The Jewish New Year, or Rosh Hashanah, starts at sundown today and food plays a highly symbolic part in the celebrations.

A round challah, the classic plaited loaf made without dairy products, and a Friday-night staple in Kosher households, is blessed and dipped into honey (a symbol of wealth and good living). This is followed by a piece of apple dipped in honey with a prayer for a sweet year.

On day two celebrants eat a new fruit, often a pomegranate, not yet eaten that season. It is hoped that their good deeds in the year to come will be as plentiful as the seeds of the pomegranate.

Other traditional holiday fare includes fish and lamb heads, symbolising leadership and the start of a new year, served with spinach, rice and tzimmes, honey-glazed carrots from Eastern Europe.

Honey crops up again for afters in the form of Persian-style honey cake or Teiglach, a crunchy dough boiled in honey, and plava, a plain sponge cake, flavoured with lemon zest or almond essence.

For more on Jewish food customs, Denise Phillips’ New Flavours of the Jewish Table (£12, Ebury) explores global nosh from baba ganoush to zhug (a spicy Middle Eastern dip). She also runs regular Jewish cookery classes (jewishcookery.com).

Times Recommends

• Gordon Brown’s favourite pud
• Five-spice butternut soup
• How to make popcorn and crisps