When Jessica Quinn first introduced her now-wife Trina Quinn to hefty, deep fried piroshki, Trina asked, “Why have you been keeping this from me?” Today, they are part of the duo's queer Jewish food project Dacha 46.

This Yemenite bread from Dana Schneider's family cooks overnight like cholent or hamin. It’s the overnight cooking and lots of butter layered into the dough that result in the caramelized pastry with crunchy edges and a chewy interior.

In Arielle Nir Mamiye’s childhood home, chicken pastilla was never made, but it was often talked about. Inspired by those family stories, Arielle eventually asked her mother, Michal, to help her recreate the recipe, and it has been part of her repertoire ever since.

When Jeremy Salomon opened his modern Hungarian-inspired restaurant Agi’s Counter in Crown Heights, he never imagined how many of his neighbors would fall in love with palacsinta and ask for the dish by name.

Bonnie Stern’s love of challah began with her grandmother Jenny, a mother of 11 whose round loaves won first prize every year at her local county fair. Though Jenny never wrote down her recipe, Bonnie honors her legacy by baking challah every week.

Sasha Shor grew up in a Jewish-Russian home where pickles were always on the table, from cucumbers and tomatoes to cabbage and watermelon. After immigrating to Nashville and finding local pickles lacking, her family returned to their roots and made their own.

Persian tachin is a beloved Shabbat dish in Arielle Nir’s family, made golden with saffron and bright with barberries. Their Shabbat table blends Moroccan and Persian traditions, with abundant stews, salads, and, most often, tachin.

Hand-rolled couscous is made slowly with simple ingredients and steamed several times. Ron and Leetal Arazi, owners of New York Shuk, keep this tradition alive in Brooklyn, serving it with hearty stews.

Within the Ashkenazi culinary canon, the word “rugelach” is relatively new. The sweet is derived from the crescent-shaped kipfel, explains culinary scholar Gil Marks, and became one of the best known Jewish sweets in the U.S. This recipe from Larry Finkelstein is deeply chocolatey.