What does cholent have to have to be cholent?

MiracleMama ↓

Tue, Jul 12 2022, 8:15 pm

Everybody has their own slightly different variation. Typically my cholent includes onion, garlic, barley, beans, potatoes, flanken and on a good week could have marrow bones and/or kishke. Plus salt and spices and usually some amount of beer as part of the liquid. But there have been times I've left out any number of the above ingredients and still called it cholent.

I'm curious what (in your opinion -- or is there a clear culinary definition?) a cholent must have to be considered cholent.

(FYI my query is sparked by a poster on another thread saying they never make cholent, they just make a pot of x,y, and z -- and I'm thinking hmmmm.... sounds a lot like a simplified cholent to me).

Mail

Tue, Jul 12 2022, 8:27 pm

GrowingUp wrote:

To me, cholent must include those following for it to be considered a cholent:

Meat
Potatoes
Beans
Barley

My cholent is without potatoes and barley and I call it cholent. I put in beans, meat, spices and water

Ema of 5

Tue, Jul 12 2022, 9:35 pm

MiracleMama wrote:

I don’t eat cholent, but my husband put onions, potatoes, flanken, barley, and kishke. Not sure what spices he puts in, but I think it’s onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and paprika.

zaq

Tue, Jul 12 2022, 9:58 pm

Any two of the following:
Meat/poultry, any kind
Beans or lentils, any kind
Potatoes, any kind
Whole grain, any kind but usually barley.
Any and all other ingredients are optional

What's critical is the long, slow cooking and covering the ingredients with water so the ingredients fall apart. Because if you put meat and potatoes and onions and carrots in a pot for a few hours with less water, you have pot roast, not cholent.

Last edited by zaq on Tue, Jul 12 2022, 10:01 pm; edited 1 time in total

kenz

Tue, Jul 12 2022, 10:00 pm

Mail wrote:

My cholent is without potatoes and barley and I call it cholent. I put in beans, meat, spices and water

And mine is meat, potatoes, barley, spices, but never any beans, and I most certainly call it cholent too! And I've never had anyone accuse me after having tasted it of it not being cholent.

SG18

Wed, Jul 13 2022, 2:34 am

My husband makes our cholent (chamin) with wheat, brown rice, meat, potatoes, sometimes sweet potato, and either eggs, jachnun, or kishke.
He seasons with just ketchup, salt, and pepper. Comes out incredible.

WitchKitty

Wed, Jul 13 2022, 3:08 am

My mom makes a 'regular' cholent and a 'healthy' cholent. The healthy one has mainly lentils and turkey, and most of the kids won't eat it.
I make a mix of healthy and regular. It has lots of meat, uses brown rice, lots of carrots and zucchini. One potato. Beans (including chickpeas). And for some reason everyone likes it and thinks it tastes like cholent. I think it's the texture and spices.

Mayflower

Wed, Jul 13 2022, 3:16 am

#BestBubby wrote:

To me the only essential ingredient of chulent is beans.

But most add meat, potatoes, barley and onion as well.

That's what I'd say too. The chulent I normally make has some kind of meat, potatoes, beans and barley with spices. But sometimes I'm too lazy to peel any more potatoes so I leave them out. Sometimes I want to make a parve chulent for some reason. Sometimes I forget to buy barley... Whatever I'm left with we still call chulent.

Bnei Berak 10

Wed, Jul 13 2022, 4:22 am

What makes a Chulent? The cooking process starting usually on friday and ending with putting the pot on the plata or blech (alt. slow cooker) and keeping it hot overnight.
And of course ingredients which are usually what was posted upthread.

PinkFridge

Wed, Jul 13 2022, 8:55 am

sequoia wrote:

Heinrich Heine has a poem about cholent — how it’s so good it makes up for not being allowed to smoke on shabbos.

I'll have to google this later. Thanks! (I have to run. I didn't read the whole thread but saw the subject line and that you commented and I had to see what you said.)

watergirl ↓

Wed, Jul 13 2022, 9:19 am

We don't put beans in our cholent and I promise you, it is still very much cholent. I very much do not like beans so we leave them out.

We put meat, potatos, barley, seasoning, ketchup, honey, water, kishke.

Cholent comes from a French word (I was told, no idea if this is true) that means "slow cooked". It's as simple as that.

↑ MiracleMama

Wed, Jul 13 2022, 9:23 am

zaq wrote:

I might also say ingredients need to meld. Liquid absorbing ingredients like grains, beans and potatoes seem to make that happen. Years ago when I was low-carb dieting I would put tons of flanken and onions in the crock pot with spices and water to cover. Then I'd make rice separately in a rice cooker for the rest of my family and guests. The meat and onions came out soft and yummy, but it was clearly definable what was meat and what was onion - easy to pick apart. I never thought of that as being cholent.

But then again I know many people intentionally cook cholent ingredients separately in cheesecloth or bags within the pot. (Dafina? Is this falling within the definition on cholent or is it it's own unique thing)?

yidisheh mama

Wed, Jul 13 2022, 9:26 am

MiracleMama wrote:

Beans and/or barley
Meat and/or potatoes
Slow cooked for a long time.

A very classic cholent has all of the above. But some ppl skip the meat, some skip potatoes. Some put beans without barley, and some just barley without beans. All still cholent.
Now, slow cooked carrots and meat or quinoa and meat that some people make instead of cholent are not really cholent. I'd call them cholent inspired/ cholent style dishes, or a cholent substitute.