Love and Knishes: An An Irrepressible Guide to Jewish Cooking by Sara Kasdan

Sara Kasdan. Love and Knishes: An An Irrepressible Guide to Jewish Cooking. Alexander Books; 2nd rev. 1997.
ISBN: 1570900760.

Sara Kasdan's Love and Knishes first came out in 1956 as a slim paperback. It was an almost immediate hit with Jews and non-Jews alike who wanted to know how to make Matzah ball (knaydelach) soup, kreplach, and yes, both meat and potato knish. It's been reprinted many times since then, most recently, in 1997; I note that you can find used copies online as well as at bookstores, if you look. There's even a hardcover version, complete with Louis Slobodin's amusing illustrations.

This is a lovely basic primer of Jewish cooking American-style. It's practical, and wide-ranging. The basics are all here, including tsimmes and two kinds of kugel. It's a cookbook intended for those how have the basics down, and want to know how to make something without making a tsimmes of it.

I note that it is written in authentic dialect; some recent reviewers are wringing their hands over the use of dialect, but it's done well, authentically and charmingly. There's no insult; it is, instead, a sign of affectionate nostalgia. There's also a fair amount of in-joke humor; to the reviewer who's outraged that there's an entry in the Love and Knishes table of contents for Yom Kippur (a day of fasting)? Get over yourself; you missed the joke. If you turn to the page in question, you'll see "Shame! You looked."

Kasdan includes not only the "traditional" recipes, but a few based on contemporary American cookery—in the 1950s. For those looking for a broader, less basic, Jewish cookbook, I heartily recommend Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food which is an international culinary, cultural and historic survey of Jewish history via a wealth of recipes. For a kosher and fabulous survey, see Spice and Spirit The Complete Kosher Jewish Cookbook by Esther Blau, Tzirrel Deitsch, Cherna Light.