Food and Food Preparation Preparation of a chicken was more complicated than one might think. It passed first into the hands of the sheichet -- the religious officiant who was solely authorized to kill the fowl, according to Jewish ritual. Then a woman would pluck the feathers. Once at home, mother would plunge the chicken into a basin of cold water. According to dietary laws it had to be submerged for several hours but after about half an hour, mother would say in a impatient tone, “That's enough!” and begin dissecting the bird.
First the liver would be cooked, then chopped in a wooden bowl with a curved knife, together with a hard-boiled egg and an onion. The result was a kind of chicken-liver paté. Then mother would remove a large part of the chicken skin, cut it into small pieces and fry them in a pan with sliced onions. When the onions turned a golden color and the skins began to curl, the pan would be removed from the flame and we waited eagerly for the grievenes (chitterlings) to cool off. This delicacy was served on slices of black bread, onto which a bit of the shmaltz (hot liquid fat) was poured. It was our favorite luncheon meichel (tidbit).
Summer was of course the best time for food. If the season was very good and the peasants had an abundance of vegetables, our table was livened with cucumbers, carrots, radishes and at time fresh peas. The young girls would go into the fields among the bushes picking wild raspberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Mother loved the berries as much as anyone but she complained about her long dress getting caught in the brambles and getting her arms scratched. We girls didn't mind that at all. It was one of the things my girl friends and I enjoyed doing the most.
Editor's Notes: See the Subject Index for a summary of Dorothy's descriptions of food in Wysokie.
