Seasoned Pepper
1 teaspoon minced crystallized ginger;
or, 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
(optional)
PREPARATION
Mix the dressing with a wire whisk.
TO TOAST SESAME SEEDS:
Spread some sesame seeds on a piece of
aluminum foil and place in a 400° F
oven for several minutes. Stir
occasionally. Watch closely to make
sure the seeds don’t burn.
CHEF’S NOTES
Kikkoman Aji-Marin (a sweetened,
seasoned rice wine vinegar) and sesame
oil are available in the Asian foods
section of supermarkets or in ethnic
groceries.
Sesame oil is what gives Chinese
chicken salad, egg rolls, and many other
Chinese foods their distinctive flavor.
It’s quite strong, however, so be careful
not to use too much.
Farmer’s Chop
Suey
Farmer’s Chop Suey, despite its
name, is a specialty of Jewish
delicatessens. It’s a cool, refreshing
dairy lunch, quick to prepare, and best
when accompanied by fresh rye or
pumpernickel bread thickly spread with
sweet butter.
INGREDIENTS
1 cold boiled red or white rose
potato, peeled and sliced
2 radishes, sliced
1 scallion, cut to 1 inch lengths (both
white and green parts)
1 celery rib, cut at an angle to 1-inch
lengths
1 slice of green bell pepper, cut into
1/2 inch squares
1 large dollop sour cream
PREPARATION
Mix the vegetables. Put the sour
cream on top. Enjoy! Serves one.
VARIATIONS
Add sliced cucumbers, tomato
wedges, chopped lettuce, chopped
cabbage, shredded carrots, fresh
mushrooms, cottage cheese, sliced hardcooked egg, fresh dill weed, chopped
parsley.
Add a little salt, white pepper, sugar,
and lemon juice to the sour cream to
make a sour cream dressing.
Use yogurt instead of sour cream.
For a low-carb meal, omit the potato.
Entrées and Deli
Specialties
Chicken-in-the-Pot
You need to learn a special language
when dining in a deli and don’t want to
be disappointed with your meal.
If you order matzo ball soup, chances
are you’ll get a cup or bowl of chicken
broth with one (if a cup) or two (if a
bowl) matzo balls—no chicken, no
veggies.
On the other hand, when you order
chicken soup—with or without matzo
balls, kreplach, or noodles—you’ll get
the same chicken broth, but with the
addition of a few small chunks of
chicken, a few slices of carrots, and
perhaps scant evidence of celery and
onions.
Ah, but chicken-in-the-pot! That’s a
different matter entirely. With chickenin-the-pot, the broth is subordinate to the
large portions of chicken (often a full
half bird), a plethora of vegetables, and
(usually) both matzo balls and kreplach.
Chicken-in-the-pot is a complete meal,
filling and satisfying. It’s a featured item
on the menu of most every selfrespecting deli.
And it’s easy to make at home.
INGREDIENTS
1 roasting chicken, 4–5 pounds; or,
two smaller chickens (see below)
4 carrots, peeled and sliced to 2-inch
lengths
2 ribs celery, sliced to 2-inch lengths
2 leek leaves (both the white and
green parts), sliced crosswise to 1/2
inch
2 small turnips, peeled or scrubbed,
halved or quartered
1 parsnip, peeled and sliced to 1-inch
lengths
12 or more sprigs of parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, smooshed; or, 1/2
teaspoon granulated garlic
Kosher salt or Seasoned Salt, to taste
Coarsely-ground black pepper or
Seasoned Pepper, to taste
PREPARATION
Put 1/2 inch of water in a large pot.
Add the chicken, breast side up.
Sprinkle generously with Seasoned Salt
and Seasoned Pepper. Cover.
Bring the water to a boil, then reduce
the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook for 1
hour. You’re not boiling the chicken,
you’re steaming it.
Add the vegetables, then continue to
simmer until they’re fork-tender, another
30–45 minutes.
In the meantime: While the chicken is
cooking, boil the neck, liver, gizzard,
heart, tail, and any loose fat or chicken
skin and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a small
saucepan with enough water to cover.
When the giblets are done, have a little
nosh. You’re entitled! Then, if you didn’t
drink it, add the broth to the large pot
containing the chicken.
Serve chicken-in-the-pot in large
bowls, together with one or two matzo
balls and/or kreplach. Cooked egg
noodles are optional.
CHEF’S NOTES
If desired, remove the chicken skin
before cooking. Use it to make gribenes
and schmaltz, helzel, or tebit—all
Jewish recipes available elsewhere.
You might want to halve or quarter the
chicken before cooking, to make serving
a bit easier.
If you’re intending to serve each diner
a full half chicken, you’ll probably want
to use two smaller ones, rather than one
large bird. If you do so, adjust the
quantities of vegetables accordingly.
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Stuffed bell peppers are Jewish
comfort food. These scrumptious,
slightly sweet and sour stuffed bell
peppers have a tender, savory vegetable
shell, a meaty inside, and a piquant
glaze.
INGREDIENTS
8 large bell peppers
1/2 cup dry rice
2 pounds lean ground beef
1-1/2 cups chopped onions
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup currants, raisins, or sultanas
1 large egg
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Several dashes Tabasco sauce
2 teaspoons Seasoned Salt
1 teaspoon Seasoned Pepper
1 teaspoon citric acid (sour salt)
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Pinch cloves, ground
GLAZE
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
PREPARATION
Slice stems and tops off of the bell
peppers. Remove the seeds and white
membranes from the insides. Put the
peppers in boiling water and parboil for
5 minutes. Remove from the water
immediately and allow to cool.
Cook the rice according to package
instructions.
In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the
meat, rice, and all other ingredients. Fill
the bell peppers with the meat mixture.
Place the peppers close together in a
casserole dish. Pour some of the glaze
on top of each stuffed pepper, dividing
evenly. Bake in a 350° F oven for 45–50
minutes.
Sweet and Sour
Cabbage Rolls
(Holishkes)
Like the majority of deli foods, this
delicious dish—similar to stuffed bell
peppers—is of East European origin.
It’s a favorite dinner special in many
delis, for holishkes are inexpensive to
make and easy to prepare in advance.
Reheat in the oven or microwave just
before serving.
INGREDIENTS
1 large head white cabbage
Filling
Sauce
FILLING
3/4 cup uncooked white rice
3 pounds lean ground beef
1-1/2 cups chopped onion
1 cup raisins or sultanas
1 cup bread crumbs
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Several dashes Tabasco sauce
2 teaspoons Seasoned Salt or kosher
salt
1
teaspoon Seasoned Pepper or
coarsely-ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Pinch cloves, ground
SAUCE
1 can (15 ounce) tomato sauce
1 can (14.5 ounce) diced tomatoes
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup distilled (white) vinegar
1 teaspoon citric acid (sour salt)
1 teaspoon Seasoned Salt
PREPARATION
Remove the outer leaves of a large
head of cabbage one by one, taking care
to keep them as intact as possible. Drop
the leaves into boiling salted water and
parboil for 5 minutes, or until soft.
Drain, cool, and trim out the thick center
vein.
Cook the rice. It doesn’t have to be
completely soft, as it will be cooked
some more when the cabbage rolls are
cooked. Here’s an easy way: Put the rice
in a microwave-safe bowl that holds
about 8 cups. Add 1-1/4 cups water.
Cover. Microwave on high for 8
minutes.
Make the sauce by mixing all of the
sauce ingredients.
Make the filling by mixing thoroughly
all of the filling ingredients, the cooked
rice, and 1 cup of the sauce.
Put 1/2 cup of meat filling in the
center of each cabbage leaf. Wrap the
leaf around the filling and put the
cabbage roll, seam side down, in a flat
casserole dish.
When all cabbage rolls have been
made, pour the remaining sauce on top,
dividing it evenly.
Bake, uncovered, for 45–50 minutes
at 350° F. Makes approximately 30
cabbage rolls, depending on size.
Any cabbage rolls not needed
immediately may be wrapped in plastic,
placed in Ziploc bags, and refrigerated
or frozen.
SERVING SUGGESTION
Serve cabbage rolls with a boiled
potato and plenty of rye bread or
challah.
Short Ribs
What could be more delicious than a
feast of short ribs, with perfectly
seasoned, tender, succulent meat
practically falling off the bone and
melting in your mouth? How about the
same short ribs accompanied by ovenroasted vegetables, and everything
topped with a flavorful brown gravy?
Yum! That’s comfort food at its finest!
Most recipes instruct you to dredge
short ribs in flour and sear them in fat to
brown the meat on all sides before
putting it in the oven. That’s one way of
cooking short ribs, but it requires timeconsuming work that’s not necessary. I
have a quicker and easier way. First,
brown the ribs in your broiler. Then,
braise them.
Braising is the technique of cooking
with moist heat. Steam, in other words.
Steam literally melts the tough fibers in
meat, tenderizing it naturally. The
protein in the meat—collagen—
transforms into gelatin, which thickens
the meat juices and marinades into a
smooth, velvety sauce that’s the basis for
a mouthwatering gravy.
Because there’s a lot of waste to short
ribs—mostly bone, some gristle—you’ll
need to buy at least a pound per person.
Buy English style short ribs—that is,
ribs cut parallel to the bones. Chuck
short ribs are taken from ribs 1 through 5
of the chuck primal. Plate ribs are taken
from the flat ends of ribs 6 through 9 of
the plate primal. Per pound, chuck short
ribs have more meat and less fat than
ribs from the plate, but they’re both
delicious.
INGREDIENTS
Beef short ribs
Chopped onion
Seasoned Salt and Seasoned Pepper,
to taste
Red wine
A-1 or barbecue sauce
Assorted vegetables, your choice:
potatoes, carrots, celery, parsnips,
onions, mushrooms, bell pepper
Flour (for making gravy)
Kitchen Bouquet (optional)
PREPARATION
Rinse the ribs to remove any small
particles of bone that may have been left
by the butcher’s saw. Arrange them in
the cooking dish, standing up vertically,
with the cut ends of the bones on the
sides.
Sear the meat in your broiler until it’s
light brown. Then, turn the ribs over and
brown the other side.
Now for the seasoning: Pour red wine
over the ribs, about 1/4 cup per pound.
Next, drizzle a couple tablespoons of A1 or barbecue sauce on top of the ribs.
Then, sprinkle the ribs with some
chopped onion, Seasoned Salt, and
Seasoned Pepper.
These seasoning preferences aren’t
cast in stone. Use any seasonings you
like—a favorite herb blend, chili
powder, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce,
tomato sauce, balsamic vinegar, and so
on. Just be sure to provide sufficient
moisture for the braising process—about
half a cup per pound of short ribs, but
not a lot more. You want to braise the
meat, not boil it.
Bake, covered, in a 325° F oven for
two hours. While cooking, check
occasionally. Turn the ribs over after
one hour. Add more liquid if needed
(water’s fine); you don’t want the baking
dish to become dry.
Remove from the oven and allow to
cool before removing the lid, so the meat
won’t dry out.
Skim off and discard most (but not
all) of the grease. Use the remaining
grease and liquid to make gravy.
Using a whisk, thoroughly mix two
heaping tablespoons of flour with one
cup of water.
Put the drippings in a saucepan and
heat. Whisking constantly, pour 3/4 of
the flour-water slurry into the drippings.
Cook over low heat until the mixture
thickens. If the gravy is too thick, add
more water. If too thin, add more of the
slurry. Season if needed, strain if
desired.
At the beginning of this recipe I told
you it wasn’t necessary to dredge the
meat in flour and sear the meat on all
sides before braising. Had you done so,
the flour would have browned—in
effect, you would have made an informal
roux—and now the gravy would be a
beautiful shade of brown and the toasted
flour would have added to the flavor of
the gravy.
Here’s how to compensate for taking
that timesaving shortcut earlier. Simply
add a tablespoon of Kitchen Bouquet to
the gravy. Instantly, the gravy becomes a
beautiful brown color and the flavor is
enhanced.
It’s a lot easier to add Kitchen
Bouquet than it is to spend half an hour
or more dredging the meat in flour,
searing it in fat, and then cleaning up the
pot and stove afterwards. That’s not
laziness, that’s efficiency!
Always taste gravy to check the
flavor, spiciness, and saltiness. Make
any adjustments necessary.
Meanwhile: After you’ve removed the
drippings, and while you’re making the
gravy, return the short ribs to the oven.
Bake the short ribs, covered, for an
additional 30 minutes at 350° F. Remove
the cover and bake another 15 minutes.
Alternately, if you’re going to serve
oven-roasted vegetables with the short
ribs, such as 2-inch chunks of potatoes;
2-inch lengths of carrots; celery;
parsnips; quartered onions or boiling
onions; and whole mushrooms; transfer
the meat to a larger baking dish.
Surround the meat with the vegetables.
Drizzle some of the meat drippings over
the vegetables.
Cover and bake at 350° F for 30
minutes or until the vegetables are
almost done. Then, remove the lid and
bake for an additional fifteen minutes to
brown the potatoes and caramelize the
other veggies.
Flanken
Flanken-style short ribs are chuck
short ribs cut across the bones. The same
meat cut parallel to the bones is referred
to as English-style short ribs.
Flanken is often boiled and used in
soups, such as mushroom barley; and in
tzimmes.
INGREDIENTS
4 pounds flanken
Seasoned Salt and Seasoned Pepper;
or kosher salt and coarsely-ground black
pepper
Flour, for dredging
2 tablespoons canola or other cooking
oil
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, smooshed
1 cup dry red wine
2 small onions, quartered
2 stalks celery, sliced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 green bell pepper, sliced
2 small parsnips, peeled and sliced
(optional)
PREPARATION
Season the flanken with salt and
pepper. Dredge it in the flour. Place the
cooking oil in an ovenproof container
with a lid, such as a Dutch oven. Sauté
the flanken over medium heat, turning
occasionally, until browned on all sides.
Add the bay leaves, garlic, and wine.
Cover, and place in a preheated
300° F oven. Cook for 2-1/2 to 3 hours,
or until the meat is tender.
About an hour before serving, add the
vegetables.
Baste frequently. Add more wine or
water if the liquid has evaporated.
SERVING SUGGESTION
Serve over egg noodles. Accompany
with prepared horseradish.
Kasha Varnishkes
Perhaps no deli food shouts “Old
World” as loudly as kasha varnishkes.
For those raised on the inexpensive-toprepare dish, a bowl or plate of it brings
back nostalgic memories. For those who
were not, it may seem as foreign as
tschav (green borscht) or ptcha (calf’s
foot jelly). Depending on your budget,
kasha varnishkas can be either an entrée
or a side dish. Either way, it’s quite
filling.
My own introduction to kasha
varnishkes came when I was fifteen
years old. As a fairly skilled
photographer, I’d taken on the task of
illustrating a book of homemade toys for
Maurice Stoller, a newspaperman and
writer originally from France. On the
days when I worked, Stoller would
always invite me to join his family for
lunch, which—in the European tradition
—was their main meal of the day.
They owned what appeared, at first
glance, to be a covered cake holder
made of chromed steel; it always sat on
their dining room table. It was not for
storing baked goods, however. It was an
electric broiler, complete with a heating
element that turned red-hot. I suspect the
device was a precursor to today’s
toaster ovens. I’d never seen one exactly
like it before, nor have I seen anything
similar since.
In it, his wife cooked some of the
most delicious lamb chops I’ve ever
tasted—perhaps because they were
well-seasoned with garlic and herbs.
The meat was accompanied by a
generous portion of kasha varnishkes,
with a spoonful or two of garlicky lamb
grease spread over the top, and a small
green salad, all on the same plate.
Sadly, most young people today are
totally unfamiliar with this tasty treat—
its nutty, crunchy grains of toasted
buckwheat groats combined with lightly
caramelized onions, the earthiness of
mushrooms, and tooth-tender pasta. Just
check the age of people who order kasha
varnishkes in a deli. They’re probably
somewhere between retirement and
death.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups onion, diced
3 tablespoons schmaltz (rendered
chicken fat), butter, margarine, or olive
oil
1 clove garlic, smooshed
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
1 cup kasha (buckwheat groats),
medium or coarse
1 large egg, beaten
2 cups chicken broth or bouillon
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon coarsely-ground black
pepper
2 cups small bow-tie noodles,
uncooked
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
PREPARATION
In a large saucepan, over mediumhigh heat, sauté the onion in the schmaltz
until it’s lightly browned. Add the garlic
and mushrooms and continue to sauté
until tender.
Remove the onion-mushroom mixture
from the pan and set it aside. Wipe the
inside of the saucepan with a paper
towel, to remove any excess oil.
Using a wire whip, beat the egg in a
small bowl. Stir in the kasha. Mix well,
making sure each grain is coated with
egg.
Put the kasha into the same saucepan
used to sauté the onion. Stir over
moderately high heat until the egg has
dried and the groats have separated and
turned a fragrant, toasty brown.
Return the onion-mushroom mixture to
the saucepan.
Add the chicken broth, salt, and
pepper and bring to a full boil.
Reduce heat to low. Cover the pan
tightly and simmer until the broth is
completely absorbed, about 10–15
minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Meanwhile, cook the bow-tie noodles
according to package directions. Drain.
Combine the kasha-onions-mushrooms
mixture with the cooked pasta. Sprinkle
with the chopped parsley. Serve while
hot.
Use as a main dish, or a side dish
served with meat or poultry. It’s
especially good topped with roast beef
or poultry gravy.
This recipe makes enough kasha
varnishkes for four to six. Any that’s left
over may be refrigerated or frozen to be
served later.
Knishes
A knish (pronounced kuh-nish) is the
Jewish version of the delicious small,
stuffed, sweet or savory, baked or fried
pastries served around the world—
including
sambusak,
bourekasim,
panzarotti,
pierogies,
empanadas,
samosas, Cornish pasties, turnovers, and
chimichangas.
Like most other deli foods, knishes
are of Eastern European origin. They can
be used as a first course, appetizer, side
dish, or snack. In New York City,
knishes are also a familiar street food,
sold by pushcart vendors.
Knishes are made in various sizes and
shapes, ranging from small and elegant
(hors d’oeuvre size, for cocktail parties)
to the size and shape of hamburgers.
Sometimes they’re even larger; those are
sliced into portions.
The most popular knishes are filled
with a combination of potatoes and
onions. Other types of savory fillings
include chopped chicken liver, broccoli
and cheese, fish, cabbage, mushrooms,
and kasha.
If you don’t want to make knishes
yourself, you can order them online from
Yonah Schimmel Knishery in the Lower
East Side of New York and have them
delivered to your home the next day.
Founded by a rabbi from Romania, the
knishery has been making both sweet and
savory knishes since 1910:
http://knishery.com/
Another resource is Gabila’s Knishes,
also in New York. Since 1921, they’ve
sold over 1.3 billion knishes in a wide
variety of sizes and styles:
http://gabilas.com/
Potato Knishes
DOUGH INGREDIENTS
1 cup boiled and smooshed russet
potatoes
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 rounded teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cold water
FILLING INGREDIENTS
2 cups boiled and smooshed russet
potatoes
2 cups onion, finely diced
(approximately 1 large white onion)
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) sweet butter,
margarine, or schmaltz
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely-ground black
pepper (or 1 teaspoon Seasoned Pepper)
EGG WASH INGREDIENTS
1 large egg
1 tablespoon water
PREPARE THE POTATOES
Peel 6–8 russet potatoes (depending
on size) and cut them into 1-inch cubes.
Boil in slightly salted water until soft,
about 15–20 minutes. Drain thoroughly.
Using a potato masher, smoosh the
potatoes until they’re of a moderately
smooth consistency.
MAKE THE DOUGH
In a medium-size bowl, mix one cup
of the smooshed potatoes together with
the canola oil and 1 teaspoon kosher
salt.
In a small bowl, whisk the flour
together with the baking powder.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the
potato mixture and blend together.
Repeat twice, using up all of the flour
mixture.
Make a small well in the center of the
flour-potato mixture. Pour 1/2 cup cold
water into the hole. Using your hands,
knead the dough for a few minutes, to
make a firm ball. If necessary to make a
smooth and pliable dough ball, add a
little more water—but, be careful not
make the dough too wet or sticky.
Cover the dough with a damp cloth
and set it aside for 1/2 hour.
MAKE THE FILLING
Sauté the onion in the butter (or
margarine or schmaltz) on low heat, until
it’s soft and translucent, but not
browned.
In a medium-size bowl, mix together
the sautéed onions, 2 cups of smooshed
potatoes, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and
1/2 teaspoon pepper (or 1 teaspoon
Seasoned Pepper)
ROLL THE DOUGH
Spread a thin layer of flour on a
breadboard or other flat surface. Flour a
rolling pin. Divide the dough into 3
portions.
Roll out the dough until it’s slightly
less than 1/4 inch thick. Using a 5-inch
dessert dish or small bowl as a template,
cut out two circles. Return the scraps to
the next portion of dough to recycle.
Place approximately 1/4 cup of the
filling mixture in the center of each
circle. Dip your fingers (or a pastry
brush) in water, and wet the uncovered
part of the circle.
Pull up the sides of the circle,
stretching as you go. Twist and pinch
them together to seal the knish.
Place the knish sealed side down onto
a parchment-covered baking sheet. (If
you prefer, bake the knishes sealed side
up.)
Repeat, until all the dough and filling
is used up. Makes 8 knishes, each about
the size of a small hamburger.
MAKE THE EGG WASH
Using a fork, blend the egg with 1
tablespoon water. Brush each knish with
the egg wash.
BAKE
Place the knishes in a preheated
425° F oven. Bake for 25 minutes, or
until the tops are golden tan.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Serve knishes warm or at room
temperature. Accompany with a dollop
of yellow (ballpark) mustard.
Serve knishes warm with gravy.
Obviously, knishes served with gravy
are not kosher, unless the butter in the
above recipe is replaced with pareve
margarine or schmaltz (chicken fat).
SHAPE AND SIZE ALTERNATIVES
To make square knishes, use a pizza
cutter or knife to trim all sides of a piece
of rolled-out dough to make a rectangle.
Place the filling in the center of the
square. Fold over the short sides of the
rectangle, then the longer sides, making
an envelope of the dough. Seal with a
little water. Place on the parchment
paper sealed side down.
To make cocktail knishes, roll the
dough thinner and make the knishes
smaller (either round or square).
You can also make knishes in the
shape of a log, spreading the filling and
rolling the dough up inside like a strudel.
Bake uncut, or slice and bake the spirals.
Here are three alternate fillings for
your knishes:
Chicken Liver
Knish Filling
INGREDIENTS
1 large onion, finely diced
4 tablespoons cooking oil
1 pound chicken livers
1 hard cooked egg
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon coarsely-ground black
pepper
PREPARATION
In a small skillet, sauté the onion in 2
tablespoons of the oil, stirring often,
until translucent. Remove the onions and
set aside.
In the same skillet, sauté the chicken
livers in the remaining oil, stirring often,
until the pink has disappeared.
Chop finely the livers and hardcooked egg. Add to the sautéed onions.
Stir in the salt and pepper.
Beef Knish Filling
INGREDIENTS
1/2 pound lean ground beef
1 onion, diced
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
PREPARATION
Fry the onion in the oil until golden.
Add the meat and cook until all the pink
has disappeared, crumbling the meat
with a fork or potato masher. Season
with salt and pepper. Stir in parsley.
Allow to cool before using.
Cream Cheese
Knish Filling
INGREDIENTS
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chopped scallions or chives
1 egg, lightly beaten
Salt and white pepper, to taste
PREPARATION
Mix all ingredients together.
Kishka (Stuffed
Derma)
Someone stole the kishka
Someone stole the kishka
Who stole the kishka,
from the butcher’s shop?
… Frankie Yankovic
Kishka is a word of Slavic origin
meaning intestines or gut, and that’s
exactly what kishka is (or should be)
made from: natural beef casings
(intestines) stuffed with a blend of
vegetables, starch, and spices.
When kishka is cooked properly, the
casing acquires a crisp-yet-chewy
texture and the soft, pasty stuffing a
stick-to-your-palate quality. For the
utmost enjoyment, kishka needs to be
swimming in a pool of brown gravy.
I recall a number of delis of my youth
that always served a small slice of
kishka with every sandwich—an extrasomething that New Orleans natives call
a lagniappe—but, I haven’t seen that
practice in many years. Now, kishka is a
side dish / appetizer, and an expensive
one, at that.
In 2004, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture stole the kishka by banning
the use of beef small intestines in food
products, out of fear that they might carry
the abnormal protein that causes mad
cow disease. The rule has since been
relaxed, with abattoirs required to take
certain precautions I won’t go into here,
for which you should be thankful.
I’m going to assume that if you don’t
have a good deli nearby where you can
buy kishka ready-made, you won’t have
a local kosher butcher shop, either,
where you can buy six or seven feet of
beef casings. So, the following recipe
will be for making vegetarian kishka
suitable for Passover use … with a few
non-Passover
and
non-vegetarian
alternatives.
Vegetarian Kishka
INGREDIENTS
4 ribs celery
3 carrots, peeled
2 medium-size onions
2 cups water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
4 cups matzo meal
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoons granulated garlic
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1
teaspoon Seasoned Pepper or
coarsely-ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
PREPARATION
Pulse the celery, carrots, and onions
individually in a food processor.
In a large bowl, combine all
ingredients.
Divide mixture into four portions.
Place each portion onto a sheet of
parchment paper. and form into a
salami-shaped log about 2 inches in
diameter. Wrap and seal the logs in
aluminum foil.
Place the wrapped kishka on a cookie
sheet.
Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for
1-1/2 hours, turning over at the end of 45
minutes.
If serving immediately, remove the
foil and parchment paper and return to
oven for 10 to 15 minutes to lightly
brown and crispen. Slice into 1-inchthick rounds.
If the kishka has been refrigerated,
remove the foil and parchment paper and
slice into 1-inch-thick rounds. Fry in a
little vegetable oil for several minutes
on each side to lightly brown and
crispen.
Kishka may be wrapped and frozen
for future use.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Serve as an appetizer, topped with a
generous portion of brown gravy.
Serve as a side dish with brisket, pot
roast, or roast chicken.
VARIATIONS
Substitute schmaltz (rendered chicken
fat) or suet (hard beef fat) for the
vegetable oil.
Substitute chicken or beef broth for
the water.
Substitute flour, farina, kasha, or
mashed potato for some or all of the
matzo meal. (Substitutions may also
require a change in the quantities of
other ingredients.)
HELZEL
Stuff the kishka mixture inside the skin
of a turkey or goose neck. Close the ends
by tying with string. Technically this is
not kishka, but helzel—which literally
means neck in Yiddish.
You can also wrap each kishka log in
chicken skin instead of parchment paper.
This method closely approximates the
taste and texture of traditional kishka. It
will require the skin of one chicken for
each of the four logs made by this
recipe.
It’s easy to remove the skin from a
roasting hen in one or several large
pieces by sliding your hands between the
skin and the flesh, working it loose.
Then, use the chicken meat for making
chicken-in-the-pot, chicken soup, or any
other chicken recipe.
Knocks or Franks
and Beans
If a deli has a nightly dinner special—
and most of them do—the odds are that
knockwurst and beans or frankfurters
and beans will be frequently featured
fare on the chalkboard.
Your choice of salad or soup, and
perhaps a small dessert (such as a chunk
of crumb cake or a dish of rice or bread
pudding) are part of the special. And, of
course, you’ll be given a napkin-covered
basket of bread, perhaps a slice or two
each of challah and rye. Most likely, the
bread will be cut from the ends of
loaves and hence too small for the deli
to use making sandwiches.
The knocks or franks will be scored
with a sharp knife in a spiral running the
length of the sausage, then grilled until
the outside is nicely browned. There
really isn’t any need to do more than
heat the knocks and franks, as they come
from the factory fully-cooked.
The beans are always vegetarian,
most likely Heinz brand, canned. No
self-respecting deli would ever serve
pork and beans with franks or knocks,
even though they unabashedly serve ham
and cheese sandwiches and bacon and
eggs. After all, if you order the latter
two items, you know what you’re
getting. In the case of canned beans,
you’re relying on the deli’s integrity and
good sense not to put pork on your plate.
Two franks or knocks will be placed
on top of the beans, perhaps in an oval
serving dish.
Also in the dish (or perhaps on the
side) will be a serving of sauerkraut,
heated.
Now you know the ground rules,
what’s for dinner tonight?
Lox, Eggs, and
Onions
A favorite deli breakfast is lox, eggs,
and onions (L-E-O), accompanied by
toasted bagels, butter, whipped cream
cheese, and hash browns or sliced
tomatoes. Not only is L-E-O delicious,
it’s so quick and easy to make!
Don’t think that this meal can be
served only at breakfast, though. It’s
equally welcome for lunch, dinner, or a
late-night food frenzy.
L-E-O helps your budget, too. How
else could you make just four ounces of
lox feed four people?
INGREDIENTS
1 large white onion, chopped or
sliced thinly
8 large eggs
4 ounces lox or nova, cut into small
pieces (may be scraps or wings)
3 tablespoons canola oil
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 scallions, chopped (optional)
PREPARATION
In a large sauté pan, cook the onion in
the oil and butter until translucent.
Using a wire whisk, beat the eggs,
salt, and pepper until combined, then
add to the onions.
Stir to scramble. When the eggs have
almost set, add the lox and (optional)
scallions.
Continue cooking and stirring until the
eggs are done. (Can be more or less dry,
as you prefer.)
PANCAKE STYLE
Add the lox and (optional) scallions
to the egg mixture. Cook without stirring
until the eggs are set on the bottom. Turn
with a spatula and continue cooking until
done.
Salami and Eggs
Salami is a pleasant respite from
other breakfast meats.
INGREDIENTS
Salami
Eggs
PREPARATION
Slice salami 1/4 inch thick. Fry in
ungreased skillet until slightly brown on
both sides (turning once). Serve with
eggs cooked any style.
Or, cut salami into 1/2 inch cubes. Fry
briefly, then add to beaten eggs.
Scramble the eggs together with the
salami.
Matzo Brei
Matzo brei is a simple, quick, and
versatile staple of every Jewish deli. It’s
considered by many to be a breakfast
dish de rigueur during Passover. Matzo
brei is also a great way to use up
leftover Passover matzos before they go
stale.
Basically, there are two types of
matzo brei. The first is similar to a
pancake, unfolded omelet, or French
toast; the second resembles scrambled
eggs.
INGREDIENTS
2 slices matzo
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 or 2 tablespoons butter or cooking
oil
PREPARATION
Break the matzos into 1 or 1-1/2 inch
squares. Soak them in water briefly, then
squeeze to remove most of the water.
Mix the matzos with the beaten eggs
and salt.
Melt the butter (Place the oil) in a
small nonstick skillet. Pour in the matzo
mixture, and cook on low heat until the
bottom is lightly browned. Turn, and
brown the other side.
Or, stir the mixture while cooking, to
scramble the matzo brei like plain eggs.
Now, here’s where the fun comes in.
Matzo brei is like a blank painter’s
canvas, ready for you to create a
masterpiece. The dish lends itself to
most any modifications imaginable.
Select from the following, but
(obviously) not all at once. If you keep
kosher, you already know not to mix
meat and dairy.
For savory matzo brei, add grated
onions; chopped scallions; chunks of
salami; cubes of corned beef; tidbits of
lox; diced bell peppers; grated cheese.
Serve with hash browns or sliced
tomatoes.
For sweet matzo brei, add a teaspoon
of brown sugar; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla;
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon; 3 tablespoons
heavy or sour cream. Sprinkle with
powdered sugar.
Serve with maple syrup; applesauce;
peach slices; blueberries; strawberries;
sour cream; apricot jam.
Cheese Blintzes
Would it be Shavuot without cheese
blintzes? Jewish tradition links holidays
with foods of special significance. Here
are a few examples: fried foods, such as
latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiot
(jelly doughnuts) for Hanukkah—
because of the miracle of the oil that
lasted for eight days; hamantashen
(three-cornered filled pastries) for
Purim—because they resemble Haman’s
hat or ears; matzos, gefilte fish, charoset,
and many other Passover foods—items
required for a Seder; and, dairy dishes
for Shavuot—as the Torah, given on
Shavuot, is as sweet as milk and honey.
Blintzes are similar to French crêpes,
but it’s more likely they originated in
Poland. The word blintz is of Slavic
origin—and is obviously related to the
blini Russians serve with melted butter,
sour cream, and caviar.
Cheese blintzes consist of a smooth
cheese filling enclosed by tender golden
egg crepes, best accompanied by
generous
dollops
of strawberry
preserves and sour cream. Cheese
blintzes are the perfect dairy meal,
whether they’re served for breakfast,
lunch, dinner, dessert, or as a late-night
treat. What could be more delicious?
Cheese blintzes are a deli staple. You
can easily make them at home, and even
keep them in your freezer to be cooked
for a quick and easy meal on a moment’s
notice.
FILLING INGREDIENTS
2 pounds white cheese: hoop cheese,
farmer's cheese, well-drained cottage
cheese, or any combination
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Blend all ingredients in a food
processor until smooth.
BATTER INGREDIENTS
1/2 stick sweet (unsalted) butter
4 large eggs
1-3/4 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
Non-stick cooking spray
PREPARATION
Melt the butter in a microwave, about
three minutes at 30% power.
Whisk the eggs, milk, and salt
together. Add flour 1/4 cup at a time,
each time whisking until smooth. Blend
in the melted butter.
Spray a Teflon-coated crepe or
omelet pan lightly with Pam or other
non-stick cooking spray.
Pour 1/4 cup batter into the pan.
Rotate the pan to coat the entire pan
bottom with the batter.
Cook over medium heat just until the
bottom side of the crepe turns light
brown at the edges. Do not cook the
other side!
Slide crepe out of the pan, cooked
side up, onto a plate.
Fill with 3 tablespoons cheese filling.
Make an envelope by folding the bottom,
sides, and then the top of crepe over the
filling.
Repeat until all batter and filling are
used. Makes about 12 blintzes,
depending upon size.
Refrigerate until ready to prepare for
serving. Or, wrap individual blintzes in
cling-type plastic to prevent freezer
burn, package them in Ziploc bags, and
freeze.
To serve: If the blintzes are frozen,
it’s not necessary to thaw them. Sauté
over low heat in a small amount of
melted butter until the tops and bottoms
of the blintzes are golden brown (turn
once). Dust with powdered sugar.
Serve immediately with sour cream
and strawberry preserves or blueberry
sauce.
Potatoes
Latkes (Potato
Pancakes)
There are as many variations of latkes
as the number of people who make them
—perhaps more. I’ve even seen recipes
for so-called latkes made from sweet
potatoes and some other vegetables as
well, but I don’t go along with that
newfangled nonsense.
Many delis cook latkes in advance
and reheat them whenever a diner places
an order. Aarrgh! Freshly made, latkes
can be heavenly. Reheated, they’re
revolting.
The best latkes made by a restaurant
are at the Nate’n Al Delicatessen
Restaurant on Beverly Drive in Beverly
Hills. Nate’n Al is my favorite deli
anywhere. Since 1943, it’s been the
hangout of movie stars and other
celebrities. They know great food when
they taste it.
Nate’n Al’s latkes are made fresh
every time. But, they serve them with a
small plastic container of insipid canned
applesauce and just enough sour cream
to make you angry. Too bad.
Many people suffice at home with
latkes made from a dried mix that comes
in a box. Shame on you, Manischewitz
and Streit’s. Instant latkes are on the
same caliber as instant mashed potatoes
—on a scale of 1 to 10, awful.
Some otherwise intelligent folk grind
the potatoes instead of shredding them.
They just don’t know any better.
Over the years, I’ve tried, first, to
emulate Nate’n Al’s latkes; then, to
improve on them. Now, because of a
couple of little secrets I’ve discovered, I
can say without any hesitation,
equivocation, or exaggeration that my
latkes are the best in the entire world.
They’re golden and crunchy on the
outside, soft and tender on the inside,
and seasoned to perfection.
Latkes are traditionally served at
Hanukkah, the eight-day Jewish festival
of lights that (usually) falls in December.
And, traditionally, they’re served with
applesauce and sour cream.
Latkes also complement brisket of
beef. If you serve them with brisket,
keep the applesauce, but omit the sour
cream.
INGREDIENTS
8 large russet potatoes, peeled
4 medium-size white onions
4 large eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons citric acid (sour salt)
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Canola oil, for frying
At Passover, instead of flour and
baking powder, use 3/4 cup matzo meal.
PREPARATION
In a food processor, smoosh the
onions to a puree. Add the eggs, flour,
baking powder, salt, citric acid, pepper,
and nutmeg, and blend, to make a thin
batter. Transfer the batter to a large
bowl.
Be sure to use russet or other baking
potatoes. Red, white rose, and other
waxy potatoes don’t have enough starch
or the right texture, and therefore make
lousy latkes.
Coarsely grate the potatoes, using the
coarse grater attachment of a stand mixer
or a food processor, or even grate them
by hand.
Here’s the secret of great latkes: As
each potato is grated, stir it into the
batter immediately. The citric acid in the
batter keeps the potatoes from oxidizing
and discoloring to an ugly pinkishbrownish-gray.
Put 1/4 to 1/2 inch of canola oil in a
large frying pan. Heat the oil to a
temperature of about 350° F. You can
test the oil by dropping a small amount
of the potato mixture in it. If it turns
golden brown in about a minute, the oil
is ready.
Using a slotted spoon (so that excess
batter will drip away), scoop up enough
potatoes to make one pancake about 3
inches in diameter—or smaller, if that’s
the way you prefer them. Carefully ease
the potatoes into the hot oil.
Using a spatula, press down on the
mound of potatoes to flatten it slightly.
Turn the latkes over when the bottoms
are golden brown—not before!—and
cook the other side. Drain on paper
towels. Serve immediately.
After all latkes are removed from the
pan, strain out any loose tidbits of potato
or batter before frying another batch.
Add a little more oil, if needed.
You’ll probably wind up with some
potatoless batter at the bottom of the
bowl. Throw it away.
NOTE: Because potatoes and onions
vary tremendously in size, the above
quantities are not precise. After you’ve
made and tasted a few batches of latkes
you’ll get a feel for whether to use more
or less flour and seasonings.
French Fries
Yes, french fries are now officially
deli food. When they became so, I don’t
know. No matter where you go, it’s more
than likely there’ll be a stack of fries
sitting alongside your sandwich or
grilled item.
So, if you’re going to have authentic
deli cuisine, you’ll need to learn how to
make perfect french fries—and I’m
going to teach you everything you’ll ever
need to know about french fries right
now.
Remember how great McDonald’s
french fries used to taste when you were
young? No, your taste buds haven’t
necessarily gone bad with age. The sad
truth is that McDonald’s french fries are
just not nearly as yummy as they used to
be.
The secret of McDonald’s delicious
fries was cooking freshly peeled and
sliced (never frozen) potatoes in a
combination of vegetable oil and animal
fat—mostly animal fat. According to one
source, the ratio was 93% beef tallow to
7% cottonseed oil. After considerable
pressure from well-intentioned but
gastronomically ignorant consumer
groups, the company changed its frying
oil formulation in order to be more
politically correct and to supposedly
make the fries more healthful. And, at
some point in time, to save money they
started using frozen potatoes sliced and
partially cooked in a factory somewhere.
Here’s how McDonald’s describes the
factory production of potatoes for their
french fries:
Our french fries are produced
from russet Burbank potatoes.
Russet Burbanks are high in
solids, an important factor of
sealing
in
nutrition
and
preventing
excessive
oil
absorption during cooking.
In processing french fries, the
manufacturer follows these steps:
Potatoes are given a quick steam
bath to loosen their skins. They
are then peeled, sorted, and forced
by water pressure through
specially-designed cutting blades
at velocities of up to 35 feet per
second. Potato strips are then
blanched in hot water to maintain
their color, texture, and natural
sugar content. The strips are then
dried and partially fried. Finally,
the fries are frozen and packaged
for shipment.
Oy! In my opinion, by doing all those
things, McDonald’s sacrificed flavor.
Most of the flavor. If Old Man
McDonald were alive today, he’d be
turning over in his grave!
By the way—french fries aren’t
named after the country, France. As a
matter of fact, they originated in
Belgium. So, french fries really should
be called Belgian fries, right? Wrong!
They’re called french fries because the
potatoes are frenched—that is, sliced
into thin strips. That’s why the word
french should not be capitalized when it
refers to fried potatoes. Use the capital
F only when you’re talking about the
people of France, their language, and
some of their proclivities, such as
kissing.
Here are my seven secrets to making
perfect french fries. Your family will
rave about your french fries and want to
know what you did to make them so
good. Please don’t tell ’em our little
secrets.
THE OIL
Secret Number 1: You must have
some meat fat in the cooking oil for
french fries to have the right flavor.
Whenever you trim excess beef fat from
a steak or roast before cooking, put it in
a Ziploc plastic bag and store it in your
freezer until you’re ready to prepare the
oil for making french fries. If you don’t
have any beef fat on hand, ask your
butcher to sell you some suet.
Put several inches of cooking oil in a
pot or deep-fryer. I prefer canola oil, but
safflower oil and corn oil are both
acceptable. Add a few ounces of beef fat
to the pot. Cook the fat at medium heat
until it is crisp. Then, remove the fried
fat residue from your pot or deep-fryer.
Discard it, or treat your dog to a special
snack—but be sure to check first with
your veterinarian.
THE POTATOES
Secret Number 2: McDonald’s is right
about one thing. Russets are best. Peel
them. Don’t let anyone try to convince
you that unpeeled potatoes are better for
french fries. They’re not. Unpeeled
french fries are a sure sign of laziness.
Secret Number 3: Cut the potatoes to
3/8 inch square—not larger, not smaller.
If you have a mandoline, this is a good
time to use it, as your fries will be more
uniform in size.
Secret Number 4: Immediately after
peeling and slicing the potatoes, place
them in ice water to which you’ve added
1/2 teaspoon of citric acid. The ice
water removes surface starch and chills
the potatoes slightly. The citric acid
keeps the cut potatoes from turning
brown. Citric acid—also called sour
salt—is available in the Kosher foods
section of your supermarket. If you don’t
have any, substitute the juice of a lemon.
FRYING
Secret Number 5: Heat the cooking oil
blend to 325° F. Drain the potatoes
thoroughly. Add them to the oil just a
handful or so at a time, so you don’t cool
down the oil too much. Fry the potatoes
for several minutes, until they’re limp
but not browned. Then, remove them
from the oil.
Secret Number 6: Let the potatoes sit
for at least half an hour.
Secret Number 7: When you’re ready
to serve the french fries, heat the cooking
oil blend to 375° F. Refry the potatoes
(again, a handful at a time) until they’re
golden brown—about two or three
minutes. The potatoes will be crisp on
the outside and soft on the inside.
Sprinkle with a little kosher salt
before serving.
Hash Brown
Potatoes
Breakfasts are a major part of a deli’s
appeal. In the morning, delis take on a
special ambience. Everything in a deli
looks, smells, and sounds a little
different from the rest of the day.
Yes, the bouquet of pickles and
corned beef still pervades, but in
addition there are other aromas, warm
and fragrant—freshly brewed coffee,
bagels toasting, and, of course, the scent
of whatever’s on the griddle.
Deli breakfast menus provide a wide
choice from which to choose: lox and
cream cheese on a toasted bagel;
pancakes and waffles; matzo brei;
salami and eggs; and bacon, ham, or
sausage and eggs—yes, most delis these
days, being kosher-style but not actually
kosher, serve pork products.
With the egg dishes you’ll inevitably
get a generous helping of hash browns.
Let’s begin by agreeing on
nomenclature. Hash brown potatoes are
shredded. They’re not cubed, sliced,
diced, or made from leftover mashed
potatoes. Depending on the recipe, those
are country-fried potatoes, home fries,
German fried potatoes, or something
else, but they’re not hash browns!
Hash browns are crispy and golden
brown on the outside and velvety tender
and moist on the inside—the pride of an
experienced short-order cook.
Hash browns have the ability to make
or break a breakfast.
Good hash browns will make an
otherwise ordinary breakfast palatable.
Great hash browns can be a meal in
themselves.
The Hamburger Hamlet restaurant
chain was famous for “Those
Potatoes”—two large golden brown
hash brown patties, separated by a cool
and smooth layer of sour cream.
Some delis, coffee shops and pancake
houses make pretty decent hash browns.
Many, however, do not.
It’s always been notoriously difficult
to make really good hash browns at
home. Until now. I’m going to teach you
the seven secrets of making perfect hash
browns from scratch—and that means
leaving those frozen grated spuds in the
supermarket’s freezer cabinet, where
they belong for all eternity.
Secret number 1: It’s the potatoes. If
you use russet potatoes, your hash
browns will be mealy and mushy.
Aarrgh! What you need is a waxy-type
potato, the same kind you’d use in
making potato salad. I prefer White Rose
potatoes, which are sometimes called
“new” potatoes. Yukon Gold potatoes
and red potatoes make good hash
browns, too.
Secret number 2: Don’t precook the
potatoes. It isn’t necessary. Moreover,
precooked potatoes have a tendency to
crumble.
Secret number 3: After peeling, grate
the potatoes in a way that makes large,
even shreds. I use the grater attachment
that came with my KitchenAid stand
mixer. Most food processors work well
also. I don’t recommend grating potatoes
for hash browns by hand.
Secret number 4: Keep the grated
potatoes white and not an icky gray
color by grating them directly into a
bowl into which you’ve placed several
cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon citric
acid. If you don’t have any citric acid,
substitute 2 tablespoons of freshlysqueezed lemon juice. Stir frequently to
make sure all potato shreds get coated
with the solution as quickly as possible
after grating to prevent them from
oxidizing.
Secret number 5: Before cooking,
rinse the shredded potatoes in cold
water to remove loose starch. Then,
drain them and—most important—blot
thoroughly with paper towels to remove
as much moisture as possible. Prepared
this way, grated potatoes can be stored
in a plastic bag in your refrigerator for
several days, ready for the skillet or
griddle.
Secret number 6: For the best flavor
and color, cook your hash browns in a
mixture of half sweet butter and half
olive oil. Other acceptable oils
(depending on your taste) are duck or
goose fat (schmaltz). Canola oil is
bland, but even that may be used, and
it’s a safe choice if you keep kosher.
Secret number 7: Keep a lid on the
skillet during the first part of cooking so
that potatoes not actually touching the
bottom of the pan will be cooked by
steam. Omit the lid after the potatoes
have been turned over.
INGREDIENTS
Shredded potatoes, about one cup per
serving
Citric acid (see above)
Unsalted butter and olive oil—just
enough to put a thin coating on the
bottom of the skillet
Salt and pepper (or Seasoned Salt and
Seasoned Pepper) to taste. Season after
the potatoes have been turned over to
prevent the pepper from scorching and
turning bitter. Or, apply salt and pepper
at the table.
OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS
Finely chopped onion, 1 or 2
tablespoons per serving
Finely diced scallions, 1 or 2
tablespoons per serving
Finely chopped green pepper, 1 or 2
tablespoons per serving
Smooshed garlic, about 1/2 teaspoon
per serving; or, sprinkle the potatoes
lightly with granulated garlic
Cubed or grated cheddar, Monterey
Jack, or Swiss cheese, 2 tablespoons per
serving
PREPARATION
Place the butter and oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until
sizzling.
Sauté the onions, scallions, and green
pepper; or, add to the potatoes raw—
your call.
Place the potatoes (with any optional
cooked or raw ingredients thoroughly
mixed in) into the skillet. Form into one
or more patties about 3/4 inch thick.
Pack down firmly with a spatula.
Cover the skillet and reduce heat to
medium-low. Cook for about ten minutes
—more or less, depending on the amount
of heat and type of potatoes. Check
periodically by lifting one edge, but do
not seriously disturb the patties until
they’re golden brown on the bottom.
Cut the patties into manageable-size
portions and turn them over. Or,
carefully slide the entire pile of halfcooked hash browns onto a dinner plate.
Then, even more carefully, cover the
plate with the upside-down skillet and
flip both over, so that the potatoes go
into the skillet with the browned side on
top (and not on your countertop or
floor).
It may be necessary to add a little
more olive oil and butter at this point.
Continue cooking for about five
minutes more, until the potatoes are
nicely browned on the bottom. Serve
immediately.
Pickles, Sauerkraut,
and Condiments
Dill Pickles
What would a deli sandwich be
without a spear of dill pickle on the
side? Incomplete, that’s what. Whether
you like your dill pickles half-green or
full sour, this is the recipe for you.
It’s not, however, the traditional deli
kosher dill pickle recipe, which uses
only salt (and no vinegar) to cure the
cucumbers. Regardless, I think you’ll
agree that these pickles are better-tasting
and crunchier. Moreover, they’re far
less apt to rot in the brine.
Fermentation, or pickling, is a method
of preserving food that’s been utilized
around the world for thousands of years.
In the United States, dill pickles and
sauerkraut are the two most common
pickled products.
When I lived in the state of
Washington, I was fortunate to find a
cucumber farm about twenty miles from
my house, where I could buy cucumbers
picked the same day (sorted by size), as
well as fresh dill weed, heads of garlic,
vinegar, and every other item needed for
making pickles.
INGREDIENTS
50 pickling cucumbers, 3 to 4 inches
long
3 jalapeno or serrano chile peppers,
sliced; or, slices of peeled horseradish
12 large cloves garlic, peeled
Large handful of fresh dill weed
12 cups water
2 cups cider vinegar
2 cups white vinegar
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 teaspoon powdered alum
Boiling onions, peeled (optional)
Small green tomatoes (optional)
6 large grape leaves (if available)
PREPARATION
Scrub the cucumbers thoroughly. If
they were coated with wax (aarrgh!),
wash it off completely with dish
detergent; then, rinse the cucumbers well
to remove any traces of the detergent.
Pack the cucumbers, peppers, garlic,
and dill weed (and the boiling onions,
green tomatoes, and grape leaves, if you
are using them) into a large glass jar,
ceramic crock, or food-grade plastic
container.
In a large pot, bring the water,
vinegar, salt, and alum to a boil. Pour
the hot liquid over the vegetables.
Allow to cool, then refrigerate. The
pickles will be what delicatessens call
“half-green” in about two days, and fully
cured in a week or so.
You can also pack the cucumbers into
gallon jars, with several sprigs of dill,
two cloves of garlic, a few pieces of
chile pepper, and (optionally) a grape
leaf added to each jar. Pour the brine to
within 1/2 inch of the top. When cool,
refrigerate.
ALTERNATE METHOD
You can also pack the cucumbers into
quart-size Mason jars, adding a sprig of
dill, one clove of garlic, a small piece of
chile pepper, and (optionally) 1/2 of a
grape leaf to each jar.
Pour the boiling-hot brine into the
jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Seal,
and process for twenty minutes in a hot
water bath. The pickles will be ready to
eat in two weeks or less.
Personally, I prefer my pickles made
by the cold process. They’re crisper and
crunchier, and keep for at least a year in
the refrigerator.
There’s another advantage to coldprocess pickles. As you empty the
container, you can add more cucumbers,
onions, or green tomatoes to the brine.
Just be sure to blanch the vegetables for
a few seconds in boiling water before
dropping them into the brine, in order to
kill any surface bacteria.
Bread-and-Butter
Pickles
You can’t buy pickles as good as
these! Yet, they’re very easy to make.
Don’t think that you’ll never be able to
use up all the jars of pickles. They’ll
disappear from your shelves in no time.
Friends and neighbors will literally beg
for a jar or two. You’ll try to devour
half a jar by yourself as a side for a
sandwich.
INGREDIENTS
36 pickling cucumbers, 3–4 inches
long
4 large white onions
1 large green bell pepper, seeded
1 large red bell pepper, seeded
1/2 cup kosher salt
8 cups cider vinegar
8 cups granulated sugar
3 cloves garlic, smooshed
2 tablespoons mustard seed
1 tablespoon celery seed
2 teaspoons turmeric
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
PREPARATION
Scrub
the
pickling
cucumbers
thoroughly. If they were coated with
wax, wash it off completely with
detergent. Then, rinse the cucumbers
well to remove any traces of the
detergent.
Slice the cucumbers 1/4 inch thick. If
you have a mandoline, this is a good
time to put it to use. I like to give
cucumber slices a wavy (crinkle) cut for
bread-and-butter pickles. Perhaps you
will too. Most mandolines come with a
crinkle-cut blade. Amazon.com sells
several
styles
of
inexpensive
crinklecutters:
http://www.amazon.com/VegetableCrinkle-Cutter-FrenchSlicer/dp/B001UANLM8
Cut the onions and peppers into
chunks about 1/2 inch by 1 inch.
In a large bowl, combine the
cucumbers with the onions, peppers, and
salt. Cover with crushed ice. Let stand 3
hours. Then, drain well but do not rinse.
This process softens the vegetables, so
they can absorb the syrup.
Combine the vinegar, sugar, garlic,
and spices in a large pot. Bring to a boil.
Add the drained cucumbers, onions, and
peppers. Heat thoroughly, but do not boil
once the vegetables are in the pot.
Pack while hot into pint-size
sterilized canning jars, leaving 1/2 inch
headspace. Remove any air bubbles by
sliding a nonmetallic spatula inside the
jar and pressing gently on the food to
release any trapped air.
Put the jar lids and bands in a small
pot of water and bring to a boil. Remove
from heat, but keep the lids and bands in
the hot water until you’re ready to use
them.
Wipe the jar tops and threads clean,
using a wet cloth or paper towel. Place
lids on the jars and screw the bands on
firmly, but not too tight (finger-tip tight).
Place the jars on a wire rack in a
large kettle with enough hot water to
cover them by two inches. Bring to a
boil and simmer, covered, for ten
minutes.
Using a jar-lifter, remove the jars
from the boiling water and place them on
another wire rack for cooling.
When completely cool, tighten the
bands.
Allow to pickle for two weeks before
serving. Bread-and-butter pickles taste
best chilled.
This recipe makes approximately 12
pints, depending on the size of the
cucumbers.
Sauerkraut
One of my favorite Southern
California delis is Junior’s in
Westwood. Almost as soon as you’re
seated at Junior’s, a waitress brings a
plate piled high with dill pickles and a
generous portion of sauerkraut to your
table, for you to nosh on while waiting
for your order to arrive.
Junior’s has wonderful sauerkraut.
Because they make it themselves, it’s
miles above the stuff that comes in jars
at the supermarket. And yes, you can
make equally delicious sauerkraut at
home!
Sauerkraut
(German
for sour
cabbage) is one of the oldest preserved
foods. It was the primary nourishment of
Chinese laborers working on the Great
Wall of China two thousand years ago.
A thousand years later, Genghis Kahn
and his plundering hordes introduced the
tangy and toothsome treat to Europe.
Eastern Europeans consume a large
amount of sauerkraut, and it has been
thoroughly incorporated as part of
Ashkenazic cuisine. Thus, sauerkraut is
another link between Chinese food and
Jewish food.
The online encyclopedia Wikipedia
describes sauerkraut as “finely-sliced
white
cabbage
fermented
with
lactobacillus bacteria. The sugars in the
cabbage are thereby converted into
lactic acid and serve as a preservative.”
That says it simply enough. Making
sauerkraut is equally easy.
There are only two ingredients:
cabbage and salt. The proper ratio is
three rounded tablespoons of kosher salt
to five pounds of cabbage.
The only major concern when making
sauerkraut is to make sure the fermenting
cabbage does not come into contact with
air, for aerobic contaminates of yeasts
and molds could cause it to spoil.
Traditionally, sauerkraut is made in a
large stoneware crock, with a weighted
plate set on top to keep the cabbage
submerged and therefore not exposed to
air. One source of such crocks is
Leeners. Check their website at:
http://www.leeners.com/
I prefer to use a more modern
container and a more efficient seal and
weight.
The container is a Rubbermaid 6308
P polycarbonate storage container. This
is a very sturdy, commercial quality
food grade plastic container that holds
eight quarts. It’s big enough to convert
eight pounds of cabbage into kraut and
still has enough room for the weight /
seal. Rubbermaid makes other size
containers that hold as much as 22
quarts. Plastic lids to fit the containers
(Rubbermaid number 6509) are sold
separately.
For the weight (and to keep air away
from the cabbage), fill a one-gallon size
Ziploc freezer bag—it fits inside the
Rubbermaid container perfectly—with
water to which you’ve added four
tablespoons of salt. (In case the bag
leaks, salted water will not dilute the
fermenting cabbage brine.) Remove as
much air as possible from the bag and
seal it. Then, for extra protection against
leaking, place the bag inside another
one-gallon Ziploc bag and seal that bag.
INGREDIENTS
5 pounds white cabbage (about 2
large heads)
3 rounded tablespoons kosher salt
PREPARATION
Discard the outer leaves and any
insect-damaged areas. Rinse the cabbage
under cold running water and drain.
Quarter the cabbage and remove the
cores.
Use a mandoline, meat slicer, or sharp
knife to shred the cabbage to the
thickness of a quarter.
Place the cabbage in a large bowl. It
will look as if you have too much
cabbage to fit into the sauerkraut
fermentation container. Don’t worry.
The pile of cabbage will shrink.
Add the salt and mix thoroughly.
Allow the mixture to sit for 30
minutes. The salt will draw juices from
the cabbage, and as it does the cabbage
will wilt slightly.
Optionally, you may want to add a
small amount of dill weed or caraway
seeds to the cabbage at this time. Some
people like to mix white and red
cabbage to make bright pink sauerkraut.
Pack the cabbage, including any liquid
that formed, into your fermentation
container. Press down firmly until the
juice comes to the surface.
Set the brine-filled plastic bag (or
other weight) on top of the cabbage, so
that no air can seep through. If using a
Rubbermaid container, put a lid on top.
Place the container where it will be
out of the way and at a room temperature
of 75° F or lower—perhaps under your
kitchen sink or in your basement.
Check the container every day or so.
Should there be any discolored cabbage
or scum (mold) on the top, remove it
immediately. The kraut will be ready to
eat in 3 to 6 weeks, depending on the
room temperature while fermenting and
how tart you like your kraut.
Although sauerkraut may be stored at
room temperature once it’s completely
cured, I prefer to keep it in the
refrigerator (for several months) or
freezer (for at least a year).
For a milder sauerkraut (and also one
with less sodium content), rinse it under
cold water briefly before serving.
To read a scholarly dissertation about
making sauerkraut—enough information
to go into the sauerkraut business—go to
this University of Wisconsin website:
http://learningstore.uwex.edu/pdf/B2087.p
Horseradish
To a worm stuck in horseradish, the
whole world is horseradish.
… Yiddish proverb
After we moved from the San
Fernando Valley to Las Vegas back in
the 1970s, most every Sunday morning
my wife and I went to the Las Vegas
Sands for their world-famous Sun
Brunch. Our next door neighbor was an
executive at the casino, so we were
always “comped.” In other words, the
price was right—free!
No matter what you might want to eat,
it was there. Lox, in extravagant
quantities. Barbecued cod. Smoked
Sturgeon. Eggs, scrambled or cooked to
order, any style. Pastries. Fruits, melons,
and berries. Bacon. Ham. Sausages.
Bagels. Toast. Waffles. Pancakes. Tiny
roasted quail. Rotisserie chicken. Salads
of
every
description.
Cakes,
cheesecakes, pies, and other desserts.
And so on, ad infinitum. No other
Sunday brunch, before or after, could
possibly compare with the Sun Brunch!
The Sands, once the haunt of Sinatra and
the Rat Pack, is now gone, imploded in a
cloud of dust. But, it will never be
forgotten.
We knew one family who bought a
Sunday newspaper and stayed at the
Sands from early morning until the
brunch closed mid-afternoon, eating and
reading and schmoozing with their
friends. They didn’t dine again until
Monday night.
My wife JJ always helped herself to a
generous helping of apple strudel, and
then, inexplicably (to me), added a large
dollop of creamy horseradish on the
side. I thought that was a most
incongruent combination, but I’ve since
changed my mind. Horseradish can and
does go with most everything.
As with most foods, homemade is far
better than factory-produced. However,
you never know just how strong
homemade horseradish will be, as
horseradish varies considerably in
strength from one root to another due to
differences in growing and storing
conditions. Commercial purveyors of
prepared horseradish “heat up” mild
roots with oil of mustard, so their
products are uniformly hot.
I keep three types of homemade
horseradish sauce on hand at all times.
Prepared horseradish is the best type to
serve with brisket of beef, short ribs,
and flanken. It is also a key ingredient in
recipes
that
require
prepared
horseradish—in other words, it’s the
“building block” ingredient. Red
horseradish is traditionally served with
gefilte fish, especially at Passover.
Whipped-cream horseradish is the sauce
that accompanies prime rib at Lawry’s
restaurants. It’s delicious, but not kosher
when used with meat. So, do as my wife
did. Forgo the meat, and put your
horseradish on apple strudel!
Prepared
Horseradish
INGREDIENTS
2 cups peeled horseradish root, cut
into small pieces
1 cup white (distilled) vinegar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon citric acid (sour salt)
PREPARATION
Smoosh the horseradish in a food
processor. Add the sugar, salt, and citric
acid. Add the vinegar and continue
processing until smooth and creamy.
But: Add the vinegar a little at a time, as
you might not need the entire cup for the
proper consistency. On the other hand,
you might need a bit more.
Citric acid helps keep the prepared
horseradish from darkening.
RED HORSERADISH
Same as above, except add one small
raw red beet, peeled, to the food
processor.
Whipped-Cream
Horseradish
INGREDIENTS
Peeled horseradish root, smooshed
(not prepared horseradish)
1/2 pint heavy (whipping) cream
Generous pinch of kosher salt
PREPARATION
Cut the horseradish into small pieces
and smoosh it in a food processor.
Chill a small bowl and your portable
mixer beaters in the freezer. Whip the
cream and salt until it’s very thick.
Reduce beater speed and add
horseradish, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Taste after each addition; stop when the
pungency level you desire has been
reached. Usually, 1/2 pint of whipping
cream will require 4 or 5 tablespoons of
finely smooshed fresh horseradish.
TIMESAVING TIP
You can make all three types of
horseradish in one easy session.
First, peel and smoosh several
horseradish roots. Then, whip the cream,
and add enough smooshed horseradish to
the whipped cream to provide the
amount of “bite” you want.
Next, add vinegar, salt, and sugar to
the remaining horseradish. Remove half
of the resultant prepared horseradish and
put it in plastic containers.
Finally, add one raw red beet (cut into
small pieces) to the remaining prepared
horseradish in the food processor and
run it until the beet is thoroughly
assimilated.
You’ve prepared three different types
of horseradish!
FOR THE FREEZER
Place all three types of horseradish
(as well as any extra smooshed
horseradish that has not been combined
with other ingredients) into small Ziploc
plastic containers and freeze. Thaw as
needed.
Mustard
TAMING OF THE SHREW
Act IV Scene III
GRUMIO:
What say you to a piece of beef and
mustard?
KATHARINA:
A dish that I do love to feed upon.
GRUMIO:
Ay, but the mustard is too hot a little.
KATHARINA:
Why then, the beef, and let the mustard
rest.
GRUMIO:
Nay then, I will not: you shall have the
mustard,
Or else you get no beef of Grumio.
KATHARINA:
Then both, or one, or any thing thou
wilt.
GRUMIO:
Why then, the mustard without the beef.
KATHARINA:
Go, get thee gone, thou false deluding
slave,
[Beats him]
That feed’st me with the very name of
meat:
Sorrow on thee and all the pack of you,
That triumph thus upon my misery!
Go, get thee gone, I say.
“Whaaaat! Make my own mustard?
From scratch? You gotta be pulling my
leg!”
No, I’m not pulling your leg.
Preparing mustard from scratch is both a
fun cooking adventure and the source of
a unique, very special gift from your
kitchen. Homemade mustard, packaged
in a fancy mustard jar with your own
computer-printed label, is more
impressive to most people than
homemade jellies and jams or even
homemade ketchup. Yet, it’s easier to
prepare, for it’s just stirred, not cooked.
Do you want Dijon mustard, ballpark
mustard, herb mustard, chili-garlic
mustard, horseradish mustard, tarragon
mustard, or honey mustard? You name it,
you can make it. The best part about
making mustard is the creativity!
You’ll save money over the price of
store-bought “gourmet” mustards, too. A
whole lot of money.
For pastrami, corned beef, and other
deli sandwiches, you have to have a
good deli mustard … of course … and
the recipe below is just the ticket.
Dilly Deli
Horseradish
Mustard
INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups ground yellow dry mustard
(mustard flour)
1/2 cup brown mustard seeds
1/2 cup yellow mustard seeds
1 (12 ounce) can beer
1 cup distilled (white) vinegar
1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup freshly grated horseradish
root or prepared horseradish
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon dried dill weed
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon juniper berries
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon coarsely-ground black
pepper
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
PREPARATION
In an electric spice grinder, grind the
mustard seeds, juniper berries, and
caraway seeds. They should be ground
fine, but not to a complete powder, if
you want some texture to your mustard.
Mix all ingredients together. At this
point, the mustard may seem to be a little
too watery. Not to worry. Cover and
refrigerate overnight.
By the next day, the mustard flour will
have absorbed most or all of the liquid.
If the mustard is too thick, add more
vinegar, beer, or water. If it’s too thin,
add a little more ground mustard.
Now comes the fun part—the tasting
and adjusting, so that the mustard has
exactly the flavor you prefer.
When freshly made, the mustard is
going to be extremely hot. It will tone
down over the next few weeks and
months. But, is it sweet enough? Salty
enough? Garlicky enough? Redolent
enough of dill? If not, add more sugar,
salt, garlic, or dill weed.
Want it yellower? Then add some
more turmeric. Is it too yellow? Then
take some turmeric out. (Only kidding!)
Package the mustard in sterilized jars.
Dilly deli horseradish mustard may be
refrigerated for months. You can also
keep the jars in your freezer until
needed.
Here are three reliable online sources
for mustard-making ingredients and
supplies.
Dry mustard (mustard flour) and
mustard seeds:
http://www.butcher-packer.com/
Mustard jars:
http://www.sunburstbottle.com
Mustard-making ingredients, supplies,
and jars:
http://www.leeners.com/mustard/
Thousand Island
Dressing
Thousand Island dressing is named
after a group of more than 1,800 islands
in northern New York and southeast
Ontario, Canada. The islands, some of
which are privately owned, are a
popular resort area. Perhaps an
innovative chef at one of the resorts
originally created the dressing recipe.
Nu, why didn’t they call is 1,800 island
dressing?
INGREDIENTS
1 cup Best Foods or Hellman
mayonnaise
1/3 cup tomato ketchup
1/3 cup pickle relish, drained
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
Seasoned Salt and Seasoned Pepper
(or kosher salt and coarsely ground
black pepper) to taste
1 tablespoon finely-minced onion
(optional)
1 hard-cooked egg, finely chopped
(optional)
PREPARATION
Using a
ingredients.
wire
whisk,
mix
all
Russian Dressing
There doesn’t seem to be any
agreement as to what constitutes Russian
Dressing. Check the recipes on the
Internet and you’ll find an extremely
wide range of ingredients.
I make my Russian dressing similar to
Thousand Island dressing, leaving out
the pickle relish and adding horseradish
and celery seed. This recipe is closest to
the Russian dressing served in most
delis.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup Best Foods or Hellman
mayonnaise
1/3 cup tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon prepared horseradish
1 tablespoon finely-minced onion
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon celery seed
Seasoned Salt and Seasoned Pepper
(or kosher salt and coarsely-ground
black pepper) to taste
PREPARATION
Using a
ingredients.
wire
whisk,
mix
all
Odds and Ends
Chicken Liver Pâté
“What am I, chopped liver?”
If you enjoy delicatessen-style
chopped liver, pâté de foie gras, or even
Braunschweiger or liverwurst, you’ll
love this delectable, creamy spread.
Like most of my recipes, it’s quick and
easy to make.
Use chicken liver pâté as a party dip,
with crackers or veggies. Make it into a
sandwich, with thinly sliced red onions
and tomatoes. Or, generously spread it
on corned beef, pastrami, and turkey
sandwiches.
INGREDIENTS
1 pound chicken livers
1 medium-size white onion, coarsely
chopped
3 tablespoons canola oil
2 large hard-cooked eggs
2 tablespoons (or more) mayonnaise
Seasoned Salt and Seasoned Pepper,
to taste
PREPARATION
Rinse and drain the chicken livers.
Put the canola oil in a skillet. Add the
onion and sauté over medium heat until
translucent. Remove and set aside.
Add the chicken livers to the same
skillet and generously sprinkle with
Seasoned Salt and Seasoned Pepper.
Cook, stirring frequently, until all the
pink is gone from the livers.
Transfer the chicken livers and onions
to a food processor. Add the hardcooked eggs and mayonnaise and
smoosh until smooth. If needed, add a
little more mayonnaise to make a smooth
spread.
Refrigerate for several hours before
serving, to bring out the flavor.
Chicken Liver Pâté freezes well.
Keep a supply on hand in Ziploc Extra
Small (1 cup) storage containers. When
company drops by unexpectedly, you can
have this wonderful appetizer ready to
serve as fast as your microwave can
thaw it!
CHEF’S NOTES
(1) This pâté is smooshed more than
chopped liver, which gives it a very
smooth texture. To make a more
traditional chopped chicken liver:
Instead of using a food processor, mash
the cooked livers with a fork. And,
hand-grate the hard-cooked eggs.
(2) To make the recipe even more
authentic, don’t use mayonnaise. Instead,
use chicken schmaltz (rendered chicken
fat). You can also use schmaltz instead
of the canola oil. However, mayonnaise
is healthier.
(3) Many people prefer their chopped
liver made with calves’ liver. If this is
your preference, sauté a pound of liver
together with the onions. When the liver
is cooked, grate it on a hand grater or
run it through a food chopper. Don’t use
a food processor, as it will smoosh the
liver too much.
(4) You may substitute kosher salt and
coarsely ground black pepper for the
Seasoned Salt and Seasoned Pepper.
Gravy
Delis need gravy to make hot openfaced roast beef and hot open-faced
turkey sandwiches; to top kishka, kasha
varnishkes, and potato knishes; and to
“wet” mashed potatoes on a liver and
onions or brisket plate.
Delis make two types of gravy: brown
(beef) gravy, and poultry gravy, which is
usually tan or yellowish.
Gravy made at home generally
consists of meat drippings and a
thickener such as flour, coupled with
enough water, broth, wine, or stock to
bring the gravy to the proper
consistency; and salt, pepper, and other
seasonings to notch up the flavor.
Delis, however, would never have
enough meat drippings to make as much
gravy as they need. So, they buy gravy
base, available from food service
purveyors, and perhaps augment it with
whatever meat drippings they have.
If you don’t want to be bothered
making gravy, you can buy canned gravy
at your supermarket. Or, you might make
gravy by adding water to a powder or
liquid sold in a foil pouch or jar—
chemical
gravy
concocted
in
laboratories by grim men hovering over
test tubes. Any semblance between those
so-called gravies and the real thing,
however, would be as great a miracle as
the oil in the Temple that burned for
eight days. Suffice it to say that some
gravies are worse than others.
There are, of course, little tricks you
can take—that is, secret ingredients—to
make poor gravy better and good gravy
better yet. But first, let’s start with the
basics.
There are two ways to make gravy:
with roux, and with a slurry.
You’ve
probably
heard
the
expression, “First, you start with a
roux.” That’s the way most Cajun and
Creole recipes begin.
Roux is a mixture of approximately
equal quantities of fat (such as meat
drippings or butter) and flour. The
mixture is cooked over low heat, with
any desired spices and seasonings
added. Roux can be cooked just until the
fat and flour are blended (for a white
sauce), or until it turns dark brown, full
of flavor and color.
Then, a liquid is added, a little at a
time. The liquid can be water, wine,
beer, stock, broth, milk, and even coffee.
The mixture is stirred constantly,
preferably with a wire whip. When the
consistency is the way the chef wants it,
no more liquid is added.
I use roux primarily when making
Welsh Rabbit and other cheese sauces,
using butter for the fat content. But when
it comes to making gravy with meat
drippings, I prefer the slurry method
that’s described below.
Brown Gravy
For brown gravy, begin with au jus.
The best au jus of all comes from brisket
of beef.
If you’ve steamed the brisket, you
should have a sizeable amount of au jus
in the bottom of the steaming pot, ready
to use. If you’ve baked the brisket in a
covered pot or Dutch oven, you’ll not
only have au jus, but also browned meat
drippings to add to the au jus.
Strain the au jus into a medium-size
saucepan.
Next, pour off and discard any
excessive fat or grease from the pot the
brisket was cooked in. Deglaze the pot
in by placing it over medium heat. Then,
add a cup or two of water, wine, or
vegetable broth. Scrape the bottom and
sides of the pot until the little
caramelized particles of meat and dried
juices (“fond”) separate from the pot and
dissolve into the liquid. Strain the
deglazing liquid to remove any
undissolved particles, and add it to the
au jus.
Using a wire whip, make a thick
slurry of several tablespoons of flour
and a cup or two of water. Make sure
you stir the mixture long enough to
remove all lumps. You’ll want the slurry
to have the consistency of pancake
batter.
Place the pan containing the au jus and
drippings over low heat. Pour in some of
the flour slurry. While pouring, use a
wire whip to mix the slurry into the au
jus. If you work quickly and
aggressively, your gravy will be lumpfree.
Simmer, stirring constantly, until the
gravy is bubbling and thickened. If the
gravy isn’t thick enough after it’s cooked
for several minutes, add more slurry. If
it’s too thick, add a little water or other
liquid.
Here’s my secret to good brown
gravy: Add a teaspoon or two of Kitchen
Bouquet. Kitchen Bouquet not only gives
the gravy a rich brown color, it adds a
lot of flavor.
You can even make reasonably
acceptable brown gravy with nothing but
meat grease, flour, Kitchen Bouquet, and
water, using the roux method. Just cook
the
flour
and
grease
together
(approximately equal amounts of each)
over medium heat until the resultant roux
is nicely browned. Then, add a
tablespoon or so of Kitchen Bouquet and
enough water to give the gravy the right
consistency.
Soy sauce, beef bouillon, or beef base
(such as that made by Tone’s) can be
used to color and flavor brown gravy,
but if you use too much the gravy may be
saltier than desired.
Finally, you’re at the most important
step of all: tasting and seasoning. The
chances are that you’ll want to add salt
or Seasoned Salt, and pepper or
Seasoned Pepper. You can also add a
little granulated garlic, onion powder, or
chopped onions, if desired.
Poultry Gravy
Poultry gravy is made similarly. Pour
off any excess grease, deglaze the pot the
bird was cooked in, and add the
thickener and liquid.
Using poultry broth for the liquid will
improve
the
gravy’s
flavor
tremendously. You can make good
poultry broth by boiling the giblets,
neck, excess skin, and any loose fat with
enough water to cover for forty-five
minutes or so.
If you don’t have any poultry broth on
hand, you can use canned or boxed
chicken broth. Or, make some broth
using Knorr Concentrated Chicken
Flavor Broth (not kosher) at the ratio of
two teaspoons concentrate per cup of
liquid. Another way to increase the
poultry flavor is to add a chicken
bouillon cube or two—but be careful not
to make the gravy too salty.
For poultry gravy, make the thickening
slurry with a mixture of flour and corn
starch, using equal quantities of each.
Add a few drops of yellow food color
to poultry gravy, to give it a rich yellow
color. Or, a small amount of Kitchen
Bouquet—just enough to turn the gravy
light tan.
At last you’re at the final step, tasting
and seasoning, adding salt and pepper as
needed. Herbs that enhance the flavor of
poultry gravy (they must be used very
sparingly) are sage, thyme, marjoram,
rosemary, oregano, and basil—these are
some of the ingredients in poultry
seasoning. Or, just add a tiny amount of
poultry seasoning.
Egg Cream
The traditional deli carbonated drinks
are Dr. Brown’s Cream Soda (which is
vanilla flavored); Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray
(celery flavored); and the other Dr.
Brown’s beverages, including black
cherry; orange; ginger ale; and root beer.
All are certified Kosher and all are
available—if not in your local
supermarket, then online.
But no beverage can compare with the
New York (and particularly Brooklyn)
deli favorite, Egg Cream. Despite its
name, Egg Cream contains neither eggs
nor cream. Rather, it’s a blend of
chocolate syrup, milk, and seltzer
(carbonated water). Egg Cream is
strictly a soda fountain treat, as it must
be made fresh immediately before
serving; Egg Cream has never been
successfully
bottled.
(Yoo-hoo
Chocolate Drink is vastly different from
an Egg Cream.)
As with many foods and drinks that
have a long and convoluted history, there
are numerous tales dating back to the
1880s regarding the origin of the Egg
Cream. However, since it’s generally
conceded that not just any chocolate
syrup will do and that an Egg Cream
must be made with Fox’s U-Bet
Chocolate Syrup, we can say with a high
degree of certainty that a true Egg Cream
was not created until sometime in the
twentieth century.
H. Fox & Co., Inc. was founded in the
early 1900s to manufacture chocolate
and other flavored syrups and ice cream
toppings. According to the company’s
history, Egg Creams were made with
Fox’s chocolate syrup as early as 1904.
It was not until much later, however,
when the name Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate
Syrup was first used. The company’s
president, David Fox, tells that his
grandfather and founder of the company,
Herman Fox, went to Texas in the late
1920s to drill for oil. There, he became
familiar with a common expression used
by the oilmen, “You bet!”
When Herman’s oil venture failed, he
went back to New York and syrup
making. Fox added “U-bet” to the
product’s name, saying, “I came back
broke but with a good name for the
syrup.”
The Original
Brooklyn Egg
Cream
Here is the official Egg Cream recipe,
as posted on the H. Fox & Co. website:
Take a tall, chilled, straight-sided, 8
ounce glass.
Spoon 1 inch of U-bet Chocolate
syrup into glass.
Add 1 inch whole milk.
Tilt the glass and spray seltzer (from a
pressurized cylinder only) off a spoon,
to make a big chocolate head.
Stir, Drink, Enjoy.
Important note: Club soda is NOT the
same as seltzer and cannot be substituted
for it.
Moreover, since most seltzer today
comes in plastic screw-top bottles, it
cannot be sprayed into the glass, as
required by the recipe. Thus, an Egg
Cream made from seltzer poured into the
glass and stirred to combine the
ingredients will only approximate the
real thing. If you want an authentic Egg
Cream, you must use seltzer that comes
from a bottle with a spigot, and seltzer
packaged in that manner is not readily
available in most of the country.
At one time, in New York, Los
Angeles, and other large cities, seltzer in
glass spigot-bottles (seltzer bottles) was
home delivered, with the deliveryman
picking up the empties for refilling—a
service that, like home milk delivery, is
now virtually a thing of the past.
There is a viable solution, however,
no matter where you live.
You can make excellent seltzer at
home, one quart at a time, using the
popular ISI brand soda siphon, which is
made in Austria. The machine costs
about $50.00 and uses inexpensive
carbon dioxide chargers.
Before you rush out to buy one,
however, you should google “seltzer
machines” and read about the newer
bubbly-water makers now on the market.
Some companies offer complete
systems, including bottles and syrups for
making a wide variety of regular and
diet colas and fruit-flavored sodas. With
a ready supply of carbonated water, you
can even make delicious ice cream
sodas!
The following photo shows Davis
William Cowles, the grandson of the
author of this book, enjoying an egg
cream.
Cream Cheese
Whaaat? You’re out of cream cheese
to schmear on your morning bagel? Not
to worry. It takes just a few minutes of
your time to make the most delectable,
sweetest, freshest cream cheese you’ve
ever tasted. All you need is whole milk,
heavy cream, salt, and a small amount of
citric acid.
INGREDIENTS
1/2 gallon whole milk
1 teaspoon citric acid (sour salt)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
1 cup heavy (whipping) cream
PREPARATION
Dissolve the citric acid in 1/4 cup
water.
In a 5-quart pot (not aluminum or castiron) heat the milk to 180° F—somewhat
below boiling.
Stir the citric acid mixture into the hot
milk. When the milk fully curdles,
separating into curds and whey, turn off
the heat, cover the pot, and let it sit for 5
minutes.
Place a double layer of cheesecloth in
a colander or large strainer. Pour the
curds and whey into the cheesecloth, to
drain off the whey.
Wait fifteen minutes, then gently form
the cheesecloth into a bag surrounding
the curds. Press lightly on the bag to
squeeze out as much whey as possible,
being careful not to force the curds
through the cheesecloth. Alternately,
place a heavy weight on top of the bag
for four hours. Or, tie the top of the bag
with string and hang it in your
refrigerator to drain overnight.
Empty the bag of curds into a bowl.
Mix in salt (to taste) and blend in the
heavy cream. At this point the cream
cheese will be somewhat looser than
desired, but it will firm up considerably
once refrigerated.
For a smoother cream cheese, smoosh
it a minute or two in your food
processor.
This cream cheese will keep for a
week or more in your refrigerator.
DRAINING WHEY FROM CURDS
Hoop Cheese,
Farmers’ Cheese,
Queso Blanco,
Paneer
If you eliminate the heavy cream in the
cream cheese recipe above, you’ve
made a delicious fresh cheese that’s
virtually indistinguishable from hoop or
farmers’ cheese in the United States,
queso blanco in Mexico, and paneer in
India.
You can use it for making cheese
blintzes or cheesecake; topping refried
beans and tacos; or in Indian dishes,
such as saag paneer (paneer with
spinach) and paneer matar (paneer with
peas).
Neufchatel Cheese
Neufchatel cheese is a soft unripened
cheese that originated in Normandy, but
is common throughout France. It’s easy
and inexpensive to make and can be used
wherever you use cream cheese—e. g.,
spread on bagels, in cheese blintzes, in
cheesecake, and in rugelach dough.
This cheese has a delightful flavor,
with a slight hint of tartness.
One caveat: Rennet tablets available
at the supermarket (such as Junket brand,
which is usually stocked near boxes of
puddings and gelatins) are of animal
origin. Thus, cheese made with them is
not kosher. If this is of concern to you,
buy microbial rennet from companies
that sell cheese making supplies, such
as:
http://thecheesemaker.com/
For a detailed treatise about the
kashrut of dairy products, go online to:
http://www.star-k.org/kashrus/kkissues-cholovYisroel.htm
INGREDIENTS
1 gallon fresh whole milk
1/4 cup cultured buttermilk
1/2 rennet tablet
1 or 2 teaspoons kosher salt
PREPARATION
Sterilize a stainless steel (not
aluminum) pot large enough to hold the
milk by boiling a small amount of water
in it for five minutes. Discard the boiled
water.
Pour the milk and buttermilk into the
pot. Stir.
Stir while warming the milk to a
temperature of 65° F.
Meanwhile, dissolve 1/2 rennet tablet
in 1/4 cup water. When the milk has
reached 65° F, add the rennet solution,
stirring well to blend thoroughly.
Cover, and let sit undisturbed
overnight at room temperature (65–
70° F).
By the next morning, a soft curd
should have formed. If not, let the milk
mixture sit until a curd does form, even
if it takes an additional day or two. Cut
the curd into 1/2 inch cubes, or stir using
a French whisk.
Ladle the cut curds and whey into a
double-thick piece of cheesecloth
suspended in a large stainless steel
strainer or colander.
After most of the whey has drained
away, raise the four corners of the
cheesecloth and tie it closed with string
or a large rubber band. Hang the curd in
a cool place to allow the remaining
whey to drip out. You can speed up the
process by pressing gently on the
cheesecloth bag.
The next day, open the cheesecloth
and remove the cheese. Add 1 or 2
teaspoons of kosher salt, to taste, and
blend in thoroughly.
Keep the cheese refrigerated until
used.
Spices, Etc.
Save Money on
Spices
Once you get a spice in your home, you
have it forever. Women never throw out
spices. The Egyptians were buried with
their spices. I know which one I'm
taking with me when I go.
… Erma Bombeck
Spice prices have climbed faster than
real estate escalated in the early 2000s.
Many two-ounce jars of McCormick or
Schilling spices (they’re the same
company) now cost $7.00 or more.
Tone’s spices are available in large
plastic containers at membership
warehouses for about the same price as
the tiny jars of McCormick or Schilling
brands sell for at neighborhood
supermarkets. Don’t worry about
quality. Tone’s is a division of ACH
Food Companies, which also packages
the upscale (read pricey!) Spice Islands
brand. ACH is, in turn, a division of
Associated British Foods—a large
conglomerate that owns many famous
food brands, including French’s, Durkee,
Dromedary, Mazola, and Karo.
If you’re in a supermarket and
suddenly remember you’re out of
cayenne pepper or some other spice, you
may not need to drive to a membership
warehouse to save money. Just walk
away from the spice aisle and head
towards the kosher foods display. That’s
where the It’s Delish spices are usually
shelved.
It’s Delish spices are packaged in
containers that hold about six times as
much as the little jars of McCormick,
Schilling, or Spice Islands, yet cost
about half as much. Quality of the spices
is unexcelled. What’s more, they’re even
ko s he r ! It’s Delish spices are not
distributed nationally as of this writing,
and not all supermarkets carry them. If
your neighborhood grocer doesn’t have
the It’s Delish line of spices, ask the
manager to order them so you can start
saving money.
How does It’s Delish sell their spices
for so much less? Well, for one thing,
they’re a privately-owned company and
don’t have the high overhead of the big
conglomerates.
When you want whole or powdered
chiles, cumin, coriander, achiote, and
other spices commonly used in Hispanic
foods, go to a Hispanic grocery. They’ll
have a better selection than your
supermarket, and, because of turnover,
chances are the spices will be fresher.
Or, check out this website:
http://www.mexgrocer.com/
Mid-East markets carry cumin,
fenugreek, paprika, cinnamon, and other
spices, often in bulk and at much lower
prices than at your local grocery.
The Internet has made locating
superior sources of supply easy. You
can save a big bundle of bucks on spices
(and many other foodstuffs) by buying
online. Check out this website, one of
my favorites:
http://www.butcher-packer.com/
Butcher & Packer Supply Company
carries a wide variety of spices, bulkpacked, mostly in plastic bags. The
quality is excellent and the prices low.
You can buy spices from them in small
quantities, but, to purchase at the lowest
cost, you’ll have to buy much larger
quantities than you’ll ever need for home
cooking.
Examples: At this writing, whole
celery seed is just $4.34 for a full
pound; mustard seed, $2.63 per pound;
ground black pepper, $8.80 per pound;
and cayenne pepper, $5.53 per pound.
Dehydrated minced onion is only $4.66
per pound, and granulated garlic $7.38
—also, for a full pound. Compare those
prices with the prices of the tiny
containers at your local supermarket!
Butcher & Packer has many other
interesting food-related items—from
pasta makers to sausage stuffers—and
it’s well worth your while to spend
some time exploring their website.
Another reliable source of spices is
Whole Spice, a company owned by an
Israeli couple. Their spices and herbs
are kosher, and they have a number of
items that are not readily available
elsewhere. Order online—their website
is:
http://wholespice.com/
Buying in bulk, you’d be hard-pressed
to use even a fraction of the spices
before they become too old to use. Even
so, it’s hard to ignore the tremendous
savings—often it will cost less for a full
pound than it would for a few-ounce jar
at your supermarket.
Perhaps you might get together with
some of your friends and neighbors and
place an order you can share. If that’s
not practical, buy in bulk to take
advantage of the low prices—then
repackage the excess in glass or plastic
containers and give the spices to your
friends and family as gifts. You can even
make your own private brand labels on
your computer using Avery pressuresensitive label stock purchased from
Office Depot or Staples.
Whenever you empty spice containers,
recycle them to hold the spices you
bought in bulk. Soak off the labels. Use
Goo Gone to remove all vestiges of
adhesive. Then, run the containers
through the dishwasher. Waste not, want
not!
Here are three sources of neat little
spice containers you can order online:
http://www.sunburstbottle.com/
http://www.ebottles.com/
http://www.specialtybottle.com/
STORING SPICES
Some people buy spice racks that sit
on their kitchen counter and attractively
display their collection of spices. Don’t.
Spices need to be kept away from heat,
moisture, and especially light. Avoid
storing spices on your kitchen counter or
in a cupboard above a stove or oven,
even though those may be convenient
locations.
Spices and dried herbs don’t spoil,
but they do become stale. Flavor and
fragrance fade over time. A good tip-off
is the color. If the color has changed,
chances are the flavor has, also.
Despite Erma Bombeck’s comment:
As a general rule, spices and herbs
should be used or replaced within four
years, maximum—somewhat less for
ground spices and dried herbs, or if
they’ve been stored improperly.
Any questions about spices? You’ll
probably find the answers on one of
these two interesting websites:
http://www.mccormick.com/Spices101.as
http://www.foodsubs.com/Spice.html
Grocery-store prices of spices and
herbs are high, but spice blends, such as
Seasoned Salt and Seasoned Pepper, are
even more exorbitant. You can save a
tremendous amount of money by making
them yourself.
Seasoned Salt, Seasoned Pepper, and
Pickling Spice made from the recipes on
the following pages are tastier than those
from the supermarket. Attractively
packaged in spice containers with your
own computer-printed labels, they make
appreciated gifts for anyone who cooks.
Seasoned Salt
Because it uses kosher salt, spoonfulfor-spoonful this Seasoned Salt is less
salty than Lawry’s and the other
commercial brands of Seasoned Salt. If
you prefer a saltier product, use iodized
(table) salt instead of kosher salt. For a
low-sodium product, substitute Morton
Lite Salt, which is 50% sodium chloride
and 50% potassium chloride. This
recipe even works when you omit the
salt altogether—think Mrs. Dash’s
seasonings.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups kosher salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup paprika
1/4 cup nutmeg
1/4 cup mace
1/4 cup curry powder
1/4 cup granulated garlic
1/4 cup onion powder
1/4 cup dry yellow mustard
2 tablespoons celery salt
PREPARATION
Blend all ingredients together
thoroughly. Store in airtight containers.
Seasoned Pepper
This is not a copycat recipe for
Lawry’s Seasoned Pepper, but my own
delectable blend of spices, which can be
used either for cooking or at the table.
Wait until you try it in a salad, on a
grilled rib eye, baked potato, or fried
eggs! Yum!
If you can’t find dehydrated red and
green bell peppers locally, order them
online from one of the sources
mentioned previously.
INGREDIENTS
2-1/2 cups
coarsely ground
black
peppercorns,
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dehydrated red bell peppers
3/4 cup dehydrated green bell peppers
1/2 cup onion powder
1/4 cup New Mexico chile molido
2 tablespoons crushed red pepper
flakes
2 tablespoons granulated garlic
2 tablespoons yellow mustard powder
2 tablespoons ground coriander
PREPARATION
Use a coffee mill, spice grinder, or
food processor to grind the red and
green bell peppers, red pepper flakes,
and minced onion into granules about the
size of coffee grounds.
Blend all ingredients together
thoroughly. Store in airtight containers.
Pickling Spice
You’ll save money by making your
own pickling spice. Not only that, this
blend has superior flavor to store-bought
pickling spice, which is usually long on
the cheaper ingredients, such as mustard
seed and bay leaves, and short on the
more costly and flavorful ones, such as
allspice and juniper berries.
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup mustard seeds
1/2 cup bay leaves, crumbled
6 sticks cinnamon, broken
1/4 cup allspice berries
1/4 cup juniper berries
1/4 cup coriander seeds
1/4 cup black peppercorns
1/4 cup hot red chile pepper flakes
2 tablespoons cardamom seed
2 tablespoons dried ginger root
2 tablespoons whole cloves
2 tablespoons ground mace
1 tablespoon dill seeds
PREPARATION
Using a small mallet, pound the spices
to break them into small pieces and
crumble or crush them to release flavors.
Mix all ingredients and store in an
airtight container.
Seafood Seasoning
This recipe closely approximates Old
Bay seasoning. Use this delightful spice
blend on seafood; chicken; french fries;
hamburgers; steaks; deviled eggs;
cottage cheese; etc.
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup celery seed
1/4 cup whole black peppercorns
24 bay leaves
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon whole cardamom
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon mace
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ginger
PREPARATION
Place all ingredients in a spice
grinder or small food processor and
grind to a fine powder. Store in an
airtight container.
Curry Powder
Curry powder is a blend of spices.
There are as many differences in curries
as there are curry cooks. While most
people think of curry as being an Indian
dish, there is one school of thought that
places the origin of curry in Great
Britain. Arguments on both sides of the
question can be found at:
http://www.menumagazine.co.uk/book/cur
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup coriander seed
1/4 cup turmeric
4 large bay leaves
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 tablespoons fenugreek seeds
2 tablespoons cardamom seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon crushed dried red chiles
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon anise seeds
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon whole cloves
PREPARATION
Place all ingredients in a spice
grinder or small food processor and
grind to a fine powder. Store in an
airtight container.
A Pinch of Salt
Where would we be without salt?
… James Beard (1903–1985)
The word salary is derived from
salarium, the Latin word for salt.
According to legend, Roman soldiers
were paid in salt, leading to the phrase
“worth his salt.”
Salt is essential to life, and also to
enhance the flavor of our foods.
However, most doctors agree that
Americans consume far too much salt,
leading to hypertension (high blood
pressure) and other ailments.
Much of that salt comes from snack
foods, such as potato chips, nuts, and
pretzels; condiments, such as ketchup
and soy sauce; fast foods, especially
french
fries;
and
commercially
processed foods, including canned
soups, pickles, and sandwich meats.
There are a number of ways to reduce
your salt intake. Most obvious, of
course, is to avoid foods that have a high
salt content. Another is to taste your food
before adding salt to it—if the chef has
done his or her job properly, the food is
likely to be salty enough.
Try seasoning your food with
something else, such as a squeeze of
lemon or lime juice, or a small amount
of citric acid (sour salt). Or, use Morton
Lite Salt, which contains just half of the
sodium of regular salt.
Mrs. Dash—made by Alberto-Culver
Company, the manufacturer of shampoo,
hair conditioner, and related products—
makes thirteen different salt-free spice
blends said to improve the flavor of
food. I haven’t found one of them that I
like.
You can deceive yourself by using
kosher salt instead of regular salt at the
dinner table. A spoonful of kosher salt is
less salty than a spoonful of table salt, so
it looks like you’re adding more salt than
you really are.
Kosher Salt
While a pound of salt always weighs
a pound—remember Gertrude Stein’s
famous line, “A rose is a rose is a
rose”—because of its larger size grains
and more open granular structure, a cup
of kosher salt weighs less than a cup of
table salt. Thus, when recipes call for
salt by the measure rather than by
weight, you need to know which salt is
specified. If the recipe calls for regular
salt, when you use kosher salt you’ll
need to increase the quantity—and, vice
versa.
That’s complicated by the fact that not
all kosher salts weigh the same.
Ordinary table salt weighs 10.2 ounces
per cup. Morton’s kosher salt weighs 8.1
ounces per cup. Diamond Crystal kosher
salt weighs only five ounces per cup.
Stated another way: If a recipe calls
for four teaspoons of table salt, you’ll
need to use five teaspoons of Morton
kosher salt or eight teaspoons of
Diamond Crystal kosher salt to achieve
the same saltiness.
The quantities of salt for all recipes in
this cookbook are based on Morton
kosher salt. If you substitute Diamond
Crystal kosher salt, you’ll need to use
more salt than specified in the recipe, or
the food will not be salty enough. If you
use regular table salt (not recommended)
you’ll need to use less, or the food will
be too salty.
Iodized Salt
Iodized salt was the first product with
an ingredient added solely for health
reasons. It was determined that people
living in certain parts of the United
States—most notably the Great Lakes
region—were not getting enough iodine
in their diet.
This lack resulted in endemic goiter
and other iodine-deficiency disorders,
such as mental retardation and cretinism.
Salt producers cooperated with public
health officials and, beginning in 1924,
made both iodized and plain salt
available to consumers at the same
price.
Morton Lite Salt
Potassium is a necessary nutrient for
human beings. Some years ago, after
reviewing the results of my blood test, a
doctor suggested that I take potassium
chloride pills. As they were quite
expensive, with my doctor’s approval I
bought Morton Lite Salt instead.
Lite Salt contains 50% potassium
chloride and 50% sodium chloride. It’s
sold primarily to people who want or
need to restrict their sodium intake, but it
can also be used to increase one’s
potassium intake. To this day, I use
Morton Lite Salt in place of regular salt
at the dinner table. An 11-ounce shaker
box costs about a dollar.
Caution must be used with potassium
chloride. Whereas a small amount is
beneficial, too much can be deadly.
These days, instead of being hanged by
the neck, decapitated by guillotine, shot
by a firing squad, fried in an electric
chair, or suffocated and poisoned with
cyanide gas, most people who are
legally executed receive an injection of
a potassium chloride solution.
I did a little research on the Internet
and learned that each 11-ounce box of
Morton Lite Salt contains enough
potassium chloride to do away with
seven adults and one child.
Morton also makes potassium
chloride pellets for water softeners.
Imagine how many people you could
murder with a fifty-pound bag of those!
Sea Salt
Don’t waste your money buying
expensive sea salt.
If you have an educated palate and
taste sea salt by itself, you might—just
might—be able to discern the flavor of
the various minerals and, perhaps, fish
fecal matter contained in sea salt. But I
defy anyone to tell the difference
between foods prepared with sea salt
and those made with ordinary salt.
Some people serve sea salt in order to
impress their guests. If the guests know
the facts about sea salt, the only
impression that will be made is that their
hosts have more dollars than sense.
Which type of Salt
to use
While iodized salt helps prevent IDD,
it should never be used for making
pickles and sauerkraut. For various
reasons, it’s not the best choice for
canning, brining, meat rubs, in recipes
that call for a salt crust, salting the rims
of margarita glasses, and some other
applications.
For those purposes I use kosher salt,
which does not contain iodine. Of
course, kosher salt should be used if you
kosher meat for religious reasons—but
that’s not the subject of this dissertation.
As I mentioned above, I use Morton
Lite Salt at the dinner table because of
its potassium chloride content. I use
Seasoned Salt on meats, poultry,
seafood, in salad dressings, and for
many cooking applications, because of
its flavor. For baking and all of my other
cooking, I use kosher salt.
Professional chefs, such as Bobby
Flay, Rachel Ray, and Alton Brown (all
of the Food Network) use kosher salt
exclusively. I’m not so sure about Paula
Deen or Emeril Lagasse.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Unless another
type of salt is indicated, the amount of
salt specified in all the recipes in this
cookbook is based on using Morton
kosher salt.
Want to learn more about salt? Start
here:
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/E
Herbs-Spices-and-Salts-639/culinarysalt-guide.aspx
MSG (Monosodium
Glutamate)
What I don’t ever use is MSG—the
flavor enhancer that at one time was as
common as salt in virtually every Asian
restaurant. Today, we know that
ingestion of MSG can have serious
health consequences. Conscientious
restaurateurs no longer put it in their
foods.
Monosodium glutamate causes what’s
known as the “Chinese Restaurant
Syndrome”—burning sensations or
numbness along the back of the neck,
forearms, and chest; tingling, warmth
and weakness in the face, temples, upper
back, neck and arms; facial pressure or
tightness; chest tightness or pain;
headache; nausea; rapid heartbeat;
bronchospasm (difficulty breathing);
drowsiness; weakness; and, sweating.
Though most restaurants no longer use
MSG, it's still included in far too many
processed products. You’ll find it in
Campbell’s soups, Lay’s flavored potato
chips,
Doritos,
Betty
Crocker
Hamburger Helper, Heinz canned gravy,
Swanson frozen meals, Kraft salad
dressings—the list goes on and on.
Canned and packaged foods are filled
with the stuff!
In sufficient quantities, MSG is toxic
to everyone. To those who cannot
metabolize it effectively, even small
doses act like a poison. Women who
ingest MSG while pregnant increase the
risk of their fetus having a smaller
pituitary, thyroid, ovary, or testes. It can
make people more sensitive to products
containing aspartame (NutraSweet).
And, it is suspected that MSG may be a
causative factor in Alzheimer’s disease,
ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and
Parkinson’s disease.
My advice to you? If you have any
MSG in your cabinets (sold under the
brand names Accent and Ajinomoto,
among
others), throw
it
out
immediately! Then, read the labels of
commercially prepared foods and refuse
to buy products that contain it.
But watch out! MSG is often hidden in
foods with labels that boldly state “No
MSG” or “No added MSG.” Yet, they
contain hydrolyzed protein, hydrolyzed
corn
gluten,
autolyzed
yeast,
carrageenan, sodium caseinate, enzymes,
or a whole slew of other deceptively
named ingredients, all of which contain
or create processed free glutamic acid
(MSG) during manufacture.
For more details, go to this website:
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensour
Want more reasons why you shouldn’t
eat foods containing MSG? Just google
MSG or monosodium glutamate and
surf from web page to web page!
The Many Uses of
Citric Acid
Citric acid—also known as sour
salt—is an important ingredient in many
Jewish recipes. That’s why it’s usually
stocked in the kosher foods section of
your supermarket. (In a few stores, citric
acid is shelved in the spice aisle.)
Sour salt was once a staple in Eastern
European kitchens, primarily because
lemons were costly and not readily
available. A pinch of it imparts as much
tartness as a couple of squeezes from a
lemon or lime.
If you’re not Jewish, you might not be
aware of citric acid. That would be a
real shame, for it can be one of the most
versatile ingredients in your kitchen.
Use citric acid whenever you want a
tart taste in foods, such as sweet and
sour cabbage rolls; and, to increase
flavor in bland foods. Sour salt is more
consistent and convenient to cook with
than fresh lemon juice or vinegar, and it
doesn’t impart a strong fruity or vinegary
flavor to food or the metallic off-taste
associated with bottled lemon juice.
On the other hand, if you don’t have
citric acid in your pantry, you can
usually substitute lemon juice or white
vinegar in the recipe without serious
adverse effect.
Citric acid is an inexpensive white
crystalline powder that can be extracted
from lemons and other citrus,
pineapples, gooseberries, and many
other acidic fruits. However, most citric
acid is now produced by fermenting
molasses or other sugar substrates with
the mold Aspergillus niger.
Citric acid is an antioxidant. A half
teaspoon dissolved in the ice water in
which you chill potatoes for making
french fries keeps them from
discoloring. And, a little bit of citric
acid dissolved in water keeps cut
avocadoes and sliced apples from
turning brown.
Citric acid is a key ingredient in a
wide variety of commercially-prepared
foods, including carbonated beverages,
fruit wines, jellies, hard candies, salad
dressings, and sour cream. It can also be
found in many canned foods, such as
beet borscht, soups, chile peppers, and
fruit cocktail. Check the labels!
Although most people think of
tomatoes as an acid food, the average
pH of all tomato varieties is around 4.6.
Accordingly, tomatoes are considerably
less acidic than most fruits, including
pears, peaches, plums, and strawberries.
Added to tomatoes, salsas, and other
low-acid foods, citric acid lowers the
pH to make a safer canned product.
Citric acid helps preserve game meat.
It’s used in making salami, summer, and
other sausages, to give the proper flavor
without requiring a fermentation
process.
Citric acid has an abundance of uses
in nonfood applications, also. Here are a
few of them:
Citric acid is used as an effervescent
in medicines. If you get indigestion, try
this homemade seltzer: Dissolve a
teaspoon of baking soda in a half cup of
ice water and a half teaspoon of citric
acid in another. Then, pour the two
together. Drink quickly, while it’s
fizzing!
Citric acid is an ingredient in a
popular ear wax removal product.
A GE appliance serviceman taught me
this trick: Run a couple of ounces of
citric acid through a dishwasher cycle
(no dishes, no detergent) to remove soap
scum and restore the inside of your
dishwasher to like-new appearance.
Clean your coffeemaker by adding a
teaspoon of citric acid to the water
container and turning the coffeemaker on
(no coffee beans). Afterwards, run the
coffeemaker once with plain water to
rinse it out.
Citric acid will reduce the pH of your
fish pond at much less cost than the stuff
they sell in pond supply stores. Use one
ounce of citric acid per 500 gallons of
water to start, then check the pH. Don’t
lower the pH of your pond too quickly,
though—you could throw your fish into
shock.
Citric acid is used in organic and
hydroponic gardening to lower the pH of
water,
and
therefore
increase
availability of nutrients to the plants.
Put a tablespoon of citric acid in the
water of vases holding roses or other
fresh flowers to increase the water
uptake and thus keep the flowers fresh
longer.
Bagels, Bialys, and
Breads
Beware of Fake
Bagels!
Claudia Roden (one of England’s
leading food writers) points out that
bagels, because of their circular shape—
with no beginning and no end—
symbolize the eternal cycle of life.
Which makes me wonder, what do lox
and cream cheese represent?
Bagels are generally considered to be
archetypal Jewish food. Most historians
believe that bagels originated in Poland,
but it’s also possible they came from
Germany or Russia.
The earliest mention of bagels in
writing was in the year 1610. The
Community Regulations of Krakow,
Poland stated that bagels would be given
as a gift to any woman in childbirth.
Some say the Yiddish word beygal
derives from biegen, German for to
bend. Proponents of this theory suggest
that bagels are related to pretzels, which
are also placed in a water bath before
baking. Others say the word comes from
the German beugel, meaning a twisted or
curved bracelet or ring.
In the early 1960s, Western Bagel
Company in Van Nuys, California
developed a Rube Goldberg-like
machine that saved a considerable
amount of labor. It shaped the dough
automatically, then dumped the raw
bagels into boiling hot water. The
process was fascinating; I could watch it
operate for hours.
I remember making regular late-night
trips to Western Bagel’s factory in order
to buy bagels fresh from their ovens,
almost too hot to touch. Needless to say,
few of the fragrant, steaming bagels
made it all the way home to be eaten at
breakfast—which, of course, was my
professed intent for the midnight run.
As good as those bagels tasted at the
time, they were, unfortunately, the
beginning of bagel mass-production,
procedural
adulteration,
and
bastardization.
Everyone’s heard the old saw, “If it
looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and
quacks like a duck, it must be a duck.”
That adage may well apply to a small
aquatic bird of the family anatidae, but it
certainly doesn’t hold true for bagels.
Ever since the non-Jewish community
secularized the venerable gastronomic
delight, products have come on the
market that are round like bagels, have
holes in the middle like bagels, and are
more-or-less the color of bagels. But,
they don’t have the flavor of bagels, nor
do they have the incomparable texture of
bagels. As Nach Waxman, (of the
renowned New York book store Kitchen
Arts and Letters) states, they have “no
crust, no character, no nothing.”
Usually the ersatz bagels come in
plastic packages of six. Sometimes
they’re stocked in the bread aisle and
sometimes in the frozen foods section of
supermarkets. Most of them are steamed
instead of parboiled.
And there’s a proliferation of bagel
shops—mini-delis without any of the
good stuff. Many of them are franchises.
Few of the outfits make good bagels.
The so-called bagels come in such
outlandish, improbable, offensive, and
inedible sweet or savory variations as
blueberry, banana nut, cinnamon,
chocolate chip, jalapeno, sun-dried
tomato, and spinach. Aarrgh! Those are
definitely not bagels, despite the name
boldly and inaccurately emblazoned on
the
packages—they’re
hideous
abominations, bagels in name only!
The following recipe is the real thing.
It makes bagels as close as they can
possibly be to the wonderful handmade
bagels I enjoyed sixty years ago from
any of the bakeries on Fairfax Avenue in
Los Angeles. Perhaps it’s because I
grew up on them, but I’ve always
preferred the bagels from Fairfax
Avenue to the New York variety.
These bagels are large, flavorful,
chewy on the inside, toast beautifully,
and have the perfect degree of glossy
chewiness in the crust. They’re easy to
make and freeze well.
There are only two caveats: First, be
sure you use bread flour (because of its
high gluten content) and not all-purpose
flour. Second, in order for the bagels to
have the proper flavor, texture, and shelf
life, you must use barley malt syrup.
There’s no substitute for it, and you can’t
just leave it out.
Most every supermarket stocks bread
flour. Barley malt syrup is available in
some groceries, especially those that
feature natural foods; in stores that sell
beer-making supplies; and from bakery
supply companies. Barley malt syrup is
available online from
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_nos
url=search-alias%3Dgrocery&fieldkeywords=barley+malt+syrup&x=14&y=2
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/
Fairfax Avenue
Bagels
DOUGH INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups warm water (about
115° F)
2 packages active dry yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon canola or other
vegetable oil
1 tablespoon barley malt syrup
2 teaspoons kosher salt
4-1/2 cups unbleached bread flour
POACHING INGREDIENTS
6 quarts water
2 tablespoons barley malt syrup
1 teaspoon kosher salt
OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS
Yellow corn meal (for sprinkling the
baking sheets)
Egg wash (mix 1 egg with an equal
amount of water)
Poppy seeds
Sesame seeds
Minced fresh onion (or freeze-dried
onions reconstituted with a little water)
Pretzel salt (or other coarse salt)
PREPARATION
In a large mixing bowl, stir together
the warm water, yeast, and sugar. Allow
to sit for 10 minutes to proof.
Mix in the oil, malt syrup, salt, and
one cup of the flour. Add more of the
flour, a cup at a time, to make a stiff
dough.
Spread the remaining flour on a bread
board. Knead the dough on the board for
about 10 minutes, in such a manner that
the dough absorbs most of the flour on
the board.
Cover and allow the dough to rest for
15 minutes.
Divide the dough into 8 sections and
form each section into 10-inch-long
ropes. Roll each rope around your hand
into a loop, leaving a 1-1/4 inch hole in
the middle. Squeeze the overlapping
portions of dough together to seal them.
Return the shaped bagels to the bread
board and cover with a cloth. Allow to
rise for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, place the poaching
ingredients in a large pot and bring to a
rolling boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Preheat oven to 450° F.
Line two large baking sheets with
parchment paper. If desired, sprinkle a
tablespoon of corn meal on each. Set
aside.
Use a large spatula to gently lower
bagels into the poaching water. Parboil
only 2 bagels at a time for 45 seconds,
then turn over and cook for an additional
45 seconds. Remove the bagels from the
water and carefully transfer them to a
clean towel to drain.
Place four or six bagels on each
baking sheet. If desired, use a pastry
brush to apply a coating of egg wash. If
you want, sprinkle with one of the
optional topping ingredients.
Place in the hot oven and immediately
reduce the temperature setting to 425° F.
Bake for 17 minutes, or until golden
brown.
Using a pair of tongs, turn the bagels
over and bake for an additional 4
minutes.
Immediately remove the bagels from
the baking sheets and cool them on wire
racks.
TO FREEZE BAGELS: When the
bagels are thoroughly cool, slice them.
Insert a piece of parchment paper,
plastic wrap, or waxed paper between
the halves and place the bagels in a
Ziploc freezer bag. That way, when
you’re ready for a bagel, the halves will
separate easily, ready for your toaster.
Brooklyn Bialys
Bialys are first cousins to bagels.
They’re both round, chewy rolls. And,
both are delicious. But there, the
similarity ends. Bagels have a hole in
the middle; bialys have a depression in
the center that holds an onion and poppy
seed filling. Bagels are briefly boiled
before baking; bialys are baked only,
just like other yeast rolls.
Perhaps because of their similarities
and perhaps despite their differences,
bialys can be used in any way you would
use a bagel, such as covered with cream
cheese and layered with lox; or, toasted,
buttered, and made into a muenster
cheese and sliced tomato sandwich.
The name bialy (sometimes called
Bialystok Kuchen) is derived from its
place of origin: Bialystok, Poland. The
name Bialystok translates into English as
white stream. You’ll probably recall
that the main character in Mel Brooks’
films and stage play The Producers is
named Max Bialystock.
While very popular in New York,
bialys have not yet caught on throughout
the rest of the country, as did bagels.
Perhaps someday that will change. After
all, bagels were once considered
primarily Jewish, but long ago they
crossed over into the American
community at large.
FILLING INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon canola or olive oil
1-1/2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1/3 cup minced onion
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
PREPARATION
Mix all ingredients together.
DOUGH INGREDIENTS
2 cups warm (110° F) water
1 package active dry yeast
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1-1/2 cups bread flour (high gluten
flour)
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
PREPARATION
In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/2
cup warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let
stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
Mix the remaining 1-1/2 cups warm
water, salt, bread flour, and all-purpose
flour into the yeast mixture.
Knead on a floured surface for 8
minutes, or until the dough is smooth.
The dough should be soft.
Rinse all vestiges of dough from the
mixing bowl. Dry it and oil it lightly.
Form the dough into a ball and return
it to the mixing bowl, turning to oil all
sides.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and
let the dough rise in a warm place until
tripled in size—about 1-1/2 hours.
Punch the dough down, turn it over,
cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise
until doubled in size—about 45 minutes.
On a floured board, punch down the
dough again and shape it into 2
cylinders. Slice each into 8 rounds. Lay
them flat, covered with a towel, to rest
for 10 minutes.
Pat the dough into flattened rounds
about 3-1/2 inches in diameter, making
each round a little higher in the middle
than at the edge.
Place each round on a baking sheet
covered with parchment paper and
sprinkled lightly with cornmeal. Cover
with plastic wrap, and let rise until
increased by half in size—about 30
minutes.
Press the bottom of a small shot glass
in the center of each bialy, to make a
deep indentation. Place approximately 1
teaspoon of filling in the depression of
each bialy. Cover with plastic wrap, and
let the bialys rise another 15 minutes.
(Do not let them double!)
Bake in a preheated 425° F oven
about 15 minutes, or until lightly
browned. Halfway through baking,
reverse position of baking sheet in the
oven (front to back) to help assure even
browning.
Bialys are best when they’re fresh
from the oven. If they’re not going to be
eaten shortly after baking, place them in
a plastic bag while still warm and freeze
until needed.
Challah (Braided
Egg Bread)
Challah is a slightly sweet braided
bread with a chewy crust and tender,
golden inside. It’s traditionally served in
Jewish households on Friday evening.
This traditional Fleischmann’s Yeast
challah recipe has been used
successfully for decades; it would be
difficult to improve it. You don’t slice
this wonderful bread, you tear it apart,
one delicious chunk at a time (unless, of
course, you’re using it to make
sandwiches or toast).
INGREDIENTS
5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 packages Fleischmann’s active dry
yeast
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup water
2/3 stick (1/3) cup sweet butter or
margarine
4 large eggs
few drops yellow food coloring
(optional)
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional, when
using raisins)
poppy or sesame seeds (optional)
PREPARATION
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour,
sugar, yeast, and salt. Heat the water and
butter until very warm (120° to 130° F).
Stir into the dry ingredients.
Beat two minutes at medium speed of
the electric mixer. Add 3 eggs and 1 egg
white (reserving yolk). Add food
coloring, if desired. Add another 2 cups
flour. Beat 2 minutes at high speed,
scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in
enough additional flour to make a soft
dough.
Knead on lightly floured surface until
smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10
minutes. If using raisins and cinnamon,
add at this time. Cover and let rest 10
minutes.
Divide dough in half; set aside one
half. Divide the remaining half into two
pieces, one about 2/3 of the dough and
the other about 1/3 of the dough.
Divide larger piece into 3 equal
pieces; roll to 12-inch ropes. Place
ropes on greased baking sheet; braid.
Pinch ends to seal.
Divide remaining (smaller) piece into
3 equal pieces; roll to 10-inch ropes.
Braid. Place the small braid on top of
the large braid. Pinch ends firmly to seal
and secure to large braid.
Repeat the above steps with the
second half of dough, to make a second
loaf.
Cover. Let rise in a warm, draft-free
place until doubled in size, about 45
minutes. Note: Many modern ovens have
a “proofing” setting. If yours does, that’s
the best way to let your dough rise.
Beat reserved egg yolk with 1
tablespoon water; brush on loaves.
If desired, sprinkle with poppy or
sesame seeds.
Bake at 400° F for 25–30 minutes or
until done, switching positions of sheets
in the oven halfway through baking time.
Remove from sheets and cool on wire
racks.
Rye Bread
I consider myself to be an excellent
amateur chef and home baker, and I’m
confident that most (if not all) my family
and friends agree with me.
I cook most everything from scratch,
whenever possible and practical. That
means I make all my spice blends,
including Seasoned Salt; Seasoned
Pepper; chili powder; shawarma
seasoning; curry powder; and special
mixes for which there are no equivalents
on the market. One entire closet-pantry
in my home is devoted to spices I’ve
bought in bulk.
I even make Turtle candies from
scratch, starting with butter, heavy
cream, and sugar to create the caramel. I
do buy the pecans already shelled,
however. Shelling nuts is not my schtick.
Most of the time I cook in quantity, for
efficiency. I bake Parker House rolls by
the dozens, and make spaghetti sauce and
chile con carne gallons at a time. Then, I
store the foods in my freezer until
needed.
Once a year I make several gallons of
a steak / barbecue sauce I’ve developed
over the last fifty years; numerous
containers of spicy mustard; and, when
tomatoes are in season, of sufficient
quality, and reasonably priced, I make
homemade ketchup.
There’s not an ethnic or regional type
of food that, if I’ve tried cooking it, I
haven’t mastered: Jewish holiday;
delicatessen; Israeli (for a month I
cooked in the mess hall of an IDF base
near Jerusalem as a Sar El volunteer);
Southern U.S. / soul food; Mexican; TexMex; Southwest; Cajun and Creole;
some Chinese dishes; and plain
American fare.
I do well in the bakery department,
too. My bagels and bialys are fantastic.
My challah is perfection. My Chinese
cookies are better than any bakery
makes. My cheesecakes are to die for!
There’s only one food I really don’t
like to make: rye bread.
Making rye bread is a whole lot of
work, far out of proportion to the
pleasure of the results. Often, recipes
require starting a week in advance of
baking day (or even longer) to prepare
the rye sour starter and altus.
Because of the stiffness and stickiness
of rye bread dough, kneading it takes a
whole lot of effort. And, without
adequate kneading, the bread doesn’t
come out right.
I’ve tried scores of rye bread recipes.
Some have fantastic flavor, but the bread
is too heavy and crumbly to use for
sandwiches. Some have a good chewy
texture and a crisp, crunchy crust, but
don’t have what I consider to be the
ideal taste.
Despite all the work that’s involved
in making rye bread, I wind up with just
two or three loaves that, in my opinion,
are nowhere as good as I could buy from
Bea’s Bakery in Tarzana, California—if
only I was in Tarzana.
When I want rye bread, much of the
time I make do with the mediocre stuff in
the plastic wrapper at the supermarket.
On rare occasion, I’ll bite the bullet and
bake a few loaves of rye bread from
scratch.
The one and only time I baked what I
considered to be an absolutely perfect
loaf of rye bread was from a recipe in
the book Secrets of a Jewish Baker, by
George Greenstein: Laszlo’s Sourdough
Potato Rye Bread with Caraway. That
loaf was worth the effort—a perfect 10.
As Mr. Greenstein’s book is
copyrighted, I’m not able to provide the
recipe herein. But I do suggest you go to
your nearest book store (or amazon.com)
and order a copy of the book for
yourself. You’ll also enjoy the other
recipes contained in the book.
As with anything else, the quality of a
loaf of rye bread is a subjective matter.
The rye bread recipes that follow are
excellent, rating at least 9 on a scale of 1
to 10. Each has a different flavor and
texture. Each requires a different amount
of labor. Please try all of them, at least
once.
New York Deli Rye
Their ads stated, “You don’t have to
be Jewish to love Levy’s.” That simple
slogan elevated Levy’s Jewish Rye to
the top-selling rye bread in New York.
Well, you don’t have to be in New York
in order to enjoy fantastic rye bread—it
can be made in your own kitchen!
There are a few tricks and secrets to
making great rye bread, however, and a
whole lot of work is involved. First, you
must make a batch of rye sour, which is
the
product of the
controlled
fermentation of rye flour and water. If
you take care of your rye sour and
replenish it from time to time you should
never have to start from the beginning
again.
Then
there’s altus. Chances are
you’ve never heard of the word. But,
according to one school of thought, you
can’t make superb rye bread without it.
Many bread recipes call for an egg
wash. You’ll soon learn that what’s
needed for rye bread is not an egg wash,
but a cornstarch glaze.
INGREDIENTS
3 cups Rye Sour
1-1/2 cups Altus
1 package active dry yeast
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
4 cups first clear flour
EXTRAS
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (to coat
bowl)
2 teaspoons yellow corn meal (to
sprinkle on baking sheet)
1 teaspoon caraway seeds (to sprinkle
on glazed loaf)
Cornstarch glaze
In a stand mixer with a dough hook,
place the rye sour, altus, yeast, salt,
caraway seeds, and 2 cups of flour. Mix
well at medium speed.
Add more flour 1/2 cup at a time.
When the dough pulls away from the
side of the bowl, before the mixer motor
starts straining, spread the rest of the
flour on a breadboard and put the dough
on top.
Knead the dough until all of the flour
has been incorporated.
Place the dough into a large, lightly
oiled bowl. Turn the dough to coat with
the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic
wrap or a damp towel. Set aside in a
warm place to rise until the dough has
doubled in bulk, about two hours.
Punch the dough down and put it on a
floured breadboard. Cut in half and
shape each half into a loaf, either round
or long. Cover the loaves with a damp
(not wet) towel, and allow to rise for 1
hour.
Place each loaf onto a parchmentlined baking sheet which you’ve
sprinkled lightly with cornmeal.
Preheat your oven to 375° F. Place a
pan of hot water on the bottom rack of
the oven.
Brush a light coating of cornstarch
glaze onto the surface of each loaf. Using
a very sharp knife, make three diagonal
slashes in each loaf about 1/2 inch deep.
Sprinkle the tops of the loaves with
caraway seed.
Bake the bread for 40 minutes, or until
the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
Turn the baking sheet 180 degrees
halfway through baking in order to
promote even browning.
Remove the bread from the oven and
brush it with another coat of cornstarch
glaze. Cool on a wire rack.
Sandwich Rye
This is a simple recipe for rye bread,
requiring neither altus nor a rye sour
starter, yet it has a great flavor.
INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups lukewarm water (105° to
115° F)
2 tablespoons barley malt syrup
1 package active dry yeast
1-1/2 cups medium or dark rye flour
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
3 tablespoons canola oil
1-1/2 teaspoons Deli Rye Flavor
1/4 teaspoon citric acid (sour salt)
1-1/2 cups first clear flour
1-1/2 cups bread flour
EXTRAS
2 tablespoons canola or other cooking
oil (to coat bowl)
2 tablespoons yellow corn meal (to
sprinkle on baking sheet)
1 teaspoon caraway seeds (to sprinkle
on glazed loaves)
Cornstarch glaze
PREPARATION
Pour the warm water into a mixing
bowl and add one tablespoon of barley
malt syrup. Stir in the yeast and rye
flour. Let this sponge sit for 30 minutes,
or until it’s expanded and bubbly.
Add the remaining malt syrup, salt,
caraway seeds, oil, Deli Rye Flavor,
citric acid, and enough of the flours to
create a dough that begins to pull away
from the sides of the bowl.
Cover the dough with a towel or
plastic wrap and let it stand for 15
minutes.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly
floured bread board or lightly oiled
work surface and knead until it’s smooth
and elastic, about 10 minutes, adding
only enough flour to keep the dough from
sticking unbearably. (Rye dough will
always be a bit sticky, so resist the urge
to keep adding flour to eliminate this
inherent stickiness. Adding too much
flour will make a heavy, dense, dry
loaf.) Halfway through the kneading,
give the dough a rest while you clean out
and oil your mixing bowl.
Shape the dough into a ball, place it in
the oiled bowl, turning to coat, and
cover the bowl with a towel or plastic
wrap. Allow the dough to rise for 1-1/2
hours, or until it’s doubled in size.
Punch the dough down and divide it in
half. Shape each half into an oval, and
place the shaped loaves on a parchmentlined baking sheet lightly sprinkled with
cornmeal. Cover, and let rise for 30
minutes.
Preheat your oven to 375° F. Place a
pan of hot water on the bottom rack of
the oven.
Brush a light coating of cornstarch
glaze onto the surface of each loaf.
Using a very sharp knife, make three
diagonal slashes in each loaf about 1/4
inch deep.
Sprinkle the tops of the loaves with
caraway seed.
Bake the bread for 45 minutes, or until
the loaves are well-browned and sound
hollow when tapped. Turn the baking
sheet 180 degrees halfway through
baking in order to promote even
browning.
Remove the loaves from the oven and
brush them with another coat of
cornstarch glaze. Cool on a wire rack.
Kaplan’s Jewish
Rye
This rye bread takes some advance
preparation. You’ll need to start three
days before you want to bake the bread.
For best results, follow the directions
precisely. Most important, don’t try to
substitute different types of flour.
First, you’ll need to make some potato
water.
POTATO WATER INGREDIENTS
2 pounds Russet potatoes
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 quart water
PREPARATION
Peel and slice the potatoes. Place
potatoes, salt, and water in a pot over
medium heat. Bring to a boil, then
reduce heat and simmer until the
potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes.
Separate the potatoes from the potato
water, saving both.
Measure 1 cup potato water to use in
the sour starter. Put the rest of the potato
water in the refrigerator, to use when
making the bread.
Smoosh the potatoes. Measure 1 cup
of smooshed potatoes and place in the
refrigerator, to use when making the
bread.
The remaining potatoes can be
refrigerated or frozen and used later for
making knishes. Or, make mashed
potatoes and serve them at dinner.
RYE BREAD SOUR STARTER
INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups potato water
1 cup light rye flour
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon granulated (white)sugar
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
PREPARATION
Place all ingredients in a medium size
bowl—the
mixture
will
expand
considerably. Stir to blend thoroughly.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let
sit for 3 days at room temperature, 65°–
75° F.
RYE BREAD INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups warm potato water (If
needed, add tap water to make the 1-1/2
cups.)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 recipe Rye Sour
1 cup mashed potatoes
3 tablespoons Rye Bread Improver
2 cups white or light rye flour
2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
4-1/2 cups first clear flour
3 tablespoons canola
vegetable oil
Yellow cornmeal
Cornstarch glaze
or
other
PREPARATION
Heat the potato water to warm
(120° F). It’s quickest in a microwave.
In an electric stand mixer bowl, place
the potato water, sugar, and yeast. Mix
and let sit for 10 minutes.
Add the sour starter, mashed potatoes,
Rye Bread Improver, light rye flour, salt,
and caraway seeds. Mix on low speed
for 3 minutes, using a dough hook.
Add the first clear flour 1 cup at a
time, mixing to blend before adding
more. Make sure all the flour is well
mixed into the dough.
Increase speed to medium and beat six
minutes more. Make sure the dough is
thoroughly mixed by the dough hook.
At this point, the dough should be
heavy
and
somewhat
sticky—a
characteristic of rye bread dough. As
flour varies greatly in moisture content
(depending primarily on age and storage
conditions) it may be necessary to add a
few tablespoons of either flour or water
in order to obtain the proper dough
consistency. Make additions a little at a
time—it’s easy to overshoot the goal.
Only experience will teach you when the
dough is exactly right.
Put the vegetable oil in a large bowl
and transfer the dough to that bowl. Turn
the dough, so all sides are given a thin
film of oil.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and
set it in a warm place (75°–80° F) to
rise, approximately 2 hours or until
doubled in size.
Divide the dough into two or three
portions.
On
a
lightly-floured
breadboard, knead each portion of dough
until smooth, then form it into an ovalshaped loaf.
Carefully place each loaf on a baking
pan lined with parchment paper lightly
sprinkled with a small amount of
cornmeal.
Cover the loaves with a damp (not
wet) cloth or damp paper towels, and set
in a warm place (75°–80° F) to rise for
1 hour.
Prepare the oven by making sure one
rack is in the middle or slightly below
the middle. On the bottom rack, place a
rimmed metal baking pan. Preheat the
oven to 375° F.
Carefully remove the damp cloth.
Using a pastry brush, apply a thin coat of
cornstarch glaze to the loaves.
Using a very sharp knife or razor
blade, make 3 diagonal slashes about
1/4 inch deep on the top of the loaves.
Immediately place the tray of rye
bread in the prepared oven on the
middle shelf. Toss 2 cups of water onto
the baking pan in the bottom of the oven,
to create steam. The steam will help
develop a crispy, crunchy crust. Be
careful not to burn yourself when doing
so.
Bake for 30 minutes, or until the
center of the bread has a temperature of
180° F. When done, the bread should
sound hollow when tapped.
Remove from oven. Apply a second
thin coat of cornstarch glaze. Transfer
bread from the baking pan to wire racks
to cool. Do not slice for at least one
hour.
Aunt Barb’s Easy
Sandwich Rye
Aunt Barb’s Easy Sandwich Rye
always turns out perfect—just right for
making pastrami, corned beef, tongue,
and other deli style sandwiches.
That’s saying quite a lot, because rye
bread is the most difficult of all breads
to bake.
Aunt Barb shrugs off my above
observation and explains patiently that
bread is just flour, water, a little salt and
yeast, time, and heat. To which I add:
fresh ingredients stored properly, skill,
patience, years of experience, good luck,
and hard work.
BREAD SPONGE INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups water
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 tablespoon ribbon cane syrup or
molasses
2 teaspoons dry yeast
PREPARATION
Thoroughly mix all the ingredients in
a glass or ceramic bowl and refrigerate
overnight. If necessary, you may shorten
the sponging time to as little as two
hours.
BREAD INGREDIENTS
1 cup dark rye flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 recipe bread sponge (above)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon caraway seeds.
PREPARATION
Mix together the dark rye flour,
unbleached white flour, and salt. Add
the bread sponge, vegetable oil, and
caraway seeds.
Add a little more water if the mixture
is too dry. Knead until all ingredients
are well blended.
Let the dough rest for an hour, then
knead again.
Let the dough rest another hour, then
shape into loaves. Use loaf pans, pie
pans, or free-form on a baking sheet—
your choice.
Let the loaves rise for 45 minutes to
an hour.
Bake in a preheated 375° F oven for
30–45 minutes.
Place the loaves on a wire rack to
cool.
Rye Sour
FIRST DAY
2 cups stone-ground rye flour
1 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup warm water
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
3 tablespoons finely minced onion
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon crushed caraway seed
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a
large bowl. Cover, and place in a warm
place for 24 hours.
ON THE SECOND DAY, THIRD
DAY, AND FOURTH DAY
Mix
together
the
following
ingredients, then combine with the rye
sour.
1 cup stone-ground rye flour
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar,
dissolved in
3/4 cup warm water
The rye sour will be ready to use on
the fourth day.
As you use some of the rye sour to
make bread, replenish it with 1 cup rye
flour, 3/4 cup warm water, and 2
tablespoons of brown sugar for each cup
of rye sour removed. Occasionally add a
little crushed caraway seed, ground
cardamom, and finely minced onion.
Keep replenished rye sour at room
temperature for 24 hours, then store it in
your refrigerator in a container with a
loose cover (to prevent pressure buildup).
At least once a month replenish the
rye sour whether you remove any or not
—else the culture may die and you’ll
have to start all over again.
Altus
Altus, a European innovation, is not
just a way to use up stale bread. Rather,
it’s an indispensable ingredient of sour
rye, as it intensifies the distinctive flavor
of the bread and helps it retain moisture.
To make altus, use a food processor
to make bread crumbs from rye bread
with the crust removed—either leftover
from a previous home baking or from
store-bought rye bread. These crumbs
can be bagged and stored in your freezer
until needed.
When you need altus for a recipe,
soak the crumbs in cold water. Then,
using a strainer, squeeze out most of the
water until the crumbs
consistency of mush.
have
the
Cornstarch Glaze
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water
1 cup boiling water
PREPARATION
Using a wire whip, thoroughly mix the
cornstarch with the cold water until the
slurry is smooth and lump-free. Slowly
add to the boiling water, continuing to
whisk until the glaze thickens. Cover
with plastic wrap until needed.
Pastries
PASTRIES AT BRENT’S DELICATESSEN –
WESTLAKE VILLAGE CA
Tel Aviv Hilton
Cheesecake
When you have it in your mouth, it
tastes so good you don't want to
swallow it.
I’ve had great difficulty finding what I
considered to be really good cheesecake
in bakeries, delis, and other restaurants.
American cheesecake—even the famed
New York variety—is usually much too
heavy and sticky for me.
Worst of all is the uncooked,
unpalatable gummy mess made with
gelatin and/or graham cracker crumbs
served by all too many non-Jewish
restaurants and promoted for home
preparation by the Jell-O people.
Aarrgh! I maintain it should be at least a
misdemeanor—perhaps, even, a felony
—to proffer that garbage as cheesecake.
In Israel, the cheesecake is
magnificent. It’s light and moist and has
a delicate rich, creamy flavor, with
slight
vanilla-lemon
overtones.
Whenever I’m in Israel I sample the
cheesecake at every opportunity.
The best cheesecake of all is served
at the Tel Aviv Hilton. Some years ago,
after much cajoling, I managed to obtain
their actual recipe from the hotel’s food
and beverage manager, a man named
Moshe Dayan (no relation to the famed
Israel Defense Forces general of the
same name who wore an eye patch).
I suspect that Moshe finally gave in to
my request because I was an American
wearing an IDF uniform. At the time, I
was spending a month in Israel with
Volunteers for Israel (Sar El), serving
the country by working in the kitchen of
an Israeli army base near Hadassah
Hospital’s Ein Karem campus.
Unfortunately, Moshe wrote the recipe
in Hebrew, so my first task was to get
the document translated.
I should have known. As given to me,
the recipe was not at all suitable for
home use. It required 90 eggs and made
18 cheesecakes. Quantities were in the
metric system. The dry ingredients
needed to be weighed, instead of
measured. Even the baking temperatures
were in degrees Celsius!
And, the recipe called for one item
with which I was totally unfamiliar
—chemach tiras. English-speaking
Israelis uniformly translated this as
“corn flour.” I was puzzled. Was corn
flour anything like the masa used to make
tortillas, I wondered? Finally, a friend
brought out a box from her pantry to
show me, and I learned that chemach
tiras is nothing more exotic than corn
starch.
Thanks to the help of a restaurantquality scale and my computer, I cut the
recipe down to a manageable size and
converted the liters and kilograms into
cups and tablespoons. But that didn’t
quite work, as Israeli cream cheese is
somewhat different from that available
in the United States.
With a little experimentation,
however, several cheesecakes later I
concocted a mixture of cheeses and sour
cream that very closely approximates
Israeli cream cheese in both texture and
flavor.
The result? A wonderful cheesecake
—every bit as delectable as the
cheesecake served at the Tel Aviv
Hilton, and quite similar to the type of
cheesecake I enjoyed as a child. It’s
easy to bake, and always gets lots of
compliments. Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS
8 ounces cream cheese
8 ounces farmers, hoop, ricotta, or
well-drained cottage cheese
8 ounces sour cream
1 cup milk
5 large eggs (separated)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar (+ 3/4
cup sugar—see below)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
Thin slices of sponge cake or pound
cake (to use as a base)
PREPARATION
Using a stand mixer, combine all the
above ingredients(except for the egg
whites, 3/4 cup sugar, and sponge or
pound cake) until smooth and free of
lumps.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, slowly
adding the 3/4 cup sugar as the egg
whites rise.
Fold the egg whites-sugar mixture into
the batter by hand.
Line the bottom of a 9-1/2 inch
spring-form cake pan with a thin layer of
sponge cake or pound cake.
Pour batter into the pan.
Bake at 475° F until the top turns light
brown (about 10 minutes).
Remove from the oven and run a
spatula or thin knife around the edge of
the pan. Reduce the oven temperature to
325° F.
Return the cake to the oven and bake
an additional 45–50 minutes, or until an
inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack. When cool,
remove the sides (vertical part) of the
spring-form pan.
Dust the top of the cake with
powdered sugar, if desired. Or, serve
with a fruit sauce topping.
The cake is best at room temperature,
but should be refrigerated if not eaten
immediately.
TIMESAVING VARIATION
Instead of first making a sponge cake
or pound cake, mix a batch of Lemon
Butter Cookie dough; the recipe is in the
COOKIES chapter of this cookbook.
Spread about half the dough on the
bottom of the spring-form cake pan
(sides removed), about 1/4 inch thick.
Bake at 400° F for 7 minutes, or until
golden brown. Make cookies with the
remaining dough.
When the lemon cookie crust has
cooled, use a small knife to trim any
excess that might have spread over the
rim of the cake pan bottom. Assemble
the spring-form cake pan and fill with
the cheesecake batter. Bake as indicated
above.
Lindy’s New York
Cheesecake
Perhaps the most famous of the New
York cheesecakes is the one devised by
the original Lindy’s restaurant, which
opened in 1923 and closed in 1967. The
following recipe has been circulating for
many years, with minor variations, and
is said to be the original recipe obtained
from Leo Lindemann (Lindy) himself.
This cheesecake is dense and creamy,
with a hint of citrus. Serve it plain, or
with a pineapple, blueberry, or
strawberry glaze.
This is the type of cheesecake that
was served at the long-ago-imploded
Dunes Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
PASTRY CRUST INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) sweet unsalted
butter, cut in 4 pieces
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon water
PREPARATION
Place all ingredients except the flour
in a food processor. Pulse until the
mixture is granular and lumpy. Add the
flour and pulse 25 to 30 times more,
occasionally scraping the sides and
bottom of the bowl.
When the mixture starts to form a ball,
remove it from the food processor. Wrap
in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one
hour.
Detach the sides of a 9-inch
springform pan and butter the bottom.
Spread slightly less than 1/2 of the
dough over the bottom of the springform
pan, pressing firmly and evenly with
your fingertips to make a thin layer.
Bake in a 400° F oven for 8 minutes,
or until the dough has turned a pale
golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
When the bottom crust is completely
cool, reassemble the springform pan.
Butter the sides of the pan. Press the
remainder of the dough to the sides,
evenly distributing it (about 1/8 inch
thick).
CREAM CHEESE FILLING
INGREDIENTS
5 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream
PREPARATION
In an electric stand mixer, beat the
cream cheese, sugar, flour, salt, zests,
and vanilla until smooth. Add the eggs
and yolks one at a time, beating lightly
after each addition. On low speed, stir in
the heavy cream.
Pour the filling on top of the prepared
crust and smooth the top.
Bake in a preheated 525° F oven for
10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 200° F
and bake for an additional hour. Cool to
room temperature on a wire rack, then
cover loosely and refrigerate for at least
three hours before adding the pineapple
glaze.
PINEAPPLE GLAZE
INGREDIENTS
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple,
undrained
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 drops yellow food color
PREPARATION
In a small saucepan, combine the
sugar and cornstarch. Stir in the
remaining ingredients. Over medium
heat, bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce
heat and cook for one minute, or until the
mixture is thickened and translucent.
Cool to room temperature.
Spread the glaze on top of the
cheesecake. Refrigerate until well
chilled.
TO SERVE
Loosen the pastry from the side of the
pan with a spatula or thin knife.
Carefully remove the sides of the
springform pan.
Garnish the cheesecake with sliced
fresh strawberries, if desired.
Cut the cake into wedges.
Pound Cake
A traditional pound cake is made from
one pound each of flour, sugar, butter,
and eggs. Thus, it really should be called
a four-pound cake, shouldn’t it?
American pound cake is one of the
rich and varied desserts from the cuisine
of the American South, which includes
such treats as sweet potato pie and
banana pudding.
The rest of the world also likes pound
cake. In Britain, pound cake is often
laced with various dried fruit, such as
raisins, sultanas, currants, and glacé
cherries.
In France, pound cake is called
quatre-quarts,
which
means four
quarters. French pound cake might have
lemon juice or chocolate added, but
generally no fruit.
In Mexico, the name for the cake is
panqué, and may contain walnuts or
raisins.
In Colombia, the similarly-named
ponque might be drenched with wine
and have a cream or sugar frosting.
And, of course, pound cake is a
specialty of Jewish bakeries.
This delectable pound cake is heavy
and dense, the way a pound cake should
be.
INGREDIENTS
3 cups granulated sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
2 sticks sweet butter (1 cup)
1 cup sour cream (buttermilk can be
substituted)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 or more teaspoons vanilla, almond,
or lemon extract
PREPARATION
In a stand mixer bowl, cream the
butter, sugar, and eggs.
Add the remaining ingredients and
blend at medium speed for a full six
minutes.
Pour batter into a greased Bundt pan.
(There's usually more than enough butter
left on the emptied butter wrappers to
grease the pan.)
Bake for 60 minutes in a preheated
350° F oven, or until an inserted
toothpick comes out clean.
SERVING SUGGESTIONS
Complement the pound cake with fruit
or berries of the season and freshly
whipped cream.
Drizzle it with a light orange or lemon
glaze.
Sauté 1-inch-thick slices of pound
cake in sweet butter until toasty-brown
on both sides (turning once). Cover with
a large scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Drizzle with You-Bet chocolate syrup,
and top with whipped cream and a
maraschino cherry.
Cookies
COOKIES AT BRENT’S DELICATESSEN –
WESTLAKE VILLAGE CA
Black and White
Cookies
The thing about eating the Black and
White cookie, Elaine, is you want to get
some black and some white in each
bite. Nothing mixes better than vanilla
and chocolate. And yet racial harmony
eludes us. If people would only look to
the cookie all our problems would be
solved.
… Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld (The Dinner
Party)
Black
and
White
cookies
are
ubiquitous in New York delis and
Jewish bakeries, but they’re almost
unknown elsewhere. Don’t confuse them
w i t h Half Moon cookies made in
Central New York and New England, or
the also-similar cookies made in
Germany called Amerikaners.
Black and White cookies are huge,
nearly a half foot in diameter. They have
a soft cake-like texture, and a hint of
lemon flavor combined with vanilla.
One-half of the flat side of a Black and
White cookie is iced with white vanilla
fondant and the other half is iced with
dark chocolate ganache—hence, the
name of the cookie.
The pastry part of the cookies is not
overly sweet; it does not need to be
because of the vanilla and chocolate
icings.
Black and White cookies are, in fact,
more like flat, thinly frosted cakes than
cookies, and are technically drop cakes.
As some wag once described them, they
look as if someone had sat on a bunch of
cupcakes.
One theory is that Black and White
cookies were first made when a baker
tried to find a use for leftover cake
batter. Another school of thought gives
Harry Hemstrought credit for the
creation of Black and White cookies in
the 1920s, when he opened a small
bakery in Utica, New York. However,
Hemstrought included cocoa in his
cookie batter, and he called them Half
Moon cookies, not Black and Whites.
E r g o , despite the fact that the
Hemstrought Bakery took claim to the
title of being first, and Hemstrought’s
baked as many as 12,000 of their version
of the cookies each day, the facts are
clear and the verdict is in: Hemstrought
d i d not bake a true Black and White
cookie.
An additional contender is Glaser’s
Bake Shop, a century-old bakery located
at 87th Street and 1st Avenue in the
Upper East Side of New York City.
Glaser’s was established in 1902 by
John Herbert Glaser and is still owned
by the same family. They state that
they’ve been selling Black and White
cookies ever since the bakery opened its
doors for business, but Herb Glaser, the
present owner and grandson of the
founder, can’t confirm that Black and
White cookies actually originated in
their bakery.
The true origin of the cookies is
probably lost in antiquity. Just ask any
New York City baker, and he’ll tell you
that Black and White cookies have been
around forever.
Zabar’s
Gourmet
Epicurean
Emporium in New York City is probably
the most famous purveyor of Black and
White cookies today.
COOKIE DOUGH INGREDIENTS
4-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 cubes) unsalted butter,
softened
1-3/4 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
PREPARATION
In a medium bowl, whisk together the
flour, baking powder, baking soda, and
salt; set aside.
Using an electric stand mixer, cream
the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs, milk, and extracts. Beat
at medium speed until well-blended.
Add the flour mixture one cup at a
time. Use a spatula to scrape down the
sides of the mixing bowl after each
addition.
Continue beating, until smooth and
creamy.
Use an ice cream scoop or 1/3 cup
measure to drop six portions of the
dough at least two inches apart onto
baking sheets covered with parchment
paper. Use the back of a tablespoon to
flatten the dough slightly and to form it
into a more perfect circle.
Bake in a preheated 375° F oven for
15 minutes, or until the edges are slightly
browned.
ICING THE COOKIES
Make sure the cookies have cooled
completely before applying the vanilla
and chocolate frostings. Remove the
cookies from the parchment paper,
turning them over so the flat side of the
cookies faces up. Use a pastry brush to
gently remove any loose crumbs.
Using a small spatula, spread 1 or 2
tablespoons of the white icing on half of
the flat side of each cookie. A large
spatula or knife used as a temporary
barrier will help you apply the fondant
with a straight line dividing the vanilla
half of the cookie from the chocolate
half.
Let the cookies sit for 1 hour or until
the icing has hardened.
Using another small spatula, spread 1
or 2 tablespoons of the chocolate
ganache on the other half of each cookie.
Again, use a large spatula or knife as a
temporary barrier to separate the
chocolate ganache from the vanilla
fondant. It takes a lot of practice to get
the frostings applied smoothly with a
straight line dividing them!
Let the cookies sit for at least one
hour.
Place cookies between layers of
waxed paper in a covered container for
up to three days, or wrap them in cling
plastic and store in your freezer.
NOTE: There’s a real art to applying
the icings to half of each cookie, then
smoothing the two icings to create a
perfect straight line down the middle.
It’s easy to smudge, and novices tend to
skimp on the icing.
Hemstrought’s co-owner Tom Batters
stated it took a new employee about a
week to master the trick, but some
people never learned. So, don’t be too
disappointed if the icing on the first
batches of your cookies looks a bit
rustic!
Vanilla Fondant
INGREDIENTS
1 cup confectioner’s (powdered)
sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
PREPARATION
In a small bowl, whisk all ingredients
together until smooth.
Chocolate Ganache
INGREDIENTS
3 ounces semisweet chocolate
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon white corn syrup
PREPARATION
Heat the chocolate in a microwave at
30% power for one minute at a time,
stirring after each minute. Repeat as
necessary. When the chocolate is
completely melted, blend in the heavy
cream and corn syrup.
Alternate method: Chop the chocolate
into small chunks. Place all ingredients
in the top of a double boiler over barely
simmering water. Stir occasionally until
the chocolate melts and the ganache is
smooth.
Chinese Cookies
You can buy these giant almondflavored Chinese cookies only in Jewish
bakeries and delis. That being the case,
why are they called Chinese cookies?
Who knows?
Once, when I was in Southern
California, after enjoying a great
breakfast of whitefish and cream cheese
piled high on a toasted bagel at Mort’s
Deli in Tarzana, I stepped next door to
Bea’s bakery (a heavenly place!) to buy
some cookies for my granddaughter
Megan (Chinese, oatmeal, peanut butter,
chocolate chip, and a black & white—
one each).
When I was told the price of the small
bag of cookies I nearly choked! I’ve
since seen Chinese cookies and Black
and White cookies, not nearly as good as
the ones I make, selling for as much as
$3.25 apiece. I decided then and there I
was in the wrong business.
But I digress. I’ll back up, because I
want you to know the entire story.
Some years ago my daughter Sharon
(Erin’s mother, not Megan’s; Megan’s
mother is named Marsha) asked me for
my recipe for Chinese cookies.
I hadn’t made them in years, not since
Marsha and Sharon were little girls.
Thus, I had to dig the recipe out of my
dusty old pre-computer files and then
bake a batch of cookies to ascertain that
the recipe was okay.
It wasn’t. In those days, I tended to
cook with a handful-of-this and a pinchof-that, and any recipes I’d bothered to
write down were, at best, sketchy notes.
I’ve gotta admit I’d never been
entirely happy with my Chinese cookies.
They just didn’t come out the same as the
ones from the bakeries. So, I started
experimenting. By changing quantities of
some of the ingredients the cookies were
better, but still not perfect.
Then, I had an epiphany. Instead of
using butter, which my recipe called for,
I’d try shortening. After all, I reasoned,
what bakery would use butter when lessexpensive shortening would suffice?
Besides, I realized, Jewish bakeries
wouldn’t use butter anyway, for if they
did the cookies would not be pareve
(permissible to eat at the same meal with
meat dishes, according to Orthodox
dietary laws).
That worked! My Chinese cookies
were every bit as good as the ones from
the bakeries, and perhaps even better!
By using the following recipe, yours
will be, too.
INGREDIENTS
4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups Crisco shortening
2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sliced almonds, about a cup
6 squares of semisweet baking
chocolate
1 teaspoon cooking oil
PREPARATION
Using an electric stand mixer, cream
the shortening and sugar.
Add the eggs, baking soda, salt,
almond extract, and vanilla. Beat at
medium speed until well-blended and
smooth.
Mix in the flour, 1/2 cup at a time.
The dough should be firm and slightly
crumbly in texture.
To make two dozen traditional-sized
(that is, humongous) cookies: Shape the
dough into 2 logs, each about 3 inches in
diameter.
To make three dozen less spectacular
(but just as delicious) cookies: Shape
the dough into 3 logs, each about 2
inches in diameter.
Spread the sliced almonds on a sheet
of aluminum foil and roll the cookie logs
over them, to thoroughly coat the
outside. Wrap each log in aluminum foil
or plastic wrap and refrigerate until
firm, preferably overnight.
Slice each log into twelve 1/2-inchthick disks.
Place the disks at least two inches
apart onto baking sheets lined with
parchment paper.
Bake in a preheated 350° F oven—the
larger cookies for 25 minutes, the
smaller cookies for 22 minutes. For best
results, make sure the dough is
refrigerator-cold when it goes into the
oven.
When cool, decorate by spooning a
small dollop (about 1 teaspoon) of
melted chocolate in the center of each
cookie.
TO MELT THE CHOCOLATE
Put 6 squares of semisweet chocolate
and 1 teaspoon of cooking oil into a
small ramekin. Heat in a microwave at
30% power for one minute at a time,
stirring after each minute. If the
chocolate has not completely melted, zap
it again for another minute. Repeat as
many times as are necessary, but do not
increase the power, else the chocolate
may harden to a fudge-like consistency.
Hamantashen
All Jewish holidays can be summed up
in just nine words: They tried to kill us.
They failed. Let’s eat!
Hamantashen are traditionally served
on the festival of Purim. Purim
celebrates the defeat of Haman, an evil
man who attempted to murder all the
Jews of Persia. His plan was thwarted
by Queen Esther and her uncle
Mordecai.
Hamantashen are triangular—some
say because that was the shape of
Haman’s hat. In Israel, hamantashen are
called Oznei Haman—Haman’s ears—
as tradition holds that Haman’s ears
were pointy.
But the origin of the name may be
even simpler. In German, the word mohn
me a n s poppy
seed, and the word
taschen means pockets. Mohntashen, or
poppy seed pockets, were popular
German pastries.
By adding the Hebrew definite article
“ha” you get hamohntashen. Note that
the first part sounds like the name of the
villain in the Esther story. And it’s said
that Haman’s pockets were filled with
bribe money. It’s easy to see how the
pastry became associated with Purim.
There are basically two types of
hamantashen. The first is made with
cookie dough, the other with yeast
dough. In either instance, hamantashen
may be filled with a variety of fillings.
Some of the most popular fillings are
poppy seed, prune, and apricot.
Cookie Dough
Hamantashen
INGREDIENTS
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cooking oil
1/3 cup butter or margarine
3 large eggs
1/2 cup orange juice
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons
water, for egg wash
PREPARATION
Using an electric mixer, cream the
sugar, oil, and butter. Add the eggs and
orange juice.
Mix in the remaining ingredients and
form into a ball. Refrigerate for one
hour.
Divide the dough into four parts. Roll
each piece 1/8 inch thin on a floured
board. Cut the dough into 3-inch rounds.
Place 1 teaspoon of filling in the
middle of each circle.
Fold three sides of each circle up to
form a triangle, leaving some filling
exposed in the center. Press down to
seal the sides lightly.
Brush dough with the egg wash and
place 2 inches apart on cooking sheets
covered with parchment paper.
Bake for 20 minutes in a 350° F oven,
or until very lightly browned. Transfer
to a wire rack to cool.
Yeast Dough
Hamantashen
INGREDIENTS
1 package active dry yeast
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup warm water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten with 2 tablespoons
water, for egg wash
PREPARATION
In a large bowl, combine the yeast,
sugar, salt, and flour. Mix in the water
and oil to form a dough.
On a floured board, knead until
smooth and elastic, about 6 minutes. Put
a little oil in a large bowl and place
dough inside, turning to coat all of the
dough.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise
until the dough doubles in size.
Punch down the dough. Divide the
dough into three parts. Roll each piece
1/4 inch thin on a floured board. Cut the
dough into 3-inch rounds.
Place 1 teaspoon of filling in the
middle of each circle. Hamantashen
fillings can be as simple as apricot,
prune, or other jam or preserves. Or, use
canned cherry, blueberry, or apple pie
filling. Better still, make one of the
fillings in the recipes below.
Fold three sides of each circle up to
form a triangle, leaving some filling
exposed in the center. Press down to
seal the sides lightly.
Brush dough with the egg wash and
place the hamantashen 2 inches apart on
cooking sheets covered with parchment
paper.
Cover with plastic wrap and let rise
at room temperature until nearly double,
about one hour.
Bake for 25 minutes in a 350° F oven,
or until very lightly browned. Transfer
to a wire rack to cool.
Poppy Seed Filling
INGREDIENTS
1 cup poppy seed
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 tart apple, grated
PREPARATION
In a small saucepan, place all
ingredients except the apple. Bring to a
boil, then lower heat and simmer until
thickened. Cool, then add the grated
apple.
Prune Filling
INGREDIENTS
2 cups dried prunes, pitted
1 cup raisins
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons honey
PREPARATION
Soak the prunes overnight in cold
water. Drain. Chop all ingredients
together in a food processor.
Apricot Filling
INGREDIENTS
2 cups dried apricots
1 cup honey
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/4 cup orange juice
PREPARATION
Soak the apricots overnight in cold
water. Drain, then puree with all other
ingredients in a food processor.
Mandelbrot
Mandelbrot is the Jewish answer to
biscotti. Or perhaps it’s the other way
around. I’ve eaten mandelbrot as long as
I can remember (and that’s a long time),
but it’s only been in recent years (the
Starbucks era) that I’ve become aware
of biscotti.
These double-baked crunchy cookies
are delicious dipped in coffee, and a
whole lot better for you than calorieand grease-laden donuts.
The name mandelbrot translates to
almond bread, yet these days most
mandelbrot is actually made with
walnuts or pecans. This probably
follows the same rationale as egg
cream, which contains neither eggs nor
cream, and Welsh rabbit, which contains
no meat of any kind.
There are innumerable variations of
Mandelbrot possible; a few suggestions
are shown below.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
1 cup canola or other cooking oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup walnuts, pecans, almonds, or
other nuts, coarsely chopped
OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS
1/2 to 1 cup raisins or sultanas;
craisins (dried cranberries); candied
citron;
maraschino cherries; chopped dried
apricots; chopped dates; chocolate chips
3 tablespoons poppy seeds
1/2 cup cocoa or chocolate syrup
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon lemon or orange zest
2 tablespoons lemon or orange juice
2 tablespoons sweet wine, cognac, or
liqueur
PREPARATION
In a large mixing bowl (preferably the
bowl of an electric mixer), cream the
sugar and oil. Beat in the eggs, one at a
time. Add the vanilla and almond
extracts, and any optional liquids.
In a separate bowl, stir together the
flour, baking powder, salt, and any
optional dry ingredients (except fruit and
nuts). Add the dry mixture to the wet
mixture, a little at a time, blending well
to make a soft, workable dough.
Add the nuts and any optional fruit.
Mix well to blend.
Remove to a floured surface and
knead until the dough is smooth and
elastic.
Divide the dough into two pieces.
Shape each half into a 10 x 4 inch log.
Flatten each log a bit and place on a
baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for
30 minutes, or until the loaves are
golden. Remove from the oven and cool
in the pan for about 10 minutes.
Cut each loaf into 1/2 to 3/4 inch
slices, using a very sharp serrated knife.
If desired, dip both sides in a cinnamonsugar mixture—1 teaspoon of cinnamon
to 1/2 cup of sugar.
Reduce oven temperature to 200° F.
Place slices side-by-side, cut side up,
on a baking sheet and return to the oven
for 20 minutes. Turn the mandelbrot over
and return to the oven for another 20
minutes, or until very dry and lightly
toasted.
Mandelbrot will keep indefinitely
when stored in an airtight container.
Lemon Butter
Cookies
Although lemon butter cookies are not
traditional fare in Jewish delis or
bakeries, you’ll love these delicious,
easy-to-make little treats. Use the dough
for the bottom crust when you make
cheesecakes—see the recipe for Tel
Aviv Hilton cheesecake.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick (1/2 cup) sweet butter,
softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
Zest of one lemon (about
tablespoon)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1
PREPARATION
In an electric mixer, cream the butter
and sugar. Add and combine all the other
ingredients, the flour last.
Drop by teaspoons onto a cookie
sheet lined with parchment paper, about
2 inches apart.
Bake at 350° F for 15 minutes or until
light golden brown.
Rugelach
Aficionados of rugelach cannot seem
to agree whether the small crescentshaped delicacies of Ashkenazic origin
should be classified as cookies or
pastries. The name roughly translates
from Yiddish to little twists or little
horns, which rugelach remotely
resemble. It is also said that the name
derives from the Yiddish word rugel,
meaning royal. Other names are kipfel
(Germany), kifli (Yugoslavia), cheese
bagelach, and cream-cheese horns of
plenty.
Rugelach is a favorite in every Jewish
bakery. If you don’t have a Jewish
bakery in your neighborhood or a Jewish
mother in your kitchen, it’s likely you’ve
never tasted the tempting treats.
Originally, in Europe, rugelach dough
was either yeast, butter or sour cream
based. In America, the type that became
most popular is cream cheese based; it
has been suggested that the American
recipe was created by the manufacturer
of Philadelphia Cream Cheese to boost
sales.
Typically, rugelach dough is rolled
into circles; spread with a little jam or
fruit preserves; covered with a filling of
chopped nuts, dried fruit, and cinnamon;
cut into pie shapes; and, formed into
crescents before baking.
Because of the butter, cream cheese,
and sour cream, rugelachs are extremely
rich-tasting. Note there is no sugar in the
dough itself; the sweetness is in the
spread and filling.
A wide variety of ingredients can be
used in making rugelach. Start with the
following recipe for a basic apricot
rugelach, then try some of the variations
suggested.
DOUGH INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour (plus 1/4 cup
to coat the dough before rolling)
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
PREPARATION
Cut cold butter and cream cheese into
1/2 inch (or smaller) cubes. In a food
processor, pulse the flour, salt, butter,
cream cheese, and sour cream until the
mixture is crumbly. Do not over-process
—stop before the dough forms a solid
ball.
Shape the crumbly mixture into four
equal disks, each about 4 inches in
diameter and 1/2 inch thick. Wrap
separately in plastic wrap and chill in
your refrigerator for 2 to 24 hours.
SPREAD
Apricot preserves or apricot jam
FILLING INGREDIENTS
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup dried apricots, finely chopped
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
PREPARATION
First, chop the nuts coarsely in a food
processor. Remove and measure.
Next, chop the dried apricots in the
food processor. Remove and measure.
Return the nuts and apricots to the
food processor.
Add 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon
cinnamon. Pulse just until the ingredients
are blended.
TOPPING INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
PREPARATION
Thoroughly mix the sugar and
cinnamon. For convenience, place the
mixture in an empty spice container with
sifter/shaker holes.
TO MAKE THE RUGELACH
It’s important to keep rugelach dough
cold, both before shaping and after
shaping prior to baking. Accordingly,
remove one disk of dough from your
refrigerator at a time. With a little
practice, you will have a dozen rugelach
in the oven baking, another dozen in the
refrigerator chilling, while you’re
working on a third dozen—flattening,
spreading, and shaping—a regular
bakery assembly line!
Rub a small amount of flour on all
sides of a dough disk. Place it between
two pieces of plastic wrap and, using a
rolling pin, flatten the disk to 1/8 inch
thick and 9 inches in diameter. Loosen
the dough from the plastic occasionally;
turn it over several times during the
rolling process.
It’s likely that one or more “cracks”
will develop in the edge of the disk
while flattening. Just pinch the cracks
together and continue to roll.
Using the back of a spoon or a pastry
brush, spread 2 tablespoons of apricot
jam over the 9-inch dough round.
Sprinkle some of the nut-fruit filling
evenly on top of the jam.
NOTE: Apply the jam and filling
sparingly. If you use too much, the
rugelach will look messy. If you’ve
made too much filling, you can place it
in a Ziploc bag and keep it in your
freezer until the next time you bake
rugelach.
Place a piece of plastic wrap on top
of the round and push down gently, to
press the filling into the dough slightly.
Remove the plastic wrap. Using a
sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut each
round into 12 pie-shape wedges. Roll
the wedges from wide to narrow, with
the point on the outside of each rugelach.
Bend the ends slightly, to form a slight
crescent shape.
Place the uncooked rugelach, points
underneath, about 1-1/2 inches apart on
an ungreased baking sheet covered with
a piece of parchment paper. The
parchment paper keeps the sticky filling
from baking onto the pan and makes
cleanup much easier.
Sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar
topping.
Place the tray of rugelach in your
refrigerator and chill for 20 minutes.
Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for
22 minutes, or until lightly golden.
Place cooled rugelach into airtight
containers, such as Ziploc bags. If the
rugelach is not to be eaten within a few
days, store it in your freezer until
needed.
You may also freeze and store
unbaked rugelach, so that you can have
freshly-baked pastries available on a
few minutes’ notice. Don’t thaw the
rugelach, just add 5–8 minutes to the
baking time.
Now, for the many variations
possible:
SPREAD
Use any type of jam, preserves, or
marmalade—or, don’t use any spread at
all.
FILLING
Instead of walnuts, use pecans,
almonds, or other nuts of your choice—
or, no nuts at all.
Instead of dried apricots, use raisins,
sultanas (white raisins), currants,
prunes, dates, figs, craisins (dried
cranberries), fresh cranberries, finely
chopped apples, mini chocolate chips,
halvah, poppy seeds, marzipan—or,
whatever tickles your fancy.
Use brown sugar instead of white
sugar—or,
make
your
rugelach
sugarless.
TOPPING
Prior to sprinkling the cinnamon-sugar
on top (or rolling the rugelach in it),
brush the pastries with an egg wash or
milk. Or, eliminate the topping entirely.
Oatmeal Cookies
An elderly man lay dying in his bed.
While suffering the agonies of impending
death, he suddenly smelled the aroma of
oatmeal cookies wafting up the stairs.
He gathered his remaining strength
and lifted himself from the bed. Leaning
against the wall, he slowly made his
way out of the bedroom. With even
greater effort, gripping the railing with
both hands, he crawled downstairs.
With labored breath, he leaned against
the door frame and gazed into the
kitchen. Were it not for death’s agony, he
would have thought himself already in
heaven. For there, spread out upon the
kitchen table, were literally hundreds of
his favorite oatmeal cookies. Was it
heaven? Or, was it one final act of love
from his devoted wife of sixty years,
seeing to it that he left the world a happy
man?
Mustering one great final effort, he
threw himself towards the table, landing
on his knees in a crumpled posture. His
parched lips parted, the anticipation of
the wondrous taste of the cookies
already in his mouth. The aged and
withered hand trembled on its way to a
cookie at the edge of the table, when it
was suddenly smacked with a spatula by
his wife.
“Back off!” she said, “They’re for the
funeral.”
… Thanks to my daughter Sharon
Jenkins for sending me this story.
Here’s the recipe for big, chewycrisp, old-fashioned oatmeal cookies
like you wished your mother had made!
INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter,
softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly
packed
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups rolled oats
2 cups raisins
2 cups chopped walnuts
PREPARATION
Using a stand mixer, cream the butter,
sugar, and brown sugar. Add the eggs,
baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and
vanilla. Beat at medium speed until
well-blended.
Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time. When
the batter is smooth and creamy, add the
oats and beat until they’re distributed
throughout the dough.
Finally, add the raisins and nuts.
Continue mixing at slow speed, just until
the raisins and nuts are evenly
distributed.
Drop by heaping tablespoons (or
more) two inches apart onto baking
sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake in a preheated 375° F oven for
15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Desserts
Noodle Kugel
(Lokshen Kugel)
Kugel, like the vast majority of deli
foods, originated in Eastern Europe. It
has been served on the Sabbath in
traditional Ashkenazi Jewish households
for hundreds of years, often as a side
dish for cholent.
The word kugel (from the Yiddish or
German word for sphere or ball) is
sometimes translated as pudding or
casserole. There are many types of
kugel, both sweet and savory. A kugel
may be based on such diverse main
ingredients as noodles, potatoes, bread,
matzos, onions, carrots, spinach, eggs,
and cheese.
However, the only kugel you’re likely
to find in a deli these days is noodle
kugel—also called lochshen (lokshen)
kugel.
Noodle kugel is a delightful dairy
dessert. It’s similar in both texture and
flavor to baked rice pudding, but it’s
made with egg noodles instead of rice.
INGREDIENTS
1 package (12 ounce) broad egg
noodles
2 cups cottage cheese
2 cups sour cream
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, coarsely
chopped
5 eggs, beaten
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
PREPARATION
Cook the noodles according to the
manufacturer’s instructions. Rinse with
cold water and drain.
In a large bowl, mix all the other
ingredients until well blended. Then, stir
in the noodles.
Pour into a buttered 13 x 8 x 2-inch
baking dish, or two smaller baking
dishes. Dust the top with cinnamon.
Bake 50 minutes in a preheated
350° F oven, or until the center is set.
Cool for 15 minutes before serving.
Serve with a generous dollop of
whipped cream.
VARIATIONS
Substitute dried cranberries or
sultanas for some or all of the raisins.
Substitute canned pineapple bits,
well-drained, for some or all of the
raisins.
Add three apples, peeled and chopped
or sliced.
Increase the quantity of nuts—or, omit
them completely.
Challah Bread
Pudding
This challah bread pudding with the
New Orleans-inspired bourbon sauce is
so delicious you’ll want to always bake
an extra loaf of challah for your Friday
night dinner, reserving one loaf of the
egg bread for the pudding.
The following recipe provides eight
to ten generous portions, but with second
and third helpings there probably won’t
be much left over for the following day.
INGREDIENTS
1 loaf challah (1 pound), cut to 1-inch
cubes
3 cups milk
1 cup half and half or heavy cream
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 large eggs, slightly beaten
2 tablespoons vanilla extract, almond
extract, or combination
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)
1 teaspoon allspice (optional)
1 cup raisins or sultanas (white
raisins)
1 cup apple slices (optional)
3/4 cup sliced almonds, pecans, or
walnuts (optional)
1/2 stick butter, melted
PREPARATION
Combine the bread, milk, and half and
half in a large bowl. Set aside for the
bread to absorb the milk, while you’re
preparing the other ingredients.
Mix the sugars, eggs, extracts, and
spices thoroughly. Add to the bread
mixture, making sure all bread is coated.
Stir in the raisins and nuts.
Put the butter into a 9 x 13-inch baking
dish. Make sure the sides and entire
bottom of the dish are coated with the
butter.
Pour the bread mixture into the baking
dish. Bake, uncovered, in a preheated
350° F oven for 50 minutes, or until the
pudding is set in the center and the top of
the pudding is golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let cool on
a wire rack.
Cut into squares and place in
individual serving dishes. Sprinkle with
powdered sugar.
Serve warm or cold with bourbon
sauce or freshly-whipped cream.
Bourbon Sauce
INGREDIENTS
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 cup heavy cream
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup bourbon
1 tablespoon sweet (unsalted) butter
PREPARATION
In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch
in 1/4 cup of the cream, making sure the
mixture is free of lumps.
Add the rest of the cream, the beaten
egg, sugar, and salt. Pour the mixture
into a small saucepan.
Stir frequently over medium heat until
the mixture comes to a boil. Reduce the
heat to low and cook, stirring constantly,
until the sauce thickens—about 3 or 4
minutes.
Remove from heat. Whisk in the butter
and the bourbon.
Drizzle the warm sauce over bread
pudding.
NOTE: Substitute 1/4 cup rum,
amaretto, Grand Marnier, Kahlua, or
other liqueur for the bourbon. Or, flavor
the sauce with 1 tablespoon vanilla
extract (more or less to taste).
Rice Pudding
This creamy rice pudding is so rich
and smooth! Serve it in a tulip-shape
glass ice-cream-sundae dish or icecream-soda glass and top it with a large
dollop of freshly-whipped cream.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup dry white rice
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups milk, divided
2/3 cup raisins, sultanas, currants, or
craisins (dried cranberries)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or brandy
1 tablespoon sweet (unsalted) butter
PREPARATION
Cook the rice according to package
directions.
In a medium saucepan, combine the
cooked rice with 2-1/2 cups milk, the
raisins, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and
cinnamon.
Cook over medium-low heat, stirring
frequently, until the mixture thickens—
about 15 minutes.
Mix the beaten eggs with the
remaining 1/2 cup milk. Add it to the
rice mixture and cook five minutes more,
stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and add the vanilla
extract and butter. Stir.
Serve warm or cold. If desired,
sprinkle with additional nutmeg or
cinnamon.
Applesauce
You can buy applesauce in a can or
jar at any supermarket—but the best
store-bought applesauce is not nearly as
good as the applesauce you can quickly
and easily make at home. After all,
you’re going to serve the applesauce
with wonderful latkes or delicious roast
brisket of beef that you’ve cooked
yourself, so you might as well exercise
the small amount of effort needed to
have the best.
Don’t cook just a small amount of
applesauce, either. Make a large batch
and store whatever you don’t
immediately need in Ziploc containers in
your freezer. That way, whenever you
need applesauce to accompany a meal,
all you’ll have to do is thaw out a
container or two.
INGREDIENTS
12 large apples
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon citric acid (sour salt)
2 or 3 cinnamon sticks, broken
1 cup water
PREPARATION
Use Gravenstein, Granny Smith,
Jonathan, Pippin, Rome Beauty, or
McIntosh apples. Delicious, Gala, and
most of the eating apples are overly
bland and tend to get mushy when
cooked. I prefer to use several different
types of apples in the applesauce, to
blend the flavors and sweetness-tartness
of the various varieties.
In a large pot, mix together the sugar,
citric acid, and water.
If you don’t have citric acid, substitute
fresh lemon juice—1/2 teaspoon of
citric acid approximately equals the
tartness of the juice of one lemon.
Wash, peel, and core the apples. Cut
the apples into chunks. Drop them into
the sugar-citric acid syrup immediately
after cutting. Stir frequently to coat all
surfaces. Getting the apple pieces into
the syrup quickly keeps them from
turning dark.
Add the cinnamon sticks and bring the
mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a
simmer. Make sure the mixture doesn’t
boil over!
Cook until the apple pieces start
falling apart. Remove the cinnamon
sticks before serving.
SWEETNESS: Depending on the
variety and ripeness of the apples used,
you may want to add more sugar.
TARTNESS: Depending on the
variety and ripeness of the apples used,
you may want to add more citric acid.
Awesome
Applesauce Dessert
This simple but delicious dessert will
earn you kudos, yet it’s so easy to
prepare!
INGREDIENTS
Pound cake, ladyfingers, or sponge
shortcake cups
Applesauce
Freshly Whipped Cream
Ground cinnamon
PREPARATION
Set a 1-inch slice of pound cake, two
or three ladyfingers, or a sponge
shortcake cup on each serving plate.
Cover the cake with a generous scoop
of applesauce—warm or chilled, your
choice. But never at room temperature!
Top with a large dollop of freshly
whipped cream. Never use pressure-can
whipping cream or Cool Whip when
preparing this dessert. Freshly whipped
cream makes all the difference in the
world.
Finally, dust with a little ground
cinnamon.
Whipped Cream
INGREDIENTS
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar (more
to taste)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
Pinch of salt
PREPARATION
Place a small bowl and electric handmixer beaters in your freezer for at least
1/2 hour to chill. The whipping cream
should also be as cold as possible, but
not frozen.
Using the electric mixer at highest
speed, beat the whipping cream. When it
starts to thicken, add the powdered
sugar, salt, and vanilla. Continue beating
until the cream has thickened and is very
stiff.
Ingredients
Special Ingredients
The recipes in this cookbook contain
a number of ingredients which, in many
instances, you will not have in your
kitchen, and many of which are not
stocked by your local supermarket. This
chapter will help you both understand
the necessity for the ingredients and
provide you with sources of supply for
them.
ALUM, POWDERED: Used in
making dill pickles. A few supermarkets
stock it in the spice section; most do not.
Readily available at low cost in any
pharmacy.
BARLEY MALT SYRUP: Barley
malt syrup is a natural sweetener with a
distinctive flavor, made by malting
barley to produce maltose. The process
of malting (germinating grains of cereal,
then heating them to stop the
germination) dates back to the ancient
Egyptians, thousands of years ago.
Malted cereal grains are indispensable
to beer-making.
Barley malt syrup gives bagels their
deliciously unique flavor. Unfortunately,
to trim costs, it’s no longer used in many
mass-produced
commercially-baked
bagels and bagel shops. The syrup is
also an important ingredient in some
bread recipes.
Many supermarkets and health food
stores stock barley malt syrup. Online
sources include Amazon.com and King
Arthur Flour.
BREAD FLOUR: See Flour, Bread.
BUTTER, SWEET (UNSALTED):
There are vast differences in salt content
between different brands of salted
butter; and, between butter produced in
different parts of the country. Salted
butter can contain as much as 3 percent
salt (3/4 teaspoon per stick)—or less
than half that amount. Accordingly, when
you cook with salted butter you never
know how salty your finished dish will
be.
For uniformity, sweet (unsalted
butter) is specified in all the recipes in
this cookbook.
CITRIC ACID (SOUR SALT): I
consider citric acid to be so important to
deli (and other) cooking that I’ve given
it an entire section in the SPICES
chapter of this book. It’s available in the
kosher foods section of supermarkets,
and may be ordered online in bulk from
Whole Foods, Butcher & Packer, and
other companies.
DELI RYE FLAVOR: An additive
to improve the flavor of rye bread.
Available online from King Arthur
Flour.
FIRST CLEAR FLOUR: See Flour,
First Clear.
FLOUR, BREAD: A high-gluten
flour. If a recipe calls for bread flour, do
not substitute
all-purpose
flour.
Available in most supermarkets.
FLOUR, FIRST CLEAR: The flour
New York bakers have traditionally
used for making Jewish rye breads.
Milled from spring wheat, it’s both high
gluten and high protein, which gives the
bread its chewiness. Available online
from King Arthur Flour.
GRAPE LEAVES: In this cookbook,
grape leaves are an ingredient in the dill
pickle recipe. Grape leaves are a part of
many Mediterranean foods, such as
d o l m a s . Fresh grape leaves are
seasonally available in some Mid-East
groceries. Or, ask the owner of a
vineyard if you can buy some of his
grape leaves. They can be stored in your
freezer until needed.
HICKORY SMOKE FLAVOR,
POWDERED: A 100% natural product
made from hickory sawdust. Through a
highly refined process the flavor
compounds of smoke have been
condensed into a powder and mixed
with dextrose (corn sugar).
When used according to directions,
it’s virtually impossible to tell the
difference between cured meats made
with powdered hickory smoke flavor
and those that are actually smoked. Thus,
for cost savings, it is used in the
commercial preparation of many foods.
Do not confuse powdered hickory smoke
with the liquid smoke flavorings
available in supermarkets, as they are
quite different. Hickory Smoke Flavor is
available online from Butcher & Packer.
KITCHEN BOUQUET: A browning
and seasoning sauce made primarily
from caramel and assorted vegetables.
Improves the appearance and flavor of
gravies. Note: Kitchen Bouquet is
kosher, but not pareve. Kitchen bouquet
is available in supermarkets.
KOSHER SALT: Unless another
type of salt is indicated, the amount of
salt specified in all the recipes in this
cookbook is based on using Morton
kosher salt. The use of any other brand
or type of salt, kosher or otherwise,
requires an adjustment in the quantity of
salt used. If no adjustment is made,
foods will be too salty or not salty
enough. For a complete explanation, see
the section A PINCH OF SALT in the
SPICES chapter.
LEMON ZEST: See Zest.
MALT SYRUP: See Barley Malt
Syrup.
MATZO MEAL: Finely ground
matzos, used in making matzo balls,
gefilte fish, kishka, and numerous
Passover dishes. Available in the kosher
foods section of supermarkets. You can
easily make matzo meal from matzos by
processing them in a food processor.
One 1-pound box of matzos will yield
approximately 4 cups of matzo meal.
MORTON TENDER QUICK: This
is an absolutely essential ingredient
when making pastrami, corned beef, or
pickled tongue from the recipes in this
book. Do not omit it and do not try to
substitute anything else, or the recipes
will fail.
Morton Tender Quick is a fast-cure
product for meat, poultry, game, and
fish. It is a combination of high grade
salt and other curing ingredients that can
be used for both dry and sweet pickle
curing. Morton Tender Quick mix
contains salt, the main preserving agent;
sugar, both sodium nitrate and sodium
nitrite, curing agents that also contribute
to development of color and flavor; and
propylene glycol to keep the mixture
uniform.
Morton Tender Quick is stocked by
some supermarkets and Walmart stores,
usually in the canning supplies or spices
section. It’s also available online from
Butcher & Packer and numerous other
companies. To find a store in your
neighborhood that sells Tender Quick,
go to this website:
http://www.mortonsalt.com/storelocator/index.html
OLD BAY SEASONING: A popular
and versatile seasoning, formulated by
German immigrant Gustav Brunn in the
1940s in Baltimore, Maryland. It is now
popular and available in supermarkets
throughout the country. For a similar
spice blend you can make at home, see
the Seafood Seasoning recipe in the
SPICES chapter of this book.
PICKLING SPICE: An assortment
of dried spices used in making corned
beef, pickled tongue, some types of
cucumber pickles, and other uses. May
be purchased in stores, but you can
easily make better pickling spice at
lower cost yourself. See the recipe in the
SPICES chapter of this book.
POWDERED SMOKE FLAVOR:
See Hickory Smoke Flavor, Powdered.
PRETZEL SALT: See Salt, Pretzel.
RYE BREAD IMPROVER: A blend
of rye flavors and sours, diastatic malt,
vital wheat gluten (for a good, strong
rise) and potato flour (to help combat the
"dry crumblies”). Available online from
King Arthur Flour.
SALT, PRETZEL : Morton Salt
states that their “Rock Pretzel Salt is
selected screening of crushed southern
rock salt taken from a ‘dome’ deposit. It
is carefully selected for food grade
purity and a uniform white color with a
minimum of dark-colored particles. A
peculiar characteristic of this salt is that
it breaks into uniformly flat, rectangularshaped particles upon crushing and
screening to yield a product which
adheres particularly well as a topping
salt for pretzels. There are no
additives.”
Pretzel salt is available in gourmet
shops and many online stores. In a pinch
you can substitute kosher salt, but you’ll
definitely notice the difference.
SEASONED PEPPER: A blend of
coarsely-ground black pepper, dried
bell peppers, and spices. An easy way to
add flavor to meats, gravies, etc. See the
recipe in the SPICES chapter of this
book.
SEASONED SALT: A blend of salt
and selected spices. See the recipe in the
SPICES chapter of this book.
SMOKE FLAVOR: See Hickory
Smoke Flavor, Powdered.
SOUR SALT: See Citric Acid (Sour
Salt).
SWEET BUTTER: See Butter,
Sweet (Unsalted).
TENDER QUICK: See Morton
Tender Quick.
YEAST: Active dry yeast is available
in both foil packets and jars. You can
save money by buying yeast in the jars.
Just remember, each foil package
contains 2-1/4 teaspoons of yeast. To
keep yeast fresh after you’ve opened a
jar, store it in your freezer.
ZEST: The flavorful outermost part
of the rind of a citrus fruit. To remove
the zest you can use the finest holes of a
grater. But if you use a grater, take care
not to include any of the bitter white pith
(albedo) that lies just beneath the zest.
A zester is a very efficient tool, as it
quickly removes only the outer zest and
the fragrant oils. Some zesters resemble
a wood rasp. Others look like an
exceedingly sharp grater. Neither type is
very expensive. A zester is a good
investment for your kitchen if you use
zest frequently in your cooking.
In a pinch, you can remove the zest of
a lemon or other citrus fruit with a
vegetable peeler, then finely dice it with
a small utility knife.
Photo Credits
Langer’s Delicatessen: Courtesy
Langer’s Delicatessen Restaurant
Langer’s #19 sandwich: Courtesy
Langer’s Delicatessen-Restaurant
Chicken Noodle Soup, Brent’s
Delicatessen: Photo by Viktor Budnick
Cabbage Soup, Brent’s Delicatessen:
Photo by Viktor Budnick
Fox’s U-Bet Original Chocolate Flavor
Syrup: H. Fox & Company, Inc.
Challah: Courtesy ACH Food
Companies, Inc.
All other photographs by David W.
Cowles
A note from the
author
Dear Reader
Thank you for buying The Deli
Maven’s Cookbook. I hope you’ll enjoy
this book as much as I enjoyed writing it
for you.
My cookbooks (listed below) are
available exclusively in Kindle format
from Amazon.com. Just click on the
book’s title to read free sample chapters.
For information about my other
Kindle books (fiction and nonfiction),
please click here.
To read my blog The Cowles Report,
please click here.
To read my brief biography, please
click here.
To write me, please click here. I’d
love to hear from you!
Sincerely
COOKBOOKS BY
DAVID W.
COWLES
The Deli Maven’s
Cookbook
The Deli Maven’s Cookbook teaches
how to quickly, easily, and
inexpensively prepare delicious and
authentic deli food at home—including
pastrami; corned beef; pickled tongue;
lox and Nova; matzo ball soup; kasha
varnishkas; matzo brei; lox, eggs, and
onions; bagels, bialys, and breads; New
York style cheesecake; black & white
cookies; and scores of other deli,
appetizing, and bakery delights—all
made from “scratch.”
Homemade Pastrami
and To-Die-For Corned Beef
Discover the fun of making your own
delicious pastrami, corned beef, tongue,
rye sandwich bread, dilly deli mustard,
cole slaw, salad dressings, navy bean
soup, and other deli treasures. You’ll be
delighted by this easy-to-use cookbook
with simple step-by-step instructions,
spiced and garnished with witty tips
from an expert chef!
Mexican Cuisine for
American Cooks
Mexican Cuisine for American Cooks
teaches the secrets of preparing greattasting Mexican-restaurant-style meals
with the least amount of effort and
expense. Recipes for all the classics and
favorites are in this cookbook—tacos,
enchiladas, fajitas, chiles rellenos,
burritos, tamales, and more. You’ll want
to invite all your friends, family, and
neighbors over for a fiesta!
A Pot of Texas Red
A Pot of Texas Red reveals David W.
Cowles’ famous million-dollar chili con
carne recipe. The secret? A special
easy-to-make chili powder that contains
everything needed to perfectly season a
pot of chili, coupled with a barebones
list of ingredients for making the best
chili you’ve ever tasted. The result is
almost alchemy!
Italian Cuisine for
American Cooks
You don’t have to be Italian to love
Italian food—and you don’t have to be
Italian to cook it, either! David W.
Cowles teaches the secrets of preparing
great-tasting Italian-American-style
meals quickly, easily, and economically
in his book Italian Cuisine for
American Cooks.
Let’s Have a Pizza
Party!
A do-it-yourself pizza party feeds a
large group of hungry adults, teenagers,
or kids a delicious meal they’ll love,
with a minimum of work on your part.
Because everyone participates in
decorating their own personal pizza,
pizzas are prepared precisely the way
each person prefers. Let’s Have a Pizza
Party! includes all recipes and
instructions needed for a fabulous Pizza
Party!
Who ate all the
Cookies?
Who ate all the Cookies? is a fun-tomake cookie recipe book featuring a
delightful story for children and adults.
After reading the story, youngsters are
invited to participate in a family cookiemaking project. Along with interesting
cookie anecdotes grown-ups will enjoy,
Who ate all the Cookies? includes easyto-follow recipes for yummy gigantic
oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip
cookies, peanut butter cookies, black
and white cookies, and Chinese cookies.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Genesis
What is a Deli?
Deli Food is Comfort Food
Is Deli Food bad for you?
I’m a Deli Maven
Exodus
Where’s the Deli?
My Quest for a Good Deli (Part
One)
My Quest for a Good Deli (Part
Two)
My Quest for a Good Deli (Part
Three)
How I Nearly Burned My House
Down
The
Lack-of-Deli
Problem
Resolved
True Tales of the Deli
The Zaftig Waitress
The Zhlub
The Cashier
Van Houten
Deli Quotes
Deli Jokes
Meats
Pastrami
Store-bought Corned Beef
Home-cured Corned Beef
To-Die-For Corned Beef
Corned Beef Pâté
Pickled Tongue
Roasted Tongue
Brisket of Beef
Roasted Turkey
Smoked Meat
Homemade Beef Salami
Fish
Belly Lox, Nova, and Gravlax
Belly Lox
Nova
Gravlax
Dijon Mustard Sauce
Salmon Bacon
Pastrami Lox
Pickled Herring
Pickled Herring – from Fresh
Herring
Pickled Herring – from Salt
Herring
Mort the Mench’s Grandma
Gertrude’s
Famous
Creamed
Pickled Herring
Chopped Herring
Chubs, Whitefish, and other
Smoked Fish
Whitefish Salad
Gefilte Fish
Fish Stock
Deli Sandwiches
Sandwiches by Name or Number
Reuben and Rachel
Soups
Chicken Soup
Old-fashioned Chicken Soup
Fast-and-Easy Chicken Soup
Matzo Balls (Knaidlach)
Kreplach
Quick & Easy Kreplach
Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup
Mushroom-Barley Soup
Chicken Stock
Beef Stock
Borscht
Navy Bean and Pastrami Soup
Salads
Potato Salad
Potato Salad Dressing
Macaroni Salad
Cole Slaw
Cole Slaw Dressing
Egg Salad
Perfect Hard-Cooked Eggs
Chicken Salad
Chinese Chicken Salad
Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing
Farmer’s Chop Suey
Entrées and Deli Specialties
Chicken-in-the-Pot
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Sweet and Sour Cabbage Rolls
(Holishkes)
Short Ribs
Flanken
Kasha Varnishkes
Knishes
Potato Knishes
Chicken Liver Knish Filling
Beef Knish Filling
Cream Cheese Knish Filling
Kishka (Stuffed Derma)
Vegetarian Kishka
Knocks or Franks and Beans
Lox, Eggs, and Onions
Salami and Eggs
Matzo Brei
Cheese Blintzes
Potatoes
Latkes (Potato Pancakes)
French Fries
Hash Brown Potatoes
Pickles, Sauerkraut, and Condiments
Dill Pickles
Bread-and-Butter Pickles
Sauerkraut
Horseradish
Prepared Horseradish
Whipped-Cream Horseradish
Mustard
Dilly Deli Horseradish Mustard
Thousand Island Dressing
Russian Dressing
Odds and Ends
Chicken Liver Pâté
Gravy
Brown Gravy
Poultry Gravy
Egg Cream
The Original Brooklyn Egg Cream
Hoop Cheese, Farmers’ Cheese,
Queso Blanco, Paneer
Neufchatel Cheese
Spices, Etc.
Save Money on Spices
Seasoned Salt
Seasoned Pepper
Pickling Spice
Seafood Seasoning
Curry Powder
A Pinch of Salt
Kosher Salt
Iodized Salt
Morton Lite Salt
Sea Salt
Which type of Salt to use
MSG (Monosodium Glutamate)
The Many Uses of Citric Acid
Bagels, Bialys, and Breads
Beware of Fake Bagels!
Fairfax Avenue Bagels
Brooklyn Bialys
Challah (Braided Egg Bread)
New York Deli Rye
Sandwich Rye
Kaplan’s Jewish Rye
Aunt Barb’s Easy Sandwich Rye
Rye Sour
Altus
Cornstarch Glaze
Pastries
Tel Aviv Hilton Cheesecake
Lindy’s New York Cheesecake
Pound Cake
Cookies
Black and White Cookies
Vanilla Fondant
Chocolate Ganache
Chinese Cookies
Hamantashen
Cookie Dough Hamantashen
Yeast Dough Hamantashen
Poppy Seed Filling
Prune Filling
Apricot Filling
Mandelbrot
Lemon Butter Cookies
Rugelach
Oatmeal Cookies
Desserts
Noodle Kugel (Lokshen Kugel)
Challah Bread Pudding
Bourbon Sauce
Rice Pudding
Applesauce
Awesome Applesauce Dessert
Whipped Cream
Ingredients
Special Ingredients
Photo Credits