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Knish: In Search of the Jewish Soul Food
When Laura Silver’s favorite knish shop went out of business, the native New Yorker sank into mourning, but then she sprang into action. She embarked on a round-the-world quest for the origins and modern-day manifestations of the knish. The iconic potato pie leads the author from Mrs. Stahl’s bakery in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, to an Italian pasta maker in New Jersey―and on to a hunt across three continents for the pastry that shaped her identity. Starting in New York, she tracks down heirs to several knish dynasties and discovers that her own family has roots in a Polish town named Knyszyn. With good humor and a hunger for history, Silver mines knish lore for stories of entrepreneurship, survival, and major deliciousness. Along the way, she meets Minnesota seniors who make knishes for weekly fundraisers, foodies determined to revive the legacy of Mrs. Stahl, and even the legendary knish maker’s granddaughters, who share their joie de vivre―and their family recipe. Knish connections to Eleanor Roosevelt and rap music? Die-hard investigator Silver unearths those and other intriguing anecdotes involving the starchy snack once so common along Manhattan’s long-lost Knish Alley. In a series of funny, moving, and touching episodes, Silver takes us on a knish-eye tour of worlds past and present, thus laying the foundation for a global knish renaissance.
300 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
13 people are currently reading
575 people want to read
About the author
Laura Silver
8 books14 followersLaura Silver is an award-winning journalist whose writing on food and culture has appeared in the New York Times and the Forward and on NPR. Laura has been a writer in residence at the Millay Colony, the Banff Centre, and the New York Public Library. She is considered the world’s leading expert on the knish.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 1, 2014
I loved this book about Jewish comfort/soul food. It focuses on the knish (pronounce the "k"), but also highlights a few other types of Jewish food (kreplach, hamantashen, etc.). Most cultures share similar types of food - noodles, dumplings, turnovers, etc. Author Laura Silver finally gives the homely knish its due. One of the things I like the most is how the author shows the ways in which communities thrive around certain types of food. She paints vivid portraits of Mrs. Stahl and other knish shop owners in the NY/NJ area - I almost felt like I knew them and certainly wish I knew their families.
At one time, knish shops were common, this one favored more than that one and vice versa, depending on your family or location. Not so anymore. As with the Yiddish language, time and changing demographics have chipped away at this Jewish comfort food, but Laura Silver is doing her best to keep it alive.
At one time, knish shops were common, this one favored more than that one and vice versa, depending on your family or location. Not so anymore. As with the Yiddish language, time and changing demographics have chipped away at this Jewish comfort food, but Laura Silver is doing her best to keep it alive.
September 23, 2018
This personalized and poetic biography of the knish is the kind of book that ANYONE who loves words will enjoy. Through the eyes of the knish, Silver writes a cultural history of Brooklyn and its environs. Some day I will taste a knish, and find this love of which Silver speaks.
April 2, 2021
Food for thought? At least there's a recipe for knishes among the book's appendices. Laura Silver comes from a family that buys knishes, and her loyalty to one now-defunct Brooklyn knishery is no doubt commendable. Since my family baked knishes, I found her perspective odd, but she certainly traces every rumor, instinct, and impulse to try to find the origin of the knish, although since almost every culture has an economical dish that involves wrapping a filling in dough and baking or frying her efforts seem rather unnecessary. There's also an interesting chapter on the knish in popular culture.
May 1, 2014
Food writer and self-proclaimed “knish scholar” Laura Silver has written a history of the iconic potato pie she calls “the Jewish soul food,” just in time for International Knish Week, which begins on May 5th.
Silver was both shocked and saddened when Mrs. Stahl’s, her favorite knish emporium, closed its doors in 2005 after 70 years of serving top notch knishes. “I whimpered and clung to the stalk of a parking meter“ Silver writes of the moment she learned the venue had become a Subways.
This is a woman who takes her knishes seriously.
“Even for those of us who saw it coming,” she laments,” the loss of Mrs. Stahl’s was unthinkable. The absence of knishes made for a black hole within a void, within the pit of a person’s stomach.”
Fearing that her beloved “pillow of filling tucked into a skin of dough“ was becoming an endangered species, Silver devoted herself to learning as much as she could about the potato pastry that, she claims, “shaped her identify.” The result is this 300 page, generously illustrated book, covering 300 years of cultural and culinary history.
If you need to know anything about the knish, this is your book.
After describing the hundred-year-ago heyday of the New York knish, when dozens of venues like “Gabila’s” and “Ruby the Knish Man” thrived, Silver expands her quest geographically, tracking the rise and fall of knishes and knisheries from Poland to Paris, California to Canada.
You’ll learn about every possible kind of knish. The cocktail knish. The blueberry cheese knish. The broccoli knish. The kasha knish. (Silver’s favorite.) The sweet potato knish. Even the square knish.
If it’s knish-related, Silver is on it. The first appearance of the word “knish” in the dictionary? Webster’s, 1916. The world record for competitive knish eating? Eleven knishes in eighteen minutes. What do Enrico Caruso, Teddy Roosevelt and Leon Trostsky have in common? All three were known to have eaten a knish.
Silver tracks down every time the knish has made an appearance in popular culture, from Yiddish theatre to “Welcome Back Kotter.“ Knishes in poetry. Knishes in popular song. (Including rap.) The knish in literature. (Isaac Bachevis Singer and Susan Isaacs both used them as a plot device.) The knish on Broadway. Knishes, according to Silver, have appeared on television countless times. (My favorite example? A Muppet character called “Sid Knishes.”)
She covers a folk trio called “Love and Knishes.” And uncovers a connection between the knish and Eleanor Roosevelt. She shares a document called “The Ten Knish Commandments,” written in the 1920s, and profiles a group of contemporary Minnesota do-gooders who raise money selling home-made knishes.
Silver also reveals the fact that “knish” is Yiddish slang for the word “vagina.” (Who knew?)
Mixed into the history of the knish is Silver’s personal and family history, and an exploration of her own emotional attachment to the pastry.
Although it contains footnotes, and is published by a university press, “Knish” is anything but a scholarly tome. Rather, it’s a rambling “knish-mash” of tall tales, family lore, researched history, anecdotes, meditation and reminiscence, held together more with love than logic.
There’s also a definitive knish recipe, as well as a useful list of “Where to Get A Good Knish.” (Best restaurant name? New York’s Knish Nosh.)
Silver, who writes about food for both the New York Times and Forward, has become a one woman juggernaut of knish appreciation. Her goal? To “lay the foundation for a global knish renaissance.“ In addition to researching and writing this book, she both lectures about the knish and maintains a knish appreciation website (www.knishme.com) to keep other knish aficionados up-to-date.
One development Silver is tracking? There’s a movement afoot to re-open Mrs Stahls, including a Face book page (“Bring Back Mrs. Stahls”) that has close to 2,000 Likes.
“Knish,“ if you partake, will work its magic on both your taste buds and your heartstrings. And if you’re Jewish, it’s sure to bring back memories. “Proust had his mAdeleine,” Silver writes. “Jewish New Yorkers had their knishes.” Although a Detroit Jew myself (now living in suburban Philadelphia) I found myself back in Grandma Sadie‘s kitchen, a magical realm of delicious stuffed cabbage, out-of-this-world blintzes and, of course, mouth-watering knishes.
I hadn’t eaten a knish in years. The week I read this book, I had two. One potato. One spinach. Both delicious.
Let the knish renaissance begin!
(This review first appeared on www.womensvoicesforchange.org.)
Silver was both shocked and saddened when Mrs. Stahl’s, her favorite knish emporium, closed its doors in 2005 after 70 years of serving top notch knishes. “I whimpered and clung to the stalk of a parking meter“ Silver writes of the moment she learned the venue had become a Subways.
This is a woman who takes her knishes seriously.
“Even for those of us who saw it coming,” she laments,” the loss of Mrs. Stahl’s was unthinkable. The absence of knishes made for a black hole within a void, within the pit of a person’s stomach.”
Fearing that her beloved “pillow of filling tucked into a skin of dough“ was becoming an endangered species, Silver devoted herself to learning as much as she could about the potato pastry that, she claims, “shaped her identify.” The result is this 300 page, generously illustrated book, covering 300 years of cultural and culinary history.
If you need to know anything about the knish, this is your book.
After describing the hundred-year-ago heyday of the New York knish, when dozens of venues like “Gabila’s” and “Ruby the Knish Man” thrived, Silver expands her quest geographically, tracking the rise and fall of knishes and knisheries from Poland to Paris, California to Canada.
You’ll learn about every possible kind of knish. The cocktail knish. The blueberry cheese knish. The broccoli knish. The kasha knish. (Silver’s favorite.) The sweet potato knish. Even the square knish.
If it’s knish-related, Silver is on it. The first appearance of the word “knish” in the dictionary? Webster’s, 1916. The world record for competitive knish eating? Eleven knishes in eighteen minutes. What do Enrico Caruso, Teddy Roosevelt and Leon Trostsky have in common? All three were known to have eaten a knish.
Silver tracks down every time the knish has made an appearance in popular culture, from Yiddish theatre to “Welcome Back Kotter.“ Knishes in poetry. Knishes in popular song. (Including rap.) The knish in literature. (Isaac Bachevis Singer and Susan Isaacs both used them as a plot device.) The knish on Broadway. Knishes, according to Silver, have appeared on television countless times. (My favorite example? A Muppet character called “Sid Knishes.”)
She covers a folk trio called “Love and Knishes.” And uncovers a connection between the knish and Eleanor Roosevelt. She shares a document called “The Ten Knish Commandments,” written in the 1920s, and profiles a group of contemporary Minnesota do-gooders who raise money selling home-made knishes.
Silver also reveals the fact that “knish” is Yiddish slang for the word “vagina.” (Who knew?)
Mixed into the history of the knish is Silver’s personal and family history, and an exploration of her own emotional attachment to the pastry.
Although it contains footnotes, and is published by a university press, “Knish” is anything but a scholarly tome. Rather, it’s a rambling “knish-mash” of tall tales, family lore, researched history, anecdotes, meditation and reminiscence, held together more with love than logic.
There’s also a definitive knish recipe, as well as a useful list of “Where to Get A Good Knish.” (Best restaurant name? New York’s Knish Nosh.)
Silver, who writes about food for both the New York Times and Forward, has become a one woman juggernaut of knish appreciation. Her goal? To “lay the foundation for a global knish renaissance.“ In addition to researching and writing this book, she both lectures about the knish and maintains a knish appreciation website (www.knishme.com) to keep other knish aficionados up-to-date.
One development Silver is tracking? There’s a movement afoot to re-open Mrs Stahls, including a Face book page (“Bring Back Mrs. Stahls”) that has close to 2,000 Likes.
“Knish,“ if you partake, will work its magic on both your taste buds and your heartstrings. And if you’re Jewish, it’s sure to bring back memories. “Proust had his mAdeleine,” Silver writes. “Jewish New Yorkers had their knishes.” Although a Detroit Jew myself (now living in suburban Philadelphia) I found myself back in Grandma Sadie‘s kitchen, a magical realm of delicious stuffed cabbage, out-of-this-world blintzes and, of course, mouth-watering knishes.
I hadn’t eaten a knish in years. The week I read this book, I had two. One potato. One spinach. Both delicious.
Let the knish renaissance begin!
(This review first appeared on www.womensvoicesforchange.org.)
December 11, 2014
I am glad the definitive book on knishes has been written. That said, the author's humor, passion, and obsessionality were not quite enough to hold the story together and keep me feeling invested from start to finish. It's just not that deep a subject at the end of the day. Once she'd interviewed several of New York's prominent purveyors of knishes, she could have just wrapped it up there. That first chapter works well as an essay on disappearing cultural icons, gentrification and change in New York City, and how our identities and relationships are wrapped up in food and memory. Beyond that, I felt lost.
Maybe it's just me, and the fact that over the years I've eaten a lot of poorly reheated, unimpressive specimens from the Kosher stand at Orioles games. But the energy expended by the author in seeking the origins of the knish didn't convince me that there is much more to it than a snack-sized dumpling, no matter how much enthusiasm she has for the subject.
This book did make me hungry for knishes, though. I might need to hunt down the San Francisco business listed in the "places to find good knishes" section in the back of the book.
Maybe it's just me, and the fact that over the years I've eaten a lot of poorly reheated, unimpressive specimens from the Kosher stand at Orioles games. But the energy expended by the author in seeking the origins of the knish didn't convince me that there is much more to it than a snack-sized dumpling, no matter how much enthusiasm she has for the subject.
This book did make me hungry for knishes, though. I might need to hunt down the San Francisco business listed in the "places to find good knishes" section in the back of the book.
September 18, 2016
Equal parts memoir and history, this book is at its core an elegy to the place of the knish in the Eastern European-American-Jewish psyche. It's structured as a investigative journey, in the mold of Friedman's "The Aleppo Codex" or Sabar's "My Father's Paradise," as Laura tells of her search for the origin of the knish and its heyday in New York in the first half of the 20th century. The prose is inflected with American Yiddishims ("she knows from knishes") that make reading it familiar and intimate. It also made me hungry for a food I haven't had in years.
January 2, 2021
Enjoyed hearing the author speak on a webinar in 2020 about her ‘knish research interest’ and her book writing process. Fun and interesting book to kick off 2021 discussing the knish food industry and her interest in knishes! I’m going to attempt to make Mrs. Stahl’s knish this week! Interesting insight about Jewish food history and wonderful archival photos in addition to a lengthy bibliography and footnote section! Highly recommend this fun read and eager to learn more...perfect book for my ‘cooking journey’ as well!
June 12, 2018
A savory read!
This was a fun, in depth look at a piece of nostalgic kosher NYC Americana. An ode to what may be a rapidly declining piece of the culinary universe. I have many find memories of devouring a potato knish in Rein's Deli, Vernon, CT. Hope this delectable treat never fully vanished from the American public.
This was a fun, in depth look at a piece of nostalgic kosher NYC Americana. An ode to what may be a rapidly declining piece of the culinary universe. I have many find memories of devouring a potato knish in Rein's Deli, Vernon, CT. Hope this delectable treat never fully vanished from the American public.
February 11, 2020
Not sure if it was the book or just my enthusiasm for knishes themselves, but having found a compatriot "knisher" in author Laura Silver and learning all about the history of one of my favorite foods in New York was a treat!
October 3, 2023
I read this book cover to cover when I was writing my book Iconic New York Jewish Food. I love knowing the history of food and this book was stuffed with wonderful context to enjoy one of my favorite Jewish foods even more.
July 30, 2014
I don't even really like knishes.
Well - all I really recall ever having are the square brown-yellow ones that taste like the plastic they came in. If I ever had the real ones, I don't remember. Man I ain't even never been to Yonah Schimmel's! That will be rectified soon.
But the heart and trigger of this love letter to The Knish is something that speaks personally to me. Mrs. Stahl's. The author was particularly in love with the knish from the little shop that stood under the Brighton elevated line at the corner of Brighton Beach and Coney Island Avenues in Brooklyn. My dad loved that place too. In fact, I think he ate there weekly if not more than weekly, especially after my mother and grandmother were each too sick to cook anymore. I didn't partake too often myself (too busy eating pastrami sandwiches from Adelman's). But I instantly think of my dad at every point in this book that Mrs. Stahl's is the center of attention.
And now the shop that had Mrs. Stahl's is a Subway (and one I've unfortunately eaten in, if only because a neighbor worked there and who thought he was a real cool cat who knew my sister and I knew he was thinking of someone who was not my sister and he thought by being nice to me he was going to get in good with that sister and I let this go on for years before he finally said the sister's name and I revealed his mistake).
And Mrs. Stahl's lives on through a company in Vineland, New Jersey, a long ways away from Brighton Beach.
So if only for a trip down personal memory lane (and seeing ridiculously absurd ads for Mrs. Stahl's reprinted in the book), this book is great. And as an actual biography of the knish, it's pretty darn good too.
By the way, you know, people just like to say "knish". Yiddish words and Yiddish-sounding words resonate with people. Kasha. Kishke. Knedleach. Kreplach. Shpilkes. Zets! A part of me wonders if a lot of the nostalgia for old Yiddishe ways are just excuses to say these words (which is OK by me, because it's a stalwart against the self-hating resentment of our Borscht Belt past I notice a lot of fellow renegade Jews as well as pseudo-slick Sephardic-lite Cosmopolitan Jews of serious intent like to put on).
But the question must be asked: NU? Who will write of the story of the Stuffed Derma?
Well - all I really recall ever having are the square brown-yellow ones that taste like the plastic they came in. If I ever had the real ones, I don't remember. Man I ain't even never been to Yonah Schimmel's! That will be rectified soon.
But the heart and trigger of this love letter to The Knish is something that speaks personally to me. Mrs. Stahl's. The author was particularly in love with the knish from the little shop that stood under the Brighton elevated line at the corner of Brighton Beach and Coney Island Avenues in Brooklyn. My dad loved that place too. In fact, I think he ate there weekly if not more than weekly, especially after my mother and grandmother were each too sick to cook anymore. I didn't partake too often myself (too busy eating pastrami sandwiches from Adelman's). But I instantly think of my dad at every point in this book that Mrs. Stahl's is the center of attention.
And now the shop that had Mrs. Stahl's is a Subway (and one I've unfortunately eaten in, if only because a neighbor worked there and who thought he was a real cool cat who knew my sister and I knew he was thinking of someone who was not my sister and he thought by being nice to me he was going to get in good with that sister and I let this go on for years before he finally said the sister's name and I revealed his mistake).
And Mrs. Stahl's lives on through a company in Vineland, New Jersey, a long ways away from Brighton Beach.
So if only for a trip down personal memory lane (and seeing ridiculously absurd ads for Mrs. Stahl's reprinted in the book), this book is great. And as an actual biography of the knish, it's pretty darn good too.
By the way, you know, people just like to say "knish". Yiddish words and Yiddish-sounding words resonate with people. Kasha. Kishke. Knedleach. Kreplach. Shpilkes. Zets! A part of me wonders if a lot of the nostalgia for old Yiddishe ways are just excuses to say these words (which is OK by me, because it's a stalwart against the self-hating resentment of our Borscht Belt past I notice a lot of fellow renegade Jews as well as pseudo-slick Sephardic-lite Cosmopolitan Jews of serious intent like to put on).
But the question must be asked: NU? Who will write of the story of the Stuffed Derma?
September 9, 2016
I won this book from Goodreads First Reads, where I sometimes waste time by entering for free books, when I should be doing something more worthy and productive. It's a somewhat unlikely book for me to be reading, but they were good enough to send it to me, so I feel like I should give it a look. More soon.
A few days later
Well, I'm afraid if I write anything less than glowing I will be pegged as some sort of misogynist anti-Semite, but it just didn't float my boat. I had hopes for better because, although neither female or Jewish myself, I grew up in an overwhelming Jewish suburb of New York City and I have spoken to women on several occasions, so I felt that I could bridge the psycho-socio-physio-cultural gap.
But I just didn't understand the un-introduced and -expected outbreaks of Alan Ginzberg-influenced poetry in honor of the author's relatives and other knish-related personalities.
I guess I didn't have enough overlapping personal experience with the author, even if I went to public schools which regularly featured the knish on the lunch menu. The books I really enjoy cross barriers in culture, language, gender, and time, to bring another person's lived experience alive, as I am trapped in this prison of flesh and bone and others' lives will always remain something of a mystery.
But this book didn't make the leap. If your background overlaps with the author's, or perhaps if your imagination and/or empathy is greater than my own, you may enjoy this book more than I did.
A few days later
Well, I'm afraid if I write anything less than glowing I will be pegged as some sort of misogynist anti-Semite, but it just didn't float my boat. I had hopes for better because, although neither female or Jewish myself, I grew up in an overwhelming Jewish suburb of New York City and I have spoken to women on several occasions, so I felt that I could bridge the psycho-socio-physio-cultural gap.
But I just didn't understand the un-introduced and -expected outbreaks of Alan Ginzberg-influenced poetry in honor of the author's relatives and other knish-related personalities.
I guess I didn't have enough overlapping personal experience with the author, even if I went to public schools which regularly featured the knish on the lunch menu. The books I really enjoy cross barriers in culture, language, gender, and time, to bring another person's lived experience alive, as I am trapped in this prison of flesh and bone and others' lives will always remain something of a mystery.
But this book didn't make the leap. If your background overlaps with the author's, or perhaps if your imagination and/or empathy is greater than my own, you may enjoy this book more than I did.
November 1, 2014
Wonderful book and a quick read. The author has brought back memories of living in New York in the early fifties and always looking for the best Knish in town. Living here in the south in the early sixties I was always looking for a good deli that would have Knishes as I remembered them from my childhood. But as the author has stated and realized - it is not only the Knish that people remember fondly - but the total aspect of your surroundings in the fifties in NY that make memories. And although I am not Jewish it was one of my favorite foods after school. It was and still is a good comfort food.
The subject is well researched and provides historical background on the Knish and uses humor to make this an enjoyable read. This will truly be enjoyed by anyone growing up in Brooklyn and the Bronx and remember all of those characters you met when you went into a deli. Well done Ms. Silver!
I have received this book from LibraryThing early reviewers.
The subject is well researched and provides historical background on the Knish and uses humor to make this an enjoyable read. This will truly be enjoyed by anyone growing up in Brooklyn and the Bronx and remember all of those characters you met when you went into a deli. Well done Ms. Silver!
I have received this book from LibraryThing early reviewers.
December 20, 2014
Laura Silver is clearly passionate about knishes, but her passion does not come through consistently in her prose. This culinary history of the simple Jewish stuffed pastry known as the knish, seems choppy and disorganized. I was hoping for more knish recipes, but the only recipe that is included is a single knish recipe from the knish store of the author's childhood,"Mrs. Stahl's." The knish may be more of an east coast Jewish delicacy than a nation-wide one and as such there may a be a limited audience for this book.
I was delighted to receive "Knish" as a First Reads win and was very much looking forward to reading and reviewing it. While I found the book interesting in parts, I was hoping for more from it.
I was delighted to receive "Knish" as a First Reads win and was very much looking forward to reading and reviewing it. While I found the book interesting in parts, I was hoping for more from it.
June 20, 2024
I was quite excited to delve into a book about knishes, anticipating a rich exploration of this beloved Jewish soul food. However, I found the storytelling rather dull and the writing mundane. The subject matter had so much potential, but unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. This could have been a far more engaging and vibrant read.
July 22, 2014
A very informative book for a dish I didn't know existed until now. Now when I visit a city that has knish I would try it.
July 21, 2014
This is a great memoir of Laura's food culture and the history of the knish - I was hoping for more detailed recipes which is the only thing that would make this book better!
August 16, 2014
A light hearted quick beach read!
September 1, 2014
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September 15, 2014Review by Barbara M. Bibel for the Jewish Book Council.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews