New kosher cookbook serves up Southern classics
By Rachel Tepper · November 15, 2009

MEMPHIS (JTA) -- Southern food, a deep fried country cuisine eponymous with bacon fat and crawfish, is hardly something one would expect to find on a kosher plate. But a Jewish day school here is hoping to change this perception with "Simply Southern: With a Dash of Kosher Soul," a new cookbook chronicling the history and recipes of Southern kosher cooking.

Four-and-a-half years ago, the Margolin Hebrew Academy initiated a project that aimed to collect kosher recipes unique to the southern United States. Originally intended to be a modest fund-raiser, the venture far exceeded the school’s expectations by eliciting more than 1,500 responses from Jewish families in the South.

The book’s editors, Dena Wruble and Tracy Rapp, said the project started with an ad requesting recipes and personal stories placed in The Hebrew Watchman, the Jewish newspaper for the Memphis community.

A team of volunteers recruited by Wruble and Rapp prepared about 500 individual recipes before settling on a mix of 300 dishes ranging from time-honored Southern meals, including fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, to traditional Jewish fare with a distinctly Southern twist, such as latkes with parsnips and chives.

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