History[edit] Ashkenazi-style cholent was first mentioned in 1180, in the writings of Rabbi Yi tzhak of Vienna.

[7] In the shtetls of Europe, religious neighborhoods in Jerusal em and other cities in Israel before the advent of electricity and cooking gas, a pot with the assembled but uncooked ingredients was brought to the local baker before sunset on Fridays. The baker would put the pot with the cholent mixture in his oven, which was always kept fired, and families would come by to pick up their cooked cholent on Saturday mornings. The same practice was observed in Mor occo, where black pots of s hina (see Variations below) placed overnight in bakers ovens and then delivered by bakers assistants to households on Shabbat morning.[8 ] The unique cooking requirements of cholent were the inspiration for the invent ion of the slow cooker.[9] Variations[edit] Hamin (????) (pronounced ?amin), the Sephardi version of cholent popular also in Israel, derives from the Hebrew word ?? "hot", as it is always served fresh off the stove, oven, or slow cooker. The origin of this name is the Mishnaic phrase tomnim et ha chamim (Hebrew for "wrap the hot things"),[10] which essentially pro vides the Rabbinical prescription for keeping food hot for the Sabbath without l ighting a fire.[4][5] In Germany, the Netherlands, and European countries the special hot dish for the Sabbath lunch is known as schalet, shalent, or shalet.[8] These western Yiddish words are straight synonyms of the eastern Yiddish cholent.[11] The Jewish people of Hungary adapted the Hungarian dish, Slet, to their needs tha t serves the same purpose as cholent. As it serves the same purpose and its name sounds similar it is commonly confused with cholent or mistaken to be the same dish. This, however that is not the case. The key ingredients in slet are, beans (red kidney or small white) barley onions paprika, and optionally meat (Jewish people may use brisket or marrow bone; whereas others w ould more likely use salt pork, ham, or Hungarian pork sausage; both Jewish and non-Jewish Hungarians frequently add smoked goose, duck, or chicken meat.) Slet is probably the older of the two. It was likely modified by the Jewish peopl e living in Pannonia when the Magyars arrived[12] and introduced it to them. In Morocco, the hot dish eaten by Jews on the Sabbath is traditionally called s hi na or skhina (Arabic for "the warm dish";[13] Hebrew spelling[14] ?????). S'hina is made with chickpeas, rice or hulled wheat, potatoes, meat, and whole eggs si mmering in the pot.[8] In Spain and the Maghreb a similar dish is called adafina or dafina, from the Ar abic d'fina or t fina for "buried" (which echoes the Mishnaic phrase "bury the hot food").[13] Adafina was popular in Medieval Judeo-Iberian cuisine, but today it is mainly found as dafina in Jewish communities in North Africa. In Bukharan Jewish cuisine, a hot Shabbat dish with meat, rice, and fruit added for a unique sweet and sour taste is called oshi sabo (or osh savo).[15] The nam e of the dish in Persian or Bukharian Jewish dialect means "hot food [oshi or os h] for Shabbat [sabo or savo]", reminiscent of both hamin and s'hina. Among Iraqi Jews, the hot Shabbat meal is called tebit and it consists of whole chicken skin filled with a mixture of rice, chopped chicken meats, and herbs.[8] The stuffed chicken skin in tebit recalls to mind the Ashkenazi helzel, chicken

neck skin stuffed with a flour and onion mixture that often replaces (or supple ments) the kishke in European cholent recipes. Ashkenazi cholent recipes[edit] There are many recipes for cholent. Ingredients vary according to the geographic areas of Europe where the Jews lived and especially the personal preferences of the cook. The core ingredient of a traditional cholent is beef, usually shoulde r, brisket, flanken, or any other cut that becomes tender and flavorful in long slow cooking. The meat is placed in a pot with peeled potatoes, any type or size of beans, and grains (barley, hulled wheat, rice). The mixture is lightly seaso ned, mainly salt and pepper, and water is added to the pot to create a stew-like consistency during slow cooking. While beef is the traditional meat ingredient, alternative meats may include chi cken, turkey, veal, frankfurters, or even goose (echoing the French cassoulet). Other vegetables such as carrots, sweet potato, tomatoes, and zucchini may be ad ded. Spicing may be enhanced to include paprika, peppercorns, and even tomato sa uce. For additional flavor and browning, some cooks add unpeeled onions or a sma ll amount of sugar caramelized in oil. Some are known to add also beer or whiske y for extra flavor. One Popular addition/substitution for beans are cooked baked beans which enhance the flavor. Some put in BBQ Sauce or ketchup as well. A common addition to cholent is kishke or helzel. Kishke is a type of kosher sau sage stuffed with a flour mixture, chicken or goose fat, fried onions and spices . Traditionally, kishke was made with intestinal lining from a cow. Today, the c asing is often an edible synthetic casing such as that used for salami or hot do gs. Helzel is chicken neck skin stuffed with a flour-based mixture similar to ki shke and sewed with a thread and needle to ensure that it remains intact in long cooking. Sephardi hamin recipes[edit]

Hamin Sephardi-style hamin calls for whole, stuffed vegetables in addition to meat or chicken. Whole vegetables such as tomatoes, green peppers, eggplant halves and z ucchini are stuffed with a mixture of beef and rice, and are then placed into th e pot with meat or chicken and chickpeas. Sephardim also add spices such as cumi n and hot peppers. The ingredients and spiciness of hamin varies from area to area. Iraqi Jews prep are their version of cholent, known as tebit, with a whole chicken stuffed with rice. Jews from Morocco or Iberia make a version called dafina, which calls for spices like garlic, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and pepper, as well as whole egg s that turn brown and creamy during the long cooking process. The Spanish cocido ('stew') containing chicken and chickpeas is a likely offshoot of the tradition al hamin of the Spanish Jews. Yemenite Jews have developed various kinds of puff pastry cooked for ten hours, including jahnoun and kuban (eaten in the morning of the Sabbath rather than at mid-day, with dairy meals). Haminados[edit] Sephardi-style hamin typically includes whole eggs in the shell, which are place d on top of the mixture in the stewing pot and turn brown in the course of all-n ight cooking. The brown eggs, called haminados (gevos haminadavos in Ladino, huev os haminados in Spanish), are shelled before serving and placed on top of the ot

her cooked ingredients. In a Tunisian version, the brown eggs are cooked separat ely in a metal pot on the all-night stove with water and tea leaves (similar to tea eggs). Haminados can be cooked in this way even if no hamin is prepared. The addition of tea leaves, coffee grinds, or onion skins to the water dyes the she ll purple and the white a light brown, giving the egg a smooth creamy texture. B rown eggs are a popular accompaniment to ful medames (an Egyptian dish of mashed broad beans) and in Israel they may also be served with hummus (a spread of mas hed chickpeas). Literary references[edit] Cholent is the subject of poem by Heinrich Heine. He writes (using the German wo rd schalet for cholent), "Schalet, ray of light immortal! / Schalet, daughter of Elysium!" / So had Schiller's song resounded, / Had he ever tasted schalet. / F or this schalet is the very- / Food of heaven, which, on Sinai, / God Himself in structed Moses in the secret of preparing... (trans. Leland).[16] In the play "La Gran Sultana", first act (Jornada Primera), Miguel de Cervantes mentions the North-African Hamin, which he calls "borona", in the voice of anti-s emitic character Madrigal, who had surreptitiously inserted ham into a Jew's Cho lent: "y en una gran cazuela que tenan de un guisado que llaman borona, les ech de tocino un gran pedazo" ("and in a great pot they had of a stew they call borona ( a vegetable stew), I threw in a large piece of pork fat"). It's been said that C ervantes was a man of many cultures, but this and other details about the custom s around Hamin in that same play, imply the author had great familiarity with No rth-African Jewish culinary customs. In "Here Comes Mrs. Kugelman", a novel about preservation of the memory of a Pol ish town before the Holocaust, Minka Pradelski describes how the various cholent s of the fictional town of Bedzin would be brought to the town baker, who would place them in the large oven at the bakery, which would be tended by one man who would thereby violate the Sabbath. The cholents were given places in the oven r elative to the quality of the pots in which they were to be cooked.[17]