A few weeks ago the Jewish Daily Forward published an essay of mine entitled “Trans Fat: How A Staple of Parve Foods is Hurting Our Waistlines.”  In it, I explained how processed-food manufacturers at the turn of the last century attracted large numbers of new customers from among recent Jewish immigrants with marketing campaigns based on the fact that the partially-hydrogenated (trans) fats in their newly developed shortenings were pareve, or non-dairy.  This allowed traditionally dairy desserts to be made kosher for meat meals.  Procter & Gamble advertised that “The Hebrew Race has been waiting for 4,000 years” for a solution to its shortening problems.  Endorsements were solicited and received from rabbis and other community leaders.  Margarine, Crisco, and non-dairy “whiteners” rapidly supplanted traditional fats to become an integral part of what we now consider traditional kosher cooking.  It isn’t; one thousand years of kitchen wisdom were lost in just two generations. 

In Europe, the fats traditionally used by Jewish cooks included butter and cream for dairy meals, and goose or chicken fat for meat meals.  Jewish communities throughout Spain, Portugal, Greece, and the Middle East also used olive oil extensively.  Coconut oil, beef fat, and other less common fats were used as their availability allowed. 

I’m not advocating that we eat desserts like these regularly.  But a single slice once a week?  That’s fine.  What kinds of desserts were served at meat meals prior to the invention of partially hydrogenated fats?  Right now I am thinking about my Grandma Rosie’s rhubarb and strawberries — oh my goodness, that was so good!  Fruits, compotes, and baked goods, made with olive or coconut oil.  If you can get a copy of the Settlement Cook Book [check college libraries], published in Milwaukee in 1901, you’ll find many pages of delicious-sounding desserts.  And one hundred years later, the ideas keep coming.  You don’t need trans-fat-containing margarine or shortening to make a fantastic pareve [or vegan] dessert. 

Need an example?  Here’s a recipe for “Orange Cake,” a creation from David Leite, a Portuguese American food writer, and the publisher and editor-in-chief of the award-winning Leite`s Culinaria : A Food Blog of Recipes, Food Writing, and Cooking.  When you make this recipe, David says to be sure to use a light-colored Bundt pan because, for some reason, dark pans turn out cakes that stick and are unpleasantly brown.  

David Leite’s Orange Cake (c) 2009
Ingredients:  4 to 5 large navel oranges, 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt,
5 large eggs, 3 cups granulated sugar, 1 1/2 cups mild extra-virgin olive oil, confectioners’ sugar (for sprinkling)

1) Heat oven to 350°F. Place rack in center of oven and remove any other racks. Thinly coat 12-cup Bundt pan with olive oil, dust with flour, and set aside.
2) Finely grate the zest from 3 oranges.  Set aside.
3) Squeeze juice from 4 oranges. If you do not have 1 1/2 cups of juice yet, squeeze 5th orange. Mix juice + zest, set aside.
4) Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in large bowl, and set aside.
5) In a large bowl, beat eggs on medium-high about 1 minute. Slowly add sugar and continue beating about 3 minutes, until thick and pale yellow. Decrease speed to low, and alternately add flour mixture and oil, starting and ending with flour.  Beat until just a few wisps of flour remain. Add orange juice + zest, and whirl for just a few seconds to mix.
6) Pour batter into Bundt pan and bake about 1 1/4 hrs until cake tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it.  [Cover lightly with foil if top is browning too much.]  Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes.
7) Turn the cake out onto rack and cool completely. Then place in a covered cake stand and let it sit overnight. Just before serving, dust with powdered sugar.

David Leite says that this cake gets seriously better with age, so “don’t even think about taking a bite until the day after you make it, or even the day after that.”  So if you want it for this Friday night, buy your oranges now, and bake on Wednesday or Thursday. 
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