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COOKING
First Jewish Cookbook
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,THE
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mazing as it may seem,
a sophisticated and yet
practical Jewish cook-
book was published in Lon-
don, England 140 years ago —
a full 15 years before Mrs.
Beeton's classic Book of
Household Management ap-
peared. Edited by an anon-
ymous "Lady," it was the first
of its kind to be published in
the English language. The
Jewish Manual, as it is called,
gives a wide variety of "re-
ceipts" (recipes) following the
laws of kashrut, as well as
several tips and special con-
coctions for treating the ill
and for the personal care of
women.
A softcover facsimile of The
Jewish Manual was pub-
lished in 1983 by NightinGale
Books after a copy of the
original was accidentally dis-
while also including the latest
in French haute-cuisine rec-
ipes and techniques.
"At one level," Mr. Raphael
notes, "it was addressed to
households who already kept
a fine Victorian table and who
needed to be shown how their
servants could achieve the
highest standards while still
adhering to strict Jewish
observance. At another level,
it offered a mirror of high
taste to those just rising in
the social scale and in need of
a helping hand."
In determining the identity
of the mysterious "Lady" to
whom the book is credited,
Mr. Raphael notices that both
Ashkenazic and Sephardic
recipes are included, making
it likely that the author had
a family of mixed heritages.
After presenting additional
evidence, he concludes that
the author must have been
Lady Judith Montefiore, an
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72
Friday, December 5, 1986
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
covered in the Jewish Divi-
sion of the New York Public
Library by Ruth L. Gales and
Lila T. Gold while they were
there researching something
else.
The facsimile includes an
excellent introduction by
Chaim Raphael, a respected
historian who also writes
mystery novels under the
pseudonym Jocelyn Davey.
Mr. Raphael's combination of
talents proved to be perfect
for the task, for he was able,
through careful deduction
and research, to discover the
identity of the author of the
cookbook. However, Mr.
Raphael does not let the cat
out of the bag, so to speak,
until he leads the reader
through a literary maze that
cleverly shows how The
Jewish Manual is an erudite
reflection of the culture and
character of a special period
in English-Jewish history.
Mr. Raphael points out, for
instance, that "By the 1840s,
the Jews of England had
become a settled community,
small in number and with an
elitist tone that somehow
managed to combine for the
elite and rising bourgeoisie
both a widespread social
freedom and a powerful sense
of Jewish identity and loyal-
ty." Such conditions, he ex-
plains, set the stage for the
publication of The Jewish
Manual, which is pragmatic
Ashkenazic Jew married to
the highly-respected Jewish
activist Moses Montefiore, a
Sephardi.
But enough said about the
background of The Jewish
Manual. What of the book
itself? Writes Mr. Raphael,
"Even without the history
and mystery embedded in
The Jewish Manual, it is a
delight merely to turn the
pages to see what a Jewish
housewife in early Victorian
London put on her table,
what instructions she gave
her cook, and perhaps above
all, how she talked about it."
I, too, found this book to be
very well written and inter-
esting to read. In her preface
and throughout the book,
Lady Montefiore uses the ed-
itorial third person (as does
the present-day "Miss Man-
ners" in her syndicated ad-
vice column). She makes it
perfectly clear, right from the
start, that her cookbook will
be different from other "works
of Culinary Science already in
circulation . . . Replete as
many of these are with infor-
mation on various important
points, they are completely
valueless to the Jewish house-
keeper, not only on account of
prohibited articles and com-
binations being assumed to
be necessary ingredients of
nearly every dish, but from
the entire absence of all the
Continued on Page 74