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Battle
of the Matzo Balls
In one
corner are the proponents of "floaters," who employ
everything from stiffly beaten egg whites to club soda in order
to lift their batter to heavenly heights. In the other corner
are the "sinker" folks, dismissive of an "insipid"
fluffy texture — they prefer a more meaty, substantial matzo
ball. These two groups have been duking it out for generations.
But it
gets even more complicated. There are the traditionalists, who
insist that authentic matzo balls cannot be made without schmaltz,
the
rendered chicken fat used by Eastern European Jews.
And there are the revisionists, who, for health or aesthetic
reasons, favor oil or even — gasp — butter, which conflicts
with kosher dietary laws if served in a meal with meat. Put
them all together, and it's an out-and-out free-for-all.
Nor do
the experts agree. Jewish cooking maven and author Joan Nathan
prefers her matzo balls "a little bit al dente. I like
to be able to bite into them." She eschews "colorful"
tricks such as using seltzer or beating the egg whites separately,
and instead relies on a proper balance of egg to matzo meal
(too much meal produces a heavy, leaden texture) and carefully
monitored cooking time (if the balls are cooked too long they
will lose their toothsome quality). She sometimes adds grated
fresh ginger or even cilantro for flavor.
Food writer
and restaurant critic Mimi Sheraton favors a slightly solid
center, surrounded by a more fluffy exterior: "I like to
feel the matzo balls against the spoon, but I hate when they
are hard and gummy." Her secret? Enough fat to produce
a silken texture but not so much that the balls are greasy.
Jack Lebewohl,
owner of the Second Avenue Deli on Manhattan's Lower East Side,
tries to be diplomatic: "You prefer what you're used to,"
he asserts. His landmark restaurant has been serving its trademark
enormous, fluffy, golden matzo balls to legions of fans since
his brother Abe opened it in 1954, using their mother's recipes.
But even Jack has his strong opinions: He insists that schmaltz
is the only appropriate fat, joking that matzo balls made with
butter or oil are "assimilated."
With such
conflicting advice, the only thing to do is decide for yourself.
To this end, I organized a tasting by the Epicurious editors,
for which I prepared recipes by Nathan, Sheraton, and Abe Lebewohl,
as well as the one I make for my own seders. Since I wanted
a level playing field, I chose versions that hewed to the basics
of the genre. No fancy additions here — the most exotic of the
ingredients was parsley. The differences were subtle: various
ratios of fat and liquid to matzo meal, beating the egg whites
separately, using butter instead of chicken fat. But they produced
surprisingly varied results — when tasted side by side, there
were clear differences. To see the tasters' comments, click
here.
The results
were, of course, affected by individual preferences. Not all
of us agreed on the qualities inherent in the ideal matzo ball.
We tasted, and argued, and tasted some more. In the end, we
were able to reach some general
conclusions. But the debate, of course, goes on.... |