Food Rules and Rituals - Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2023 - Mark McWilliams
Berches : A Ritual Bread in Its Cultural Contexts
Food Rules and Rituals - Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2023 - Mark McWilliams
Petra Kopf [+]
Petra Kopf trained as an economist, but usually works on freelance culinary research projects.
Susan Weingarten [+]
Susan Weingarten is a food historian and archaeologist living in Jerusalem. She is the author of Haroset: A Taste of Jewish History.
Description
This paper discusses the braided Jewish Sabbath bread called berches (or berkhes, barches, Bärches or berchess) around the Rhineland. We site berches within the great traditions of Judaism, and to a lesser extent Christianity, but we also look closely at the little traditions of the Jewish and Christian women who made them, asking what is the relationship of this Jewish bread to its Christian neighbours. We go into the possible origins of berches, their past and present functions, as well as what might be called their after-life. We also examine a number of rituals connected with berches.