Celebrating with Jewish Cooking: Passover

The eight-day springtime holiday of Passover commemorates the ancient Hebrews' liberation from Egyptian slavery. The Passover Seder, a ritual-filled Jewish feast, takes place on the first night of the holiday.

On the Passover table, matzo is served instead of bread, as a reminder of the slaves' hurried escape. The Torah relates that the fleeing Hebrews did not have time to let their bread rise. To identify with their ancestors' flight and deliverance, the Jews eat matzo, flat, unleavened crackerlike bread.

Creating the Passover paradox

Passover meals are intentionally different from those of the rest of the year. Besides bread, several other foods are shunned. In spite of these constraints, most people look forward to Passover as a food holiday. Inventive cooks throughout the ages contributed to the holiday flavors and have produced a popular Passover repertoire. They developed tasty, out-of-the-ordinary dishes. The result is that Passover meals are not only the most festive of the year but the most interesting as well.

Meals without grains and beans

Grains are eliminated from most traditional Jewish tables during Passover. True, matzo is made of wheat, but it is a special exception. In some Sephardic communities, rice is allowed, too. Ashkenazic Jews and many Sephardic Jews avoid beans as well.

Foods prohibited during Passover are called hametz in Hebrew, meaning leavened. In addition to bread, certain other foods are not allowed because they can leaven, or ferment naturally, upon contact with liquid. These foods include wheat flour, other grains, and legumes. This principle is the same one that's behind sourdough baking: When a mixture of flour and water is left to sit, it catches wild yeast from the air.

Matzo itself is made from wheat flour. To prevent its fermentation, it is inspected during its preparation to ensure that the dough is mixed quickly and baked immediately.

Menus highlighting matzo

Matzo does not simply play the role of bread substitute. Cooks turn it into an amazing variety of delicacies, from lasagna to chicken stuffing to cookies.

At one time, only white flour matzo and egg matzo were available. Now, you can get matzo in a variety of flavors, such as whole wheat, white grape, and chocolate.

Certain flavored matzo varieties are not considered kosher for Passover. Check the labels on the packages.

Although most matzo is square, there are special shmura matzos, meaning watched-over matzos, which are usually round. Even more than other types of matzo, rabbis or special inspectors carefully scrutinize them at every stage of their preparation. Orthodox Jews prefer them for the Seder.

A glance at the supermarket Passover displays reveals many foods made from matzo. Cooks find matzo meal, cake meal, and matzo farfel the most useful. (See Table 1 for descriptions and uses of basic Passover ingredients.) Passover pasta began recently appearing in the stores so that noodle lovers need no longer miss their favorite food during the holiday. You can also find numerous cake mixes and prepared cakes and cookies.

Table 1: Basic Passover Products

Prominence of potatoes

Because many of the usual carbohydrate foods are not permitted during the holiday, potatoes play a major part on Passover menus. Potato starch replaces flour in some recipes.

A favorite way to prepare potatoes, especially for the Seder and for other festive meals, is to bake them around a main course of chicken, turkey, or meat or to roast them separately in a pan. Some prepare potato latkes, similar to those for Hanukkah, but with no baking powder and with matzo meal used instead of the flour.

Preparing for Passover

In observant households, people start preparing for Passover at least several days ahead. Many do a thorough spring-cleaning to be certain that no bread or cake crumbs are in the house.

Kitchen implements

To keep the food completely kosher for Passover, many people switch their eating and cooking utensils, including dishes, flatware, pots, and mixing spoons. This means two sets of Passover equipment, one for meat meals and one for dairy dining.

Using different dishes helps give this week's meals a special presentation and contributes to the festive feeling. So does the custom of buying new clothes for the whole family.

Special Seder foods

Passover begins with a ritual-rich dinner called a Seder. It involves ceremonial foods presented on a special Seder plate, which is divided into sections labeled in Hebrew indicating where to place each food (see Table 2). Their purpose is to symbolize the Hebrews' bondage in Egypt, deliverance, and gaining their own land of Israel.

Table 2: Seder Plate Foods and Labels

A matzo plate is an essential Seder table element. On it are three matzos, often covered with or enclosed in a matzo cloth reserved for the occasion.

Wine is an important element of the Seder. During the ceremony, people drink four glasses of wine. Many families serve it in special small glasses.

Although the time-honored taste of Seder wine is sweet, any kosher for Passover wine is appropriate. American, Israeli, French, and Italian winemakers prepare dry and semi-dry Passover wines, as well as sweet ones.

Seder ceremony

For the Seder, there is a book of prayers and songs called the Haggadah. Either the leader reads from it or those at the table take turns. Most of the reading takes place before the actual dinner begins. The recitation is punctuated with pauses to taste or point out each of the special Seder foods.

Around the world, Jews prepare two Seders, one on the first and one on the second night of the holiday. Israeli custom calls for only one Seder, on the first night.