A rare hard copy of the first Jewish cookbook and housekeeping guide published in England recently joined the ever-growing collections of the National Library of Israel (NLI).
NLI announced the acquisition in a statement last week ahead of the Shavuot holiday, noting that it will join the library’s collection of historical and modern cookbooks of Jewish and Israeli cuisine.
Published in 1846, The Jewish Manual: Practical Information in Jewish and Modern Cookery (With a Collection of Valuable Recipes & Hints Relating to the Toilette boasts a range of recipes, self-care tips and tricks, and housekeeping advice.
Authorship of The Jewish Manual, however, remains a question. While the cookbook was originally published anonymously by “A Lady,” scholars later attributed the title to British linguist Lady Judith Montefiore, the wife of Sir Moses Montefiore.
Though there is no concrete proof of the matter, the theory is plausible for several reasons.
The Jewish Manual’s text indicates the author was well-traveled, including to Israel (at the time, under the rule of the Ottoman Empire), and a member of the upper class.
Very few Jewish women living in England at the time held the title of Lady, and many of the recipes printed in the book correspond to cuisine served in the Montefiore home.
Montefiore had also accompanied her husband on five of his trips to Israel.
Cookbook includes recipes, self-care, housekeeping tips
Recipes in The Jewish Manual include several types of cheesecake, “Palestine Soup” (made using the knuckle of a veal, the foot of a calf, a large fowl, a pound of chorissa, water, lemon peel, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet herbs, and spices), and “Roasted Chestnuts for Desserts.”
NLI also shared a few of The Jewish Manual’s dairy recipes in its statement in honor of Shavuot, including several cheesecake recipes (both sweet and savory), one for macaroni and cheese, and another for fondue.
Chapters covering personal, self-care include mentions of specifically “cosmetic baths, composed of milk” that were also “in frequent use among the higher classes in the East; and we have been informed that they are gradually gaining favor in France and England.”
Other sections focus on providing advice “to guide the young Jewish housekeeper in the luxury and economy of ‘The Table,’ on which so much of the pleasure of social intercourse depends.”
NLI’s mission: Preserving Jewish knowledge, heritage
“Up until now, the library’s catalog only had access to the Montefiore Collection’s digital copy of The Jewish Manual,” explained Dr. Chaim Neria, Curator of the Haim and Hanna Solomon Judaica Collection at the National Library of Israel.
Neria noted how important it was for the museum to acquire a physical copy of the Jewish cookbook.
“It was important to us to have a hard copy, as acquiring this book, the first-ever Jewish cookbook published in England, is part of our mandate to collect, preserve, and share collections of knowledge, heritage, and culture of the Jewish people, the State, and the Land of Israel,” Neria said. “The Montefiore family heritage is most certainly intertwined with all the above.”
