{"id":92155,"date":"2022-01-11T17:05:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=92155"},"modified":"2022-01-03T15:22:27","modified_gmt":"2022-01-03T13:22:27","slug":"11-05-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=92155","title":{"rendered":"When It Comes to Soup, Looks Aren\u2019t Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>When It Comes to Soup, Looks Aren\u2019t Everything<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

LEAH KOENIG<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
Consider a bowl of a humble but heartwarming everyday classic: mushroom barley<\/span><\/strong><\/h5>\n

VEGANBAKING.NET\/CREATIVE COMMONS<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Whenever I eat at\u00a0B&H Dairy<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, the beloved, 84-year-old Jewish dairy restaurant in Manhattan\u2019s East Village, I invariably order soup. B&H just has this way with soup\u2014a rainbow of comforting potages ladled from a half-dozen aluminum pots steaming behind the counter. Sometimes I go for the borscht, which is bright red and brimming with softened cabbage and potatoes. Other times it\u2019s the vegetarian chicken soup with floating, slippery noodles and a pillowy matzo ball. But when it\u2019s especially blustery outside or I am in need of some soulful restoration, I invariably choose mushroom barley. Thick and savory with nibbles of tender grain, that soup is the equivalent of pulling on a cozy sweater and falling into a great hug.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

Mushroom barley soup is not a holiday-specific dish, and therefore is rarely touted as a titan of Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. And yet it is undeniably part of the culinary canon. Along with split pea soup, lentil soup, and creamy potato soup, it is one of the simple, inexpensive, nourishing dishes that sustained Eastern European Jews (and their non-Jewish neighbors) for generations. According to Gil Marks\u2019\u00a0The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food<\/em><\/a>,<\/strong><\/span> \u201cIn some households, it was eaten on a daily basis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Barley is one of the world\u2019s most ancient cultivated species. Long before potatoes were introduced to Eastern Europe from the New World, barley was one of the region\u2019s most important starches. So it is perhaps not surprising that the real soul of mushroom barley soup is the barley, not the mushrooms. This fact is reinforced by the dish\u2019s Yiddish name,\u00a0krupnik<\/em>, which stems from the archaic Slavic word for hulled and polished grains,\u00a0krupa<\/em>. (Fittingly, the name\u00a0krupnik<\/em>\u00a0also refers to an old-fashioned Polish cordial brewed with grain-based vodka, honey, and spices.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

While many recipes for\u00a0krupnik<\/em>\u00a0do indeed include mushrooms, they were not always ubiquitous. In\u00a0Jewish Cookery<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em>, a classic Jewish American cookbook written by Leah Leonard in 1949, the\u00a0krupnik<\/em>\u00a0recipe includes leeks, carrots, and turnips, but noticeably not mushrooms. Mildred Grosberg Bellin\u2019s\u00a0The Jewish Cook Book<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/em>\u00a0from 1941 includes four barley soup recipes (plus a barley-based cholent), only one of which contains mushrooms. And even in contemporary, non-Jewish\u00a0versions<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0of the recipe, mushrooms are considered optional.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

And yet there is a reason why, over time, mushrooms became an integral part of the soup\u2019s identity, particularly in the United States. Part of it had to do with iconic Jewish restaurants like the Second Avenue Deli and Ratner\u2019s, which flavored their barley soups with mushrooms and helped to standardize the duo. But it more than likely started with home cooks. Mushrooms grow in wild abundance across Eastern Europe, and were an important source of nourishment that could be gathered for free. \u201cThe best foragers, often peasant women, would gather extras after a rain spell and sell them at markets,\u201d writes Liz Alpern in\u00a0The Gefilte Manifest<\/strong><\/span>o<\/a><\/em>\u00a0cookbook.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

Since\u00a0krupnik<\/em>\u00a0was an everyday dish for Jewish families, many recipes did not contain meat\u2014both because of the added expense of using\u00a0flanken<\/em>, and also so the soup remained pareve (and therefore more versatile from a kosher perspective). Without the meat to provide a base of hearty, umami flavor, mushrooms\u2014particularly dried mushrooms\u2014became the logical stand-in.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

According to Alpern, dried porcini mushrooms were commonly used in Eastern Europe, and were an ingredient found in the United States as well. Jewish immigrants to America drew comfort from finding their beloved fungi in their new home. But since foraging on the Lower East Side proved next to impossible, many\u00a0balaboostas<\/em>\u00a0purchased their mushrooms from street peddlers described by historian Jane Ziegelman in the\u00a0Forward<\/em><\/a>\u00a0as typically an \u201colder gentleman who roamed the streets bedecked with dried mushroom garlands around his neck,\u201d and was \u201cdistinguished by the fact that he also wore edible \u2018bracelets,\u2019 bands of dried mushrooms that went up his arm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

When making mushroom barley soup at home, I tend to fall into the nonmeat camp. Meaty\u00a0krupniks<\/em>\u00a0cross too far into cholent territory\u2014too fancy for daily consumption and, for those of us who keep kosher kitchens, robbed of the greatest pleasure that comes along with meat-free soups: a hefty dollop of sour cream bobbing on top. I also take great care to construct a flavor profile that maximizes the dish\u2019s comforting appeal. Too many mushroom barley soup recipes have gone the way of gummy porridge, thickened with a cornstarch slurry and lacking in any distinctive flavor. But a well-made mushroom barley soup is transformative.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n

My go-to recipe, which I developed for\u00a0The Jewish Cookbook<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/span>, takes a few creative liberties from more traditional versions. To the mushroom base (I use dried porcinis plus sliced fresh creminis), I throw in some chopped fresh thyme, a little soy sauce for extra oomph, and a splash of cider vinegar to brighten things up. Even with the modern additions, it is a rather homely soup\u2014a reminder that looks aren\u2019t everything. As Claudia Roden writes about mushroom barley soup in\u00a0The Book of Jewish Food<\/em>, \u201cIt looks very unappealing, but it is heartwarming in winter.\u201d Amen, and pass the sour cream.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Zawarto\u015b\u0107 publikowanych artyku\u0142\u00f3w i materia\u0142\u00f3w nie reprezentuje pogl\u0105d\u00f3w ani opinii Reunion’68,<\/em>
\nani te\u017c webmastera Blogu Reunion’68, chyba ze jest to wyra\u017anie zaznaczone.
\nTwoje uwagi, linki, w\u0142asne artyku\u0142y lub wiadomo\u015bci prze\u015blij na adres:
\n<\/em>webmaster@reunion68.com<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When It Comes to Soup, Looks Aren\u2019t Everything LEAH KOENIG Consider a bowl of a humble but heartwarming everyday classic: mushroom barley VEGANBAKING.NET\/CREATIVE COMMONS Whenever I eat at\u00a0B&H Dairy, the beloved, 84-year-old Jewish dairy restaurant in Manhattan\u2019s East Village, I invariably order soup. B&H just has this way with soup\u2014a rainbow of comforting potages ladled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92155"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92168,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92155\/revisions\/92168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}