[Sca-cooks] OOP: Interesting Jewish recipe...

[Avraham haRofeh]

> So, am I imagining things, or is this a simple cholent (beans cooked
> a day and a night, with meat, not to mention the plum pudding cooked
> right in the same pot)? Probably a very convenient thing for those
> wishing to avoid such work on the Sabbath. But why, then, cook it "a
> day and a night", and not "a night and a day"?  Pretty darned
> brilliant, either way.

Yes, this is a fairly basic cholent. Making the kugel in the same pot with
the cholent is a new one on me, but seems eminently reasonable. In the Old
Country, the housewives would take their cholent pots down to the baker's in
the afternoon (since the baker was often the only one who had an oven). The
pots were placed in the banked ashes and left to cook overnight. The pot was
retrieved the next day on the way home from Shabbat services and eaten for
lunch. It was the only way to have a hot meal on the Sabbath, since cooking
is forbidden. Here, obviously, you get two dishes at once - presumably for
the convenience of only needing to carry one pot home, the pudding basin is
placed on top of the cholent. I would imagine this would also protect the
kugel from the heat, keeping it from overcooking. I presume it's "a day and
a night" because the pot went into the oven mid-afternoon.

Avraham

****************************************
Avraham haRofeh of Northpass
     (mka Randy Goldberg MD)
OBTag: I saw a light at the end of the tunnel - it was a train.