If you DON'T eat cholent...

Executive Member Joined: Dec 01 2009 Posts: 443

do you never eat any hot foods during the summer, I am referring to both shabbos and weekday?

if you don't eat soup at all during the summer, do you still eat a hot main dish/veg/side dish

please explain why you do or don't.

I am asking because I want to understand why cholent (and sometimes chicken soup) is always targeted as the food that gets left out in the summer. I always like to defend the underdog Wink

Diamond Member Joined: Aug 07 2006 Posts: 2556

We eat many hot and cold foods year round.

I am a vegetarian, so I never eat cholent or chicken soup.

Heavy foods are less appealing in the summer, so I can understand why some people prefer to save cholent for chilly winter evenings. (Edited to clarify: cholent for lunch, cholent-type stew in the evening - I've never heard of anyone actually calling stew "cholent" except at Shabbat lunch).

Cold soups are a special summer treat, but hot soup is ok in the evening, when the weather is cooler.

Posted: Mon, Jul 23 2012, 12:49 pm Post subject: re: If you DON'T eat cholent...

We never leave out cholent. For us it's part of keeping the shabbos tradition. We don't eat soup in the summer usually-during the week but the shabbos staples always stay.
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Posted: Mon, Jul 23 2012, 1:07 pm Post subject: re: If you DON'T eat cholent...

I aim for cold lunch for Shabbat in the summer. We rarely eat soup, even in the winter (I love it, DH loves it, the kids won't touch it). And I don't "do" cholent...though I love my crock pot for other things in the winter.
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Posted: Mon, Jul 23 2012, 1:10 pm Post subject: re: If you DON'T eat cholent...

Niether DH nor I are big chullent fans, so I don't make it much. During the summer we usually do have hot food for both breakfast (eggs and toast) and dinner. However, Shabbat really depends on our mood. Last week we had crockpot manicotti. This week, we're going to have fish tacos, where most parts will be at most lukewarm.

Gold Member Joined: Feb 12 2008 Posts: 2386

We don't eat much soup or stew foods in the summer. Our food tends to be a lot lighter. In the winter I will make a heavy bean/lentil stew or soup and in the summer we have been eating giant salads instead. We have one window unit AC in our apartment which isn't working very well but if we had central air I'd me more willing to make hotter foods that take longer to cook. Shabbos meals are planned carefully to include the foods that take the least time and heat to cook otherwise we go into Shabbos at over 100F/40C and then we are miserable.

Posted: Mon, Jul 23 2012, 2:52 pm Post subject: re: If you DON'T eat cholent...

To the OP. I grew up with chulent during the winter months. It being that warm and nurturing thing everyone looked forward to on shabbat morning. We would wake up to the smell of chulent in the entire house. It was wonderful and brings back so many wintery snowy shabbat mornings. My mother never made it in the summer as it was too hearty and just too hot.
Now, married, the reason I dont make chulent is that my husband did not grow up with chulent and the first time he saw chulent was in a yeshiva at the age of 24. He was repulsed Smile

So, I am not going to make it for myself and my daughter tasted it once, she is 4, and she did not like it, so right now it is not worth it for me to make it. I miss it at times, but Ill wait for a full table full of people to make it Smile

Platinum Member Joined: Nov 17 2008 Posts: 5047

I don't eat care for cholent (I might on occasion eat a spoonful or so depending what else is served), but I make it every week, never fail for DH who would be very unhappy if I didn't.

I eat hot foods all summer; I just don't particularly like cholent.
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Posted: Mon, Jul 23 2012, 3:38 pm Post subject: re: If you DON'T eat cholent...

I still have fairly strict rule on the "cholent season"--starting from erev Succot till erev Shavuot, not during the summer. Having said that, I do make tebeet during summer. Even in summer we do have some form of hot food--though more likely rice, bhaji, curry that kind of things.

But if it's really hot, I may have cold meat entree (coronation chicken salad, cold sliced roast beef with horseradish)
Soup--if the weather is hot, we switch to cold soup.

Interestingly, the best cholent I've ever tasted was served (every week) at kiddush after service at the synagogue in Singapore, where the temperature rarely dips below 30C/90F.

Silver Member Joined: Sep 16 2009 Posts: 553

dh and I both like cholent just fine.
although -
we haven't had cholent on months!!!
not related to summer/winter.
just whenever we are not in the mood.
some times in the summer the idea of having the plata on all shabbos and heating up our kitchen doesn't sound exciting.
anyway if we don't eat cholent then it would either be chopped liver (maybe some cold cuts too) and dips and fresh salad.
lately we've been enjoying dairy meals - usually fish and dips+ cheeses onion rolls instead of challa' and last week I also made potato kugel and we had it with cottage cheese. 'twas delicious! if I have koach I'll also make cheese cake.
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Platinum Member Joined: May 07 2008 Posts: 8962

I think cholent gets attacked because , with the exception of ravenous yeshiva bocherim living in dorms, nobody eats cold cholent. People do eat cold chicken with gusto (and sometimes with ketchup), and for soup aficionados there are summery
soups meant to be served cold.

Posted: Mon, Jul 23 2012, 4:32 pm Post subject: re: If you DON'T eat cholent...

Posted: Mon, Jul 23 2012, 5:28 pm Post subject:

I make chulent for DH and I nibble at it.

I LOVE chicken soup and will eat it anytime, especially with a/c.

Our minhag is to eat warm foods at both meals, and specifically hot soup at night and hot chulent by day.
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Platinum Member Joined: Apr 12 2010 Posts: 5773

I usually make chulent and soup.
I find that I am so cold with the air con on all the time that soup really warms me up. Unless there is a heat wave outside, sometimes I don't make soup but then dh gets upset coz he likes my soup (so touched LOL).

Chulent I make because neither of us eat cold chicken so its like our only thing for main course on shabbos day. Also ds loves it.
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Diamond Member Joined: Nov 30 2006 Posts: 2594

I make soup in the summer, sometimes, but only for night.

I am not a cholent fan in general (so I would serve a different hot dish anyway) but noon-1pm in July is not when I want to eat a hot, heavy stew. I serve cold fish or meat (poached salmon is a favorite here).

Executive Member Joined: Dec 01 2009 Posts: 443