When immigrated to New York The earliest delis were kosher, but Carnegie and Stage to down Dr. Brown’s from central and eastern , they according to David Sax, author of Save the soda and while keeping an eye out found comfort in the Lower East Side Deli, competition among kosher authorities for the celebrities who patronize them. pushcarts that sold cheap, familiar foods: and state labeling laws led to battles, Like Yiddishisms, the has knishes, pickled , cured meats and riots, food cheats and soaring prices. The permeated American culture—and in pickles. The vendors, mostly Germans, supervised kosher delis became stricter and this case generated ubiquitous spin-offs, soon moved indoors, inventing a sort of eventually catered only to Orthodox Jews a combination of fast food restaurant and restaurant that sold the same nostalgic willing to pay premium prices. So today shop selling cold cuts and . But in delicacies. It was called a . what is generally known as a Jewish deli is recent years, traditional delis have been The word comes from the German really a kosher-style deli, albeit usually still closing, hurt by soaring prices for meat and delicatessen—roughly “delicious things owned and operated by Jews. changing tastes. In 1931, Sax says, there to eat.” Despite its etymological origins, Over the years, the overstuffed corned were nearly 2,000 delis in Jews transformed the delicatessen into a and on rye have been just alone. Today, there are just a handful, plus 20th-century institution that served iconic half of the attraction. The other half is a smattering around the country and in old-country dishes often adapted to meet the social function, says Michael Pollan, Canada, mostly in large cities. modern tastes. Using family recipes, they author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, who In an age of tofu and quinoa, the

66 MAY/JUNE 2010 an era of healthy eating with emphasis and don’t serve because the only flavors of traditional deli food, just as on local and seasonal ingredients and brand sold commercially comes from they are. Where do these dishes come smaller portions, to trim waistlines and Hebrew National, owned by ConAgra, a from and how are they prepared? Here bulk up the bottom line. Karen Adelman large industrial corporation. we offer a brief history and description and Peter Levitt make pickles from local Adelman and Levitt are part of a of the most popular Jewish deli dishes, cucumbers and their own celery tonic national trend: a new generation of chefs including the Reuben, the blatantly which, unlike Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray, drawn to deli food but hewing to new unkosher American sandwich that has doesn’t include high-fructose corn syrup. culinary standards. Plenty of deli purists, nevertheless become part of the deli They use only locally produced pastrami nevertheless, love the ingredients and tradition.—Eileen Lavine THE DELICATESSEN TABLE OF ELEMENTS

added. Curing can take several weeks, or kosher sour dills with a combination with the dry cure taking a little longer, of fresh garlic and dill, other spices and It’s got nothing to do with com although it results in a tastier, firmer saltwater flavors; half sour, the most on the cob. The name comes from product. The mixture used for the rub—a common in Jewish delis; bright green coarse pellets of salt, the size of corn secret combination for each cook—can new pickles that ferment for just a few kernels, that were rubbed into dry- include black pepper, coriander, juniper days; and spicy hot pickles for those cured meat to preserve it in the days berries, garlic, paprika, allspice, even red with strong stomachs. before refrigeration. In England, the wine vinegar or . After the dish is called salt beef. is the meat absorbs the flavors, it is smoked favored cut for , the layer over hardwood sawdust for two to 12 of fat adding flavor. Two methods are hours. Ideally, pastrami should be tender, This grilled sandwich made with used for curing (or corning) the meat. grainy, a little crumbly, light red in color corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut For the dry cure, salt, sugar, spices and and with just enough fat to add juicy and Russian dressing on rye bread has preservatives are rubbed into the meat, flavor. Finally, the meat is steamed for become a deli staple—although there’s which is then layered in barrels for one several hours, sometimes with the deli’s nothing kosher about the combination of to three weeks. The wet cure soaks the own spices added, then kept hot until it cheese and meat and the sandwich’s roots beef in water mixed with the curing is sliced against the grain, plopped onto are anything but European. There are mixture to create a brine. After curing, good rye bread with a firm brown bottom two competing origin stories; take your the beef is washed to remove excess salt crust and spread with . pick. One claims that Arnold Reuben, and then boiled before being served. the founder of Reuben’s Restaurant and Today most of this is handled by meat Delicatessen in New York, made the first processors. Individual delis sometimes such sandwich in 1914 when a hungry season as they wish. Pickle barrels are the heart of the actress asked him for a special sandwich. old-fashioned deli, and customers He kept adding things to the bread until it expect a plate of free pickles on their was a foot high, and she told him, “That’s table. Pickles go back some 4,000 years the best sandwich I ever tasted!” The Making pastrami is a more varied and to the time when people learned to use a other version attributes the sandwich to complex operation. The word comes from salty brine to preserve cucumbers. The Reuben Kulakofsky, an Omaha wholesale the Romanian pastra, meaning preserve, first American pickle plant was built in grocer who played in a weekly poker and pastnma, meaning “cured meat,” via 1820. Pickle purveyors on the Lower game whose members made their own the Turkish basturma describing pressing East Side started out with pushcarts, sandwiches. After Reuben created his of spiced meat. The cut of meat used then opened stores; today there are 25 special, one of his fellow players put it comes from the forequarters of the steer, billion pickles packed each year in the on the menu at the Blackstone Hotel. usually the deckle, the leaner shoulder U.S. The famous New York barrel- A Reuben Club in Carmel, Indiana, cut, or the navel or plate, a smaller cut cured sour pickles copied Eastern meets regularly to evaluate the hundreds from the chest that is fatter and juicier. European recipes, curing the pickles of variations, which can also include The meat is cured dry—by rubbing the in salt brine with garlic and spices (and coleslaw, dark bread, roast outside with a paste of salt, sugar, spices added chemicals or preservatives), then beef and even Virginia ham. As David Sax and preservatives—or wet—by soaking storing them in barrels for up to six describes it, the Reuben is “so goyish it’s it in a salty brine, sometimes with spices months. Popular varieties include full practically kosher.”—Eileen Ijivine

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