Soak some matzoths in milk for a few minutes; then dip them into seasoned beaten eggs. Add a pinch of sugar and let them fry in hot rendered butter until a golden brown. Sprinkle with pulverized sugar and cinnamon and serve hot with coffee.
April 7 — No. 7
Jewish
This is matzo brei in its whole-sheet form — the boards are soaked, coated in egg and fried flat rather than broken up and scrambled. The original gives no quantities, so the proportions are yours to set.
- QuantitiesReckon on one egg and about 2 tablespoons of milk per sheet of matzo, with a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar in the eggs. Four sheets feed two people generously.
- "Matzoths"Plain unsalted matzo, the square boards sold in boxes. Egg matzo is softer and may go to pieces in the milk; the standard plain sheets tend to hold together better.
- Soaking is the hinge"A few minutes" is longer than modern matzo needs. Dip each sheet in the milk for 20-30 seconds a side, until it is pliable but not sagging. Oversoaked matzo tears the moment you lift it and fries to paste.
- Rendered butterMost likely clarified butter, from which the milk solids have been removed, so it takes frying heat better than whole butter. Ordinary butter may brown or scorch; if you use it, add a little neutral oil.
- Pan heatMedium, not high. The egg coating needs 2-3 minutes a side to set and colour; hotter than that and the outside browns while the interior stays wet.
- Pulverized sugarConfectioners' or icing sugar. Mix it with the cinnamon before sprinkling so it does not clump on the hot surface.
- ServingServe straight from the pan. Fried matzo goes leathery within a few minutes of sitting, so cook it last and eat it immediately.
Fried matzo is a thrift dish of the Passover week, when leavened bread is absent from the house and the unleavened boards on hand have to stand in for everything from breakfast toast to dessert. In Yiddish-speaking kitchens it is matzo brei, often made by crumbling the sheets and cooking them like a scramble; this version keeps the boards whole and treats them exactly as French toast. That it is made with milk and butter marks it as a dairy meal in kosher practice, to be served without meat. Collections like this one routinely presented immigrant home cooking under a single national label, so a dish specific to one holiday week arrives on the page simply as "Jewish."