What tastes better Hand Matzah or Machine Matzah?

Home Forums Yom Tov Pesach What tastes better Hand Matzah or Machine Matzah?

  • This topic has 40 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 6 years ago by GAON.
Viewing 41 posts - 1 through 41 (of 41 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #1491541
    ratty
    Participant

    I had an argument with my chavrusa about what tastes better and decided that the only way to solve it was ask it in the coffee room.

    #1491591
    joe
    Participant

    Hand matza, it is not even close

    #1491570
    Joseph
    Participant

    Hand Matzah, hands down.

    Even if someone doesn’t hold hand matzah is halachicly or hashkaficaly necessary, they’d still agree hand matzah tastes much much better than machine matzah.

    #1491632
    MDG
    Participant

    Egg matza

    #1491644
    ratty
    Participant

    MDG: does that mean machine?

    #1491700
    iacisrmma
    Participant

    Depends on the hand matza bakery that produces the matza. I personally dislike matza;s from some bakeries and would prefer machine matzas over those.

    #1491768
    Joseph
    Participant

    iac: Compare the *best* hand matzah to the best machine matzah. You seem to agree the best hand is the best.

    #1491796
    Geordie613
    Participant

    Hand Matza. Specifically, Komemiyus.

    #1491794
    iacisrmma
    Participant

    As my rosh yeshiva once told me “on taste and smell there isn’t any debate”. I prefer the hand matza I eat over box matza but I know others who think that only machine matzas taste good.

    #1491799
    twisted
    Participant

    Home baked, obviously hand, and one has control of freshness and whole grain content.

    #1491802
    ratty
    Participant

    some how I think Im going to lose this argument ;(
    my chavrusa will rub this in forever!

    #1491803
    ratty
    Participant

    I made a survey about this topic and put in my vote. please vote so we can actually see what most people think.
    [googleapps domain=”docs” dir=”forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScD1u7Nuhhs2NnjaW62QSKcT70SKimoS-DHqAe8sVZB3fl7Ug/viewform” query=”embedded=true” width=”760″ height=”500″ /]

    #1491845
    Joseph
    Participant

    iac: Only fellows who’ve never tasted good hand matzah could mistake machine matzah as better.

    #1491857
    Geordie613
    Participant

    Joseph, I agree. It’s worth £30 for a box of komemiyus to make the mitzva nicer and more enjoyable.

    btw, I only get one box. the rest of YT is machine shmura.

    #1491898
    iacisrmma
    Participant

    Joseph: And just whose brand do you think tastes good? I know my friend has tasted both Chareidim and Shatzer and doesn’t like either and prefers his Machine matzah.

    #1492323
    Joseph
    Participant

    iac, there are יוצא מן הכלל for everything. I’m sure we can find people who think military issued MREs taste better than strawberries, cheesecake and steak.

    #1492356
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Whichever matzah has charoset, lettuce, and maror on it.

    #1492303
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    Many considerations besides hand or machine…………………………..
    #1 American, Israeli or other country of origin
    In the 70s and 80s and early 90s I loved the taste of Rakusen Machine Matzo from England
    Until the 2010s I could NOT stand the taste of Israeli matzo Hand or Machine. Now I stockpile Yehuda machine matzo for year round use. Stop and Shop gives away a 5lb box with a $25 purchase and I’ve already put 50 lobs away that cost nothing. I could have chosen other Israeli or American brands, but I like this taste better.
    #2 Hand is it thick or thin? Texture isn’t really taste, but a blah taste lingers longer when the matzo is very thick.
    #3 Is the hand matzo burnt and overcooked. I don’t like the taste of char.

    #4 which grain is used? My niece has celiac disease, We buy both oat and spelt matzo for her, I like the taste of oat, not spelt. In fact I think an Oat machine matzo tastes better than a wheat hand matzo.

    #1493488
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    Final factor affecting the taste of matzo…………………

    What fuel is used to bake the matzo?

    I’ve had hand matzo baked in coal or wood fired ovens that has a distinctive taste. I like wood fired, not coal.
    Machine matzos are baked in gas or electric ovens (as are some hand matzo) which impart no flavor to the matzo

    #1493495
    GAON
    Participant

    CT,

    Good point, but whatever hand matzoh you use, if you rewarm/bake it it will certainly have a much better taste and texture. Most matzos are a couple of months old and are kind of stale.

    #1493543
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    @Gaon
    Most ‘commercial’ matzo is at least a couple of months old.
    I’ll be baking our hand schmurah in a wood fired outdoor brick oven in our yard this coming week. It will be nice and fresh for Pesach.
    My sons and I built the oven as a bonding project about 25 years ago and we enjoy using it every year. Once the matzo baking is over, the oven is secured and not used until the following year.
    Our smokehouse is full of meats, fowl and fish that is curing for Pesach. As I have mentioned in other posts, we buy no prepared foods, but make everything from scratch. We have a separate Pesach kitchen and today was soup and potato kugel preparation day. All are cooling now and a freezer will be filled before we go to bed tonight. Mrs. CTL and I are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the gantze mishpocha for the entire Yuntif, should be about 50 sleeping and eating here in the compound.

    #1493581
    Geordie613
    Participant

    CTL, I’m with you on the Yehuda matzos.
    Who remembers the French matzos in the blue & brown boxes? Those are the matzos of my childhood in South Africa. Each matza was conveniently divided into four sections.

    #1493592
    klugeryid
    Participant

    Ctlawyer
    How do you get your raw matzah to the oven?

    As to the general discussion?
    Why chose
    Buy a box of hand matzah
    When you finish them, just eat the box!!
    Bingo two for the price of one
    In a blind taste test most people cannot differentiate between average machine matzoh and the box it comes in

    #1493648
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    @KLugeryid
    Raw matzo is draped over a 2″ diameter stainless steel dowel. As one edge of the matzo hits the oven floor, rotate one’s wrist to place the entire circle on the oven floor smoothing with the dowel. Years ago we used wood dowels, but the stainless cleans much faster with boiling water, no chance of residue becoming chometz.

    #1493652
    klugeryid
    Participant

    CTlawyer
    I asked how do you get your matzah TO the oven
    Not INTO the oven
    It is a serious question

    #1493757
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    @klugeryid
    We set up production tables outside within steps of the oven. All the mixing, kneading, etc. is done there. We have water source, etc. The have an outdoor kitchen with stainless steel sinks and counters that are easy to kasher, so there is provision for washing keilim, etc.
    We are not dealing with making dough and shaping matzo in the house and having to get it outside and baked within the time limits. The distance from outdoor work station to outdoor oven is actually closer than if I was preparing food in one of my indoor kitchens and carrying from the center islands to ovens,

    #1493761
    MalachOfCholent
    Participant

    depends on your mood

    #1493986
    twisted
    Participant

    CTL: pleasantly surprised to find another home baker. Maybe it is catching on.

    #1494803
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    @twisted
    with the death of local kosher bakeries due to supermarket bakeries under kosher supervision, home kosher baking OOT has been on the rise for 25+ years.
    I was in the Kosher Bakery business in the 1970s
    Mrs. CTL’s family owned and operated a kosher bakery
    Thus we have always baked most of our own things.
    In addition to inside kitchen ovens, we have a brick oven in our living room fireplace wall and both the outdoor matzo oven and an outdoor wood fired beeehive shaped pizza oven, used for all kinds of milchige baking, pizza, calzones, kugels, etc.
    I built the outside ovens myself. The fireplace wall oven is more than 200 years old

    #1494830
    Geordie613
    Participant

    CTL – Kol hakavod. I must say it is very different baking pizza and kugel compared to the huge achrayos of baking matzos mitzva.

    #1494884
    Yossii
    Participant

    It really depends how you eat it matzah Pitza matzah and cheese matza with herring is better in michene but matzah by itself is better hand matzah

    #1494901
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    @Geordie613
    I learned to bake matzo from my employer at the bakery in 1974. He was originally from Lodz and his family bakery had a separate location where they baked and sold Matzo. He continued to have a separate private matzo baking facility here where he baked for families and friends.

    Mrs. CTL’s grandparents also baled Matzo for sale in the early 1900s in Bridgeport. The tradition and skill was passed down in her family as well.

    #1494938
    Geordie613
    Participant

    @ratty, Have you made peace with your chavrusa yet?

    #1494931
    ThinkingCap
    Participant

    Whole wheat hand Matzot from Migdal haemek

    #1494952
    ratty
    Participant

    Yes. But he is very smug that he was right!! 🙂

    #1495084

    CTL: We set up production tables outside within steps of the oven.

    It is worth pointing out that the Shulchan Aruch says the dough should not be kneaded near the oven.

    ולא יתקרב ללוש אצל התנור מפני חום התנור

    #1495430
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    @Mod100
    I’ve checked with my Rav before we set this up years ago.
    He is of the opinion that what you quote from the Shulchan Aruch uses the word Etzel meaning next to or adjoining the oven. So I would not knead the dough on the couter whoch abuts the oven.

    Our work tables are steps away from the oven and he paskens that if just fine. Outdoors that distance is more than sufficient to make sure the work surface is not warmed by the oven which could cause the dough to rise at an accelerated rate.

    We did our baking this past Sunday. The temperature was about 34 degree Farenheit. The 4 ft distance from tables to oven door were not affected by the heat from the wood burning oven.

    Thanks for your concern, but we checked it out long ago. Since our Rav not only gave his ok, but eats matzo from our oven, I’m fine with it as it stands.

    #1495435

    What does he say about baking outdoors? Do you have a canopy?

    וכן יש ליזהר מלהוליך המצות לתנור תחת הרקיע מגולה

    #1495538
    CTLAWYER
    Participant

    @Moderator100

    Your continued questioning makes me laugh, it is the stuff that turns people away form religion.

    Do I have a canopy, what does my rav think about baking matzo outdoors?

    Where do you think those fleeing Mitzraim baked their matzo? They did not have buildings as we know them and modern ovens? They baked outdoors!

    #1495546

    I quoted a Halachah in Shulchan Aruch. It is in the R”ma in Orach Chaim, 459:1. See Mishnah Berurah.

    #1495785
    GAON
    Participant

    YW 100 –

    For that very reason some say, rather take Matzoh (Especially Erev Pesach) with a good Hechsher than doing it yourself , unless you are proficient in the Halacha…i.e. Hilchos Pesach.

Viewing 41 posts - 1 through 41 (of 41 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.