How a Shabbat Meatball Tradition Grew Over Two Continents and Three Generations

Chef and cooking teacher Shawna Goodman Sone’s mother “got married when she was 19,” says Shawna. And, “burnt down her first kitchen at 20. So, she knew nothing,” when she got married. But Shawna’s mother Rosalind, who was also known as Roz and Rozzie, became “a real balaboosta,” says Shawna. She was the type of cook who could adapt recipes, use up the end of what was sitting in jam jars, add a bit of wine to the pan, and produce a superb brisket. Rosalind grew her repertoire by attending cooking classes through her synagogue sisterhood, tearing pages from the local newspaper the Montreal Gazette, and collecting community cookbooks, which she marked up with her own notes. 

Trained in library science, Rosalind kept meticulous notes on what she served at each dinner party she hosted and every Friday night meal. Shabbat dinners in Shawna’s childhood home were elaborate affairs. “My friends loved coming because we had this formal [meal],” Shawna says. “Our house just took on a different mood on Friday.” To prepare, Shawna remembers raking the shag carpet they had in their Montreal home and fluffing the velvet and needlepoint pillows that marked graduations in the family. 

Guests were never asked (or allowed) to bring part of the meal. “The meal was her expression,” Shawna says of her mother. It started with chicken soup “that was holy,” she adds. And it often included spinach souffle, caramelized carrots, roast beef or chicken, an apple cake to finish and cookies that her mother always kept in the freezer. And there were frequently “S&S” meatballs, simmered in a sweet and sour sauce that became a hallmark of the Shabbat dinners. 

When Shawna started to work on her cookbook “Panache: Montreal's Flair for Kosher Cooking,” which raised over $160,000 for Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, she set out to make Rosalind’s meatballs and despite Shawna’s kitchen experience, she says: “I botched them so many times.” She eventually realized that the meatballs need to be cooked slowly to coax the right flavor and texture. “That was my big challenge, to master them,” Shawna adds.  

Seven years ago, Shawna, her husband, and three sons relocated to Israel. In their new home, the tradition of Friday night meals for Shabbat continued. Before COVID struck, the table was always open, welcoming friends. “A lot of my mom’s formality and tradition definitely carried through,” says Shawna. 

But, here, one of the key ingredients in her mother’s meatball recipe, cranberry jelly, isn’t always easy to find. Inspired by a book from a non-profit she loves and her new life in Israel, Shawna decided to experiment and make pan-fried meatballs, seasoned with baharat, a spice blend with allspice, clove and cinnamon, and hawaij, a Yemenite blend that features turmeric, cumin, and pepper.

“I made it for my kids and I thought there would be a rebellion,” says Shawna. But her family embraced the new recipe. “We can live with both. We can have a little bit of newness while preserving the old. And, so now we have two family recipes for our meatballs.”