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The Jewish cuisine has been formed both by the dietary laws of kashrut ("keeping kosher") and the many cultures in which Jews have travelled.
Thus the Jewish cuisine has influences from the cuisines of the Balkans, Galicia, Russia, Spain, Portugal and the Middle East. For example, there are a number of cold starters which originate in the Middle East and which were brought by the Turks to the Balkans.
The roots of Jewish cooking, however, are in the Middle East, where the Jews came from, and it was heavily influenced by the cuisine of Ancient Egypt and the Byzantine Empire. It has been suggested, for example, that the major role played by garlic, leek and onions in Jewish cooking is due to these influences. Arabic and Moorish cooking had an equal influence on the Jewish cuisine.
At the same time, aspects of Jewish cooking were often adopted by the cultures in which they lived. The rose jam which is typical of Russian and Galician cookery, for example, may have originally been imported by Jews during the golden age of Jewish culture in Spain.
As other Semitic peoples, the Jews have dietary laws; the basic laws of kashrut are in the Biblical book of Leviticus. Food not in accord with Jewish law is termed treifah or treif (טרפה) ("torn"); the Jews are allowed to eat kosher foods.
Specialities of Jewish cookery
Some typical Jewish foods are:
Jewish traditional cuisine on the Jewish calendar
On kapparah
- Passover Seder Plate; See also Seder
- Marror (Maror, Moror, Morror) - usually horseradish.
- Beitzah (Bytzah, Beitza, Beytzah, Baitzah, Baitza, Baytzah, Haggigah) - hard-boiled or roasted egg.
- Karpas - usually celery, parsley, or lettuce.
- Salt water
- Zeroah (Zeroa, Zroah) - shankbone of a lamb.
- Charoset (most used spelling) (charoseth, haroseth, haroset)
- Chazereth (chazeret, hazereth, hazeret)
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