Our Best Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the classic Yom Kippur dinner? ›

Feasting includes foods such as challah, Matzo ball soup, brisket, and apples dipped in honey. Yom Kippur is a fasting day, so the menu involves no food or drink and also no work, bathing, or other worldly pleasures. In the evening, it's customary to break the fast with light dairy foods, eggy dishes, or fish.

Menus vary widely, but you will often find chicken soup, gefilte fish, roast chicken, braised brisket, noodle kugel and honey or apple cake on a Rosh Hashanah table. Several symbolic foods are often served for this special occasion as well: apples dipped in honey symbolizing a sweet new year (very popular!)

Think: fluffy challah, saucy brisket, and ultra-moist apple cake. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a time to reflect on the past year—and look forward to the coming one. The holiday's celebratory meal can include favorites like yeasty challah, matzo ball soup, and apples dipped in honey.

Just as we eat sweet apples and other foods on Rosh Hashanah because of their symbolic significance, it is customary to avoid bitter and vinegary foods on Rosh Hashanah (see, for example, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 129:9). The Rama (Orach Chaim 583:2) writes that some avoid eating egozim (walnuts) on Rosh Hashanah.

Two of the most popular foods are apples dipped in honey, and pomegranates. Each food symbolizes a different good fortune that we pray for in the coming year. These foods are generally eaten at the beginning of the two evening Rosh Hashanah meals. Each food is given separate attention and a brief blessing.

The name ''etrog'' is a transliteration from Hebrew; the fruit is also sometimes known as a citron. The etrog is primarily known for its association with the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Sukkot takes place five days after Yom Kippur, falling in September or October on the Gregorian calendar.

Food on Yom Kippur

Similar to Ramadan, there is a pre-fast meal and a break-fast meal. During the holy day, itself, no food or drink are permitted.

Usually lamb with bone and fat is used in cooking. I had lamb shanks which has good fat so this cut worked well. Beef with bone in also works 2.

How do you start Rosh Hashanah dinner? ›

Perhaps no other food custom is more important to Rosh Hashanah than the eating of apples and honey together. At the start of each Rosh Hashanah dinner, everyone seated at the table dips a piece of apple into honey. This is eaten to symbolize the hope that the new year will be a sweet one.

1st Course: If it's your first time hosting, I recommend choosing a simple first course: soup, salad, or fish. If you're pressed for time, soup is a good option, particularly if you have time to make it in advance.

Yom Kippur comes on the last of the 10 days of repentance that began with Rosh Hashanah. The day is usually observed with fasting and extended time in deep prayer, before ending with the sounding of a "shofar," a trumpet made from a ram's horn.