Today, baruch Hashem, when our supermarkets,
hypermarkets, open air markets and local groceries are filled
to overflowing with an abundance of every kind of food
imaginable, few people remember what the food situation was
like back in the '50's, in the early years of the State of
Israel.
The massive waves of aliya following the 1948 war carried in
their wake tremendous food shortages. In light of the
situation, the Israeli government instituted a food rationing
system, carried out through the use of ration cards. The card
system included rationed - read: small - quantities of milk,
vegetables, eggs, meat, oil, as well as other products. The
stated goal was to adapt the eating and cooking habits, as
well as the needs of a growing population, to the burgeoning
Israeli agricultural produce and the state of the economy. An
additional goal was to instill proper nutritional habits into
the new immigrants who did not always find their generic
foods available.
The produce of the time could not be compared to what we have
today. Bananas were tiny and apples even tinier, often wormy.
Variety was limited, as well.
In order to alleviate the shortages of milk and eggs,
powdered milk and powdered eggs were imported in large
quantities. It is interesting to note the instructions used
for the reonstitution of these products.
"Powdered eggs: 1 tablespoon egg powder and 2 tablespoons
water = 1 egg. Mix powder and water until smooth.
Reconstituted eggs can replace fresh eggs in your recipes,
but must not be used raw."
"Powdered milk: 125 grams powdered milk and 4 cups of water -
1 liter of milk. Mix milk powder thoroughly with lukewarm
water. Stir thoroughly until milk is free of lumps or
undissolved powder. If powdered milk has caked together, it
should be strained again."
Frozen fish fillet was imported to take the place of costly
beef and to supply much needed protein. It was relatively
inexpensive. Old timers remember the years 1948-56 as the
"fillet years". Whereas Westeners think fillet is a costly
cut of boneless beef, the word `fillet' will never mean
anything but a piece of frozen codfish to any Israeli over
the age of 30.
Here are instructions from `those days' re: fillet:
"Fish fillet is marketed wrapped in paper and therefore there
is no need to clean it. If the wrapping paper happens not to
be clean, the fish should be rinsed briefly without soaking.
It is not necessary to completely defrost the frozen fillet
before frying or cooking; defrost it only enough to be able
to slice into portions. In this way, taste will not be
affected. For frying: slice fillet lengthwise into thin
slices. To steam: slice into smaller pieces. For fish patties
or balls, it may also be sliced widthwise. To fry: flatten
pieces. Sprinkle with salt and lemon juice. Chill for 2-3
hours and fry in oil.
How many of you know what a primus is? This small
kerosene burner was not even rare in the sixties. I used one
in one of my earliest apartments. It scared me one day and I
decided to take the advice of the Electric Company,
"Yoteir chashmal, pachot amal - More electricity means
less work", and bought a 2 burner `plata'.
After the primus period, Israeli cooking methods
improved along with the economy. One by one, housewives moved
to cooking on gas top-burners. Ovens were a rarity, and cakes
were baked on top of the burners in a wonder pot. You still
see these around, especially at Pesach time. [Or Shavuos:
some people who don't use their stoves for dairy, make
excellent cheese cakes in them.] Some had their 2-3 gas
burner contraption sitting atop a small electric oven, or
vice versa, a small enamel box with a shelf that sat over the
gas burner and served as an oven.
Israelis have always considered gas to outshine electricity
for cooking and electricity superior to gas for baking,
though this was often disastrous during the early years of
frequent power failures. Others had electric wonder pots
and/or grills, often occupying a place of honor in the living
room while in use. Burners and oven put together did not
reach most Israel households until the late '70's or even
later.
A pressure cooker was a prized wedding present of the time,
second only to the Sypholux, the first do-it-yourself soda
syphon that worked on small rechargeable cartridges. This
soda had no ice cream or cherry on top, but was often
flavored with the ubiquitous petel, which translates
literally to `raspberry' but was, and remains, the generic
term for any `fruit' concentrate (you should excuse the
expression), just like today, these concentrates proudly
boast on their labels: "Contains no fruit." [Anyone remember
`himbersaft'? The only kosher sweet drink flavoring
way-back-when with a Washington Heights - Adas Jerushurun
supervision?] When you bought a cold drink of this stuff at a
kiosk, you asked for gazoz, and since paper cups were
an expensive rarity, the kiosk man wash-squirted your glass
in a wondrous gadget with a quick flick of his wrist. As I
recall, gazoz cost 6 agorot at the time, in the
mid-sixties, that a ride on Jerusalem's Hamekasher bus cost
17 agorot, the equivalent of a little over 5 cents. [Plain
soda was closer to the American `2 cents plain'.]
A child growing up in the fifties was unable to choose his
breakfast and dinner from 70 or so different kinds of milk
treats. Ima offered him leben (3% fat),
lebenia, today's marketname of eshel or
eshed at 4% fat, or, as a special treat,
shamenet (15%). Before the word `recycling' was
invented, these came in cute little one-portion glass `milk'
bottles (remember those) which were cleaned and returned to
the grocery for deposit, or picked up by the milkman, a genre
that still existed. These little bottles are now collectors'
items. The familiar cartons are still not popular in Israel,
being uneconomical. Following the plastic container
revolution, Ima could offer 3 kinds of prigurt: coffee,
strawberry and raspberry flavored. There were two kinds of
spreading cheese: 9 percent and 5 percent. Today, one has
only to walk into any small grocery to see how the dairy
section of the economy has developed through the years,
competitive to any American grocery, I think.
Here is a recipe from the fifties that "has stood the test of
time" and is delicious as well as eonomical for today. From
the book, "This is How We Cook", pulished in 1952. (Today,
most people would reduce the amount of oil.)
FISH WITH CABBAGE AND RICE
1 kilo fillet
1/4 kilo rice or bulgar wheat
1/2 kilo cabbage
100 grams oil
onion or scallion
a bit of tomato paste
1 liter hot water
garlic, salt, pepper
INSTRUCTIONS:
Slice fish into serving portions and salt, chop onions and
garlic, fry in oil until slightly browned. Add chopped
cabbage and then rice on top and tomato paste. Season with
salt and pepper. Cover with hot water and cook on low.
The chatzil ha'atzil, noble eggplant, has been part of
our lot since tzena (austerity) days. Eggplant was
relatively cheap even in the early years of the State, was
known to contain a high amount of iron, and every housewife
would pride herself on the number of different eggplant
dishes she could produce, included simulated meat dishes that
tasted like the real thing: meat or liver. There is a popular
cookbook that offers `100 Ways to Cook Eggplant,' and indeed,
it is a very versitile vegetable.
Mr. Raymond Olivia, along with Israel's top winning chef of
the year 1963, was hired by Zim Shipping Lines to add a
French flavor to Zim cruises. I would offer it but the recipe
calls for deep-fat frying, and since eggplant notoriously
gobbles up oil, I think I'll skip it. We are all too health
and weight conscious these days.
Walk through any supermarket in Israel today, or better yet,
through any open air market, and marvel at the vast variety
of produce once nonexistant or exotic, and today, part of the
scenery: strawberries the size of tangerines, kiwi, lichee,
mango, fresh pineapple and so. The words of our Prophets have
come to life and Eretz Yisroel is blossoming and overflowing
with kol tuv. We still pray to return to the days of
yore, to days of spiritual as well as material bounty.
Speedily and in our times!
