JEWS AND OIL

Key to the history of cooking in the Jewish tradition is the use of the ingredient of oil, especially olive oil. Here is some of that background history, especially as it uses oil in frying foods, such as those foods such as latkes central to the annual celebration of Hannukah.

For more than 5,000 years, the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea have borne olive trees and the oil pressed from them. The ancient Israelites—perforce all Semitic peoples—have been steeped in that oil since that time.

The premier letters of the earliest Mediterranean alphabets such as Phoenician or Aramaic are like markers of the four fundamental facets or elements of everyday life: Aleph, the Ox, or herds and flocks; Beta, “House,” or shelter; Gamma, the Camel, transportation; and Zeta or Zai, the Olive, or agriculture. (Note the absence of any letter or term for “cereal.” The olive is the preeminent food.)

Clearly, the olive and olive oil were and are essential elements of the Mediterranean, therefore Jewish, diet. Moreover, they are foundations of the Jewish religion.

A dove returned to Noah with an olive branch in its beak as a sign of the abatement of both the waters and God’s wrath. Moses directs the children of Israel to make offerings to the Almighty of “cakes of wheat flour tempered with olive oil.” He anoints with olive oil his son Aaron as a priest. (As were all the kings and priests of Israel so anointed.)

Even up into the modern world and its times, oil has figured significantly in both the diet and traditions of the Jewish people.

To my mind, the most significant example of this is the use of olive oil in “la cucina ebraica” and its significant influence on the history of Italian cuisine. Jews embraced vegetables such as the eggplant new but strange to everyday Italians. They butchered meats uniquely (prizing offal, for example) and, of course, pioneered ways with non-porcine meats such as lamb. All of this has left its mark on Italian cooking.

But most significant, I believe, was the Jewish use of olive oil for frying foods and initiating the preparations of other foods. Because Jews disfavored butter as a fat (because it is dairy), they used olive oil. Fritto misto, carciofi alla giudia, squash blossoms fried in egg and oil and fried salted cod are but a few examples of signature Italian (especially Roman) dishes that are, at their origins, Jewish.

Read about the Jewish feast of Hanukkah and its rituals of cooking in oil here. Especially for cooking latkes.