I’ve known a lot of them, having grown up in a Jewish home with a mother who cherished few things more than a good seder. Observant Ashkenazi Jews rid their homes of all grains for the holiday, and this my mother did with a vengeance in the days preceding Passover each year. Only the matzoh—unleavened bread—survived the purge, along with matzoh meal, matzoh farfel, matzoh cake meal, chocolate-covered matzoh, and little hexagonal matzoh crackers called Tam-Tams. I’m sure there must be other matzoh-based products I have overlooked here, but you get the general idea—all matzoh, all the time. Eight days’ worth.
Matzoh is eaten during Passover because Passover commemorates the exodus from Egypt. Having fled Egypt with all due haste, my ancestors did not have sufficient time to wait for their bread to rise. When bread doesn’t rise, it is flat and cracker-like. Ergo, matzoh.
Apart from being difficult to digest when eaten in large quantities (in my mind, this was an additional reason to refer to it as “the bread of affliction”), matzoh or some other matzoh-derived products can be used flexibly and to relatively good effect in any number of holiday dishes as a substitute for flour.
Matzoh-meal popovers (hot out of the oven, slathered with butter) are divine, along with matzoh kugel (a casserole) and a desert pancake with raisins known as kremslach. My mother used to make me matzoh brei, also known as matzoh and eggs, not only on Passover, but every time I visited her right up until she died. I will spend the rest of my life not only missing my mom, but her matzoh brei as well. I know I could easily make it myself, but it will just never taste the same without her practiced hand and her secret ingredient: love.
I was never a big fan of matzoh-meal-based sponge cake, which was prepared every year for my birthday. I was born on the first night of Passover in 1957, and my birthday has fallen during Passover almost every year of my life. I suffered from birthday-cake envy throughout my childhood, resenting my friends for their beautiful gluten-rich cakes with buttercream frosting. It wasn’t that Mom’s sponge cake didn’t taste good; I just found it deeply substandard for the occasion.
The main course for all of my birthday parties was matzoh-meal-coated fried chicken, which I also considered vaguely substandard. Thankfully, potatoes were not verboten during the holiday, so at least I could look forward to a good side of fries, cooked in peanut oil.
Matzoh balls are simply matzoh-meal dumplings, but the consistency of those dumplings is a matter of individual taste. Throughout my childhood, the quality of the “best” matzoh ball was vigorously debated. My mother, and some of my friends, veered toward the “fluffy” end of the matzoh ball spectrum, but I always landed squarely in the “firm” camp. I liked my matzoh balls soft at the edges but firm in the center. I asserted that fluffy matzoh balls tasted like soup-soaked sponges, while others vehemently disagreed. Nevertheless, over the course of 67 years, my opinion has never wavered.
My mother made matzoh balls with matzoh meal, eggs, salt, and schmaltz (chicken fat). In my adulthood, I tried valiantly to repeat her recipe but was never quite satisfied with the result, until I discovered Manischewitz matzoh ball mix. It was only after adopting this product that I achieved what I considered the perfect matzoh ball. If you like your matzoh balls al dente, follow the instructions on the box, but cook the matzoh balls from five to 10 minutes less than the recommended cooking time. If you like the spongy form of matzoh balls, follow the directions exactly. Make sure to use a teaspoon when portioning out the raw dough; if you use a tablespoon, you will produce matzoh balls that are roughly the size of a human head.
A word of caution: Do not, under any circumstance, take the lid off the pot while the matzoh balls are cooking. You will ruin them, regardless of whether you like them firm or soft. Just drop them into a pot of boiling water, cover the pot, and reduce the heat to “simmer.”
No peeking!
I cook my matzoh balls in boiling water and not directly in the chicken soup, because matzoh balls, if cooked in soup, will cause the soup to become cloudy. Instead, remove the matzoh balls from the simmering water with a slotted spoon, drop them into individual soup bowls, and then ladle the hot soup over them.
You will find, over time, that matzoh balls needn’t be confined to Passover alone. Chicken soup with carrots and matzoh balls is a wonderful meal for chilly evenings, and I absolutely subscribe to the notion that chicken soup with matzoh balls is a worthy adjunct to penicillin when you are feeling under the weather. It has healing properties, and it certainly eclipses penicillin in flavor.
I would have said something about the preparation of gefilte fish—fish quenelles, made with matzoh meal and ground pike or, alternatively, ground carp—but I have only known one person in my life who made them from scratch, Auntie Sarah Friedman, and it took her the better part of two days. I did try to make them once, but the result was completely inedible. Almost everyone I know just picks up a jar of them in the kosher-food section of the supermarket and leaves it at that. Gefilte fish is definitely an acquired taste; most people who did not grow up in Jewish households find it entirely resistible. I happen to love gefilte fish (pike, not carp, and savory, not sweet)—yet another Passover food that provokes vigorous debate.
Passover was never just a family affair. Our seder also included all sorts of visitors. It is incumbent upon Jews to “welcome the stranger” at the door, for not only were my enslaved ancestors strangers in Egypt; they subsequently wandered alone in the wilderness for 40 years. Besides, it is a requirement to open the front door of one’s home during the seder to welcome in the spirit of the prophet Elijah. Once the door is open, it is open. You never know who might drift through.
At any rate, our seder always included both friends and strangers, Jews and gentiles. Sister Miriam Cecile, a Catholic nun, came to several of our seders. She was one of the most delightful people I have ever known. She never expressed a strong opinion about matzoh balls, but she didn’t have that much skin in the game.
So, Happy Passover to all who celebrate, and remember, only matzoh products marked “kosher for Passover” will pass muster with your rabbi. I am less picky than your rabbi, so whether your matzoh is Passover-approved or not, feel free to invite me to your seder.
I’ll bring the matzoh balls.
Mom’s Passover Sponge Cake
Ingredients:
- 9 room temperature eggs, separated
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup sifted potato starch
- ½ cup sifted matzoh cake meal
- ¾ cup orange juice
Instructions:
- Beat egg yolks until thick, gradually adding half the sugar.
- Combine the potato starch and matzoh cake meal and resift twice more.
- Beat egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually adding remaining sugar, and beat until stiff but not dry.
- Fold beaten egg whites into the yolk mixture, then gradually add dry ingredients, alternating with orange juice.
- Turn batter into an ungreased tube or springform pan.
- Bake one hour and fifteen minutes.
- Remove from oven, invert the pan and cool the cake on a wire rack.
If you are providing the sponge cake as part of your child’s Passover-compliant birthday party, make sure to apologize profusely and serve with an extra-large portion of whipped cream.
