One of the weirder ‘jewish invention’ claims that I have seen is the claim that jews invented ‘couscous’; (1) this probably doesn’t mean ‘couscous’ as we’d mean it – which even jews admit derives from Morocco – (2) but rather to ‘Israeli Couscous’ (aka Ptitim or ‘Ben-Gurion Rice’) whose origins lie with the Tzena (‘National Austerity Period’) in Israel in the 1950s following the Israeli War of Independence/the Nakba; where Ptitim was promoted as a cheap and filling substitute food. (3) Ptitim is not cooked like couscous because it isn’t couscous but is in fact a form of pasta. (4)
In fact, Ptitim is acknowledged to come from a German jewish food named ‘Farfel’ (5) that first appears in Germany in 1892 and is a late Yiddish derivative of the German term ‘Varveln’ which references noodles/noodle soup. (6)
‘Varveln’ itself likely references one of two things: either the classic German food ‘Nudeln’/‘Nudelsuppe’ (‘Noodles’/’Noodle Soup’ respectively; the ‘Noodle’ mentioned also being a type of wheat pasta just like Ptitim) which is first mentioned in German cookbooks in the 1400s and is likely a much older dish. (7)
The other likely candidate for the origin of ‘Varveln’ is the German tiny pasta dish ‘Spätzle’ – which looks (and is) almost identical to Ptitim – that is common in both Bavaria and Swabia (8) and while ‘Spätzle’ is first documented only 1725 yet we also have significant indirect medieval evidence that dates it much earlier. (9)
Thus we can see that Ptitim is almost certainly not a ‘jewish invention’ at all, but rather is the product of jews in Germany copying German food and then importing the idea to Israel where it is renamed and claimed as a ‘jewish invention’.
References
(1) https://x.com/XeXirXim/status/1945908530545860807
(2) Gil Marks, 2010, ‘Encyclopaedia of Jewish Food’, 1st Edition, John Wiley: Hoboken, Entry: ‘Couscous’
(3) Idem.
(4) Idem.; also see https://tastecooking.com/truth-israeli-couscous/
(5) https://tastecooking.com/truth-israeli-couscous/
(6) https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/farfel
(7) https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/the-origin-of-the-word-noodle
(8) https://www.daringgourmet.com/homemade-german-spaetzle/
(9) https://www.reluctantgourmet.com/homemade-spaetzle-spatzle