Rarely has a cookbook been so beloved, and so misunderstood, as the The Settlement Cook Book. Embraced by generations of Jewish homemakers since it first appeared in 1901, the collection of recipes and advice featured predominately non-kosher dishes. Traditional Jewish fare was semi-disguised, with titles such as “filled fish” for gefilte fish, and “matzos pancakes” for matzo brei. As Nora L. Rubel describes the book’s “culinary pluralism,” remarking with affectionate humor that it “directly disregarded kashrut in as many creative ways as possible.” Using extensive primary sources, she presents a convincing argument about the significance of The Settlement Cookbook to Jewish American history.
Lizzie Black Kander (1858 – 1940) was a dedicated settlement house worker in Milwaukee. In her era, these community centers focused on helping immigrants in their path towards acculturation, mainly by promoting assimilation into the American “melting pot,” while providing essential services to struggling newcomers. The Milwaukee Jewish Mission, earlier known as the Keep Clean Mission and later expanded at a larger facility, the Abraham Lincoln House, offered popular cooking classes. In 1901, under Kander’s leadership, the Mission published a compilation of recipes under the evocative title The Way to a Man’s Heart, marketed as a fund raiser for their center. In later editions, the title was demoted to a subtitle, and in 1976 it was discretely moved to the inside cover. In 1913, committed to maintaining control over their project, Kander and her colleagues incorporated as a board, the “Trustees of Settlement Cook Book Fund.”
Rudel’s book will appeal to a broad audience, with her cogent presentation of historical context, and her avoidance of academic jargon. Readers less familiar with changes in Jewish immigration patterns will come away with a new perspective, but those with more prior knowledge will also appreciate Rudel’s comprehensive approach. She begins by granting cookbooks the status they deserve as crucial documents of women’s lives, comparing the handwritten notations these books often contain to Talmudic commentary.
Generations of Jewish women have memories of their mothers and grandmothers using The Settlement Cook Book. Yet, as previously noted, the book was markedly unconcerned with kashrut. Alongside favored Jewish dishes, there were recipes from Chinese, Italian, and other cuisines, although these were often Americanized versions of traditional food. Some of these foods included shellfish and mixtures of meat and dairy. As early as 1907, in Rudel’s memorable phrase, “the final frontier of kosher observance was breached” when pork appeared. At the same time, ingredients such as garlic, negatively associated with Jewish immigrants, were avoided.
Synthesizing the contradictory elements of The Settlement Cook Book, Rudel emphasizes the gradual trajectory of Jews in America from marginalization to assimilation. The goal of Jewish cookbooks, along with the Jewish social service organizations established to help their community, changed, especially after immigration from Eastern Europe was abruptly ended in the early 1920s. The imperative of encouraging adaptation to America became the enthusiastic embrace of middle-class culture. Jewish cookbooks served to introduce Jewish women, and men, to cultural and religious traditions which had receded into a distant past and called for revival. Recipes for the Melting Pot is a multi-course experience, serving the disparate, but complementary, dishes of Jewish American life.
Emily Schneider writes about literature, feminism, and culture for Tablet, The Forward, The Horn Book, and other publications, and writes about children’s books on her blog. She has a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures.
