Marcie Cohen Ferris

Examining the expressive power of food throughout southern Jewish history, Ferris demonstrates how southern Jews reinvented traditions as they adjusted to living in a largely Christian world. Features anecdotes, oral histories, and more than 30 recipes. Photos.

Culinary Tales of the Jewish South

Matzoh Ball Gumbo

Steven Ovadia

Any history of Jews in America has the same narrative arc: German/French/Alsatian Jews come to the U.S. and assimilate. Eastern/Central European Jews follow and the first wave try and help the last wave assimilate/blend in. Some tension ensues.

Jews in the South follow this pattern but Ferris' book is still fascinating, due to her respect for Jewish food and for Southern culture.

She tracks the Jewish experience by Southern region and teases out the subtleties. Her most complete chapter covers Jews in the Delta, which isn't surprising given that Ferris is from that region.

The book includes recipes, but I would hardly call it a cookbook. The recipes really help flesh out the narrative, so when someone talks about a brisket their mom (or maid) used to make, you can see exactly how it was made.

Ferris does a great job welding history and scholarship to personal interviews. The book is never dull nor dumb.

Matzoh Ball Gumbo Culinary Tales of the Jewish South

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