More fun with my grandmotherās cookbook
(for more about this book see my To Pearl from Gladys tag)
I was wondering what the Jewish Cook Book had to say about Rosh Hashanah, and hereās what I found. Thereās considerable overlap with what I can remember her actually serving for a holiday, though we didnāt usually go to her for Rosh Hashanah in my childhood, she came to us until she wasnāt able to anymore and then went to my aunt.
The bookās recommended menu doesnāt include ritual foods, but the meal of course opened with kiddush, apples and honey, and challah, which I assume the writer doesnāt consider part of the menu proper.
Pearl, my grandmother, would serve a gefilte fish course followed by chicken soup with kneidlach, roast chicken, peas, a cooked green vegetable and maybe a kugel, a salad I donāt remember well because I have always hated lettuce, olives and pickles (she absolutely loved pickles and anything salty), and then cake and tea for dessert.Ā
My mother would skip the fish course and open with the soup--kneidlach from Pearlās recipe, not the one from my motherās family, which she only makes on Passover--and then chicken or turkey depending on the size of the crowd. The sides are less likely to be peas and kugel and more likely to be asparagus and couscous. Sheās not as devoted to pickles as my grandmother was. Cake and tea are the same.
I havenāt asked my mother what sheās making this year, when itās necessarily just her, my father, and my sister. Surely chicken, but sheās more open to recipe variation than my grandmother was (understatement; my grandmother was an extreme creature of habit). My sisterās on a strict modified-keto diet, so thereās always avocado and cauliflower these days, and she gets gizzards in her soup instead of kneidlach.
And what am I making? We havenāt decided yet. Weāre essentially 95% pescatarian at home, and in fact the fleishig dishes we rarely use were damaged in the move, so eating meat, which Jewish tradition often considers fancier, would require using paper plates. Iād rather match the atmosphere than the food. Before we had a son with sensory sensitivities we would make fish, but these days if we want him to eat with us and donāt want to make fleishigs itās pretty much got to be cheese.
Image text (apologies for whatever a screen reader might do to the Yiddish words here):
MENUS FOR JEWISH HOLIDAY MEALS
NEW YEAR'S DINNER (ROSH HASHANAH)
It is customary to serve honey with the New Year's dinner, and to place upon the table some fruit which has not yet been eaten that year. Since New Year's, or Rosh Hashanah, comes in September or early October, a bowl of Concord grapes may be chosen. There is no tradition or special requirement for the menu itself, but a good choice is the following, which has come to be considered a typical Jewish holiday meal.
Grapefruit Halves or Fruit Cup
Gefilte Fish with Horseradish or Chopped Chicken Liver
Chicken Soup with Egg Dumplings or Matzo Meal Kneidlach
Roast Chicken or Squab, Raisin StuffingĀ Ā Ā Ā PeasĀ Ā Ā Ā Potato Schalet
Kishkes.Ā Ā Ā Lettuce and Tomato Salad
RollsĀ Ā Ā Ā Olives, Radishes and Celery.Ā Ā Ā Spiced Plums or Peaches
Strudel, Applesauce or Honey Cake.Ā Ā Ā Brandied or Stewed Fruit
Tea
