Passover foods throughout the ages

• Susan Weingarten

Passover foods through the ages

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Susan Weingarten

3 categories of Passover foods

• Symbolic foods of seder ritual

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• Foods of the seder meal

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• Foods of Passover in general

• Restrictions on eating leavened bread and other food which might contain leaven lead to the development of a whole new style of cooking, and especially baking

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• Use of matzah* meal, potato flour, ground nuts, beaten egg whites

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*matzah, matzo = unleavened bread

Passover through history

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• Passover in Egypt

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• Passover through the generations

Passover in Egypt

Exodus 12

The Children of Israel are about to be freed from hundreds of years of slavery

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What does God tell them to do at this critical point?

To eat!

Passover in Egypt (cont)

Exodus 12, 1-14

Instructions about

• What to eat
• How to cook it
• What to eat it with
• Whom to eat it with
• How to eat it
• What to wear while eating

Passover in Egypt: the food

• Exodus 12, 3; 8
• …they shall take every man a lamb…for a house.
• And they shall eat the meat in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread [=matzah]; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

Passover for the generations to come

Exodus 12, 14

• And this day [=Passover] shall be to you for a memorial and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you shall keep it as a feast by ordinance forever. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread [=matzah]…

Exodus 13, 10

• You shall therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year.

The Paschal lamb

Yearly pilgrimage to

Jerusalem Temple,

Paschal lamb barbecue

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until Temple destroyed

in the year 70 CE

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The rabbis banned eating roast lamb at seder and substituted a symbolic piece of matzah instead

The book of the meal

Passover haggadah

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begins in third-century Palestine

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blessings, instructions, exegesis, stories, songs added over time

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pictures from Middle Ages

Preparing for Passover�

On the table: the symbolic foods

My seder plate

Graeco-Roman Jewish Seder symposium

• Reclining on couches
• Pouring of wine
• Lettuce etc. dipped in liquid
• Begins with eggs
• Many courses
• Philosophical discussion of texts and food
• epikomen

• ‘Reclining’
• 4 cups of wine
• Lettuce etc. dipped in salt water/haroset
• Egg in salt water
• At least two courses
• Reading and discussion of text and food
• afikoman

House of Orpheus, Sepphoris�Galilee�

Non-Jewish Graeco-Roman banquet�‘House of the Buffet Supper,’ Antioch

egg in salt water

bitter herbs�

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haggadah

from 14^th century Catalonia

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artichoke

or

lettuce?

Babylonian Talmud�

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List of named bitter herbs with translations

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ḥazeret = ḥasa (lettuce)

olshin = hindibi

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hindibi = entybion in Greek

= endive

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Present-day bitter herbs

ḥazeret =

Armoracia rusticana,

Horseradish

Meerrettich

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Only in use as bitter herbs from the Middle Ages in Europe

karpas

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parsley celery potato

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dipped in salt water

or vinegar

shank bone: zero’a

in memory

of Passover sacrifice

ḥaroset

ḥaroset

first course of the non-Jewish Graeco-Roman meal: embamma

Apicius

• embamma –

counteracts harmful

effects of

lettuce, endives

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Babylonian Talmud

• ḥaroset – counteracts harmful kappa in the bitter herbs (lettuce, endives etc)

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10^th century glossary on the Mishnah from Cairo�

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difficult Hebrew terms are

explained in Greek written in Hebrew letters

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ḥaroset = embamma

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first mention of ḥaroset

Mishnah, Palestine 3^rd century

book of religious regulations

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• includes spices

ḥaroset today: always sweet

Ashkenazi

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Sephardi

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Balkan

• apples

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• dates

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• raisins

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• apples

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• dates

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• raisins

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texture and symbolism

Jerusalem Talmud

(Extension of laws in

Mishnah, from 4^th-5^th

century)

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• thick or liquid?

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• clay or blood?

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wheelbarrow

Babylonian Talmud: �taste and symbolism

Babylonian Talmud

(extension of laws in Mishnah,

5^th-7^th century)

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• thick or acidic?

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• clay or apple ?

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ḥaroset : sweet, sour – �or sharp?

mediaeval French rabbi, Rash’’i, 11^th century:

“ḥaroset which is called aigros”

• apples
• wine
• spices
• greens

used as sauce for meat

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= sauce verte?

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�sharp ḥaroset: Sefer haRoqe’ah �c. 13^th Ashkenaz�

• apples
• [wal]nuts
• figs
• pomegranates
• greens
• horseradish
• cumin
• ginger
• black pepper

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The Tosefot’s ḥaroset �12^th-14^th century

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make haroset from fruit the Jewish people were compared with in

the Song of Songs:

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• under the apple tree I will rouse you
• like a piece of pomegranate
• the fig-tree puts forth her green figs
• I will go up into the palm tree
• I went down to the nut orchard
• almonds [shaqed] because God was watchful [shoqed] to bring his word to pass

Nuremberg, Germany, 15^th century�apples, pears, nuts

ḥaroset – or chutney?!�Ramba’’m [Rabbi Moses Maimonides]�12^th century, Spain�

• dates or figs cooked

and ground up

• vinegar

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• spikenard

or thyme

or hyssop (za’atar),

not ground up

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Off the plate: matzah�(unleavened bread)

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modern

machine-made matzah is square and crisp

Matzah (unleavened bread)

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• hand-baked matzah is round

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• and sometimes soft

wine

4 cups of wine are obligatory at the seder

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but it is permitted to dilute them

and many people nowadays drink

grape-juice

traditional foods of the seder meal

hard boiled eggs

roughly chopped

in salt water

kneidelach

chicken soup with kneidelach�(or beetroot borscht with sour cream)

• Two cups medium matzah meal.
• One onion chopped roughly into centimetre pieces and fried till brown in chicken fat (or olive oil for the cholesterol conscious) and then drained.
• One teaspoon salt (or more to taste).
• A good sprinkling of pepper to taste.
• Mix.
• Pour on enough boiling water to make a lumpy mass.
• Mix eggs into lump of matzah meal etc with a fork until it is like a thick cream – this quantity will probably take two eggs or more.
• Taste and adjust seasoning.
• Set aside to thicken enough to be able to shape roughly walnut sized balls (it is easier to make them with wetted hands.).
• The kneidelach can be stored in the fridge for up to a day under cling wrap until needed.
• Put into boiling chicken soup and when all have floated up to the surface again transfer soup to hotplate or leave on covered flame for at least an hour till you are ready to serve your meal.

grieben/griboli and schmaltz

Chop the pieces of raw fat off your chicken (or better still, goose)

Put them in a dish in a hot oven until brown and crispy

Eat just as they are or mix with the liquid schmaltz (fat) into kneidelach or mashed potatoes

Keep some of the hardened schmaltz in the fridge to spread on your matzah

matzah meal latkes

¾ cup matzah meal

1 cup water

2 eggs

1 dessertspoon sugar

pinch salt

oil for frying

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Mix the matzah meal, water and eggs etc. until it looks like liquid cream. If the batter is too thick, add more water.

Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan until it is just beginning to smoke.

Add the batter to the hot oil with a large spoon or ladle. Check that the latkes are not sticking to the frying pan and turn them over when you see a brown line round them. Take them out with a slotted spoon to drain off as much oil as possible.

Eat hot, sprinkled with a little sugar.

Or make a compôte of dried fruit (apricots, prunes, cranberries, raisins etc) soaked overnight in water with a generous slosh of sweet red wine and serve at room temperature with the latkes.

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Racheline’s Passover spice cake

Separate 8 eggs

To yolks add 1 cup sugar and beat

Add: 2 tbsps grated chocolate/chips

¾ cup chopped walnuts

2 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp salt

4 tbsps honey

½ cup grape juice

¼ cup orange or apple juice

Grated rind one lemon

Beat egg whites till stiff

Stir 1 cup matza meal into yolk mix then gently fold into beaten whites. Pour into cake tin – the mix should ribbon out. Bake in moderate oven till golden brown