Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A stew consisting primarily of meat, potatoes, beans, and grains, traditionally prepared before the onset of the Jewish Sabbath, simmered overnight, and eaten as a midday meal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A meat stew traditionally served on the Sabbath by Ashkenazi Jews

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Yiddish tsholnt, probably of Romance origin and ultimately from Latin calēns, calent-, present participle of calēre, to be warm; see kelə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Yiddish טשאָלנט (tshol'·nt)

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Examples

  • Chris was watching Myra, who had stopped shoveling in cholent and was staring down into her bowl.

    DATE MYRA SHOWS UP Maggie Jochild 2007

  • I thought cholent was just the Yiddish word for “leftovers.”

    I think we’re all Karaites on this bus | Jewschool 2007

  • I thought cholent was just the Yiddish word for “leftovers.”

    2007 May | Jewschool 2007

  • Another widely held origin for the word "cholent" is that it came frum "Shule endte" -- synagogue is over, which is when the cholent was served.

    unknown title 2009

  • People of most other cultures would not have conceived of a dish such as cholent, because, like my family, they are free to cook seven days a week.

    unknown title 2009

  • A friend of mine in Israel used to argue that the country had no original ethnic cuisine beyond the infamous soy schwarma served in the college dorms, that most of the dishes we enjoyed, from Sabbath cholent to stuffed felafels, were carried over from European ancestors or borrowed from Arab residents and neighbors.

    Israeli salad in California 2009

  • The Germans and Czechs who arrived in west Texas in droves in the eighteenth century operated the meat shops, built smokers for their sausages and hams, and likely made the short leap from long, slow simmering (as in sauerbraten or cholent) to long, slow smoking (as in Texas brisket).

    One Big Table Molly O’Neill 2010

  • The only recipe I'm thinking about now is a vegetarian cholent with butter beans, barley and onion in vegetable stock, topped with sliced potato.

    Making Light: Open thread 135 2010

  • Sima had been cooking cholent all day, which Myra could never get enough of.

    DATE MYRA SHOWS UP Maggie Jochild 2007

  • A friend of mine in Israel used to argue that the country had no original ethnic cuisine beyond the infamous soy schwarma served in the college dorms, that most of the dishes we enjoyed, from Sabbath cholent to stuffed felafels, were carried over from European ancestors or borrowed from Arab residents and neighbors.

    Israeli salad in California 2009

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