On the eve of Shavuot, a fascinating document recently acquired by the National Library offers a glimpse at some of the earliest cheesecakes documented in culinary literature. It is a rare copy of what is believed to be the first kosher cookbook ever published.
The book, published in 1846, is titled The Jewish Manual of Modern Cookery, With a Collection of Valuable Recipes & Hints Relating to the Toilette. It was written in English and published anonymously under the credit “A Lady.”
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The kosher recipe book from 180 years ago
((Photo: Haim and Hanna Salomon Judaica Collection at the National Library of Israel))
Although there is no conclusive proof, researchers attribute the book to Lady Judith Montefiore for several reasons: In Victorian England, there were very few Jewish women who held the title “Lady”; the recipes match the types of dishes served in the Montefiore household; the text indicates that the author belonged to the upper class; and, most significantly, the writer appears to have been a woman who traveled several times to the Land of Israel. Judith Montefiore indeed visited the region five times alongside her husband, Moses Montefiore.
Among the recipes in the book is “Palestine soup,” a rich dish based on veal, chicken, Jerusalem artichokes and spices, alongside numerous dairy dishes that rely heavily on butter.
The book is not only about cooking. Its chapters also include personal grooming advice, including recommendations for “cosmetic baths” based on milk, which the author said were common among the upper classes in the East and had become very popular in France and England.
The book also seeks “to guide the young Jewish housekeeper in the luxury and economy of ‘The Table,’ on which so much of the pleasure of social intercourse depends”, as the author writes.
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The 1846 book
(Photo: Haim and Hanna Salomon Judaica Collection at the National Library of Israel)
According to Dr. Chaim Neria, curator of the Haim and Hanna Salomon Judaica Collection at the National Library of Israel, “Until now, the library had access only to the digital copy of the book from the Montefiore Collection. It was important for us to obtain a physical copy as well, because this is the first Jewish cookbook published in England.
"Its acquisition fits the library’s mission to collect, preserve and make accessible collections of knowledge, heritage and culture of the Jewish people, the State of Israel and the Land of Israel, and the legacy of the Montefiore family is woven into all of these.”
The book joins a broad collection of historic and modern cookbooks at the National Library, alongside many other items dealing with Jewish and Israeli cuisine. Among them are Di Yidishe Kikh from 1930, a cookbook written in Yiddish that also includes recipes from Middle Eastern cuisine; How to Cook in the Land of Israel from 1933, a culinary guide meant to help immigrants adapt to local tastes and ingredients; and cookbooks from various Jewish communities.
The library’s collections dealing with cooking and culinary culture reach as far back as the Middle Ages. For example, in the “Ktiv” manuscript collection, a fragment from the Cairo Geniza preserves a 12th-century shopping list that includes ingredients for making tahini.