Cook
Cook
(male, , tabbach’, 1Sa 9:23-24; female, , tabbachah’, 8:3, both properly a slayer), a person employed in families of rank to perform culinary service. Cooking (, bashhel), however, among the Hebrews (at least in early times) was generally done by the matron of the family, even though she were a princess (Gen 18:2-6; Jdg 6:19).’ Among the Egyptians the cook was a professional character. (See Wilkinson’s Ancient AEyptians, 1:174, abridgm.) The process of cooking seems to have been very expeditiously performed (Gen 27:3-4; Gen 27:9-10), and all the flesh of the slain animal, owing to the difficulty of preserving it in a warm climate, was commonly cooked at once, which is the custom of the East at the present day. (See Rosenmller, Morgenl. 2:117; Thomson, Land and Book, 2:162.) SEE FOOD. The Assyrian monuments lately discovered by Layard and Botta contain similar delineations of eunuchs cooking over charcoal braziers, and engaged in other culinary operations, often attended by a servant with a fly-flap. SEE BAKE; SEE CRACKNEL.
As flesh-meat did not form an article of ordinary diet among the Jews, the art of cooking was not carried to any perfection; and, owing to the difficulty of preserving it from putrefaction, few animals (other than sacrifices) were slaughtered except for purposes of hospitality or festivity. The proceedings on such occasions appear to have been as follow: On the arrival of a guest, the animal, either a kid, lamb, or calf, was killed (Gen 18:7; Luk 15:23), its throat being cut so that the blood might be poured out (Lev 7:26); it was then flayed, and was ready either for roasting () or boiling (); in the former case the animal was preserved entire (Exo 12:46), and roasted either over a fire (Exo 12:8) of wood (Isa 44:16), or perhaps, as the mention of fire implies another method, in an oven, consisting simply of a hole dug in the earth, well heated, and covered up (Burckhardt, Notes on Bedouins, 1:240). The Paschal lamb was roasted by the first of these methods (Exo 12:8-9; 2Ch 35:13). Boiling, however, was the more usual method of cooking, both in the case of sacrifices, other than the Paschal lamb (Lev 8:31), and for domestic purposes (Exo 16:23), so much so that , bashal’, to cook, generally included even roasting (Deu 16:7). In this case the animal was cut up, the right shoulder being first taken off (hence the priest’s joint, Lev 7:32), and the other joints in succession; the flesh was separated from the bones and minced, and the bones themselves were broken up (Mic 3:3); the whole mass was then thrown into a caldron (Eze 24:4-5) filled with water (Exo 12:9), or, as we may infer from Exo 23:19, occasionally with, milk, as is still usual among the Arabs (Burckhardt, Notes, 1:63), the prohibition not to seethe a kid in his mother’s milk’ having reference apparently to some heathen practice connected with the offering of the first-fruits (Exodus l. c.; 34:26), which rendered the kid so prepared unclean food (Deu 14:21). No cooking was allowed the Jews on the Sabbath (Exo 35:3). SEE FIRE.
The materials for making coals were, grass and cow-dung. SEE FUEL. The caldron was boiled over a wood fire (Eze 24:10); the scum which rose to the surface was from time to time removed, otherwise the meat would turn out loathsome (6); salt or spices were thrown in to season it (10); and when sufficiently boiled, the meat and the broth (; Sept. ; Vulg. jus) were served up separately (Jdg 6:19), the broth being used with unleavened bread, and butter (Gen 18:8) as a sauce for dipping morsels of bread into (Burckhardt, Notes, 1:63). Sometimes the meat was so highly spiced that its flavor could hardly be distinguished: such dishes were called , matammim’ (Gen 27:4; Pro 23:3). There is a striking similarity in the culinary operations of the Hebrews and Egyptians (Wilkinson’s Anc. Egypt. 2:374 sq.). Vegetables were usually boiled, and served up as pottage (Gen 25:29; 2Ki 4:38). Fish was also cooked (Luk 24:42), probably broiled. The cooking was in early tines performed by the mistress of the household (Gen 18:6); professional cooks were afterwards employed (1Sa 8:13; 1Sa 9:23). The utensils required were: , kirajyim (Sept. ; Vulg. chytropodes), a cooking range, having places for two or more pots, probably of earthenware (Lev 11:35);
, kiyor’ (, lebes), a caldron (1Sa 2:14); , mazleg’ (; fuscinula), a large fork or flesh-hook; , sir (; olla), a wide, open metal vessel, resembling a fish-kettle, adapted to be used as a wash-pot (Psa 60:8) or to eat from (Exo 16:3); , parur’; dud; , kallach’ath, pots probably of earthenware and high, but how differing from each other does not appear; and, lastly, , tsallach’ath, or , tselochith’, dishes (2Ki 2:20; 2Ki 21:13; Pro 19:24; A. V. bosom’). The , re’tseph (femn.
), was, according to Gesenius, a hot stone, used for baking on; or, as Winer thinks (in Simonis Lex. p. 926), for cooking milk or broth, by throwing it into the vessel; but Frst regards it as simply meaning live embers. SEE VICTUALS.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Cook
a person employed to perform culinary service. In early times among the Hebrews cooking was performed by the mistress of the household (Gen. 18:2-6; Judg. 6:19), and the process was very expeditiously performed (Gen. 27:3, 4, 9, 10). Professional cooks were afterwards employed (1 Sam. 8:13; 9:23). Few animals, as a rule, were slaughtered (other than sacrifices), except for purposes of hospitality (Gen. 18:7; Luke 15:23). The paschal lamb was roasted over a fire (Ex. 12:8, 9; 2Chr. 35:13). Cooking by boiling was the usual method adopted (Lev. 8:31; Ex. 16:23). No cooking took place on the Sabbath day (Ex. 35:3).