RFCJ RECIPE ARCHIVE
Posted by : A Brief Explanation of Kugels - Archivist's Notes
Those who keep the laws of the Jewish sabbath are prohibited from kindling fire on the sabbath, since it comes under the category of _work_. Sabbath-observant Jews are not prohibited from allowing a fire to burn which was kindled prior to the start of the sabbath, however. By the same token, food is not to be prepared on the sabbath, since that would constitute work. With these two constraints, it became a challenge, therefore, to come up with dishes which would not be perishable and which might even be warm for eating. The two which are best known and which arose from these limitations are _cholent_, a slow-cooking stew, and kugel. They can either be cooked long and slow in a warm oven or on top of a metal plate placed over the burners on the stove top, with a low flame beneath. (Lesser known, but in the same category of slow-cooking dishes is charlottes.) Kuegel, pronounced as if there were an umlaut over the u, is probably the most correct pronunciation of the word. Depending on one's origin, it is usually pronounced either KOOgel or KIgel. Fundamentally, it is a baked pudding, in the style of the British puddings, as opposed to a light dessert such as rice or chocolate pudding. Koogel actually means _ball_ in German. It came to have this name because of the small round pot in which such puddings used to be cooked. This round, covered pot would be placed in the larger pot of cholent, a slow-cooking stew of chunks of meat, marrow bones, beans, barley, potatoes and the like. On Friday afternoons, in Eastern-European towns, homemakers would be seen carrying their pots of sabbath stew to the village bakery, where they would place it in the large bread ovens, still warm from baking the braided loaves of challah, the festive sabbath bread. They would return on Saturday at noon, to collect their fresh meals. Eventually, the kugel started to be prepared separately and in larger pans. Classic ones are made with noodles or grains -- sometimes even leftover bread. They often have a sweet ingredient such as raisins or apples, but some are savory. Today, they are even made with a variety of vegetables in a style reminiscent of quiche or casseroles. What is characteristic of all of them, though, is that they are made without water, using fats and/or eggs to bind the ingredients, and they still are capable of being either slow-cooked or of being kept warm on a warming plate.
