In the beginning, 25 years ago, there was a rummage sale and a hot dog stand. Over the last 25 years the New Hampshire Jewish Food Festival has become one of the premiere events of the summer season in the Lakes Region. This year, the Jewish Food Festival continues as an online ordering system with pickup by appointment. All the festival favorites are available, from deli meats and blintzes to strudel and rugelach and a few new options to try. Visit tbinh.org/main-events/ff-menu-2022 through June 30, to see the complete menu and place orders.

Bubbie, the feisty Jewish grandmother, is back and she’s brought her beloved Zaydie, a Jewish grandfather, with her. This year, Bubbie and Zaydie team up in the kitchen to make traditional favorites like chicken soup with matzah balls, strudel, noodle kugel and beef brisket. In this adventure, Bubbie and Zaydie are ready to put on their aprons as they begin to prepare brisket, a Jewish Food Festival favorite that is Zaydie’s specialty. There's a secret ingredient, and Bubbie wants to know what it is.

Let’s peeak into the kitchen and see how it’s done.

Bubbie: “Murray, everyone has been asking how you make that wonderful beef brisket. There is a flavor I cannot identify.”

Zaydie: “Well Bea, I’ll tell you over a glass of tea. First you have to go out to the field and find a cow that is ready for the table. You put her in the back of the wagon and bring her to Saul the butcher and...”

Bubbie: “No, no, no. In this country we don’t have a cow, we go to the grocery store and buy the brisket.”

Zaydie: “Oh yes, much easier. Well, you buy the big brisket, I think here they call it a packer cut. It has two parts: the flat and the round. But, in between there is a big layer of fat. For the brisket I make, we have to trim a lot of fat from this meat, and we only use the flat. Oy, it takes forever to trim. I should have brought Saul over from the old country with me, he could trim like no one else. When we are done trimming and separating, we only have about half the meat we started with.”

Bubbie: “Murray, enough with the fat and the trimming. I want to know how you get that unusual flavor?”

Zaydie: “Shush, shush, I am getting to that. We have to mix up the secret soup to soak the meat in.”

Bubbie: “Soup? Oy, you mean marinade.”

Zaydie: “Ya, ya, marinade, schamranade; whatever you want to call it.”

Bubbie: “What is in the marinade?”

Zaydie: “It’s a secret.”

Bubbie: “We told the readers we would tell them.”

Zaydie: “Ya, ya. Well you pick garlic from the garden, or I guess you can buy from your grocery store. Then chop it up into small pieces, add minced onion flakes, seasoning, and the secret American ingredient that Pilgrims told to our ancestors — whole berry cranberry sauce. You cover the meat with this paste and leave in a big shissel (pot) overnight. The next day you bake until ready, slice thin and eat with gravy made from the drippings in the pan.”

Bubbie: “So that’s what it is — cranberries — who would have thought the Pilgrims would have a say in your brisket.”

Zaydie: “I thought it would make my grandfather’s recipe more 'American Style' with a flavor nothing can compare to. Tell your readers to get some from the New Hampshire Jewish Food Festival — they make it the same way.”

Bubbie: “I think you just did.”

Next time, a food festival longtime favorite: strudel. Until then, zei gazunt, be well.

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