Some are wide-reaching academic approaches to Jewish food, while others are personal explorations of how culture, time, and place influence one’s culinary point of view. While the roots of these Jewish cookbooks may come from the same tree, the category is not monolithic. You’ll encounter breakfasts of whitefish-slathered bagels and spicy tomato-poached eggs, and lots of halva (or halwa, or helva-and depending on which book you’re cooking from, the treat could be a crumbly sesame-paste candy, a carrot and semolina pudding, or a saffron-scented milk-jelly slice). In their pages you’ll find recipes for gondi, the Persian Sephardic chicken stew bobbing with chickpea-flour dumplings, as well as the Ashkenazi matzo ball soup you might buy at an appetizing store or deli counter. Instead, I offer these 13 cookbooks, each of which dives into the myriad culinary techniques, traditions, and dishes of the Jewish diaspora. What is Jewish food? While I’ve written thousands of words on the subject, I don’t have a tidy answer.
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