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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.
Hand matza, it is not even close
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.
Egg matza
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.
iac: Compare the *best* hand matzah to the best machine matzah. You seem to agree the best hand is the best.
Hand Matza. Specifically, Komemiyus.
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.
Home baked, obviously hand, and one has control of freshness and whole grain content.
iac: Only fellows who’ve never tasted good hand matzah could mistake machine matzah as better.
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.
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.
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.
Whichever matzah has charoset, lettuce, and maror on it.
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.
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 matzoCT,
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.
@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.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.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@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.CTlawyer
I asked how do you get your matzah TO the oven
Not INTO the oven
It is a serious question@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,depends on your mood
CTL: pleasantly surprised to find another home baker. Maybe it is catching on.
@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 oldCTL – Kol hakavod. I must say it is very different baking pizza and kugel compared to the huge achrayos of baking matzos mitzva.
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
@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.
@ratty, Have you made peace with your chavrusa yet?
Whole wheat hand Matzot from Migdal haemek
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
@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.
What does he say about baking outdoors? Do you have a canopy?
וכן יש ליזהר מלהוליך המצות לתנור תחת הרקיע מגולה
@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!
I quoted a Halachah in Shulchan Aruch. It is in the R”ma in Orach Chaim, 459:1. See Mishnah Berurah.
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.
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