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Cholent

Cholent or Schalet is a traditional slow-simmering Sabbath stew in Jewish cuisine that was developed by Ashkenazi Jews first in France and later Germany, and is first mentioned in the 12th century. It is related to and is thought to have been derived from hamin, a similar Sabbath stew that emerged in Spain among Sephardic Jews and made its way to France by way of Provence. Max Weinreich traces the etymology of cholent to the Latin present participle calentem (an accusative form of calēns), meaning "that which is hot" (as in calorie), via Old French chalant (present participle of chalt, from the verb chaloir, "to warm"). One widely quoted folk etymology derives the word from French chaud ("hot") and lent ("slow"). Another folk etymology derives cholent (or sholen) from שלן, which means "that rested [overnight]", referring to the tradition of Jewish families placing their individual pots of cholent into the town baker's ovens that always stayed hot and slow-cooked the food overnight. Another possible etymology is from Old French chaudes lentes (hot lentils). This last proposed etymology is unlikely, as the "d" in chaudes is pronounced and not silent, and therefore too far from the pronunciation of tsholnt or tsholent (Old French is notable for its final consonants being pronounced and not silent as in the case of Modern French).

Source: Wikipedia

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