Hard to say. There are very few chulents I have tasted that I have actually NOT liked — although they ARE out there. I love all stew type dishes, and have had and have made a great many different traditional styles (with beans, without beans, with kasha, with chicken, with lamb, Ashkenazi, Sephardi, hot, sweet, spicy, etc.)

Personally, I have twisted my chulent recipe onto a whole other plain; meat heavy, but with beans and barley for added depth and texture. I don’t use ANY potatoes at all.

My standard recipe — (I always do this by memory and have never written it down previously, so hopefully I have not forgotten anything) — is something like this:

*1 packet of mixed beans (I use one of the commercial chulent-bean packets and then add half a pack or so of lima beans; I DON’T soak any of them before hand)
*1/3 pack of barley
*1 or 2 chopped onions (give or take; this depends on the size of the onion and my mood during the prep)
*Chopped or minced garlic (I tend to use a fair amount; fresh if I have it; I sometimes throw in some whole peeled cloves as well)
*1 pound of flanken (give or take)
*1 pound of short ribs (give or take)
*1 pound of cubed stew meat (give or take)
*Roughly half a pack of beef franks (chopped)
*Roughly half a pack of chicken franks (chopped)
[Sometimes I use beef sausages as well]
*A large fleishig kishke
*Coarse or sea or kosher salt
*Ample amounts of black pepper
*Very healthy amounts of both paprika and hot paprika
[The key for me with seasoning is to go totally overboard for a normal dish; after all those hours of crock-pot cooking, it all marries and smoothes out nicely]
*A little bit of honey
*A very little bit of hot sauce (this varies according to mood and taste and the tastes of my known guests)
*I ALWAYS add either a tablespoon of schmaltz (give or take) or a cup of chicken stock.
*My “secret” ingredient (which isn’t particularly a secret) is Single Malt Scotch. I play around with which ones I use, but always make sure to only use widely accepted types — both because of the obvious kashrus concerns for my guests, but also because I think the bourbon-cask-aged whiskies work better for chulent. I have not as much luck with blended scotches, but continue to experiment.

Best,
Josh

I NEVER soak the beans before hand, and I have never had a problem.

At least, that is, I never soak them anymore. For a while I did, because everyone always says you have to. I have learned through experience, however, that there is no need as long as a) you have enough liquid in the crock-pot, and b) everything is allowed to cook for a long enough period of time. It isn’t like the olden days of putting the pot in a communal baker’s oven, where beans might not have softened by the time lunch rolls around.

As for the hotdogs, as long as you have enough real beef in there, and the hotdogs are chopped, the overall effect is wonderful (both flavor and texture). Everything tends to intigrate/marry very nicely indeed.

One last note: in terms of the scotch, I should have added that I have only ever experimented with Highland region scotches (which is the majority of scotch anyway). The Islay stuff (Lagavulin or Bowmore or Laphroaig) is probably too smoky and probably has too much iodine and seaweed overtones to work…but I have not tested them.

Best,
Josh

No offense, Moshe, but I rarely write out things like “check for bugs” in my recipes, and I doubt many other people do, either.

jabbett - you come over some Shabbat afternoon, and I’ll show you how vegetarian cholent is done. I have no problem with the meat variety, you understand, but we have only one slow-cooker, and it’s pareve.

Sorry, Shanna. Even though Yaakov made the posting, I’d have to agree — cholent’s gotta have meat. Lamb bones help, too. Mmm. Lamb bones.

Shanna: No offense taken but, no individual really here in the U.S.(except for the more exacting) check for pin-holes in beans, chickpeas, or in other legumes. I have seen people just pop into their mouths without checking sunflower seeds without checking to see if there is webbing inside or pistachio nut to see if there are pin-holes. I am sorry to say there are a lot of bagged beans even with a symbol on them that I have found infested. In Israel there are two companies that pack their beans in airtight bags under the supervision of Rabbi Vie - known in the religiious circles as the Bug Rabbi.
Nathan: One should be careful with putting in spices right before Shabbat as there is a problem with Bishul B’Shabbat. You are tehn cooking the spices on Shabbat into the food. You should try to put them in at least a half hour before and they will not sour the food. You can also try putting into some small cooking bags some rice, chick peas - canned or raw (add some water into the bag). That goes the same for wheat berries. The Sepharadeem called it “chameen.” My friend makes a dynamire choresht (Prsian) for Shabbat night

other delicious ideas for a great cholent:

use chickpeas (YUM)
use a few tablespoons of honey
put in a few sweet potatoes, they add flavor to the entire cholent and they’re healthy
add a bit of cumin
especially for the winter, and when you’re worried about virus, flu, etc, peel an entire head of garlic, and put them on top of the cholent 1/2 hr before shabbos starts. You can mix them in when you are eating, or you can eat them separately, they are not spicy when fully cooked, and they are great for keeping away virus etc.

All of you guys dont know what your hocking because the best chulent is in boro park from a store called DELI 52 it is on 13th ave and 52nd street

“To all those who don’t believe in pareve chulent: I challenge you to make this. We are certainly carnivores, but once we started making chulent this way, we never went back:

1 long tight bag of vegetable and bean soup, seasonings and all (Manishevitz or similar)
1 can chicken soup
2 pareve kishkas, chopped up
2 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and in chunks
1/3 bag of barley
7.5 cups water”

1 can chicken soup? What kind of pareve chickens do you have in your neighborhood???

DeisCane: You have to finish the song

Zuntik bulbes (Sunday potatoes),
Muntik bulbes (Monday potatoes),
Dinstik und Mitvokh bulbes (Tuesday and Wednesday potatoes),
Donerstik und Freitik bulbes (Thursday and Friday potatoes),
Shabbos is a novena, a bulbes kugele (Sabbath there is a surprise with potato kugel)
und Zuntik veiter bulbes (and Sunday we continue with more potatoes).

Ahh, bulbes.

Norah,

To be perfectly honest, I’ve never made cholent. I grew up in Miami and I had never even heard of it until I got to college, where it repulsed me. Now that we have kids and live in the ‘burbs, the concept makes sense to me. Plus, I’ve been exposed to the more elegant (IMO) Hungarian style of cholent and I’m ready to give it a go. We got a crock pot last month as a housewarming gift from my dad and when we return from Budapest, we will try it!

To Norah

Your not so parve chulent rocks. I’m making it again this shabbos. In fact, for all you out there, it won 1st place in my local synagogue’s chulent contest.

However, this shabbat I’m trying the unthinkable. I am using a real meat kishka!!! None of that parve stuff. (The truth is they ran out of the parve variety at the store). I am told that the meat kind is really unhealthy. Norah - don’t tell Mom.

Good Shabbos

HELP! With all the three day Yom Tovs coming up, I desparately want some cool new recipes to try. Entree, Salad or Dessert, Parve, Dairy, or Meat–I can use all the help I can get. C’mon all your Kosher Bloggers, I need culinary inspiration. I keep sharing Norah’s “I can’t believe its not Fleishig” Parve Chulent recipe with friends and keep receiving lots of Huzzahs. I may even try making it with beef cheek meat–a Sephardic Rosh Hashana delicacy.

Beerhound correctly points out the national/cultural differences (beans in Hungary, potatoes in Poland), but I can’t imagine a “happy medium” including both, at least not if you’re Hungarian or Polish.

In a Hungarian kitchen, “cholent” (or “sholet”) is a bean/barley/goose dish. And (eat your heart out if you’re not in Hungary) the goose has to be smoked! Depending on how much you’re making, or how big your pot is, 1 or 2 smoked breasts, and at least 2 or 3 drumsticks/thighs, fried, like the onions, before adding to the bean pot. And, of course (!), paprika (the sweet, not the hot kind), 1 Tbsp or so.

does anyone here know how to make a yapsuk?