First rye bread. Then the bagel. Cheesecake. Good old-fashioned chicken noodle soup, pot roast, blintzes. From eastern Europe to the Lower East Side to the rest of America, these wonderful, once exotic foods are now a part of our daily culinary language. Mixing a warm story of the author’s Rabinowitz family with the treasure of four generations of recipes, >Cooking Jewish> is home cooking at its best. Collected by Judy Kancigor, a food columnist for the >Orange County Register who self-published the book as a gift to her family and then went on to sell 11,000 copies, here are 600 traditional and untraditional recipes from her large and entertaining family of outstanding cooks: including the best chicken soup ever—really!—from her mother, Lillian.

Here’s Grandma Sera Fritkin’s Russian Brisket, a must for Passover. The real, handmade Gefilte Fish--and Salmon Teriyaki. Shav--and Barry and Laura’s Miso Soup. Seventeen different kugels, including the undisputed king, Rita’s Special Kugel (“created long before cholesterol became a household word!”). Mama Hinda’s Challah. Kasha With or Without the Varnishkas. Tsimmes with a twist--try them Southwestern Chile-Stuffed. Glorious dishes from the Sephardic side of the family, like Moroccan Spicy Apricot Lamb Shanks and Malca’s Baba Ghanoush. And befitting the work of passionate cooks who will use any excuse to get together to eat, nearly half a book's worth of desserts: pies, cakes, cookies, bars, and a dozen cheesecakes; Rugelach and Hamantaschen, Mandelbrot and Sufganiot (Hanukkah jelly doughnuts).

Every recipe, a joy in the belly.