In Jewish cuisine the ritual - kašrut plays a very important role, it regulates the proper preparation of food and the use of permitted / prohibited food: it is allowed to eat animals that chews the cud and have a completely split hoof, ruminants and herbivores, it is not allowed to mix milk and meat, eat pork, rabbit, fish without scales, etc. Food which origin and production corresponds to the rules of kašrut is called kosher. Food that does not comply with this law is called treif. According to Torah, food is, first of all, a source of spiritual power, it should be prepared and consumed properly, with thanks to God. A properly prepared meal is the first step to human perfection.
The Jews have traditional recipes for both daily and holiday meals, Saturday (shabat) dishes, wedding and family celebration meals. The traditional Ashkenazian (eastern European Jewish) dishes are gefilte fisch (stuffed fish), cimess (sweet carrot and raisin stew or stew made of other dried fruit), chicken soup with dumplings or kneidalah, čolents - meat, oats, potato and bean puree, cold borsch, šmalc (melted goose fat).
Before the Second World War, Jews made about 33.77% of Kraslava population. Despite the fact that only a few Jewish representatives live in Kraslava district now, some people still remember and use Jewish cooking recipes in their cooking.
Thanks to responsiveness of Kraslava district cooks, the recipes of traditional food have been collected, thus representing Jewish cuisine of Kraslava district and ensuring preservation of food recipes for future generations.