Food: A Cultural Culinary History

every household would die, and the way Moses signals to the angel

of death to avoid the Hebrew households is by having them smear

blood on the doors.

 It’s from this episode that one of the central food rituals in Judaism

is fi rst enacted—what we call Passover, or in Hebrew, the Seder.

The Hebrews are told to do all sorts of unusual things on that day

(and for seven days) and eat odd foods. They can’t eat leavened

bread (only matzo), supposedly to remember having to escape

quickly before the bread had time to rise in the morning. All of the

things on the Seder plate are meant to remind the participants of

some affl iction or another.

 The Hebrews escape from Egypt, and they have to wander through

the desert. They’re fed manna, which some people say is a sticky

excretion of bugs left on trees, not unlike honey. However, the

Israelites long for the fi sh, cucumbers, and garlic they ate in Egypt.

Finally, they get nearer to the promised land. Moses goes up

Matzo, unleavened bread, is eaten by Jews during Passover, or Pesach.

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