COOKING
ATA
Be It
Ever So
Humble,
There's
Nothing
Like
a,
0
O
MINT
With beans,
without beans?
With onions or
not? A little
brown sugar?
Vegetarian?
These are the
questions some
of Detroit's
greatest cholent
makers must
confront.
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Assistant Editor
0
0_
Chaya Sara Silberberg makes cholent with daughters Malke, Laya, Faigy, Miriam and friend Chaya Devory Kagan.
hh, the sweet
smell of cholent.
Richer even than
the smell of suc-
cess. More mem-
orable than the aroma of an
expensive perfume. Take
some beans, some meat, some
onions and potatoes .. .
But wait. The art of a good
cholent, as everyone knows,
is much more than just
dumping everything in the
Crock-Pot. It takes a certain
finesse to know exactly how
to make the cholent moist
but not watery, hearty but
not cement-like, flavorful
but not overpowering.
An old Jewish saying has
it that cholent comes out ac-
cording to the guest — good
guests mean a delicious
cholent for their hosts, and
bad, boring guests — well,
never mind.
As stated in the Talmud,
among the pleasures of the
Sabbath is good food. In fact,
the Talmud says that Jews
are required to eat three
meals on Shabbat, though it
is forbidden to cook that day.
The Friday night meal,
prepared before Shabbat, is
no problem. Nor is the
Seudah Shlishit, the third
meal, eaten after Minchah,
which usually consists of
light foods that require little
preparation.
One solution to the prob-
lem of how to enjoy a midday
Shabbat meal was a special
food whose ingredients are
combined before Shabbat
and cooked through the
night in a preheated oven.
Thus, cholent was born.
The Mishnah mentions
cholent, where it is referred
A
to as chamin, from the Heb-
rew word cham, hot.
As Jews dispersed
throughout the world, corn-
munities devised their own
recipes and terminology for
chamin. Yiddish-speaking
Ashkenazi Jews used the
term "cholent," which most
scholars believe stems from
the French words chaud,
warm, and lent, slow. France
was home to some of the
from Saturday morning ser-
vices.
Below, local cooks offer
their recipes for an unforget-
table cholent.
CHOLENT
FOR AN ARMY
Chaya Sara Silberberg,
who often prepares cholent
for large Shabbat lunch
crowds, calls this recipe "the
An old Jewish
saying has it that
cholent comes out
according to the
guest.
earliest European Jewish
communities.
Generally, overcooking
spoils food. So ingredients
like beef, beans and barley,
which can stand long, slow
cooking, were chosen for
cholent. The flavor of these
ingredients also improves
during the slow-cooking pro-
cess.
Often, the poor Jews of
Eastern European shtetls
had no room in their
household ovens for the
Friday-evening meal and
cholent. Thus, it was com-
mon for the women to take
their pots of cholent to the
baker, who placed them in
his large oven which was
always kept heated. The
next morning, the women
retrieved the cholent before
their husbands came home
five-minute cholent for an
army." It will feed between
50 and 75. "The more there
is, the more people will
take," said Mrs. Silberberg,
who lives in West Bloom-
field.
In a 20-quart pan combine:
1 1/2 lbs. kidney beans
11/2 lbs. lima beans
11/2 lbs. navy beans or peas
1 lb. barley
2 10-lb. cans of whole
potatoes
1 small jar minced garlic
1 5-oz. jar onion soup mix
7 lbs. beef neck bones or
ribs (double the amount of
beef if cholent meat will
serve as main course)
1 tsp. pepper
2-3 Tbs. salt
Add enough water to fill
about 2" to top of pan. Bring
to boil, then lower to
simmer. Leave cooking until
Shabbat lunch.
Mrs. Silberberg says this
recipe also may be scaled
down for home use, in which
case chefs may want to use
their own fresh garlic and
onions.
CHOLENT WITH
A MORROCAN FLAIR
Miriam Huffstutter of Oak
Park prepares cholent with a
Moroccan flair, including
brown sugar and chopped
dates. The dates, she says,
are the key to her cholent's
rich, sweet taste.
Place in Crock-Pot:
1% lbs. flanken or ribs
7 handfuls of beans (any
kind, mixed)
Top with:
1 medium onion, chopped
7-8 sliced carrots
2 handfuls barley
7 medium potatoes, peeled
and cut up
3 Tbs. brown sugar
4-5 chopped dates
a touch of salt and pepper
Fill the Crock-Pot with
enough water to completely
cover the cholent. Set on low;
it will be ready for Shabbat
lunch. Feeds 15-20.
NO BEANS
ABOUT THIS CHOLENT
Attorney Stuart Snider,
who lives in Southfield,
offers this stew-like cholent.
It's missing an ingredient
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
91