Fun With Kosher Recipes - Yiddish Words and Phrases

Keeping kosher with recipes for Passover andHak flaish: Chopped meat.
other kosher food recipes is a great way to stayKasheh: Food-wise, kasheh is soft cereal or
connected to your Jewish heritage while instillingporridge, but it can also be used to describe a
religious values in your children. But if you'reconfusing mess.
looking to feel even closer to the old country,Kreplach: Meat-filled dumplings reminiscent of
chances are it's going to involve some Yiddish.ravioli. In other settings, kreplach can be used to
Read on for some classic Yiddish words andmean something worthless.
phrases relating to food, including words that haveLatke: Even popular among gentiles, latkes are
become common among English speakers.potato pancakes served most often during
Bagel: Originating in Krakow, Poland, the bagel firstChanukah. The pancakes are cooked using oil,
appeared to compete with the bublik - a denser,which for some represents the enduring oil flame
drier ring of dough. It became tradition forthat inspired the holiday.
observant Jews to bake bagels after the SabbathLox: A historic friend of the bagel, lox is a salmon
on Saturday evenings, as bagels take less time tofillet cured with a brining solution. Lox was
make than most other bread products.popularized in the United States by Jewish
Blintz: Crepe-like pastries with sweet filling, usuallyimmigrants from Eastern Europe.
cheese. Unlike crepes, blintz pancakes are madeMilchig: A milk product.
with yeast. Blintzes are often served duringNosh: A widely used verb to describe snacking.
Chanukah and Shavuot.Typically, you nosh on a nosherie (snack food).
Challa: Bread common on Shabbat dinners,Parveh: Food that isn't milchig (milk) or fleishig
although forbidden in Passover recipes.(meat). It's also considered neutral.
Chazzer: This describes a pig - or, morePesach: This is an easy one - Pesach is the Yiddish
frequently, someone that eats like a pig. There'sterm for Passover. Because of the special dietary
also chazzerei (pig's feed, or junk food) and therestrictions, there are many Pesach recipes
expression a chazer bleibt a chaser ("a pigcreated specifically for the holiday.
remains a pig").Schmaltz: Describes a type of fat or grease,
Er est vi noch a krenk: "He eats like he just gotusually melted fat from a chicken. In modern
over an illness."usage, schmaltz can also describe over-the-top
Er frest vi a ferd: "He eats like a horse."sentimentality.
Essen: Part of many other phrases, essen meansSchmeer (or schmear): A spread on a bagel, such
"to eat." We also see it in ess gezunterhait ("eat inas cream cheese.
good health") and essen mitik (to eat midday).Shtark gehert: Literally "strongly heard," this
Fleishig: A meat product.phrase is used to classify smelly food.
Fressen/fress: Fressen describes a more intenseTraif: Non-kosher food. A traifnyak is a person
form of eating - pigging out. There's also thewho eats traif, or who is generally loathsome.
American-born fressing (gourmandizing) andWen ich ess, ch'ob ich alles in dread: Literally, this
umzitztiger fresser (a freeloader who only wantsphrase means "when I am eating, I have
to eat your food).everything in the ground," but you can substitute
Gedempte flaysh: An unknown - or "mystery" -"I don't care about anyone else" for that last part.
meat.Zee est vee a feigele: "She eats like a bird."
Gelt: Though it can mean actual money, gelt isProbably because she doesn't know any good
usually used to describe the chocolate coinskosher recipes!
popular during Chanukah.