Molly Goldberg Jewish Cookbook

Molly Goldberg pauses to chat with Myra Waldo

through the famous Goldberg kitchen window.

Can't you just smell the crumb cake baking?

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flOLLY GOLDBERG JEUIS

H COOKBOOK

BERG,

he great wave of European immigration to America in the early years of the twentieth century left as one of its richest legacies a tradition of soul-satisfying eating that lives in nostalgic memory generations later. Sadly, it is often
only
in memory that the delights of mama's kitchen can be enjoyed, because its secrets usually went unrecorded. But one old-fashioned cook
did
write down her family recipes—the inimitable Molly Goldberg, mother of the popular Goldberg family of radio and television almost half a century ago. In the person of legendary actress Gertrude Berg she collaborated with renowned cookbook author Myra Waldo to assemble this classic

ertrude Berg was a distinguished stage actress who, in the 1940s and 1950s, was known to millions of Americans as Molly Goldberg of the long-running radio and television program
The Goldbergs.
(Her "Yoo-hoo, Mrs. Bloom!", shouted to her neighbor across the way, introduced every installment of the show.) Myra Waldo, Berg's collaborator on this book, has established her own reputation as one of the most notable and prolific cookbook authors of her time.

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Drawings by Susanne Suba

Book-of-the-Month Club New York

All of the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 1955 by Myra Waldo Schwartz and Gertrude Berg

This edition was especially created in 1995 for Book-of-the-Month Club by arrangement with Myra Waldo Schwartz. This edition copyright © 1995 by Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

INTRODUCTION

This is My Cookbook. So how did I come to write a cookbook? I had to protect myself, that's how. To make a long story, I had to. Necessity is the mother of invention, no? So I'm a mother, no? So I wrote a cookbook. And what was the big necessity that I should put recipes in a book? When I cook for my family I don't have trouble. But when someone, Mrs. Herman, for an instance, asks me, "How do you make this or how do you make that?" do I know? Of course I know, but can I tell her? Of course I can, but it's easier to show her. So I have to say to her, "Come into my kitchen and I'll make you up." That takes time, not that I begrudge such a dear friend my time, certainly not, but I mean if I'm going to show Mrs. Herman and all my neighbors how I cook something, who's going to make supper? My Jake would complain.

So My Rosie had an idea. "Ma," she said, "I'll stand on your shoulder while you cook and I'll write you down." Only in better English she said it. And that's what happened. I cooked and she wrote. For an instance, when I make my pudding I let it bake for a jitney. How long is a jitney? Rosie timed me, and jitney is never twice the same. It's from when it begins to boil until it's finished baking. And if I say,

5

Introduction

"Throw an eye every however/
⁹
My Rosie says that means "stir occasionally!
¹
I didn't know that.

But as everyone knows, there can be many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip. Even with Rosie standing on my shoulder mistakes can happen. So what would be if the recipe had a teaspoon too much or an egg didn't get counted? You wouldn't have a perfect whatever. Not that My Rosie isn't smart, but My Jake comes in to taste and Sammy comes in for a remark and David remembers a recipe and before you know it you can lose your place.

That would be all right if you lived next door and could yoo-hoo me a question, but if you bought this book already you don't live within my distance, so you see everything must be correct—to a T. So the next voice you read will be a lady who knows whereof, Myra Waldo. And what you read will be correct and very scientific. A doctor she's not, but a cook, yes indeed, and I know whereof I speak.

So everything in this book is very scientific right down to the last snick-snack. I didn't know science could be so tasty, but like Jake says, "You have to translate your words into standard terms." So here it is, and it didn't lose a thing in the translation.
... I
can assure you.

Very truly yours, Molly Goldberg

P.S. Read further and you'll meet my friend Myra Waldo.

6

Watching Molly cook was a wonderful experience. I think the secret of her success is that she likes to cook, and delights in having her family and friends praise her food. She is warmhearted and enjoys extending hospitality, and to her, hospitality means smiling faces around the table eating the food that she has prepared.

Molly cooks effortlessly and the results are always good. Of course she had always measured her ingredients by the pinch, the sprinkle, and the handful. But not everyone's pinch, sprinkle, and handful are the same. She made a spongecake, for example, by adding just the amount of flour that was necessary, but only Molly knew when the proper amount had been added. But this would never do for a cookbook. I was at her side (although I did not stand on her shoulder as Rosie did) and carefully measured each ingredient as it was added and timed each cooking period.

She cooked many dishes of all sorts for me, and I had a wonderful time tasting her many talented creations. The best of them are in this book and we hope that you will like them.

A brief explanation is in order about Jewish cookery. (A discussion of kosher food appears in a separate chapter.) Not all Jewish people come from one country, and the countries of origin have left their imprints upon the cooking. Examples of dishes which they have adopted would include such things as paprikas and breaded meats

7

Introduction

from Austria; dumplings, cabbage and sauerkraut dishes, poppy seed desserts from Czechoslovakia; sweet and sour preparations, potato pancakes,
gefilte
fish, fruit soups from Germany; herring dishes, thick soups from Holland; goulash and
strudel
from Hungary; pickled fish,
pierogen,
mushroom dishes from Poland; corn-meal mixtures, meat and vegetable stews from Rumania;
borscht, blintzes, kasha
from Russia; and eggplant preparations from the Near and Middle East.

It will be noticed that the type of shortening has not been specified. This is because people who are kosher do not mix meat and dairy products. You are at liberty to use butter or any other shortening to which you are accustomed.

All of the recipes in the book are usable and readily prepared. The food is well flavored although not necessarily highly seasoned. Many of the dishes may be prepared the day before they are to be served, which will assist the busy housewife. There are also many dishes which are really a meal in themselves. All the ingredients called for are easily obtainable. All recipes serve six.

Molly and I enjoyed working together. Our hope is that reading this book and cooking the recipes will bring to you some of the warmth and hospitality of Molly's kitchen.

Myra Waldo

8

CONTENTS

Introduction
5
appetizers 12 soups 26 fish 54

POULTRY 72

MEATS 92

VEGETABLES 132

SALADS AND RELISHES 158

NOODLES, BREADS, AND PANCAKES 174

DESSERTS 210

HOLIDAYS 256

Contents

Menus
280

Cooking Terms
283

Cooking Hints
287

Temperature Guide
288

Equivalent Weights and Measures
289

Kosher Food and How It Began
294

The Story of Passover
305

Index
311

ALL RECIPES SERVE SIX

10

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