📸 This britishlibrary image of early C20 East End Jewish children, accompanies an oral history interview with Dora Lee who describes the food she ate growing up there in the 1930s & the sourcing, cooking & importance of the Friday Shabbat meal. Dora’s testimony includes descriptions of:
Smetena: dairy product produced by souring heavy cream, common in Central & Eastern Europe
Lokshen: flat egg noodles used in Yiddish cuisine
Cholent: traditional Jewish stew, usually simmered overnight & eaten for lunch on Shabbat.
“Friday night, [mother] would make what we call Cholent, I do it still, but it’s not the same. She would have this big pan, she would put in the fatty brisket, onion, beans, butter beans, & then potatoes. She would cover it with brown paper & tie the lid on. We would take it up to the bakers. For a penny it would bake overnight so that he could keep his ovens on. And of course, somebody had to go for it on Saturday morning, which was not – you know, we weren’t supposed to ...
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