Back in the 1960's and 1970's in Israel electrical appliances were tremendously expensive. Many homes had to make do with a gas stove top and a kettle to boil water and the ingenuity of Israel was challenged to come up with a solution. Enter the Wonder Pot "Sir Peleh"
שיר פלא
שיר פלא
The wonder pot fit over your stove burner and had a heavy metal lid and the heat from the gas stove came up and over the cake being baked inside. I got to Israel in 1983 but people who had no ovens were still using these and as starving students we of course were ovenless. I remember my roommates and I at the Ulpan (Hebrew study program) in Beer Sheva opening the contraption with amazement to see the cake inside. If I remember correctly the cake was stuck to the pan like crazy (where was bakers joy when I needed it?) but we ate it anyway.
A friend of mine shared with me a funny story about a new immigrant trying to buy a "wonder pot". She went to the market with a friend to buy a Sir Peleh and unfortunately mixed up her vowels around the letters and by mistake asked for a "Sir Hapalah" which is an "Abortion Pot" and she nearly frightened the man in the market to death. Her friend was laughing too hard to rescue her and she had no idea what she had said.
Interestingly the Crockpot also has Jewish roots: The Naxon Utilities Corporation of Chicago, under the leadership of Irving Naxon, developed the Naxon Beanery All-Purpose Cooker. Naxon was inspired by a story his Jewish grandmother told about how back in her native Lithuanian shtetl, her mother made a stew called cholent, which took several hours to cook in an oven.(Naxon, Lenore. "My Dad, the Inventor of the Crock Pot." Beyond Bubbie. 8 April 2013. 2 May 2013).
The Rival Company bought Naxon in 1970 and reintroduced it under the Crock-Pot name in 1971. Slow cookers achieved popularity in the US during the 1970s when many women began to work outside the home. They could start dinner cooking in the morning before going to work and finish preparing the meal in the evening when they came home. (Wikipedia)
For dinner on Friday I made Lentil soup with ribbons of Kale, green beans with a white bean and mushroom sauce and ratatouille over couscous. As I write this my wondrous little slow cooker is making a chocolate cheesecake for Shavuot which is next weekend. Let you know later if this is a good idea.
Happy Slow cooking!
A friend of mine shared with me a funny story about a new immigrant trying to buy a "wonder pot". She went to the market with a friend to buy a Sir Peleh and unfortunately mixed up her vowels around the letters and by mistake asked for a "Sir Hapalah" which is an "Abortion Pot" and she nearly frightened the man in the market to death. Her friend was laughing too hard to rescue her and she had no idea what she had said.
Interestingly the Crockpot also has Jewish roots: The Naxon Utilities Corporation of Chicago, under the leadership of Irving Naxon, developed the Naxon Beanery All-Purpose Cooker. Naxon was inspired by a story his Jewish grandmother told about how back in her native Lithuanian shtetl, her mother made a stew called cholent, which took several hours to cook in an oven.(Naxon, Lenore. "My Dad, the Inventor of the Crock Pot." Beyond Bubbie. 8 April 2013. 2 May 2013).
The Rival Company bought Naxon in 1970 and reintroduced it under the Crock-Pot name in 1971. Slow cookers achieved popularity in the US during the 1970s when many women began to work outside the home. They could start dinner cooking in the morning before going to work and finish preparing the meal in the evening when they came home. (Wikipedia)
For dinner on Friday I made Lentil soup with ribbons of Kale, green beans with a white bean and mushroom sauce and ratatouille over couscous. As I write this my wondrous little slow cooker is making a chocolate cheesecake for Shavuot which is next weekend. Let you know later if this is a good idea.
Happy Slow cooking!