American Jewish cuisine

[1] It was heavily influenced by the cuisine of Jewish immigrants who came to the United States from Eastern Europe around the turn of the 20th century.

[3] Most of them settled in large cities in the northeastern part of the country, especially New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, and Baltimore.

The cuisine continued to evolve in America, in the homes of the immigrants and their descendants, and in delicatessens and appetizing stores in New York City and elsewhere.

They also popularized some of the dishes now associated with American Jewish cuisine, which were affordable for their upwardly mobile customers, but which would have seemed luxurious to their European ancestors.

For this purpose, "meat" means the flesh of mammals and birds, and "milk" includes dairy products such as cheese and butter.

[17] During the annual eight-day Passover holiday, Jews who are more traditionally observant do not eat chametz (leavened bread).

Therefore, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean dishes such as falafel, hummus, couscous, and shakshouka are also part of American Jewish cuisine.

According to some writers, it is sometimes possible to guess the ancestry of an American Jew by knowing their preferred style of gefilte fish.

[31] Litvaks ate gefilte fish that was flavored with salt and pepper, while Galitzianers preferred theirs to be sweeter.

The tradition may have arisen from the lack of other open restaurants on Christmas, as well as the close proximity to each other of Jewish and Chinese immigrants in New York City.