How to Cook in Palestine
1936 cookbook promoting local plant-based cuisine for Jewish immigrants.
How to Cook in Palestine (Hebrew: איך לבשל בארץ ישראל, romanized: Eikh le-Vashel be-Eretz Israel, lit. 'How to Cook in the Land of Israel', German: Wie kocht man in Erez-Israel) is a 1936 cookbook by German domestic economist Erna Meyer, co-authored with cooking teacher Milka Saphir, and issued by the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO). It is generally regarded as the first Jewish cookbook ever printed in Palestine under the British Mandate. The book sought to change the cooking habits of Jewish immigrants, pushing for a diet that was simpler, plant-based, and reliant on local ingredients. It found an audience among newcomers and received praise from Zionist leaders for its contribution to domestic training and cultural adjustment.
Meyer's goal was to steer Jewish housewives away from the European cuisine they knew—heavy on meat and preserved foods—and toward a diet suited to the local climate and national ideals. She promoted vegetables and fruits that were strange to European Jewish immigrants, such as aubergines, zucchini, olives, and okra, offering practical methods to make them more appealing. Yet Meyer herself stayed grounded in Central European cooking traditions, and her interaction with actual Palestinian cuisine was minimal and detached.
The cookbook emphasized health, thrift, and national identity, treating the kitchen as a place for cultural change. It also encouraged buying Jewish-made products, aligning with the Totzeret HaAretz movement that supported Jewish industry. The book appeared in three languages—Hebrew, German, and English—a choice that served both practical communication needs and ideological aims like reviving Hebrew. It contained 208 recipes, often short on detail and missing precise measurements, likely because the immigrant readers came from varied culinary backgrounds and there was no standard measuring system. Most recipes were vegetarian, not due to food shortages but as part of a broader trend in Zionist cookbooks to break from the meat-heavy, supposedly unhealthy diets of the Jewish diaspora.
Although Meyer criticized European foodways as unhealthy and irrational, few of her recipes actually came from Middle Eastern cuisine. Most were European dishes adapted to Palestine's conditions, like modified goulash, sauerkraut, and a full section on potato dishes. She did advise replacing expensive potatoes with che
- field
- Cookbook / Domestic Economy
- nationality
- German (immigrant to Palestine)
- known_for
- First Jewish cookbook printed in Palestine during the British Mandate
- co-author
- Milka Saphir
- publisher
- Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO)
- year_published
- 1936
Lore & Background
Erna Meyer, a published home economics expert, arrived in Palestine in 1933 as part of the wave of German Jewish immigration following Hitler's rise to power. She co-wrote How to Cook in Palestine with Milka Saphir, who had years of experience with local produce at WIZO's home economics school. The book was published in Tel Aviv in 1936 in a trilingual format—Hebrew, German, and English—reflecting both practical communication needs and ideological goals like Hebrew revival. The cover depicts a European-dressed woman cooking on a primus stove, with local produce and a prepared dish, creating a mise-en-abyme effect by showing the cookbook itself in her hand.
Reader's Guide
How to Cook in Palestine is significant as a landmark document of culinary and cultural transformation during the British Mandate. Meyer urged Jewish housewives to abandon European meat-heavy, preserved-food habits in favor of a diet based on local vegetables and fruits such as aubergines, zucchini, olives, and okra. She framed this shift as a matter of health, economy, and national identity, aligning with the Totzeret HaAretz movement supporting Jewish industry. The book contains 208 recipes, mostly vegetarian, adapted from European dishes to local conditions—for example, replacing potatoes with rice or bulgur, and substituting olive oil for butter. It includes advertisements for Jewish-made goods and ignores cheaper Arab alternatives. Notably, the cookbook makes no mention of Jewish dietary laws (kashrut), reflecting the secular orientation of Zionist ideology. Its legacy lies in standardizing domestic practice and fostering a unified local food culture among diverse immigrants, while remaining rooted in Central European traditions and maintaining minimal engagement with actual Palestinian cuisine.
Did You Know?
- The book's title varies: the English version uses 'Palestine,' while the Hebrew and German editions replace it with 'Eretz Israel' (Land of Israel); no explicit reason is given for this inconsistency.
- The cover includes a mise-en-abyme: the woman holds the cookbook itself, creating an infinite 'picture within a picture.'
- The book contains a dictionary to help immigrants learn Hebrew vocabulary, part of the broader effort to promote Hebrew revival.
- Meyer suggests storing dairy and meat together in the same refrigerator, omitting any reference to kashrut.
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