Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), eating a cheesesteak. Photo: Youtube screenshot.

The New York Times is touting Senator Charles Schumer’s recipe for “a meatloaf of beef, veal and pork surrounded by pieces of barbecued chicken.”

The front page of the newspaper’s food section features an article praising a new cookbook by two Times staffers, Frank Bruni and Jennifer Steinhauer, as “a comprehensive and compelling collection of 49 recipes for meatloaf.”

If anyone at the Times wondered even for a second why a Jewish senator would be promoting a recipe for a dish that violates the dietary laws of the Jewish religion, it’s not evident from the story, which portrays the recipe as somehow a perfect fit for the senator:

Senator Chuck Schumer was equally enthusiastic about his own recipe, a wide-ranging cooking project that centers on a meatloaf of beef, veal and pork surrounded by pieces of barbecued chicken.

“It’s so Chuck,” said Frank Bruni, the Times Op-Ed columnist and former restaurant critic. He calls the recipe the Omnibus Loaf.

What Senator Schumer chooses to eat is his own business, as far as I am concerned, as is what he chooses to say publicly about it. I’m still appreciative that he voted against the Iran nuclear deal. But as someone who avoids eating pork, I’m baffled that the Times would declare a recipe collection that includes Senator Schumer’s as “compelling.” I also wonder why the paper doesn’t supply some explanation of how or why a senator who publicly and proudly identifies as a Jew from Brooklyn wound up promoting a pork recipe. Maybe it is some kind of pun on “pork-barrel” political spending.

It’s as if the Times editors can’t imagine anyone taking Jewish — or even Islamic — dietary laws seriously. That same point was reinforced by the classic Times correction from last year, “An earlier version of this article incorrectly implied that beef tenderloin is kosher and appropriate for Passover. It is not kosher, but other cuts of beef that are kosher may be used in the recipe in its place.”

More of Ira Stoll’s media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.