Lavishly illustrated with mouth-watering photos of food, Michael Ruhlman’s The Book of Schmaltz: Love Song to a Forgotten Fat (Little, Brown and Company) should take a proud place on Jewish cookbook shelves everywhere. Ruhlman is a Beard Award winner, so he knows his way around a kitchen; and he can write rhapsodically and entertainingly about knishes, kreplach, potato kugel, schmaltz dumplings, etc. Donna Turner Ruhlman, the author’s wife, knows how to photograph food. The message here is that “our bodies need fat.” Also, nothing flavors up food quite like schmaltz, which the author tells you how to make for yourself. — M.S.
(American Jewish World, 9.13.13)
