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Purim is celebrated first of all with those triangular cakes, hamentaschen. And what cakes my mother baked! Hamentaschen is a recipe with ten eggs. But they were never enough! We had to make it with twenty eggs. The recipe is written, I also have it. Seven egg yolks, three eggs – this is for the dough. It is made with oil only, and not with cream or butter.
The seven egg whites that remain are used to make a sort of white cake. That is how we called it. The egg whites are beaten into a thick foam and mixed with a cup of sugar, flour, Turkish delight, raisins and exotic fruits. The mixture is then placed in greased trays and put in the oven. When done, the white cake is cut into slices, like a normal cake.
My mother would make also a sort of Roulade with honey, and filled with nuts, cocoa and jam. It was like a Strudel, filled with nuts, not with cheese. It seems to me it was a little bit like Baklava, but without the syrup.
This is how it is made: the dough is made of water, flour and salt, without yeast this time. It should be very well battered and beaten on the table – maybe you’ve heard of this. Afterwards it is set aside to rest, covered with a heated pot.
After an hour or so, the dough is laid over a white table cloth, covered with flour. Then that dough is softly rolled with the rolling pin, then put in the middle of the table and rolled the size of the table. Sometimes it would get even bigger than the table, and the margins were then cut out.
This rolled dough is very thin, like a cigarette paper. Even if it was torn a little, it was patched with some dough. After that the dough is spread with walnut blended with sugar, cherry jam, perfumed Turkish delight – on that time the Turkish delight had a rose taste, vanilla taste, according to the color.
Oh, and the pieces of butter spread on the whole table. Than this dough is taken with the table cloth and rolled like a turn-over, then cut in portions and baked in the oven. It was delicious! The butter melted, the sugar melted too and mingled with the walnut… But nobody makes this cake anymore.
On Purim they used to send sweets, cakes, especially to the poor people and to the relatives. This tradition is observed even today. For example, I don’t observe it, but I get sweets from others. My mother used to send cakes, too. Friends used to come to our house: my brother’s friends from his school, my friends and our neighbors. We used to work a whole week to prepare that many cakes.
There were also carnivals. Musical groups, called Klezmer, used to sing in every yard and go from door to door – they performed a specific kind of music, and most of them were Gypsies. But they played Jewish music – they had an ear for that –, and they learned Jewish songs by singing from door to door.
They had a group – a cymbal, a violin, and they sung also with their voices –, they sung and got sweets and money. When we were young, we used to disguise ourselves.
I remember when I was still young, I used to draw a face on a sheet of paper, cut out the nose, the mouth and the eyes, paint it someway, hide it then somewhere under the drawer and awaited dad’s home coming. And when he came I put the mask on, so that he shouldn’t recognize me. I was so convinced, that I pulled his leg. I was certain.
Just imagine: who could have been disguised in our home? Well, childhood is beautiful. Generally I disguised myself like that. We didn’t go from door to door, but other disguised people used to come by. Butonly whenwe were still young, after that they didn’t do it anymore, for Jews weren’t allowed to leave the house.
The seven egg whites that remain are used to make a sort of white cake. That is how we called it. The egg whites are beaten into a thick foam and mixed with a cup of sugar, flour, Turkish delight, raisins and exotic fruits. The mixture is then placed in greased trays and put in the oven. When done, the white cake is cut into slices, like a normal cake.
My mother would make also a sort of Roulade with honey, and filled with nuts, cocoa and jam. It was like a Strudel, filled with nuts, not with cheese. It seems to me it was a little bit like Baklava, but without the syrup.
This is how it is made: the dough is made of water, flour and salt, without yeast this time. It should be very well battered and beaten on the table – maybe you’ve heard of this. Afterwards it is set aside to rest, covered with a heated pot.
After an hour or so, the dough is laid over a white table cloth, covered with flour. Then that dough is softly rolled with the rolling pin, then put in the middle of the table and rolled the size of the table. Sometimes it would get even bigger than the table, and the margins were then cut out.
This rolled dough is very thin, like a cigarette paper. Even if it was torn a little, it was patched with some dough. After that the dough is spread with walnut blended with sugar, cherry jam, perfumed Turkish delight – on that time the Turkish delight had a rose taste, vanilla taste, according to the color.
Oh, and the pieces of butter spread on the whole table. Than this dough is taken with the table cloth and rolled like a turn-over, then cut in portions and baked in the oven. It was delicious! The butter melted, the sugar melted too and mingled with the walnut… But nobody makes this cake anymore.
On Purim they used to send sweets, cakes, especially to the poor people and to the relatives. This tradition is observed even today. For example, I don’t observe it, but I get sweets from others. My mother used to send cakes, too. Friends used to come to our house: my brother’s friends from his school, my friends and our neighbors. We used to work a whole week to prepare that many cakes.
There were also carnivals. Musical groups, called Klezmer, used to sing in every yard and go from door to door – they performed a specific kind of music, and most of them were Gypsies. But they played Jewish music – they had an ear for that –, and they learned Jewish songs by singing from door to door.
They had a group – a cymbal, a violin, and they sung also with their voices –, they sung and got sweets and money. When we were young, we used to disguise ourselves.
I remember when I was still young, I used to draw a face on a sheet of paper, cut out the nose, the mouth and the eyes, paint it someway, hide it then somewhere under the drawer and awaited dad’s home coming. And when he came I put the mask on, so that he shouldn’t recognize me. I was so convinced, that I pulled his leg. I was certain.
Just imagine: who could have been disguised in our home? Well, childhood is beautiful. Generally I disguised myself like that. We didn’t go from door to door, but other disguised people used to come by. Butonly whenwe were still young, after that they didn’t do it anymore, for Jews weren’t allowed to leave the house.
Period
Location
Iasi
Romania
Interview
Rosa Kaiserman