Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South - Softcover

A compelling storyteller, Ferris turns history into riveting reading.--Jewish Telegraphic Agency Goes far beyond the kitchen . . . documents Southern Jewish domestic, social, racial, religious, and business life over three centuries. Rich in anecdote and based on extensive interviews, Matzoh Ball Gumbo records an important aspect of the American Jewish experience.--Jewish Book World A fascinating look at the differences of the kosher kitchen.--Charleston Post & Courier A fascinating story of immigration, acculturation, and assimilation. . . . Matzoh Ball Gumbo is a book to savor and to share.--Austin Chronicle A Jewish native of Arkansas and anthropological historian examines the compromises, adaptations and challenges of a people adrift in a land where such forbidden foods as pork and shellfish were staples.--Black Issues Book Review It may sound trivial, but no doubt the invention of Crisco was the answer to the prayers of some Jewish women in the South. . . . The miracle of Crisco is just one of the fascinating facts presented in Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South. . . . Ferris . . . tell[s] the history of the Jewish South from a cook's perspective.--Raleigh News & Observer With recipes like Sabbath Marble Cake and Mimah's Cheesecake, this book is sure to be a hit with anyone interested in cookery, Jewish history, or Southern history.--Library Journal [A] big beautiful book about Southern Jewish cooking, and the cooks who cook it, and the families who eat it.--Arkansas Times In Matzoh Ball Gumbo, author Marcie Cohen Ferris has chronicled an important history of food and culture that is a fundamental element of who we are as southerners.--A Rep Reading blog Matzoh Ball Gumbo is a well-researched book, lovingly told with personal anecdotes, illustrative visual materials, and . . . historical and family recipes.--Gastronomica A must-read for Vicksburg-area residents. . . . Ferris is no ordinary cookbook author. She is a writer of history - Southern Jewish history as it can be told through the recipes served on Jewish family tables.--Vicksburg Post Sprinkled with recipes, [Matzoh Ball Gumbo] is a culinary walk through the unique history of the Jews of the American South.--World Jewish Digest 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 Fascinating reading, mixed with delicious recipes.--Houston Chronicle 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 . . . answers that question in a gustatory tour of the Jewish South. . . . If this book were a restaurant, Michelin would award it two out of three stars: . . . 'excellent cooking, worth a detour.'--Publishers Weekly Just plain fun, as well as being thought-provoking. . . . This is the sort of book that causes you to interrupt your spouse's work to read bits aloud. It will be at the top of my gift list for almost everyone next year, and it should certainly be on your bookshelf.--Southern Cultures 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. . . . Exhaustive research and an index for quick and easy topic recipe lookup round out this leisurely reading delight.--Midwest Book Review Takes readers on a tasty road trip.--Arkansas Libraries It's delightful to be able to experience these flavors in your own kitchen and equally enlightening to reflect on the simple acts of daily meals that can combine to create a history.--Appetite for Books In Matzoh Ball Gumbo, A Culinary Journey of the Jewish South, Arkansas native Marcie Cohen Ferris explores how Jews embraced, avoided, and adapted southern food and, in that process, found themselves at home.--Chapel Hill Herald Extraordinary and multifaceted. . . . It is at once scholarly and entertaining--a difficult combination to achieve. [This reviewer] smiled at many passages, delighted in the personal stories, and developed a much stronger sense of place. And [the reviewer] was always left hungry.--Journal of Southern History [Matzoh Ball Gumbo] . . . is a blend of research and real people. . . . The tales--insightful, funny and occasionally heartbreaking--come complete with recipes, including one for her mother's Rosh Hashana jam cake.--New York Times A New York Times Notable Cookbook of 2005 A Chicago Tribune Favorite Cookbook of 2005 A Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Top Cookbook of 2005 Like the gumbo of its title, Marcie Cohen Ferris's new book offers a rich stew to savor. . . . Meticulously researched and documented, eminently readable, further enlivened with the voices of Ferris's many interviewees, and illustrated with photographs, newspaper clippings, and more, Matzoh Ball Gumbo provides an utterly nourishing read.--The Forward 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 A heartwarming, beautifully researched travel through Southern history that readers can really sink their teeth into. . . . Matzoh Ball Gumbo is literally a true taste of the good things in life emerging from the tragedies and triumphs of cultural diversity and the recipes . . . will be a high point of the book for any cook, any reader. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding and Matzoh Ball Gumbo serves it to perfection." --The Advocate Fascinating reading mixed with delicious recipes.--Chicago Tribune The definitive study of the genre. . . . From Ferris's research a wonderful collection of recipes has emerged. . . . Ferris meticulously records never-before-told tales from folks like African American bar mitzvah caterers in Atlanta, Orthodox rabbis accused of smoking tongues in decidedly unkosher smokehouses in Memphis, and a family in the Mississippi Delta who, unable to keep kosher for lack of available ingredients, would nonetheless never eat catfish.--Saveur Ferris continues the exploration of Jewish influences on Southern cooking with Matzoh Ball Gumbo.--Daily Advertiser

This is a historic tour of southern Jewish foodways. 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.