Product Description

Since early colonial times in America, Jewish southerners have been tempted by delectable regional foods. Because some of these foods--including pork and shellfish--have been traditionally forbidden to Jews by religious dietary laws, southern Jews face a special predicament. In a culinary journey through the Jewish South, Arkansas native Marcie Cohen Ferris explores how southern Jews embraced, avoided, and adapted southern food and, in the process, have found themselves at home.

From colonial Savannah and Charleston to Civil War era New Orleans and Natchez, from New South Atlanta to contemporary Memphis and across the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas, Ferris examines the expressive power of food throughout southern Jewish history. She demonstrates how southern Jews reinvented traditions as they adjusted to living in a largely Christian world where they were bound by regional rules of race, class, and gender.

Featuring a trove of photographs, Matzoh Ball Gumbo also includes anecdotes, oral histories, and more than thirty recipes to try at home. Ferris's rich tour of southern Jewish foodways shows that, at the dining table, Jewish southerners created a distinctive religious expression that reflects the evolution of southern Jewish life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #173737 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-10
• Released on: 2005-10-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 344 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Many traditional Southern foods—pulled-pork barbecue, crab cakes, fried oyster po' boys, to name a few—violate traditional Jewish dietary laws, which forbid the consumption of pork and shellfish. What's a Southern Jew to do? Anthropological historian Ferris (UNC–Chapel Hill) answers that question in a gustatory tour of the Jewish South. She uncovers many dishes that blend Jewish and Southern foodways (recipes included for such tasties as Temple Israel Brisket and Cornmeal-Fried Fish Fillets with Sephardic Vinagre Sauce). Ferris sees food as a symbol that encompasses the problem of how Jews live in a region dominated by Christians: "The most tangible way to understand Jewish history and culture in the South is at the dinner table." Cynics will wonder if a Jewish kugel (noodle casserole) prepared in the South is really any different from kugel in Chicago. Ferris's answer is an emphatic yes—because Jews in the South face different challenges than those in Chicago. Southern Jews must be more intentional about cooking that kugel and passing the recipe down from generation to generation. If this book were a restaurant, Michelin would award it two out of three stars: not absolutely first-rate, but "excellent cooking, worth a detour." (Oct.)
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Review
"A blend of research and real people. . . . The tales—insightful, funny and occasionally heartbreaking—come complete with recipes." -- New York Times, September 28, 2005

"A fascinating look at the differences of the kosher kitchen." -- Charleston Post & Courier, December 2005

"Ferris . . . tell[s] the history of the Jewish South from a cook's perspective." -- Raleigh News & Observer, September 28, 2005

"This book is sure to be a hit with anyone interested in cookery, Jewish history, or Southern history." -- Library Journal, September 15, 2005

A Chicago Tribune Favorite Cookbook of 2005 -- Chicago Tribune, December 2005

A New York Times Notable Cookbook of 2005 -- New York Times, December 2005

A Top Cookbook of 2005 -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 2005

Review
"Fascinating reading mixed with delicious recipes."
— Chicago Tribune, a syndicated column

"Takes readers on a tasty road trip."
— Arkansas Libraries

"This culinary journey embraces oral histories, poignant anecdotes and evocative photographs to explore the power of food in the Jewish South. More than 30 recipes, many blending Jewish and Southern food traditions, add a cook's perspective and illustrate the story at the dinner table."
— Chapel Hill Magazine

"Handsomely produced, filled with vivid and evocative photographs with many piquant sidebars. . . . The carefully selected recipes that accompany each chapter are skillfully adapted and usable."
— Journal of Material Religion

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Read and a Surprise
I expected a cookbook (which is why it's 4 stars instead of 5, and that's the *only* reason), but got a history book instead.

It's an amazing book. My grandmother worked for Jewish families in the 50s and 60s and I remember accompanying her to their homes when I was a youngster visiting her in NC. There is a certain nostalgia there as the Jewish people always treated her with respect and dignity. All the while they were walking their own precarious tightrope between the gentiles and the black people.

I also found something more while poring over the pages of this book and that is a link to my family's own Jewish past. I have the utmost respect for the amount of research done by Marcie Ferris. It was a herculean task!

Oh. And the recipes (the few) are pretty terrific.

Nine-tenths Jewish American history, one-tenth cookbook
Nine-tenths Jewish American history, one-tenth cookbook, Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales Of The Jewish South combines tales of growing up and growing old in a Southern Jewish family with vintage black-and-white photographs and mouth-watering recipes. Delights such as Camp Blue Star Claremont Salad, Mimah's Cheesecake, Caper Sauce Fish and more supplement this lengthy and engaging history with a homestyle perspective. Exhaustive research and an index for quick and easy topic or recipe lookup round out this leisurely reading delight.

Lots of research, not many insights
This was a wonderful topic for a book -- how Southernness and Jewishness came together in the Jewish kitchen. Cohen Ferris, herself a Jewish woman from a small town in Arkansas, has done exhaustive research, no doubt a labor of love, and has perpetuated many people's memories.

The problem with the book is that it is quite repetitious. Ferris Cohen correctly points out that the culture and history of Atlanta, New Orleans, the Mississippi Delta, and so on are all distinct from each other. Then, however, she spends much of her time recounting menus of long-ago occasions and concluding, over and over again, that the balance between kosher and non-kosher food and between European and American Southern delicacies was important and hard to navigate, because food is so important in daily life.

It is not so much a question of Ferris Cohen's writing style but of the fact that she seemed compelled to put on paper all of the results of her painstaking interviews. Perhaps a more insightful historian could have made more of Ferris Cohen's material, but this book just seemed too long.