Yum! Burp! Delis, Pickles and Pastrami!

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When Jews immigrated to New York from central and eastern Europe, they found comfort in the Lower East Side pushcarts that sold cheap, familiar foods: knishes, pickled herring, cured meats and pickles. The vendors, mostly Germans, soon moved indoors, inventing a sort of restaurant that sold the same nostalgic delicacies. It was called a delicatessen.

The word comes from the German delicatessen—roughly “delicious things to eat.” Despite its etymological origins, Jews transformed the delicatessen into a 20th-century institution that served iconic old-country dishes often adapted to meet modern tastes. Using family recipes, they carefully followed the curing methods of the past—smoking, pickling, soaking meat in brine to preserve it—the way it was done before refrigeration.

The earliest delis were kosher, but according to David Sax, author of Save the Deli, competition among kosher authorities and state labeling laws led to battles, riots, food cheats and soaring prices. The supervised kosher delis became stricter and eventually catered only to Orthodox Jews willing to pay premium prices. So today what is generally known as a Jewish deli is really a kosher-style deli, albeit usually still owned and operated by Jews.

Over the years, the overstuffed corned beef and pastrami on rye have been just half of the attraction. The other half is the social function, says Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, who describes the deli as “a secular synagogue where people meet and talk.” The food and atmosphere also draw plenty of non-Jews who flock to delis like New York’s Katz’s, Carnegie and Stage to down Dr. Brown’s soda and knishes while keeping an eye out for the celebrities who patronize them.

ike Yiddishisms, the Jewish deli has permeated American culture—and in this case generated ubiquitous spin-offs, a combination of fast food restaurant and shop selling cold cuts and salads. But in recent years, traditional delis have been closing, hurt by soaring prices for meat and changing tastes. In 1931, Sax says, there were nearly 2,000 delis in New York City alone. Today, there are just a handful, plus a smattering around the country and in Canada, mostly in large cities.

In an age of tofu and quinoa, the survivors have been forced to add more nutritious choices to their menus. The owners of Saul’s in Berkeley, California, say they are reinventing deli food for an era of healthy eating with emphasis on local and seasonal ingredients and smaller portions, to trim waistlines and bulk up the bottom line. Karen Adelman and Peter Levitt make pickles from local cucumbers and their own celery tonic which, unlike Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray, doesn’t include high-fructose corn syrup. They use only locally produced pastrami and don’t serve salami because the only brand sold commercially comes from Hebrew National, owned by ConAgra, a large industrial corporation.

Adelman and Levitt are part of a national trend: a new generation of chefs drawn to deli food but hewing to new culinary standards. Plenty of deli purists, nevertheless, love the ingredients and flavors of traditional deli food, just as they are. Where do these dishes come from and how are they prepared? Here we offer a brief history and description of the most popular Jewish deli dishes, including the Reuben, the blatantly unkosher American sandwich that has nevertheless become part of the deli tradition.—Eileen Lavine

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