A Taste of the Past: The Daily Life and Cooking of a Nineteenth-Century Hungarian Jewish Homemaker

A Taste of the Past is an entertaining reconstruction of the daily life and household of Therese (Riza) Baruch (1851–1938), the great-grandmother of the author, András Koerner. Based on an unusually complete cache of letters, recipes, personal artifacts, and eyewitness testimony, Koerner describes in loving detail the domestic life of a nineteenth-century Hungarian Jewish woman, with special emphasis on the meals she served her family. Based on Riza’s letters, part one offers an imaginative sketch of growing up in a religious middle-class family in the 1860s and 70s in an industrial town in western Hungary. Part one also describes Riza’s reactions to the dilemmas posed by the early signs of Jewish assimilation. In part two, the heart of the book, Riza has married, moved to a smaller town near the Austrian border, and become the central figure of a large household. Koerner recreates a typical day in the life of Riza and her family, peppering his narrative with recipes of the food she served for breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon coffee-and-cake, and the much more modest evening meal. Riza’s family was religious, and Koerner also describes the special foods (pike in sour aspic, cholent, apple-matzo kugel, and much more) she served to celebrate the Sabbath and the six major Jewish holidays. Short introductions to the recipes describe the evolution of the dishes through the centuries, their role in Jewish culture, and how cultural influences and religious traditions shaped Riza's cooking. More than 125 evocative pen-and-ink illustrations bring Riza’s story and her food to life. A Taste of the Past offers an enchanting look at Jewish daily life in western Hungary in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a time when middle-class Jews were increasingly assimilated into mainstream Hungarian life and culture. Such small-town Jewish life had completely disappeared due to the Holocaust. Koerner’s book revives this lost world and invites the reader to be a guest in Riza’s house to watch her caring for her family, shopping, cooking, and preparing for the holidays. By offering easy-to-follow updated versions of her recipes, the book also allows readers to savor Riza's dishes and desserts in their own kitchens, thus completing this experience of a visit to the past.

A Taste of the Past: The Daily Life and Cooking of a Nineteenth-Century Hungarian-Jewish Homemaker

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Koerner, András

Regional & International

University Press of New England

How They Lived: The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews, 1867–1940

This book documents the physical aspects of the lives of Hungarian Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the way they looked, the kind of neighborhoods and apartments they lived in, and the places where they worked. The many historical photographs-there is at least one picture per page-and related text offers a virtual cross section of Hungarian society, a diverse group of the poor, the middle-class, and the wealthy. Regardless of whether they lived integrated within the majority society or in separate communities, whether they were assimilated Jews or Hasidim, they were an important and integral part of the nation. We have surprisingly few detailed accounts of their lifestyles-the world knows more about the circumstances of their deaths than about the way they lived. Much like piecing together an ancient sculpture from tiny shards found in an excavation, Koerner tries to reconstruct the many diverse lifestyles using fragmentary information and surviving photos.

History

Europe

Central European University Press

This book documents the physical aspects of the lives of Hungarian Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the way they looked, the kind of neighborhoods and apartments they lived in, and the places where they worked. The many historical photographs―there is at least one picture per page―and related text offers a virtual cross section of Hungarian society, a diverse group of the poor, the middle-class, and the wealthy. Regardless of whether they lived integrated within the majority society or in separate communities, whether they were assimilated Jews or Hasidim, they were an important and integral part of the nation. We have surprisingly few detailed accounts of their lifestyles―the world knows more about the circumstances of their deaths than about the way they lived. Much like piecing together an ancient sculpture from tiny shards found in an excavation, Koerner tries to reconstruct the many diverse lifestyles using fragmentary information and surviving photos.

Having presented the physical conditions among which Hungarian Jews lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries―the kind of neighborhoods and apartments they lived in, and the places where they worked―this second volume addresses the spiritual aspects and the lighter sides of their life. We are shown how they were raised as children, how they spent their leisure time, and receive insights into their religious practices, too. The treatment is the same as in the first volume. There are many historical photographs-at least one picture per page-and the related text offers a virtual cross section of Hungarian society, a diverse group of the poor, the middle-class, and the wealthy. Regardless of whether they lived integrated within the majority society or in separate communities, whether they were assimilated Jews or Hasidim, they were an important and integral part of the nation. Through arduous work of archival research, Koerner reconstructs the many diverse lifestyles using fragmentary information and surviving photos

How They Lived 2: The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews, 1867-1940: Family, Religious, and Social Life, Learning, Military Life, Vacationing, Sports, Charity

Having presented the physical conditions among which Hungarian Jews lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries--the kind of neighborhoods and apartments they lived in, and the places where they worked--this second volume addresses the spiritual aspects and the lighter sides of their life. We are shown how they were raised as children, how they spent their leisure time, and receive insights into their religious practices, too. The treatment is the same as in the first volume. There are many historical photographs at least one picture per page and the related text offers a virtual cross section of Hungarian society, a diverse group of the poor, the middle-class, and the wealthy. Regardless of whether they lived integrated within the majority society or in separate communities, whether they were assimilated Jews or Hasidim, they were an important and integral part of the nation. Through arduous work of archival research, Koerner reconstructs the many diverse lifestyles using fragmentary information and surviving photos.

Andras Koerner refuses to accept that the world of pre-Shoah Hungarian Jewry and its cuisine should disappear almost without a trace and feels compelled to reconstruct its culinary culture. His book-with a preface by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett-presents eating habits not as isolated things, divorced from their social and religious contexts, but as an organic part of a way of life. According to Kirshenblatt-Gimblett: "While cookbooks abound, there is no other study that can compare with this book. It is simply the most comprehensive account of a Jewish food culture to date." Indeed, no comparable study exists about the Jewish cuisine of any country, or, for that matter, about Hungarian cuisine. It describes the extraordinary diversity that characterized the world of Hungarian Jews, in which what could or could not be eaten was determined not only by absolute rules, but also by dietary traditions of particular religious movements or particular communities. Ten chapters cover the culinary traditions and eating habits of Hungarian Jewry up to the 1940s, ranging from kashrut (the system of keeping the kitchen kosher) through the history of cookbooks, and some typical dishes. Although this book is primarily a cultural history and not a cookbook, it includes 83 recipes, as well as nearly 200 fascinating pictures of daily life and documents.

Jewish Cuisine in Hungary: A Cultural History with 83 Authentic Recipes

Product Description The seven essays in this volume focus such previously unexplored subjects as the world's first cookbook printed in Hebrew letters, published in 1854, and a wonderful 19th-century Jewish cookbook, which in addition to its Hungarian edition was also published in Dutch in Rotterdam. The author entertainingly reconstructs the history of bólesz, a legendary yeast pastry that was the specialty of a famous, but long defunct Jewish coffeehouse in Pest, and includes the modernized recipe of this distant relative of cinnamon rolls. Koerner also tells the history of the first Jewish bookstore in Hungary (founded as early as in 1765!) and examines the influence of Jewish cuisine on non-Jewish food.In this volume András Koerner explores key issues of Hungarian Jewish culinary culture in greater detail and more scholarly manner than what space restrictions permitted in his previous work Jewish Cuisine in Hungary: A Cultural History, also published by CEU Press, which received the prestigious National Jewish Book Award in 2020. The current essays confirm the extent to which Hungarian Jewry was part of the Jewish life and culture of the Central European region before their almost total language shift by the turn of the 20th century. Review "Koerner brings great intellectual imagination to the study of culinary culture. He not only teases out the web of relations that connects these nineteenth-century cookbooks to one another, recipe by recipe, but also examines the circumstances of their authorship, publication, marketing and distribution, the intended and actual readers, and the language in which they were written. He has produced a study of extraordinary depth and a landmark account of Jewish cookbooks anywhere at any time."―Excerpt from the Preface by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett About the Author András Koerner was born in 1940 in Budapest. After receiving his degree in architecture he worked for several years as an architect. In 1967, he moved to the United States, where he continued the same career. Since his retirement, he dedicates his time mostly to writing and organizing exhibitions. He is author of the award-winning Jewish Cuisine in Hungary (CEU Press 2019).

Early Jewish Cookbooks: Essays on Hungarian Jewish Gastronomical History

Exhibiting Jewish Culinary Culture

Arts & Photography

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Books by Koerner, András

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Koerner, András. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Taste of the Past: The Daily Life and Cooking of a Nineteenth-Century Hungarian-Jewish Homemaker

How They Lived: The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews, 1867–1940

How They Lived: The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews, 1867–1940

How They Lived 2: The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews, 1867-1940: Family, Religious, and Social Life, Learning, Military Life, Vacationing, Sports, Charity

How They Lived 2: The Everyday Lives of Hungarian Jews, 1867-1940: Family, Religious, and Social Life, Learning, Military Life, Vacationing, Sports, Charity

Jewish Cuisine in Hungary: A Cultural History with 83 Authentic Recipes

Early Jewish Cookbooks: Essays on Hungarian Jewish Gastronomical History

Exhibiting Jewish Culinary Culture