Culinary Historians: Midwest Jewish Foodways, 9/24

Culinary Historians of Chicago

Matzo Balls, Chopped Liver and the Midwest
Jewish Foodways of the Heartland

Presented by Ellen Steinberg, PhD

Saturday, September 24, 2011
10 a.m. to Noon
Chicago History Museum
1601 N. Clark St., Chicago


Throughout the Midwest, one finds numerous ethnicities and creeds, each of which has contributed much to the amalgam that has become “the Heartland.” The Jewish immigrants, from all over Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, who settled here added their unique heritage foods and recipes to this mix. However, many of these dishes did not necessarily remain the same as they had been when prepared elsewhere in the world. In fact, they often developed a distinctive Midwestern flavor. Join Dr. Ellen Steinberg, author of From the Jewish Heartland: Two Centuries of Midwest Foodways, as she explores the fascinating evolution of Midwestern Jewish cuisine. Copies of Dr. Steinberg’s book will be available for sale and signing. A sampling of family recipes will be served by chef Gabriella Verbovsky.

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Dr. Steinberg was born and raised in Chicago and currently lives in River Forest. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and has published a number of scholarly articles related to her anthropological work. Some of her research was featured in the video, “Mystery of the Skulls,” which aired on the Discovery Channel. Dr. Steinberg is also the author of several other books, including: Teach Me: An Ethnography of Adolescent Learning; Irma: A Chicago Woman’s Story 1871-1966; and Learning to Cook in 1898: A Chicago Culinary Memoir.Cost of the lecture program is $5, $3 for students and no charge for CHC members.

To reserve, please e-mail your reservation to: Culinary.Historians@gmail.com. (If you have RSVP’d and cannot make it, please call and let us know.)

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Hi,

If you feel the impulse to attend today, just show up!

Regards,

HI,

Thank goodness these programs are podcast for future review.

One of the subjects discussed was a Lithuanian Jew who immigrated to the USA in 1903 when she was 10-years-old. She kept a collection of recipes in a school notebook. Snippets of recipes in the book were outlined. During the question-answer period, someone commented none of the recipes in this collection were Lithuanian.

It was pointed out a cheese pie recipe was Lithuanian, noting their love of dairy. However, they surmised the regular recipes for Lithuanian food was so well known to this collector, perhaps there was no need to transcribe. The recipes in the school notebook were new from friends and other sources.

How often have we seen English transliterations of foreign names? There was some Hebrew text which was undecipherable. That was until it was realized it was English transliterated in Hebrew. Once this was understood the whole text was now meaningful.

Regards,

Cathy,

will you please post a link to the podcast when it is ready, this sounds delightful. Thanks!

-- Judy

Judy H wrote:Cathy,

will you please post a link to the podcast when it is ready, this sounds delightful. Thanks!

-- Judy

Most definitely. It usually takes about two weeks for processing and uploading.

Regards,

WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified partners with Culinary Historians by recording our programs and making them available for broadcast on demand at their website or downloadable to an iPod. Our most recent program:

From the Jewish Heartland: Two Centuries of Midwest Jewish Foodways with Ellen Steinberg and Jack H. Prost.
http://culinaryhistorians.org/matzo-bal ... heartland/
Note: This is not a recording of the September Culinary Historians program, which was damaged. Rather this is from a presentation to the Chicago Jewish Historical Society.