Edith Klein's Cholent
- Total Time
- About 8 hours 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1pound dried Great Northern beans
- ¼cup chicken fat or vegetable oil
- 2large onions, chopped
- 3shallots, chopped
- 3cloves garlic, chopped
- 2½pounds boneless flanken or brisket, in 2-inch chunks
- ½pound pastrami, in one piece
- 1tablespoon Hungarian paprika
- 1tablespoon honey
- ½cup pearl barley
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Nutritional analysis per serving (8 servings)
484 calories; 20 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 31 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams dietary fiber; 7 grams sugars; 43 grams protein; 721 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Place beans in a bowl, cover with cold water to a depth of 2 inches and allow to soak at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Step 2
Heat fat or oil in a large, heavy casserole. Add onions and shallots and saute until golden. Stir in garlic and cook for about a minute. Remove the vegetables from the pan with a slotted spoon, draining them well, and set aside.
- Step 3
Brown chunks of beef lightly in the fat and remove them.
- Step 4
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Step 5
Cut pastrami into 1-inch cubes and stir them into the fat, then stir in the paprika and honey. Return onions, shallots, garlic and beef to casserole. Stir in barley. Drain beans and add them.
- Step 6
Add 6 cups boiling water to casserole. Cover and place in oven. Bake for 30 minutes.
- Step 7
Reduce heat to 250 degrees and bake 30 minutes longer. Remove lid, season to taste with salt and pepper, then cover casserole with a piece of aluminum foil and replace the lid. Place in oven and allow to bake 7 to 8 hours or overnight.
Private Notes
Comments
Of course it is a cholent if prepared in a casserole in the oven! That is the traditional way to make it. Slow cookers are a modern twist. Before the war, in towns and cities large and small, each family brought its cholent to the local bakery on Friday afternoon, and all the pots would bake together overnight until everyone picked up their pot after Sabbath services. Source: My mom, and everyone else who remembers. Look it up! I used to bake it too, till I caved and got a slow cooker.
Of course it is a cholent if prepared in a casserole in the oven! That is the traditional way to make it. Slow cookers are a modern twist. Before the war, in towns and cities large and small, each family brought its cholent to the local bakery on Friday afternoon, and all the pots would bake together overnight until everyone picked up their pot after Sabbath services. Source: My mom, and everyone else who remembers. Look it up! I used to bake it too, till I caved and got a slow cooker.
Cholent is traditionally made prior to shabbos on Friday. I was raised in an orthodox ashkenazi family, and the origins of cholent are in the halacha that states you cannot cook on shabbos. To have hot food on shabbos, orthodox Jews would start cooking the cholent prior to shabbos, and then eat it for lunch the next day. Somehow this loophole meant you weren't cooking on shabbos. My point was this recipe implies it isn't cooked overnight, in the oven is traditional, if done for 12 plus hours.
To be fair, I might be biased, because in mind a cholent is a hearty stew more so than a what I would describe as a casserole, and I personally wouldn't cook a casserole overnight.
Cholent is prepared in a slow cooker overnight. The ingredients considered in the recipe are interesting, but it's not a cholent if prepared in the oven as a casserole. I recommend placing all ingredients listed here in a slow cooker, and then filling said slow cooker till all ingredients are submerged with cold water, bone broth, and/or beer. Browning your meats in schmaltz before throwing them in the slow cooker is a good idea, I would also add a cup of kasha.
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