[Jim]

Any insight? With a $75 price tag, it's a bit of a stretch for this teacher to ante up without a bit of prodding. Anybody read it?

[phatch]

Not that one. Check your local library and if they don't have it, you can often do inter-library loan from another library that does have it. You may have to pay a small fee for this but it's much cheaper than buying the book.

Jeff Smith wrote one on a similar topic called The Frugal Gourmet on Food and Theology: Keeps the Feast. I read it many years ago and enjoyed it then. I didn't cook much from it as I didn't know where to find those ingredients at that time. It's out of print now but can be purchased cheaply in used condition.

Barnes*&*Noble.com - Used Book Search Results - Frugal Gourmet on Food and Theology: Keeps the Feast -- Jeff Smith - Hardcover - 1st ed

It's essentially cooking based on foods in the bible and what the Holy Land has traditionally eaten with discourse along the way about the symbolism, religious use and practice and the guest relationship of the middle eastern cultures.

Phil

[Jim]

Phil,
I use the interlibrary system almost daily. I have the Smith book you mentioned. It is good, but a bit too succinct; a good book, but not much more than the surface. This particular tome by Chiffolo has been getting some good press, but nothing notable from any foodies.

[phatch]

I responded without looking who had posted. Had I read your name, I probably wouldn't have answered as you know much more than I on these topics.

Anyway, my library system has 4 of these on order. I think I'll drop my name in the hold list. And thanks for a heads up on an interesting book.

Phil

[phatch]

I just got my hold notice. I'll be picking it up later today.

Any interest in this book still?

Phil

[Jim]

Tons of interest... birthday coming up soon... hinting to wife... no luck, thus far.

[phatch]

Considering the title and the sales price, I was expecting a much bigger book. I've read a couple of the chapters so far. It's a well constructed book. Good paper and well bound.

The authors prepare 18 menus taken from events and information about the meal from various biblical passages. Things are largely modernized including the use of tomatoes in various dishes. And they take a free hand in crafting multi course menus on the theme. For example, the two Jacob/Esau meals (mess of pottage for the birthright and faux game for the blessing) repeat the prime ingredient in different guises.

The pottage meal has Lentils with Rice, (Mejeddah), Onions with Lentils, Nuts and Fruit (Basai Badawi) and Esau's Pottage. They're interesting dishes, but I think they go farther in complexity and multiplicity than Jacob would have in preparing "a mess of pottage". Plus lots of other dishes of vegetables, fruit and bread.

The faux game menu includes a goat dish, a lamb dish and a venison dish. The goat is from "a large box of frozen goat cubes" A weight measurement would have been infinetly more useful.

And there are some downright odd (to me) recipes and ingredients. Camel's milk for one. Doubt I could find that and no hints on finding it given. I'd have appreciated a better explanation of some of the others too. For example, in the Passover chapter, there is a recipe for Haroset a la Greque that includes "a pinch of powdered red brick". This is briefly explained a couple of pages earlier to be a sweet paste of (various things) that recalls the mortar for setting the bricks while slaves in Egypt. Yet elides mention of it actually including bricks. I can see the point but not when I first read the recipe which includes no such explanation with it. I had to backtrack hoping for an explanation. And I must admit to seeing no appeal in eating the dish with or without the brick powder. But I'm not Jewish and am certainly lacking the cultural insight and full appreciation of the Jewish experience.

I like the quotes from various versions of the bible and their explanation of time place and culture. They're not particularly in depth. They do a good job with the history, but not as much as I'd have hoped with the culture. I haven't yet been impressed with the cooking which is modern and not well tied to the stories. I'd have preferred an attempt at creating something more likely to have been eaten and more explanation of why and how.

So far I'm not impressed. It's certainly not worth $75.00 to me. Get a library copy if you can and decide for yourself. I really think Jeff Smith's was better for what I'm looking for from a Biblical cookbook.