Jewish Food

A bagel (also spelled beigel) is a bread product made from yeasted wheat dough and is traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring. It is roughly hand-sized, and is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked to produce a dense, chewy, doughy interior while the exterior is usually browned and sometimes crisp. There are many modern variations on this once mono-bread – for example, onion, cheese, sesame-seed, chilli. The hole in the middle is hundreds of years old and provides other useful benefits aside from just providing a more even cooking and baking surface. The hole was used to thread string or dowels through groups of bagels for easier handling and transportation and to make more attractive seller displays

Rabbit, eagle, owl, sturgeon, reptiles and insects, together with pork, swan, pelican, vulture, stork, catfish, lobster and shellfish (filter feeders) are considered non-kosher. Permissible meats (cattle and game that have “split hooves” and which also “chew the cud”) must be slaughtered painlessly in a prescribed manner and under the supervision of a ritual slaughterer, with certain veins and fats removed to be kosher, and only fish with fins and scales may be eaten. Many Kosher dietary laws stem from ancient biblical hygiene practices as well as avoiding foods that did not spoil or make people sick in biblical times when there were no fridges, or were simply deemed unnecessary to eat (for example, food that crawled or slithered when alive)

Chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans, are the main ingredient in hummus, which are a rich source of fibre and protein. Chickpeas also contain numerous vitamins and minerals including folic acid (chickpeas tend have a higher level of folic acid than other beans do), magnesium and zinc. The chickpeas are usually puréed together with lemon juice or vinegar, garlic, tahini (sesame seed butter) and olive oil

While the word pastrami was borrowed from the Turkish word spelled the same way, traditional westernised pastrami, eaten usually on dark brown rye bread as a sandwich originated in New York. It is made from the navel end of the brisket. It is usually cured in brine (a heavily-salted water) and coated with a delicate mix of spices such as garlic, black pepper, paprika, coriander, cloves, allspice, and mustard seed and then smoked. Rather than have one medium slice as you would in a roast beef sandwich, it is usually thinly-sliced and can be interleaved with equally thinly-sliced dill-pickled cucumbers. The Carnegie Deli in New York is famed for providing Pastrami on Rye sandwiches so large that most diners leave with their leftovers in a doggy-bag

In the words of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, every Jewish family has its own version of this absolutely classic ‘feel-better soup’. 'Schmaltz', which is the Yiddish word for chicken fat, makes the white circular matzo balls that are traditionally added to the soup so wonderful. A large family-sized pot of soup, made by slow-boiling chicken for several hours, also usually contains a large onion or two, three or four celery sticks and diced carrots, together with the usual soup seasonings

The Jaffa orange, sometimes referred to as the Shamouti orange, is a sweet and almost seedless orange variety with a tough skin that makes it particularly suitable maintaining its quality when exported. It takes its name from the city of Jaffa where it was first produced for export. Its main feature is its rather oval shape and thick peel, which is deep orange in colour, and the fact that is normally very easy to remove this skin from the fruit

The volcanic soil is to cultivate vineyards for grapes and orchards for apples using rainwater from the Golan's catchment that has been carefully diverted so as not to disturb the water table in the area

This is based on a verse in the Book of Exodus, (the second book of Moses in the Old Testament (and ‘Torah’, the Jewish Scroll of the Law), which states that one should not "boil a kid goat in its mother's milk"

It is a salad made from finely chopped and diced tomatoes and cucumbers, and sometimes peppers (with the nick-name acronym, ‘TCP’). Its main feature is the manner with which the tomatoes and cucumbers are diced extremely small (according to the urban myth to enable Kibbutz workers to eat quickly and easily using a fork only). It is certainly the most well-known national dish of Israel

Borscht is a soup of Ukrainian origin, usually served cold, that is very popular in many Eastern and Central European countries which has now also become very popular in Western Europe. It is usually made with beetroot as the main ingredient, but sometimes and in some countries, tomato is used as the main ingredient, with beetroot added as an ancillary ingredient, more to give it the distinct deep pink to ruby colour. Raw chopped vegetables, such as radishes or cucumbers, are sometimes added and the soup can be garnished and flavoured with parsley, dill or a healthy sprinkle of freshly-ground pepper