Medieval Matzah Balls
When the Ancient Israelites fled Egypt, they had unleavened flatbreads which had been baked in tabuns, or outdoor wood fired mud ovens. They did not have matzah balls. Jews had to wait about 2,500 years, until the Middle Ages, to be introduced to the gastronomic delight of biting into a matzah ball immersed in chicken broth. What seems to be the most quintessential of Jewish foods today, was really quite a late arrival. It has gone from being a dense, filling specialty Passover food to being a light, airy, year round comfort food.
Introduction
The Jews went through a long odyssey from Egypt to the shores of the Rhine River to discover matzah balls. Matzah balls were first concocted in Germany. Knaidl, the Yiddish name for matzah ball, comes from the German name for Knödel, or dumpling. In the Middle Ages, people in Eastern Europe made dumplings by mixing stale breadcrumbs with eggs, milk, butter, and spices. Jews replaced the breadcrumbs with matzah meal. Rendered chicken fat, or shmaltz, was used instead of butter, and water instead of milk. In the shtetl, each housewife baked matzah for her own family. She would use wheat, rye, oat, spelt, or barley flour, which had been ground with the shtetl’s gristmill. This flour would have a coarser texture than the flour that is commercially produced today. She would crush this matzah with a mortar and pestle to make matzah meal.
At that time, matzah balls were a special food that was prepared only for Passover. The Jewish homemaker mixed the flour with water and baked the matzah in an open-hearth fireplace. Her matzah would have been round, about an inch thick, and with an uneven texture. From the moment the flour and the water were mixed the matzah had to be ready in eighteen minutes. This rule comes from the Talmud, which says that it should not take longer to bake matzah than it would to walk a Roman mile (a thousand paces). This has been calculated by Talmudic scholars to mean eighteen minutes.
Photo by Government Press Office (Israel), CC BY-SA 3.0, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22807453]
Ingredients
Shtetl Matzah Ball Recipe From The Middle Ages
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon melted shmaltz (chicken fat)
2 tablespoons warm water
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ cup matzah meal
Preparation
Step 1
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, cover, and let stand for 15 minutes.
Step 2
Measure 8 cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt into a large pot. Bring to a boil.
Step 3
Wet your hands with cold water, and then make walnut size balls from the matzah meal mixture.
Step 4
Drop them into the boiling water. Cover the pot and simmer the matzah balls for 20 minutes.
Step 5
Remove from the pot with a slotted spoon.