FERN FAMILY RECIPE BOOK FERN FAMILY RECIPE BOOK Traditional Recipes of Fern & Related Families Edited by Linda Dinerstein and William H. Fern With special thanks to Yvette Scharf Fern Family History Project Westport, Connecticut This edition is published in printed, digital, and compact disc formats. Copies have been distributed to members of the following related families, originating in Eastern Galicia, Austria-Hungary (later Poland, present-day Western Ukraine) and descending from: Leib Moshe Fern and Feige Klinghoffer of Drohobycz Elias/Elio Fern and Chana Lang of Sambor Ephraim Fishl Fern and Chaya Ettel/Ethel Kolten of Wolostkow near Sadowa-Wisznia Hersh Zvi Fern and Ettel Netta Marienstraus of Wolostkow Chana Sura Fern and Menachem/Maier Mendel Wind of Sadowa-Wisznia Samuel Fern and Necha of Rudki Moshe Fern and Machle Leichen of Grodek Jagiellonski Israel Fern and Rechel/Regina Knesbach of Kolomea Copies have been deposited in the United States at the Library of Congress, Yivo Institute, and the American Jewish Historical Society, and in Israel at Beth Hatefutsoth (Museum of Jewish Diaspora), and the Jewish National and University Library. Second edition published in U.S. in 2011 First edition published in U.S. in 1997 Copyright © William H. Fern 2011 Typeset by Linda Dinerstein Printed privately by Fern Family History Project 4 Edgewater Hillside Westport, Connecticut 06880 U.S.A. Contents Preface to Second Edition…………………………………………………………………vii Preface to First Edition........................................................................................................viii Metric Conversion Tables.......................................................................................................x Appetizers.................................................................................................................................1 Soups........................................................................................................................................13 Salads........................................................................................................................................27 Vegetables and Side Dishes...................................................................................................37 Main Dishes.............................................................................................................................65 Desserts.....................................................................................................................................97 Specialties...............................................................................................................................159 A Culinary Memoir...............................................................................................................171 Index of Names......................................................................................................................191 Index of Recipes.................................................................................................................... 195 Preface to Second Edition In 1997, members of Fern Family #1 were invited to participate in producing a family recipe book. In those days, we thought that those persons constituted almost the entire family. How wrong we were! Since the first edition of this book, we have made contact with several hundred more people who are Fern descendants and relatives. We have learned that all descendants of any of the following ancestors, who lived in Eastern Galicia, Austria-Hungary (later Poland, present-day Western Ukraine), are related to each other: Leib Moshe Fern and Feige Klinghoffer of Drohobycz Elio Fern and Chana Lang of Sambor Ephraim Fishl Fern and Chaya Ettel/Ethel Kolten of Wolostkow near Sadowa-Wisznia Hersh Zvi Fern and Ettel Netta Marienstraus of Wolostkow Chana Sura Fern and Menachem/Maier Mendel Wind of Sadowa-Wisznia Samuel Fern and Necha of Rudki Moshe Fern and Machle Leichen of Grodek Jagiellonski Israel Fern and Rechel/Regina Knesbach of Kolomea Because of this, the time has come for another Fern Family Recipe Book to include representatives of all the other families discovered in the past twelve years and those of Fern Family #1 who were too young or otherwise did not participate back in 1997. Hence, this second, expanded edition with 94 additional new recipes. Copies are being distributed to members of all the families. We have encouraged the contribution of a recipe from every family so all are represented. Sadly, some of the original contributors are no longer with us. This book includes all the recipes, their associations with family memories, and other writings that were in the first edition, as well as the newly submitted recipes. The preponderance of recipes from Fern Family #1 reflects some aspects of the recent historical research of the family. As their designating number shows, this branch was the first to be researched; their descendants are the most numerous; and, they were the sole contributors to the first edition. Not all of our family lives in an English-speaking country, so we invited people to submit recipes and their associated memories in any language they chose. In cases where they did, we include these in the original language along with an English translation. In those cases, metric measurements have been converted to English ones. Readers will notice that in some cases, several recipes for the same popular dish have been included because each version is traditional in that household, and as such, deserves to be preserved. Also, we think that experienced cooks may find it interesting to compare variations. I am particularly grateful to Linda Dinerstein who typed, formatted and edited persistently and always in good humor. We hope that readers and family cooks will enjoy making these recipes while knowing their origins, and then serving them, just as the editor, Linda Dinerstein, has enjoyed working on this project. Bill Fern Westport, CT, July 2011 vii Preface to First Edition (1997) This family recipe book is a happy but completely unanticipated side result of the Fern Family History Project. When telling a friend about plans for our family reunion, she asked if I also planned a family recipe book. Recipes? I responded. What do recipes have to do with genealogy? By the time a fourth person asked me the same question, I figured we'd better have a recipe book. Published biographies, genealogical tables, and primary source materials could wait. Several other related publications have also been unanticipated. So far we've distributed a family directory of names and addresses (which we'll need to update in a year or two), a series of newsletters (still expected to continue on an irregular basis), photographs with identifying names taken at the family reunion of June 1997 (a complete set of which we intend to publish in a biographical volume). And here comes this recipe book which was never intended at all but soon became inevitable. Now that this last tangential venture has been completed, we hope the scholarly stuff will soon follow. The family stories which accompany these recipes make this more than a cook book. Their emotional associations humanize genealogical facts. Here are memories of good times and important people, of love and caring. My culinary memoir, which appears toward the end of this book, started out as a light introductory paragraph to one of my mother's recipes but grew uncontrollably. Other recipe contributors can probably recount similar memories of their own. Maybe that’s a theme for another family book, if someone else would like to edit it! We were hoping to have this book ready months ago, in time for the reunion. As the reunion came closer and our preparations turned more frenetic, it became obvious that this project was too complicated for us to meet the original target date. We like to think that the book may have improved with the slower cooking. Many of these recipes go back quite far, some are newly traditional and a few are multiple variations of the same tradition. We must warn you that we did not kitchen-test the recipes. Besides taking more time, kitchen-testing would have produced too many calories. However, each contributor carefully approved (and often revised) each proof, and we read each recipe with a sharp eye. We feel sure you'll find that they all work. While compiling the book, it became apparent that our family boasts many fabulous cooks. Each branch of the family has its own culinary heroines, past and present. Daughters, daughters-in-law, granddaughters and nieces pay tribute here to many master cooks of the past, and themselves, though modest, are expert cooks. All their names, both contributors and remembered ones, are listed in the Index of Names. viii I regret not having personally eaten at the tables of all these fabulous cooks, but I've enjoyed the superb cooking of quite a few. In the memoir of my childhood, which deals primarily with memories up through World War II, I mention only a few who belong to the Wolf Hersh branch (Salcia Schafer, Dora Fern, and my mother, Lillian Fern). But since then, I've come to know others, especially among the Israeli cousins. In the early days of Israel, little was available to buy. Yet, Israeli women produced marvels on two-burner cookers. On my first trip to Israel in the late 50's shortly after the War of Independence, I met two master cooks. Dora Fern Tepper is now sadly gone, but Slavka Danishevski Halleman, presently in her 80's,