Jewish cuisine

Jewish cuisine refers to the worldwide cooking traditions of the Jewish people. During its evolution over the course of many centuries, it has been shaped by Jewish dietary laws (kashrut), Jewish festivals and holidays, and traditions centred around Shabbat. Jewish cuisine is influenced by the economics, agriculture, and culinary traditions of the many countries in which Jewish communities were displaced and varies widely throughout the entire world.

The history of Jewish cuisine begins with the cuisine of the ancient Israelites. As the Jewish diaspora grew, different styles of Jewish cooking developed. The distinctive styles in Jewish cuisine vary according to each community across the Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi diaspora groupings; there are also notable dishes within the culinary traditions of the standalone significant Jewish communities from Turkey, Iran, and Yemen.

Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and particularly since the late 1970s, a nascent Israeli "fusion cuisine" has developed. Israeli cuisine has adapted a multitude of elements, overlapping techniques and ingredients from the many culinary traditions of the Jewish diaspora.

The laws of keeping kosher (kashrut) have influenced Jewish cooking by prescribing what foods are permitted and how food must be prepared. The word kosher is usually translated as "proper".

Certain foods, notably pork, shellfish, and almost all insects are forbidden; meat and dairy cannot be eaten together in one dish and a certain period of time must elapse before dairy food can be eaten following a meat dish. The length of time depends on a specific minhag (tradition). It is most common to wait six hours but some groups wait three or one. Meat must be ritually slaughtered and salted to remove all traces of blood.

Observant Jews will eat only meat or poultry that is certified kosher. The meat has to have been slaughtered by a shochet (ritual slaughterer) in accordance with Jewish law and must be entirely drained of blood. Before it is cooked, it is soaked in water for half an hour, then placed on a perforated board, sprinkled with coarse salt (which draws out the blood) and left to sit for one hour. At the end of this time, the salt is washed off and the meat is ready for cooking.

Today, kosher meats purchased from a butcher or supermarket have already undergone the koshering process as described in the previous paragraph and no additional soaking or salting is required.

According to kashrut, meat and poultry must not be eaten with dairy products, nor may they be eaten from plates or with utensils that have been used with dairy products. Therefore, Jews who strictly observe kashrut divide their kitchens into different sections for meat and for dairy, with separate ovens, plates and utensils (or as much as is reasonable, given financial and space constraints; there are procedures to kasher utensils that have touched dairy to allow their use for meat). As a result, butter, milk, and cream are not used in preparing dishes made with meat or intended to be served together with meat. Oil, pareve margarine, rendered chicken fat (often called schmaltz in the Ashkenazi tradition), or non-dairy cream substitutes are used instead.