My presentation was all about Jewish food and some of the culture and history behind it. Here I will add some more interesting ideas I learned about this complicated idea.
Many of the foods that we think of as Jewish are not unique to Jewish culture. Stuffed cabbage, a traditional Jewish dish, is common in Eastern Europe. Blintzes and knishes (one of the things I made) are familiar to all Germans, not just Jewish ones. Falafel and hummus, increasingly thought of as Israeli-Jewish foods, can be found in any Greek restaurant. But the combination of these varied foods into one style of cooking, along with our thier innovations, is uniquely Jewish.
One ingredient you will see in many Jewish recipes is matzah meal. This is made from matzah, another food I talked extensively about in my presentation. This is because Passover allows for very little room for ingredients to cook with, so there are many foods in Jewish tradition made specifically to be eaten during Passover, so one of the main ingredients is matzah.
More About the Kashrut
So the Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws, including the fact that Jews must only eat food that is Kosher. Interestingly, in addition to the fact that only 1/6 of Jews keep kosher, Jews comprise only about 20% of the market for kosher food in the United States. A sizable non-Jewish segment of the population views kosher certification as an indication of wholesomeness. Strict vegetarians, Muslims, Hindus, and people with allergies to dairy foods, often consider the kosher-parve designation as an assurance that a food contains no animal-derived ingredients, including milk and all of its derivatives.
Meat and milk (or derivatives) cannot be mixed in the sense that meat and dairy products are not served at the same meal, served or cooked in the same utensils, or stored together. Observant Jews have separate sets of dishes, and sometimes different kitchens, for meat and milk, and wait anywhere between one and six hours after eating meat before consuming milk products.
Traditional Jewish philosophy divides the 613 mitzvot (plural for mitzva) into three groups—laws that have a rational explanation and would probably be enacted by most orderly societies (mishpatim), laws that are understood after being explained, but would not be legislated without the Torah's command, (edot), and laws that do not have a rational explanation(chukim). It is suggested by some that the laws of kashrut be placed into the irrational group.
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