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Meet A Southern Baptist Matzoh Expert

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Apr 18, 2016
Meet A Southern Baptist Matzoh Expert

This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)

Matzoh isn't just for Jews, and it isn't just for the Jewish holiday of Passover. It's a simple, delicious cracker that's ideal for all people all year round!

In this episode of The Sporkful podcast, Dan travels to the Manischewitz factory in Newark, NJ, to interview a Southern Baptist matzoh expert and a rabbi who is an expert on kosher law.

We'll learn about the science of matzoh making and eating, including:

- Manufacturing matzoh crunch (including how different cooking processes change crunch levels)

- The role that the little holes in matzoh play in determining a cracker's texture

- When ham is the perfect matzoh accompaniment

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Later in the show, Rabbi Yakov Horowitz and Dan debate some tough theological questions, including:

- Some matzoh isn't kosher for Passover. If it isn't, should it really be considered matzoh? Isn't matzoh inherent in Passover? (The rabbi's response begins, "Let me strengthen your case before I tell you why you're wrong.")

- Is an open-faced matzoh sandwich actually a sandwich?

- Charoset is part of the Passover seder made of apples and nuts and meant to symbolize the mortar used to build the pyramids in Egypt. If the apples and nuts in a charoset are chopped so big that the charoset does not stay on your matzoh and act as an actual mortar, should the charoset be considered symoblic mortar? Or is it invalid as charoset if it doesn't work as mortar?

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Rabbi Horowitz also reveals the recipe for matzoh brei that the women who work in the Manischewitz test kitchen use. (Imagine a matzoh brei that can be sliced into wedges like a frittata!)

And be sure to check out Dan's recipe for Passover Sangria -- after all, Passover is one of the great drinking holidays. Pesach Sameach, eaters (and drinkers)!

This week's episode of The Sporkful podcast is up! Listen through the player or iTunes/Podcasts app. (And please subscribe!)

Connect with Dan on TwitterInstagram and Facebook!

This is a rebroadcast of an earlier episode.

Interstitial music in this episode by Black Label Music:

- "Out To Lunch" by Chris Bierden

- "Simple Song" by Chris Bierden

Photos: FlickrCC/Quinn Dombrowski; FlickrCC/Katie Spence; FlickrCC/Kelle Cruz

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