Post­ed by Nat Bern­stein

If you had to guess which month of the year sees the high­est cook­book sales, you might place your bet on one boast­ing a boun­ti­ful sea­son har­vest or a hol­i­day feast. I would!

Fun insid­er tip from the pub­lish­ing indus­try: most cook­books are sold in Jan­u­ary each year. Moti­vat­ed by culi­nary, dietary, or weight-loss res­o­lu­tions for the New Year, con­sumers stock up on titles intro­duc­ing new foods and lifestyles — com­plete with step-by-step instruc­tions. Indeed, my first per­son­al achieve­ment for 2016 was build­ing a new home for my cook­books (you can see it here!) and I’m itch­ing to fill it with new ones! Including:

How does Scan­di­na­vian cui­sine fit in a kosher kitchen, you ask? Well, for one, Fire and Ice: Clas­sic Nordic Cook­ing is lov­ing­ly writ­ten by Dar­ra Gold­stein, found­ing edi­tor of the James Beard Award-win­ning jour­nal Gas­tro­nom­i­ca and the author of sev­er­al aca­d­e­m­ic arti­cles and essays on Jew­ish food and cul­ture. Also, I had a taste of Swedish piz­za — topped with smoked salmon and cream cheese — in Crown Heights over the week­end and found it alarm­ing­ly scrump­tious. So I’ll skip the shell­fish, but sign me up for smoked arc­tic char, saf­fron buns, chanterelle soup, rasp­ber­ry-rose petal jam, and oth­er culi­nary gems from the Nordic lands!

Relat­ed Content:

• Sto­ries from Scandinavia
• Inter­view with Rebec­ca Din­er­stein, author of The Sun­lit Night
• The Covenant Kitchen: Food and Wine for the New Jew­ish Table by Jeff & Jodie Morgan