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