What Kind of Tsimmes Did Your Family Eat

Amarante

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 4:30 pm

I grew up with vegetable tsimmes - sweet root vegetables. The version that my Bubbe made was probably carrots and sweet potatoes. I like parsnips a lot so I added those. I don't think winter squash was a thing so I don't remember eating any version with winter squash.

I never had tsimmes with meat. It was always served as a side dish and I associate it strongly with Rosh Hashanah meals cooked by my Bubbe. I don't know why I don't remember it for other meals as it is not that difficult to make. And some kind of fruit like prunes I think was added. As a child I definitely wasn't a fan of prunes or stewed fruit and even as an adult I didn't care for the compote that my mother would cook up regularly.

At any rate, that era of cooking was before roasted vegetables and roasted vegetables seem to be more of a vegetable side that is served except for very traditional menus.

Anyway what was your family's tsimmes and where were they from? My traditional recipes are from my maternal Bubbe who came from Poland.

Tracing a Classic Jewish Dish Throughout the Diaspora

Tsimmes, a beef, carrot and sweet potato stew that is traditionally served at Rosh Hashana, slowly evolved over centuries and across continents.

By Joan Nathan
Sept. 8, 2020

Late last year, when my husband was very ill, my friend Debbie Goldberg dropped off a tsimmes, a holiday dish that I had not eaten in years. After heating it up and dipping my fork into the meat and sweet potatoes, memories of my own family — the sweet potato-and-pineapple casserole topped with marshmallows at Thanksgiving, and the fork-tender brisket that I always make for holidays — came rushing back.

Traditionally made for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, which begins on Sept. 18 this year, or the harvest festival of Sukkot, which begins on Oct. 2, this comforting slow-cooked beef stew with sweet potatoes, carrots and sometimes prunes is so tied to Debbie’s family that she serves it at every holiday and often for Shabbat. She usually makes a double batch, putting one in the freezer to save for emergencies like mine, or for visits from her children or grandchildren.

I have tasted many versions of tsimmes throughout my career writing about Jewish food, always fascinated by the evolution of this dish throughout the diaspora.

The word tsimmes (pronounced SIMM-es) comes from the German “zum Essen” and then Yiddish, where it came to mean “a fuss” or “big deal.” Unlike other holiday dishes where you just put a piece of meat in the oven, this one requires peeling vegetables and cutting them up — so maybe that was the fuss.

In the Middle Ages, it was first eaten in Germany as a meat stew with parsnips and turnips, according to the “Encyclopedia of Jewish Food,” which was published in 2010. Cooks added carrots when they became readily available in the 15th century; cut in circles like coins, they came to signify a wish for success in the new year. In later centuries, the dish went east with Jewish migration to Poland and Russia; potatoes were added in the 19th century, as were honey, plums and apricots for sweetness. (My husband’s mother made her tsimmes as a side dish with only carrots and honey, as they did in her native town of Zamosc, Poland, before World War II.)

When tsimmes traveled across the ocean to America in the late 19th century with mostly Eastern European Jewish immigrants, it became still sweeter with the introduction of sweet potatoes alongside white potatoes (later replacing them altogether), and the addition of brown sugar and cinnamon.

In Argentina, where tsimmes is sometimes served in a large pumpkin, it is similar to carbonada criolla, with meat, sweet potatoes and carrots, but also corn, squash and other vegetables found in South America. In Mexico, the dish might include chile powder, cilantro, mangoes and beans. And Lithuanian Jews, including those in South Africa, may add beets, with some cooks topping their tsimmes with a kugel crust made from potato and matzo meal for Passover.

When I asked Debbie why her dish tasted so good, she said that she makes it just the way her mother did, with only three ingredients: carrots, sweet potatoes and flanken, the German and Yiddish term for the chuck short ribs cut from the first five ribs, which are leaner and better for braising than plate short ribs. No spice, no onions.

Like Debbie I used flanken, but basically any cut with short ribs will do, as will high-quality beef stew meat. I kept the bones in for flavor and, rather than skimming the fat as it cooked, I put the stew pot in the refrigerator overnight so I could easily remove the hardened fat the next day. (A generation or two before me, people would have used that fat for cooking and baking.)

I played around with the dish in my kitchen, adding a bay leaf and onions for the slow cooking of the meat. I also substituted the white Japanese sweet potatoes that I love for yellow yams or sweet potatoes, and added pitted prunes; no need for brown sugar or honey. Debbie suggested adding a little matzo meal to thicken the broth, but I found no need for that.

I tore the meat into individual portions just before serving, and thought of discarding the bones. Debbie cautioned against that. “When I was a kid, I loved to suck the bones,” she said. And so, I left the bones in, just in case someone else, like Debbie, felt nostalgic for them.

Recipe: Tsimmes (Beef, Carrot and Sweet Potato Stew) - this was part of the ariicle

INGREDIENTS

3 bone-in flanken, also known as flanken-style ribs, or English-cut short ribs (about 3 pounds)
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1 fresh (or dried) bay leaf
3 pounds sweet potatoes, preferably Japanese white sweet potatoes (3 to 4 large sweet potatoes), peeled and cut into 2-inch chunks
2 medium white or yellow onions, halved and sliced
5 to 6 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch segments
8 ounces prunes, pitted and left whole
Chopped fresh parsley, for serving

PREPARATION

A day before serving, heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Season the meat with 1 tablespoon salt and 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper.

Put the meat and the bay leaf in a Dutch oven or other large, heavy pot, and add enough water to cover (about 8 cups). Bake, covered, for about an hour, then remove from heat, let cool and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, the fat will have congealed on top; using a slotted spoon, remove and discard the layer of fat.

Add the sweet potatoes, onions, carrots and prunes to the meat, and stir to combine. Bake, covered, for another hour, then remove the lid and cook until the potatoes are cooked, the meat is tender and the water is reduced, another 30 minutes to 1 hour. Season to taste. If there is more broth than you’d like, ladle some out and save for another use.
Sprinkle with parsley just before serving.

Last edited by Amarante on Tue, Sep 15 2020, 10:48 am; edited 1 time in total

ra_mom

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 4:45 pm

We didn't grow up with tzimmes. I have an aunt that makes it though. Our family prefers savory carrots.

Rutabaga

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 5:08 pm

I didn't grow up with tzimmes. For Friday night of Rosh Hashanah I'm planning on roasting rainbow carrots with apples and savory spices so it's not too sweet.

amother

Mustard

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 5:13 pm

I grew up with Tzimmes as sweet carrots. It was carrots cooked with honey I think.

Yerushalmi background

amother

Puce

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 5:39 pm

Carrots
Sweet potato
Prunes
Honey
Cinnamon.

greenhelm

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 6:06 pm

I didn’t grow up with tzimmes and I’m not a fan of cooked carrots. I do make something, however, which is pretty much a stew of sweet potatoes, apples, and cranberries with a little brown sugar that extended family refers to as tzimmes. Not sure it qualifies but we like it!

amother

Peach

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 6:18 pm

No tzimmes for me. Sephardi gal here:)

saralem

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 6:42 pm

My mother’s tzimmes is soooo good. Carrots cut into tiny, perfectly even cubes. A huge amount of carrots. Golden raisins. Flanken. The best ever. You could taste the love. My father a”h would sit and help cut the carrots with her, late into the night. It was very sweet— my father liked everything sweet, including the homemade gefilte fish and sweet kugel too. Thank you for this thread— puts me in a nostalgic yomtov mood.

amother

Floralwhite

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 6:46 pm

After reading one of Joan Nathan's books, I asked my grandmother about carrots/ tsimmes in the old country. She confirmed for me that it was dessert.

I didn't grow up with tsimmes because clearly, carrots aren't dessert, and my mother didn't really do sweet dishes during the main course. Chicken was savory, kugels, etc. We had one sweet and sour roast with cranberry sauce for chaggim, but that's it. No sweet veggies.

Today, I do balsamic and honey roasted baby carrots.

amother

Dodgerblue

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 6:47 pm

My family won’t touch tzimmes.
I cook some carrots with brown sugar and honey and we just use the tiniest drop for the simanim.
In the past I’ve made fancy recipes with pineapple, sweet potatoes... no one eats it here.

Hashemlovesme1

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 7:12 pm

My mother and grandmother make it with carrots, pineapple, and they used to put in Golden raisins too. Cooked with brown sugar and honey. I haven’t had it in years but I remember it being really a little too sweet for a main.
Now I just roast carrots or use them in a kugel or main meat dish.

ra_mom

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 7:27 pm

My family loves seasoned raw paper thin slices of carrots on the Simanim plate (tossed with olive oil and salt) Smile

amother

Cerise

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 7:35 pm

We do carrot muffins as no one liked the traditional tsimmes when we were little. Guess that covers those who said it was a dessert.

alef12

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 7:40 pm

Never ever even tasted tzimmes!
We had Roasted carrots drizzled with a little honey growing up. I think I'm making roasted carrots with tahini miso dressing this year.

For reference, my family is VERY American on my mother's side as my great grandmother was born in the U.S. in the early 1900s. Whatever culinary tradition she had from back in Russia where her parents came from as children in the late 1800s has long been lost almost 150 years later. (My mother's father was a German Jew so we do have a traditional savory cabbage casserole on Succos, Not a sweet stuffed cabbage type dish!, so I'm not without any traditional foods LOL

)

Combine that with an Israeli grandmother on my father's side and Hungarian grandfather who lost his entire family before he was 16 and I have a complete lack of Eastern European culinary heritage.

alef12

Mon, Sep 14 2020, 7:42 pm

ra_mom wrote:

My family loves seasoned raw paper thin slices of carrots on the Simanim plate (tossed with olive oil and salt) Smile

Forgot to say we also serve plain raw carrot sticks. The carrots are usually straight out of the garden so really delicious Smile

yo'ma

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 10:46 am

I’ve had tzimmes growing up, but I can’t remember the last time. We had it sweet. I think with carrots, sweet potatoes, pineapple, and honey. I mentioned tzimmes to my kids and they had no idea what I was talking about.

I don’t know if my mother made it because my father wanted it, and that would be litvak, or my mother, and that would be more chasidish.

thunderstorm

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 1:33 pm

Carrot slices sautéed with honey and cinnamon

amother

Cyan

Tue, Sep 15 2020, 4:21 pm

I didn't have tzimmes growing up and now I make it pretty much only for pesach with sweey potatoes, carrots, apricots and prunes. My mother used to make a main dish that some people call tzimmes, which is a stew of beef cubes, potatoes, carrots and onions. I don't call that tzimmes, I call it goulash, though I'm not Hungarian. My mother called it gedempte fleish.