Sabbath stew

Sabbath stewwas developed over the centuries to conform withJewish lawsthat prohibit cooking on the Sabbath. The pot is brought to a boil on Friday before the Sabbath begins, and sometimes kept on ablechorhotplate, or left in a slow oven or electricslow cooker, until the following day.
Two of the best known sabbath stews arehamin, aSephardicdish that emerged in Spain, andcholent, anAshkenazidish derived from hamin that emerged later inFrance. Both dishes are based on a mixture ofwhole grains,meat,beansandpotatoes.
Both stews are ultimately derived fromharisa, a more simplistic, traditionalMiddle Easternporridgeconsisting of just crackeddurumwheat berriesand meat.Over the centuries variousJewish diasporacommunities created their own variations of the dish based on local food resources and neighborhood influence.
There are many variations on sabbath stews, which are today staples of both theSephardiandAshkenazikitchens and other communities.The slow overnight cooking allows the flavors of the various ingredients to permeate and produces the characteristic taste of each local stew.
In traditionalAshkenazi,Sephardi, andMizrahifamilies, stew is the hotmain courseof the midday Shabbat meal served on Saturdays, typically after the morning synagogue services for practicing Jews.Secular Jewishfamilies also serve stews likecholentor eat them in Israeli restaurants.For practicing Jews, lighting a fire and cooking food are among theactivities prohibited on Shabbatby the writtenTorah.Therefore, cooked Shabbat food must be prepared before the onset of the Jewish Shabbat at sunset Friday night.
Very little documentation of Jewish diet before the 6th century exists except in small circles and the scriptures from the Torah.Around the reign ofKing Herodin the first century BCE, a divergence in scholarship led to three practices ofhalacha: thePharisees,Sadducees, and theEssenes.Modern Jews claim descent from the Pharisees as the strictest observation of halacha. After the destruction of the 2nd Temple, Rabbinical authorities began to work on the Mishnah to preserve Oral Law in an attempt to remain unified on halachic rulings. The Karaites often disagreed with Rabbinic rulings like the kosher status of chickens and eggsor whether fire is allowed to burn during shabbat leading to avoidance of candle light the entire day.This stems from the verse "You shall not [burn] (Heb:bi'erthepi'elform ofba'ar) a fire in any of your dwellings on the day of Shabbat." Rabbinic Judaism however, theqalverb formba'aris understood to mean "burn", whereas thepi'elform (present here) is understood to be not intensive but causative. (The rule being that the pi'el of a stative verb will be causative, instead of the usual hif'il.) Hencebi'ermeans "kindle", which is why Rabbinic Judaism prohibits onlystartinga fire on Shabbat. Historian Aaron Gross proposes this caused a rise in popularity of shabbat stews as a hot meal.
As theJewish diasporagrew with Jewish migrations into Europe, North Africa, and elsewhere in the Middle East and Central Asia, Jewish diaspora communities developed different Sabbath stews and other foodstuffs based on the local climate, available ingredients and local influence.
Jews living in Israel before the destruction of the Second Temple likely ate 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 the inland. 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.
Shabbat stews of the Bukharian Jews and Mizrahi Jewsin the Asian Central Steppe who trace their diaspora to Babylonian exilehave the most distinct versions of shabbat stews that relate closest to their non-Jewish neighborsand often resembled the closed proposed ingredients and methods to the originalharisa.
Harisais mentioned by Ibn Al Karim inKitab Al-Tabikh as early asthe seventh century.In the anecdotal cookbook, theUmayyad Caliph, Mu'awiya,returns from a trip to Arabia after returning to his newly won Persian lands. In some versions of the story, Mu'awiya is met with some Yemenite Jews whom he asks to prepare the porridge he tasted abroad while in other versions, he approaches locals. This story should be taken with a grain of salt as the author penned the story three centuries after it supposedly occurred. At the very least, harisa was prevalent as a Levantine dish.
Haminemerged as a dish whenSephardicchefs began to experiment with addingchickpeasorbeansand more water toharisa, a traditionalMiddle Easternporridge of crackeddurumwheat berries, to create a more liquidy bean stew.The basic ingredients of Sephardic Sabbath stews wereWhole grains,meat,beans,potatoes, but the exact recipe varied from place to place and season to season.
After theReconquistaand expulsion, Jewishconversosin Spain hid theirhaminpots under the fire embers to avoid persecution and exposure of Jewish practices, leading to the namedafina, meaning buried, for the dish.
The ingredients ofhaminchanged again in the 14th century, as famine in Northern Europe caused a fall in cattle rearing and increase in chicken and egg production,leading tohuevos haminadosto be introduced to the Sephardic Sabbath stew.
Following the 1492expulsion of the Jews from Spain,haminadapted to other local ingredients and seasonings, incorporating spices such ascinnamon,paprika,saffronandturmeric.The influx of new ingredients fromSouth Americain the 16th century meanwhile resulted inwhite beansoften substitutingfava beans, andwhite potatoes,sweet potatoes,pumpkinandred chilliesbeing added in some recipes.
The origins ofcholentdate back to the 11th century, when the ChristianReconquistaofAl-AndalusorIslamic Spain, when culinary techniques from the Moorish period spread northwards into Europe throughProvence. In the late 12th or early 13th century, the Sephardic Sabbath stew known ashaminbecame a part of the traditions of the Jews of France.
By the 13th century, the stew is described as having become widespread in Bohemia and Germany. Originally made withfava beans, thecholentof the French Ashkenazi was substituted with driedharicot beansfrom theAmericasin the sixteenth century. Since then,white beans,red kidney beans,pinto beansand driedlima beanshave all become common ingredients.Some Romanians addchickpeasin "a remnant of theSephardicinfluence due toOttomancontrol of the area".
The slow warming of the embers inspired an extra layer of precaution to the prohibition of cooking on shabbat, theBlech. 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".Haminandcholentcommonly use a blech,a cooking requirement that was later the inspiration for the invention of the slow cooker.
AmongIraqi Jews, the hot Shabbat stew is calledt'bitand consists of whole chicken skin filled with a mixture of rice, chopped chicken meats, tomatoes and herbs.The stuffed chicken skin in t'bit is similar to the Ashkenazi helzel, chicken neck skin stuffed with a flour and onion mixture that often replaces (or supplements) the kishke in European cholent recipes.
Ethiopian Jewstraditionally eat akosherversion ofdoro waton Shabbat called "Sanbat wat", a stew of chicken and hard-boiled eggs commonly seasoned withberber, cloves, onions, and other savory ingredients. It is traditionally served withinjerasimilarly to challah with cholent."Alicha wot", Amharic for "mild", features a vegetarian version without berbere.
In Egypt, "ferik" was used as a method of cookingharisainvolving unripened, crushed wheat that gave the dish by the same name a unique green hue.Historians argue whether the ferik method was used before Sephardic migration after the 13th century since Jews did not live in Egypt in large numbers post-exodus until Spanish expulsion.Egyptian Jews did not regularly include meat in their mostly vegetarian diets though chicken was prevalent for Shabbat after the Sephardic diaspora.
In Germany, the Netherlands, and other western European countries,cholentis known asschalet,shalent, orshalet.
In Italy, pasta is a common substitute for beans or rice in shabbat stewsand 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 Bal Shem Tov's favorite beanwhile Alastian 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 Cookbookfeatures New Orleans style cajun food with kosher substitutes like gumbo and jambalaya.Puerto Rican hamin is considered a stewed "arroz con pollo."