Keys to a good matzoh ball for Passover
Amy Drew: Use chicken fat for flavor, as well as club soda to make them light and airy – and vodka to add bite and balance.
Today I am working with vodka and soda. And before you get too jealous, also chicken fat. In fact, it’s been a very schmaltzy week.
Schmaltz, for those of you who don’t recognize the word (or think it’s some fancy thing foodies trot out of their larders, like truffle honey or artisan kimchi), is the Yiddish word for chicken fat. And if you’re planning on making matzoh balls — for Passover, which begins on the evening of March 27 — you should use it in place of oil.
Why?
Flavor, for starters. It’s a concentrated, Batman-style ZAMMM! of chicken-y goodness. And who wouldn’t want that imbued into these homey, Hebrew dumplings? Next up: texture. Schmaltz is a creamy, dreamy delight. Skimmed from the top of your cooledoff soup, it chips apart like delicate golden icebergs atop the jellied broth — so not only will you be making your soup a little lighter, you’ll also have a wonderful new tool in your cooking arsenal.
Schmaltz isn’t just great for matzoh balls. My Grandma Sadye fried almost everything in it. You’ve heard of duckfat fries? Roast yours (or any root veggies) with chicken fat instead. Add it to mashed potatoes. Use it to caramelize onions or grill tortillas. Put in doughs for savory goodies. You’ll probably only use a couple of tablespoons for your matzoh balls — but hang onto the rest. Just jar it up to use within a few days or keep it longer in the freezer.
Notable: You can render your own schmaltz more traditionally by frying up chicken skin and fat with onions until both are crisp. These bits are called gribenes (grih-ben-ess) and can be reused in any dish where crackling and fried onions would be warranted — latkes, home fries, chopped liver, you name it. You can also just eat ‘em as is. Because crispy skin slams.
Now, let’s get back to the bar.
When I was a teenager, I made my first batch of matzoh balls with my dad, who for some reason put vodka in the mixture. I’ve made them that way since but could not for the life of me recall its purpose in the recipe, so I called him.
He’s 90 now. He didn’t remember, either.
“Are you sure it wasn’t club soda?”
And so ensued a discussion of the airy addition of club soda, by which many ballers swear — in particular fans of the “floater” matzoh ball. These are light, fluffy and bob atop your steaming soup bowl.
Some people add baking powder, too, creating a ball so insanely light they should probably turn off the ceiling fan as a precaution.
“Sinkers,” by contrast, have more density and chew. Sinkers shouldn’t be hard to cleave with the spoon but offer some resistance. They fight you a little but with love. Not unlike many of those with whom you’re likely sharing your seder table.
Vodka, on the other hand, can add bite and balance to dishes, using my Dad’s vodka sauce example. Upon further research, I found it acts as an emulsifier that binds oils to water — which it also does in this creamy Italian classic and what I assume it does for the matzoh balls.
I’d never tried the club soda thing, though, so I did a side-by-side to see which did what. Here are my findings:
The soda really works! These balls — I made them in several sizes — were spongy, light and airy and made for baseball-sized spheres that look great in photos and evoke that classic Second Avenue Deli aesthetic.
The vodka balls were closer to sinkers, denser than the former and really excellent. Those who enjoy this heft and texture often purport that the rich, schmaltzy, soupy flavors are more pronounced in a sinker. I can’t speak universally, but for this particular test, I’d agree.
In subsequent batches, I found that one could make up for this by adding a little more salt to the club soda balls to help match the flavor of their Russian (by way of St. Petersburg, Florida — as I used Banyan Reserve Vodka #supportlocal) counterparts.
And so, the debate rages on. Meh, at least it’s not political.
The recipe below is simply modified from what you’ll find on the Manischewitz Matzoh Meal container and written with both club soda and vodka options. After completing this test, I discovered a recipe that won the grand prize at the Stage Deli’s first Matzoh Bowl contest in 1988. It contains both vodka and club soda.
Oy vey, I need a drink.
Some universal tips
■ Make the soup first. A.
You can get the schmaltz from your cooled-off soup. B. You can cook your matzoh balls in broth instead of water, which is my preference. Plus, when they’re done, you’ll have hot soup ready — just add in your veggies, noodles, etc. and eat up!
■ Refrigerate your mixture for at least 20 minutes before balling ‘em up. If you’re going to wait longer, that’s fine, just make sure you put some plastic wrap over it to keep it from drying out.
■ Wet your hands and any other implements you plan to use before you ball. Otherwise, this golden spackle will stick to everything it touches. Not a good thing.
■ Cover them while cooking. If possible, use a pot with a glass lid so you’re not tempted to open it.
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