Jewish Holiday Cooking: Jewish Food Around the Year
Passover
On the holiday of Passover, “leavened products” such as bread, crackers, noodles, and cereals are not eaten. Instead, foods are commonly made with matzah (large, flat crackers that serve as bread) or potato starch. Matzahs are famous as “Jewish food,” with the traditional Jewish Passover fare including matzah brei - fried egg with pieces of matzah in it - and matzah farfel – small crumbs of matzah glazed with a bit of egg white and spices, commonly eaten in chicken soup.
Of course, there are also other foods that are traditionally eaten at the seder, including charoset, a mixture of chopped apples, nuts, cinnamon, and wine. Egg soup, an eclectic appetizer of chopped hard-boiled eggs and saltwater, is also common among Jews from various areas.
Shavuot
On Shavuot, there is a Jewish custom to eat only dairy products, and no meat products. Therefore, Jewish holiday cooking on Shavuot might include cheese blintzes (crepes) and cheesecake.
Rosh Hashanah
On Rosh Hashanah, Jews around the world celebrate the beginning of the Jewish New Year. And of course, one way that they celebrate this momentous event is through Jewish food! They dip apples in honey to signify a sweet new year, eat pomegranate seeds so that their good deeds will be as numerous as the seeds, and even set a fish head on their table so that they should be “at the head” and not “at the tail.” Jewish holiday cooking and baking on Rosh Hashanah includes both round challahs, which are a type of bread, and teiglach, which are crunchy balls of honey-covered dough.
Yom Kippur
Jewish holiday cooking on Yom Kippur? Believe it or not, the meal before the Yom Kippur fast does have one type of traditional Jewish food that it is famous for: kreplach. Kreplach are wonton-like pieces of dough filled with meat, signifying the hope that any harsh decree will be enveloped in compassion.
Sukkot
On Sukkot, Jews traditionally build small huts covered with branches to eat (and possibly sleep) in for eight days. Jewish holiday cooking on Sukkot often includes stuffed foods, such as kreplach and stuffed cabbage. This may be because the middle days of Sukkot have “hidden” meanings, or because they symbolize the bountiful harvest that is celebrated on Sukkot.
Chanukah
In the Diaspora, Chanukah is famous for latkas, or fried potato pancakes. In Israel, however, Jews often substitute sufganiyot, or jelly-filled doughnuts, for latkas. Both of these Jewish foods come from the idea of adding oil to our foods on Chanukah, in recognition of the miracle of the oil in the menorah lasting eight days.
Purim
On Purim, many people send gifts of food to each other, One of the main traditional Jewish foods given on Purim are hamentaschen, or triangle-shaped cookies filled with jelly, poppyseed filling, or chocolate. The word “hamentaschen” means “Haman’s ears,” and Haman was the name of the villain in the Purim story.