From Sasha Shor: "Pirozhki, or small Russian pies were a staple in our home. We made them with everything savory from potato and onion, to wild mushroom and buckwheat, to ground meat and rice, and every variation of sweet from sweet cheese and cherry to, apples and berries. They were perfect at every temperature but warm straight from the oven was always the best. Because they are a yeast dough, they would bake up soft and pillowy on the inside, with a lightly crunchy exterior that was ideal for packing up to take on a road trip, a picnic, a long hike or anywhere that a handheld, delicious bite was desired. This version uses a classic, slightly sweet dough, enriched with yeast, egg and sour cream and filled with potato, scallion, egg and dill. The potato gives it a weighty creaminess broken up with the lightness of chopped egg, while the scallion and dill bring a fresh, bright, herbal flavor punch to each bite that is reminiscent of so many of my Russian summer food memories.

These are so good eaten warm or at room temp alongside a chilled Russian summer soup like a tangy kefir-rich Okroshka or a vibrant, magenta-hued beet Svekolnik for a perfect Russian Dacha meal."

Read more about Sasha's family in "The Russian Picnic Tradition a Family Smuggled Out of the USSR" and try her recipes for salat iz riddiski (radish salad), okroshka (chilled kefir soup), and kislyi arbuz (fermented pickled watermelon).

In Lisa Capelouto’s family, a savory Sephardic stuffed pastry called pastelikos are a key part of their desayuno spread. Typically filled with either meat or eggplant, Lisa’s mother Vivienne fills hers with a mixture of eggplant, parsley, and tomatoes. Pastelikos are made with a shortcrust pastry, a soft dough with a high proportion of fat. In Vivienne’s recipe, water, and oil are heated together, contributing to a flaky crust. Shaping the pastelikos with their signature crimped crust requires some practice, so don’t be discouraged if it takes some time to master this. The pastelikos are traditionally eaten after synagogue on Shabbat morning. The filling can be made 1 day in advance.

Read more about Vivienne Capelouto and her daughter Lisa’s family story in “How Zoom Helped Preserve a Sephardi Baking Tradition” and get the recipes for her spinach and feta boyos and orange blossom roskas.

An integral part of Sephardic desayuno or breakfast, boyos are cheese-filled Judeo-Spanish pastries. The dough is thinly rolled out until almost translucent, filled here with a mixture of sharp Parmesan, cheddar, and feta and fresh spinach (alternatively, you can use Swiss chard). Once rolled up, the boyos are shaped into spirals. Boyos are traditionally served for breakfast with huevos haminados, slow cooked brown eggs. 

Read more about Vivienne and Lisa Capelouto’s family story in “How Zoom Helped Preserve a Sephardi Baking Tradition” and get the recipes for her orange blossom roskas and eggplant pastelikos.

Fragrant anise seeds stud these challahs, infusing the loaves with sweet, licorice-like flavor. Léa Karsenty’s grandmother, mamie Sara, uses the same dough to make mouna, pockets stuffed with golden raisins and slivered almonds. You’ll need a stand mixer and a kitchen scale to make this recipe. 

Read more about the Karsenty family’s Yom Kippur break fast traditions in "How a Family of Strong Women Spends Yom Kippur in Toulouse," and try their recipes for sweet anise mouna, North African makroud with dates and semolina, and candied oranges in vanilla syrup. 

This recipe was shared by Sasha Shor. Read more about her family in "The Russian Picnic Tradition a Family Smuggled Out of the USSR" and try her recipes for salat iz riddiski (radish salad), okroshka (chilled kefir soup), and kislyi arbuz (fermented pickled watermelon).

This recipe is featured in our cookbook "The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long." For more holiday recipes from around the world, get your copy!

This recipe was shared by Bracha Luft. Read more about her family in "Bracha's Bulgarian Spinach Patties in Lemon Sauce." 

Tamar Moradoff’s kuku sabzi is loaded with fresh herbs, leeks, and spinach. It’s wonderful served warm for Shavuot alongside her recipes for stuffed grape leaves, rice with dill and lima beans, creamy noodles called ash, and the rice pudding shir berenj. You can also enjoy it at room temperature the following day. 

Read more about Tamar and her family in "The ‘Boss Lady’ Mashadi Chef and Grandmother" and try her recipes for grape leaf dolmeh with sweet and sour filling, ash reshteh (Persian creamy noodles with walnuts), and Persian green rice with potato tahdig.

While grape leaves are often filled with meat or rice and vegetables, in this recipe from the late great cook Tamar Moradoff, the filling is studded with dried fruit like raisins and dates. If you’re new to rolling dolmeh, be careful to not over stuff the grape leaves — aim for about two tablespoons of filling in each roll.

Read more about Tamar and her family in "The ‘Boss Lady’ Mashadi Chef and Grandmother" and try her recipes for ash reshteh (Persian creamy noodles with walnuts), shir bereng (Persian rice pudding), and kuku sabzi (Persian omelet).

Sometimes a recipe is a procedure rather than a set of ingredients. To make this like chef and author Peter Hoffman's mother, dress the potatoes with the vinegar while they are still hot so the potatoes can fully absorb the bright acidity.

Read more about Peter Hoffman's family in "Cool Down With Chef Peter Hoffman’s Summer Dinner Menu" and try his recipes for seared spiced tuna, summer bean salad, and meurbeteig (summer fruit cake).

This recipe was shared by Kathy Berrie. Read more about her family in "Memories of Morocco: Pastela + Tomato Salad" and try her recipe for pastela (layered beef, potato and egg casserole).

This recipe was shared by Erin Gleeson. Read more about her family in "The Challah from a Cabin in the California Woods" and try her recipes for sesame farro salad, kale hazelnut salad, and challah.

This recipe is featured in our cookbook "The Jewish Holiday Table: A World of Recipes, Traditions & Stories to Celebrate All Year Long." For more holiday recipes from around the world, get your copy!

This recipe was shared by Hila Alpert. Read more about her family in "Israeli Culinary Journalist Hila Alpert Looks Back on Shavuot on the Kibbutz" and try her recipes for cheese and chocolate truffles and phyllo bundles with feta, honey, and black pepper.

In Israel, this salad is a culinary icon, made popular by Habasta, a restaurant tucked into Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market. Nicknamed “Lali salad” the recipe originated with Hila, whose kibbutz, Ma'ale HaHamisha, was the first in Israel to grow sweet cherries. While harvesting them, she remembers hiding between the leaves so no one would see her as she devoured the cherries straight from the branch.

When Christina Whittaker was growing up, her grandmother Gloria would buy her gizzada, sweet and sticky coconut tartlets, as a treat. “I loved going to the grocery store with her,” shares Christina, “because I knew I’d get gizzada afterwards.” These days, Christina makes homemade gizzada, spicing the filling for the tarts with a heady blend of fresh ginger, allspice, and cinnamon and sweetening it with caramelly dates and honey. Chewy and spicy with a flaky crust, these tarts, sometimes referred to as pinch-me-rounds due to their crimped edges, are nearly irresistible. 

Read more about Christina’s family in “Finding Identity at a Jamaican Shabbat Table” and try her recipes for steamed red snapper with pumpkin and okra, oxtail stew and sorrel (spiced hibiscus drink). 

Stern’s Bake Shop in Yonkers was proud of its “pure butter baking.” Owner Jack Stern made a wide variety of cakes and butter-based doughs like the one in this seasonal peach tart, explains his granddaughter Gabriella Stern. It’s best to follow Jack’s lead and use all butter in this recipe. European-style, which is higher in butter fat, is best.

Read more about Gabriella’s family and their baking legacy in “The Legacy of a 1970s Bar Mitzvah Cake.” And, try their recipes for ice cream cake and a layer cake with raspberry filling. 

Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor Benjamin Lesser shared this recipe and story in "Honey Cake & Latkes: Recipes from the Old World by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Survivors." It is reprinted here with permission of the Auschwitz Birkenau Memorial Foundation.

“The story of this compote goes back to Munkatch, Hungary. My grandfather had a stately home on a major street called Sugar—an appropriate name for that sweet home. He had a big orchard and gardens (in the rose garden there was a sukkah made of wine bottles, and I remember seeing prisms of sunlight through the glass). Many kinds of berries and fruits grew in the orchard: raspberries, blueberries, apples, plums, and pears. The orchard also had a red lattice walkway with hanging grapes. Every year, we would line up there and somebody on the tree would drop pears to us. We’d make a big chain all the way to the house, maybe twenty kids. We’d put those pears in tissue paper in the attic to ripen. And of course, we made compote.

When I was a child, we would always pick the fruit while it was hard, not yet ripe. Then we would put all of it in the attic to ripen. Once ripe, pears and all the other fruit picked from my grandfather’s orchard would be sliced and then cooked in the water.

When I make this recipe, I pick fresh pears from my trees, or if I need more fruit, I buy it dried, especially prunes, and place them in the water to achieve the same result.”

Explore more recipes from Holocaust survivors in "Recipes from the Kitchens of Holocaust Survivors."

This recipe was shared by Peter Hoffman. Read more about his family in "Cool Down With Chef Peter Hoffman’s Summer Dinner Menu" and try his recipes for schav (cold sorrel soup), German potato salad, and summer bean salad.