Early Jewish Cookbooks

"It's not often that I read a book with a title such as this for pleasure, but it was the unexpected bonus. András Koerner has written several books (in English) on Jewish life in Hungary, including the prizewinning Jewish Cuisine in Hungary (CEU Press/Corvina, 2019). The present volume, introduced most intelligently by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, looks not only at the early Jewish cookbooks written in Hungary but also addresses the wider question of the interpenetration of Jewish recipes and what might be called indigenous European cuisine. There is plenty chew on. Each of his chapters boasts a recipe appendix, so the enthusiastic can experiment. An admirable piece of work." * Petits Propos Culinaires *
"Readers familiar with the work of András Koerner, whose encyclopedic Jewish Cuisine in Hungary won the National Jewish Book Award in 2019, might wonder if the author has exhausted his topic. But with Early Jewish Cookbooks, Koerner proves there’s always room for more. In eight essays he homes in on Jewish recipes and cookbooks in nineteenth century Europe, especially Hungary. After all, Hungary’s first Jewish cookbook was only the third to be published anywhere in the world; and throughout the nineteenth century, Hungary remained a leading publisher of Jewish cookbooks. András Koerner may have come late to his calling as a culinary historian, but now he’s leaving us hungry for more." https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/early-jewish-cookbooks-essays-on-hungarian-jewish-gastronomical-history -- Bet­ti­na Berch * Jewish Book Council *
"András Koerner’s Early Jewish Cookbooks makes an important contribution to our understanding of the diversity of Ashkenazic Jewish cuisine, namely, Hungarian Jewish cuisine. Furthermore, Koerner notes the importance of cookbooks and cuisines as strategies for modern European Jewish acculturation. His book is exemplary for demonstrating how to use cookbooks as historical sources, particularly related to what they can tell us about their authors and audience, the social conditions in which they were written, and for what purpose they were written." https://www.booksonix.com/ceupress/application/biblio-edit/edit-fulltext/1490?return=/biblio/detailed/1490/51/7#Text7 -- Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus * Gastronomica *