From cholent to chicken soup, much of the Jewish gastronomic year seems to revolve around meat and poultry. But with the longer days and warmer temperatures of the Shavuot season, our palates turn to dairy.
Shavuot is best known for the giving of the Torah, so why the association with dairy foods? Virtual Jerusalem lists seven reasons. Two of the most famous: on Shavuot, the Jewish People received a new code of law, including the dietary restrictions that became part of daily life. Since the new laws of separating meat and milk were still unclear, only dairy products were eaten on Shavuot to avoid transgressing the unfamiliar laws. Another reason: The Torah is compared to milk, as it is written: “Sweetness drops/ From your lips, O bride; Honey and milk/ Are under your tongue.” (Song of Songs, 4:11).
And here’s another one to ponder (or not) as you wash down your meal with some milk: when we received the Torah, we were elevated from the impurity of Egypt to holiness. Therefore, we drink milk, which comes from blood that turns into milk.
Now that you have that under your belt, let’s start with some of the classics. The Jewish-Food Blintz Archives (yes, there really IS a Blintz Archives!) has three dozen variations including Asparagus and Cheese, Elaine’s Bubbe’s and Henny Youngman's. (Take his blintz, please?) As for other holiday staples, I found 16 cheesecake and two dozen varieties of kugel at the RFCJ Shavuot Recipe Archives. If you want to be more adventurous, go for the Goat Cheese and Scallion Kugel, Carrot Vichyssoise with Orange Nectar and some good old Montreal Cheese Bagels.
Jewish Heritage Online Magazine has a lovely article that focuses on lesser-known Shavuot foods around the world:
• Jewish women in oriental countries took pride in baking for Shavuot a seven-layer cake called Siete Cielos (Seven Heavens), symbolic of the traditional seven celestial spheres God traversed to present the Torah to Moses on Mount Sinai
• Jews of Kurdistan prepare large quantities of butter and cheese for the festival. Their special dish was ground wheat cooked in sour milk with dumplings of butter and flour.
• Jewish housewives in Tripoli baked wafers in various shapes: a ladder, to recall that Moses went up Mount Sinai; a hand, denoting hands extended to receive the Torah; the two Tablets of the Law; eyeglasses, to see the words of the Torah.
• Food writer Sybil Kaplan continues the international survey. “Because the Yemenite Jews from Southern Arabia do not consider themselves a part of either the Ashkenazim or Sephardim, they do not eat dairy foods on Shavuot and presume the children of Israel knew about kashrut while waiting for Moses… They eat meat and pita or traditional Shabbat foods with their condiments – schug, the paste made with red peppers and spices; and hilbe, a paste made with fenugreek seeds.” Syrian Jews eat “atayef, a filled cheese pancake, and ruz ib asal, a baked rice pudding with honey and rose water.”
Having a Jewish holiday focused on dairy may seem liberating, but not so if milk products make you ill. Merrell Candace Mastin is lactose intolerant and wanted to know how she should celebrate the holiday. The Aish HaTorah rabbi put it into perspective: “When all is said and done, eating dairy on Shavuot is only a custom, whereas ‘enjoying yom tov’ has the status of Torah law. So when the two ideas conflict, as in your case, it is better to preserve your enjoyment of the Shavuot holiday and not eat dairy. Of course, you could try soy milk as a substitute.” Or you can try a few of the more than 1,000 pareve recipes at the OU site.
Never averse to being somewhat contrary, Forward.com points out that Shavuot’s dairy roots are relatively shallow. It asks, Want Authentic Shavuot Meals? Try Fruit, Not Dairy. When you check out Shavuot in the Torah and later in the Mishnah, the focus is on two other food groups: fruit and grain. This holiday is known, after all, as the Festival of the First Fruits. So set aside that dairy and munch on some fruit – and if you must have cheesecake, try the mock kind made with 100 per cent fruit, such as raw strawberry coconut pie.
For some people, sitting down to a Shavuot meal means eating both dairy AND meat – with an appropriate pause between them. Not as simple as it may seem:
• Dairy comes first
• When done, hands are washed; mouths are rinsed.
• There must be a minimum break between the meals.
• All vestiges of the dairy meal should be removed from the table before the meat is served, etc.
• Now you can bring on the meat!
The recipes mentioned above are undeniably delicious. But I believe that the tastiest part of any holiday is its memories. I’m sure that Cyndi and her beloved Auntie Rivka would agree. It seems that Cyndi’s family had mouse problems in their home and decided to lay out some mousetraps. When Auntie Rivka dropped by to make some Shavuot blintzes, her niece quickly scooped the traps up and hid them in the freezer. When her aunt reached into the freezer to put away the cream cheese… well, the rest is family history.
And, finally, if someone you know loves cheesecake but lives far away, you still can mail them a piece – via e-mail. Just send off an electronic postcard with a delicious photo of a virtual cheesecake along with a virtual blintz and some virtual bourekas. Sure, they’ll never compare to the real thing. But at least the calories are virtual, too.