What's cooking. / Diaspora Jewish culinary culture Ashkenazi cuisine

Ashkenazi Jews (Heb. "Ashkenaz"—biblical ruler whose kingdom allegedly covered Northern and Central Europe) – Jews who in the Middle Ages settled in Western, Central and Eastern Europe. In the 10th-12th centuries, the centre of their culture was in the German lands; from the15th century onward their settlement shifted to the East, particularly to the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Ashkenazi Jews spoke Yiddish, a fusion of medieval western Germanic dialects, Hebrew and Aramaic, and eventually also Slavic.

Just like their Christian neighbours, Jews residing in Medieval Germany used to eat substantial meals—such as nourishing thick soups, cereal, meat, fish, root vegetables and leafy greens—to which they added lots of onion and garlic. It was in Germany that the main culinary tradition of Ashkenazi Jews was born: braided challah, gefilte fish, chopped liver, stuffed goose neck, chicken soup with noodles, cholent and kugel.

Italy was home to three Jewish communities: Jews who had been living in Italy since antiquity, Ashkenazim, and Sephardi Jews who arrived later. Since Italian Jews were mobile and engaged in international trade, their cuisine was inspired by many different cultures and was regionally diverse.
As early as the Middle Ages, Jews from Italy brought noodles to Germany, called "lokshn" in Yiddish.

Ashkenazi Jews started to move further east in the 12th-13th centuries, bringing with them culinary traditions which had developed in Germany. By the 16th and 18th centuries today’s Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus became the heart of the Ashkenazi diaspora. New ingredients and dishes appeared along with this change, such as heavy black breads, pickled cucumbers, horseradish, cottage cheese, sour cream, and barley. Other dishes such as borscht, blintzes (pancakes), farfel (kind of noodles), kreplach (dumplings), gribenes (cracklings), fruit compote, knishes and bagels reflected local influences and grew increasingly popular. Residents of various regions of this vast territory developed different tastes. In the Polish lands, sweet tastes dominated, whereas in the Lithuanian territory salty and peppery flavours were more common.

From the 16th century onwards, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was home of the largest Jewish diaspora in Europe. Jews played a vital role in local economy—working for royal or magnate estates, they acted as sales agents or leaseholders of various goods, such as mills, fish ponds, forests or taverns. A particularly important source of income in noblemen's estates was the production and sale of alcohol. It was especially important after the collapse of international grain trade in the 17th century. The nobility generally entrusted the running of taverns to Jews—until as late as the 19th century, Jewish taverns remained a mainstay of Polish village life.

Jews in East-Central Europe also resided in the territory of the Habsburg Empire (present-day Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary). Under the influence of local culinary traditions, Jewish cuisine incorporated kosher sausages, salami, sauerkraut, potato salad, schnitzel, goulash, stuffed peppers, apple strudel and doughnuts with filling. With time, doughnuts became a traditional Jewish meal served on Hanukkah. Ashkenazim drew much inspiration from the baking traditions of Vienna and Budapest.