The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York: A Cookbook

This is a great cookbook for every one, history great directions and ingredients.Most things are in your pantry

Claudia Roden's opus, THE BOOK OF JEWISH FOOD, must be considered the definitive work on the history of the cuisine of the Jewish people.Anyone wishing to own a single Jewish cookbook need look no further than THE BOOK OF JEWISH FOOD.This is a work of amazing scholarship, tantamount to a doctoral dissertation which clearly would earn honors; a Nobel laureate if that award were to be granted for cookery books.Roden takes on a subject that almost is too vast, covering every area in which there ever has been a Jewish population, including Ethiopia, India and China.She not only presents a large variety of recipes typical of each separate region, but she illustrates both the similarities of these recipes and their differences.The food, well, the food is marvelous; delicious enough in the description that one's mouth waters merely reading the text.This book is much more than a cookbook. It is a work of social anthropology and food historiography, with recipes that are--yes!--good enough to eat.THE BOOK OF JEWISH FOOD is a work of genius. It clearly is the definitive Jewish cookbook for the coming millennia.

This is my go-to book for Friday night dinners and every Jewish festival when we have people round. I love trying things from around the world rather than just the familiar same old family dishes. I also love all the stories and history which she includes amongst all the recipes, brings the dishes alive and makes me want to cook them more. Even my husband likes to read the book as he's interested in Jewish history. I have bought so many copies of this book now for friends, teachers etc and it has made a great wedding and Batmitzvah gift too (even Barmitzvahs as don't wish to be sexist!).

This is a wonderful romp through the pages of history as it relates to the Jewish people and food. Easy to follow recipes that taste great... But much more than that it is a history of the Jewish people and their lives as it relates to their food. Covering everything from dietary laws to their migration.With interesting comments and stories and photos it is a wealth of information. I just enjoyed reading it.The author spent a great deal of time on research and it shows. If you enjoy food, if you enjoy history, if you enjoy a cook book that has great photos this is a book that you will find facinating.It is a book that you will not only treasure for its recipes but also for its information.This is one of the best cookbooks I have ever read or used about Jewish food.

What a fabulous book! It's so much more than a cookbook. Not only are the recipes absolutely delicious, but learning the historical background of the food is so wonderful. It's beautifully written and illustrated. I think this book is a MUST for not only Jewish cooks, but anyone who appreciates ethnic foods or history.

I am a cookbook collector, and this book by Claudia Rodin has to be among my very favorites. It opens the world of Sephardic Jewish (and other Jewish) cookery with intriguing photographs and informative text. I just gave a copy as a gift to a newly married couple. Of my 1500 cookbooks, if I had to choose 5, this would be among them. Yes, I also cook, besides collecting books!

This beautiful book is meticulously researched to provide a really inclusive view of Jewish history that explains Jewish food. The recipes are perfect--foods your Bubby made for both every day and holidays. Like most ethnic food, these aren't complicated recipes and your mouth waters just reading them. I never had an urge to make pickles but now I can't wait for next summer's cucumber harvest. The book itself really is gorgeous, too. It's a big hardback with wonderful photographs and illustrations detailing Sephardic and Ashkenazy foods and customs as well as world regions that were part of the diasphora, but you certainly don't have to be Jewish to appreciate any part of this book.

An extraordinary book, much more than a cookbook. It presents a world of Jewish history but in such a way that it is relevant to the food, the recipes being provided. You get the atmosphere of the kitchens in which the recipes might typically have been made and what social framework they were part of. The volume is divided into Ashkenazi and Sephardic sections, so it really gives the reader a world of Jewish life and cookery. The recipes themselves are very practical and workable for a modern kitchen. The ones I've tried have worked brilliantly. With its great diversity of content and the sheer number of recipes, it is an unusually rich offering, and it turns out, a very competent one.

El valor de este libro no son sus recetas, sino sus referencias históricas y cultarales respecto del judaísmo. Una joya

This cookbook is fantastic. A real eye-opener. Love the pictures & the recipes. Very fast delivery.

Diese buch ist eine Sammlung von Rezepte, aber viel mehr als das. Es ist die Geschichte der Jüdische Küche, ihre Ursprung. Die Jüdische Küche in mittleren osten, Jüdische Küche in Nord Afrika, Jüdische Küche in Ost Europa und Russland, Jüdische Küche in Mittel und West Europa.Es fallt in Zwei hauptgruppen aus einander Ashkenazi, Nordeuropa und Sephardic, Südeuropa/Arabisch. Auch wenn man nicht kochen will ist dies ein tolles buch um einfach nur die Geschichten zu lesen.Ich kaufte es auf Englisch, es ist aber Auch verfügbar in D Übersetzung von Margot Fischer (Das Buch der Jüdischen Küche: Eine Odyssee von Samarkand nach New York) .

This book addresses so many different communities. The Ashkenaz are addressed relatively briefly, and the book focuses on the huge range and variety of Sephardic cuisine. For me, this is fine, as Ashkenazi cuisine has been really well represented in the cookbook canon.So far the recipes that I have tried have worked well. Some of them call for ingredients that are difficult for me to obtain, particularly the regional varieties of sausage that some recipes call for. However, Ms. Roden provides enough detail about the composition of these sausages that I have been able to find substitutes. Her chapter on Dafina and Hamin details some of the Sephardic versions of cholent. I am going to see if I can adapt some of these to the pressure cooker.Even if you don't make a single recipe, this book is a fascinating ethnography through the lens of cuisine and daily life.Some readers might miss photographs of the food - instead, Ms. Roden has chosen photographs showing the practices and customs of various diaspora groups.I heartily recommend The Book of Jewish Food for readers interested in learning about the history of the diaspora, as well as their recipes.

i wanted this book years ago, but I was given Evelyn Rose instead. I am not Jewish but I love the total cosmopolitanism of the food. I find the history of food really interesting like the crossover of Jewish and Chinese food.(Szechuan). The only thing missing are samples of Japanese Jewish food .Lovely illustrations which are time capsules of lost cultures but also incredible ingredients which one sources through Health Food shops but were part of a staple diet of quite poor people. This suggests that people might have been quite healthy on a very restricted diet .I love reading it as much as using it.