The cookbook that taught generations of Jews how to become American

A new book reveals how The Settlement Cook Book became an unlikely guide to immigration, assimilation, memory, and belonging. A pinch of curiosity. A dash of interest in food and history. Heaping spoonfuls of research. Combine and let marinate, occasionally stirring, for 14 years. This may have been what ultimately led to Nora Rubel ’s long-awaited new book Recipes for the Melting Pot: The Lives of The Settlement Cook Book (Columbia University Press, 2026). But it wouldn’t make the grade for coo