Cholent

Cholent or Schalet (Yiddish: טשאָלנט, romanized: tsholnt) is a traditional slow-simmering Sabbath stew in Jewish cuisine that was developed by Ashkenazi Jews first in France and later Germany, and is first mentioned in the 12th century. It is related to and is thought to have been derived from hamin, a similar Sabbath stew that emerged in Spain among Sephardic Jews and made its way to France by way of Provence.
Max Weinreich traces the etymology of cholent to the Latin present participle calentem (an accusative form of calēns), meaning "that which is hot" (as in calorie), via Old French chalant (present participle of chalt, from the verb chaloir, "to warm"). One widely quoted folk etymology derives the word from French chaud ("hot") and lent ("slow"). Another folk etymology derives cholent (or sholen) from שלן, which means "that rested [overnight]", referring to the tradition of Jewish families placing their individual pots of cholent into the town baker's ovens that always stayed hot and slow-cooked the food overnight. Another mooted etymology is from Old French chaudes lentilles (hot lentils).
Shabbat stews were developed over the centuries to conform with Jewish laws that prohibit cooking on the Sabbath. The pot is brought to a boil on Friday before the Sabbath begins, and sometimes kept on a blech or hotplate, or left in a slow oven or electric slow cooker, until the following day. Cholent originated as a barley porridge in ancient Judea as a type of "harisa". Over the centuries various Jewish diaspora communities created their own variations of the dish based on local food resources and neighborhood influence.
There are many variations of the dish, which is standard in both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi kitchens and among other communities. The basic ingredients of cholent are meat, potatoes, beans, and barley though all shabbat stews contain some type of grain and meat or featured vegetable. Slow overnight cooking allows the flavors of the various ingredients to permeate and produces the characteristic taste of each local stew.
In traditional Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi families, stew is the hot main course of the midday Shabbat meal served on Saturdays typically after the morning synagogue services for practicing Jews. Secular Jewish families also serve stews like cholent or eat them in Israeli restaurants. For practicing Jews, lighting a fire and cooking food are among the activities prohibited on Shabbat by the written Torah. Therefore, cooked Shabbat food must be prepared before the onset of the Jewish Shabbat at sunset Friday night.
Cholent was first mentioned by name 1180 CE by R. Yitzhak ben Moshe of Vienna who says "I saw in France in the home of my teacher R. Yehuda bar Yitzhak that sometimes their cholent pots were buried. And on Shabbat before the meal, the servants light the fire near the cauldrons so that they warm well, and some remove them and bring them close to the fire".
The origins of cholent date back to the 11th century, when the Christian Reconquista of Al-Andalus or Islamic Spain, when culinary techniques from the Moorish period spread northwards into Europe through Provence. In the late 12th or early 13th century, the Sephardic Sabbath stew known as hamin became a part of the traditions of the Jews of France.
Among the French Ashkenazi Jewish population, the traditional stew was renamed tsholnt, cholent or schalet, likely from the old French for warm, chald or chalt (the antecedent of today's chaud), or from chald-de-lit ("warmth of the bed").
By the 13th century, the stew is described as having become widespread in Bohemia and Germany. Originally made with fava beans, the cholent of the French Ashkenazi was substituted with dried haricot beans from the Americas in the sixteenth century. Since then, white beans, red kidney beans, pinto beans, and dried lima beans have all become common ingredients. Some Romanians add chickpeas in "a remnant of the Sephardic influence due to Ottoman control of the area".
Since European agriculture favoured bread wheat instead of durum, substitutions were made. In Germany, spelt became common in cholent, while in Eastern Europe, the grain of choice became barley. The usual choice of meat in cholent is beef, either flank or brisket, or, occasionally in Western and Central Europe, goose or duck.
In the mid-19th century, Polish cholent featured generous amounts of potato, while Hungarian cholent used no potato at all. German variations added root vegetables. Onions might be added fried or raw, alongside garlic. The stew might also be sweetened with honey, sugar, or fruit, and spiced with cloves, paprika, or bay leaves.
As the Jewish diaspora grew with Jewish migrations into Europe, North Africa, and elsewhere in the Middle East and Central Asia, Jewish diaspora communities developed their own variations of the dish based on the local climate, available ingredients and local influence. John Cooper in argues that shabbat stews like cholent would have spread from Jerusalem east towards Babylon and simultaneously across the Mediterranean by North Africa into Iberia and eventually Italy and France while Marks cites Persian, Yemen, and Italian communities to predate Sephardim in Iberia.
The most accessible foods to Jews living in Israel before the destruction of the Second Temple are likely to have been the Mediterranean triad: grain, oil and wine, which were available at low cost and vast amounts. While both wheat and barley were grown in Israel, barley was more likely to supplement inland Palestine. Cooper argues wheat would have been twice as expensive as barley which could grow in rougher soils closer to Jerusalem. Barley could also be harvested earlier ensuring multiple crops in the same season.
Meats were considered luxury goods that few could afford except on special occasions like Shabbat and other holidays. Lambs and goats would have been popular as they grazed in arid climates and provided supplementary products like wool and milk while cattle were more expensive to maintain and priced as sacrificial.
Chicken was likely domesticated in Southeast Asia and popularized in Ur around 2100 BCE though the Israelites would have been less likely to eat it due to association of Roman sacrifice. Until the 8th century, the upkeep for chickens meant they could only be raised in small numbers making them a delicacy few could afford outside of Shabbat. Gentile "olla podrida" rose in popularity in the 13th century featuring a porridge with vegetables, spices, and meat, usually cattle. 14th century famine in Northern Europe caused a rise in cattle prices near Western Europe and North Africa where most Jews were living under Moorish peace as Muslim Umayyad Empire was more tolerant of Abrahamic religions. This led to chicken replacing cattle as livestock and resulted in mass recipe changes to accommodate access of resources in Iberia and Northern Africa.
The increase in chicken led to a surplus of eggs as a renewable resource. "Huevos haminados" began to describe the long process of long roasting eggs in hamin pots overnight that produced a signature aroma. The concept of "re'ach nicho'ach" describes the direct line of spiritual connection of scents from the nose to the soul. giving the egg an extra spiritual strength for Jews. In Kabbalah, the eggs are even watched over by an angel.
The rise of the Spanish conquest of Iberia, known as the Reconquista, stretched from as early as the establishment of Christian Kingdom Asturias in the early 8th century until the surrendering of Granada in 1492 by the ruling Moorish Kingdom. Jews were faced with limited options after the Alhambra Decree expelled non-Christian religious practices or face expulsion. Jews who migrated west across the Mediterranean after the destruction of the Second Temple became known as "Sephardic" Jews (literally Spanish Jews) and often reintegrated themselves to well established Jewish communities in North Africa or even the Ottoman Empire where ladino language, a mix of Hebrew and Spanish, began to explode in popularity.
Jews "conversos" (converts) converted, either sincerely or as a ruse, began to mainstream Jewish practices into Iberian culture. Sephardim who remained religious learned to hide observation of shabbat by "hiding" or "concealing" their pots in the embers of household fires or underground ovens from their Christian neighbors. Hamin became known as adafina or dafina as local ingredients changed hamin's base to a rice and chicken dish to match local practices. Stews like "gallina al vinegreta" began to rise in popularity nationally around the same making the ingredients almost indistinguishable.
The slow warming of the embers inspired an extra layer of precaution to the prohibition of cooking on shabbat, the blech. The blech covers a fire or modern stovetops to prevent cooking while allowing heat to transfer from one item to another indirectly as a warm source without "kindling". Hamin, scheena and cholent all commonly use a blech pinpointing their distinctions to a similar time period. The unique cooking requirements of were later the inspiration for the invention of the slow cooker.
Even in ancient Israel, it is likely that vegetables supplemented stews with native vegetables like leek, garlic, and onions, which were more accessible to poorer communities like future Ashkenazi. Historians have little proof other than modern economic trends; these recipes were not well-documented at the time, and the decomposition of vegetables makes it difficult to find conclusive archaeological evidence of their presence in any given period.
After the Columbian Exchange, new vegetables like potatoes, tomatoes, and beans rose in popularity. They offered more substantial nutrients at lower costs than meats but with more flavor than barley, wheat, or rice. In the Maghreb, a South American hot chili pepper called "harissa" thrived in the region's soil. Slow cooking crushed wheat, tomatoes, and harissa created a spicy sauce that added new flavors to classic rice dishes.
Beans from the New World rapidly replaced barley and rice used in North Africa and Europe. In Greece and Turkey, "avicas" substituted the rice in hamin with white beans and even smaller haricot beans left over from Shabbat's Friday night dinner.
In Israel, cholent has become a dish widely available in restaurants. In 2013, cholenterias, casual restaurants specializing in cholent, emerged in Bnei Brak and the Haredi neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and became the premier night hangout areas for Haredi men. Soon afterwards, cholent dishes spread to restaurants in secular areas.
Sephardim in Tel Aviv originated "sofrito" made of beef, potatoes, and various spices eaten at Friday night shabbat dinners and added to the main meal the next day.
In Germany, the Netherlands, and other western European countries the special hot dish for the Shabbat lunch is known as schalet, shalent, or shalet.
The Jewish people of Hungary adapted the Hungarian dish sólet to serve the same purpose as cholent. Sólet was likely modified by the Jewish people living in Pannonia when the Magyars arrived. This pork version of solet became so popular that it is sold across the country as a canned good in grocery stores.
In Italy, pasta is a common substitute for beans or rice in shabbat stews and is called "hamin macaron" when sampled in Iberia. The rise of Chassidism in the late 18th century popularized black beans in Eastern Europe as the Baal Shem Tov's favorite bean while Alsatian Cholent in France featured lima beans.
To honor the tradition of eggs in cholent, some American Jews long roast meatloaves for Friday night and place whole eggs to be peeled and eaten. The Kosher Cajun Cookbook features New Orleans-style Cajun food with kosher substitutes like gumbo and jambalaya. Puerto Rican hamin is considered a stewed "arroz con pollo."
In the shtetls of Europe, religious neighborhoods in Jerusalem, and other cities in the Land of Israel before the advent of electricity and cooking gas, a pot with the assembled but uncooked ingredients was brought to the local baker before sunset on Fridays. The baker would put the pot with the cholent mixture in his oven, which was always kept fired, and families would come by to pick up their cooked cholent on Saturday mornings. The same practice was observed in Morocco, where black pots of s'hina were placed overnight in bakers' ovens and then delivered by bakers' assistants to households on Shabbat morning. Jewish stews were characterized by flour paste used to seal pots to prevent cooking and tampering which could cause the meal to become treif.