Matzohs

Appears in
The Gefilte Variations
The Gefilte Variations

By Jayne Cohen

Published 2000

  • About

When the matza came out well, she held it up on the rolling pin to show the rich lady how nice it looked.

—ABRAHAM REISEN, “MATZA FORTHE RICH”

I devoured pounds of the crisp crumbling matzohs with hunks of fresh butter and streams of honey, leaving a trail of crumbs all over the house.

—EDNA FERBER, A PECULIAR TREASURE

One Passover spent in Paris, I ate thick matzoh, soft and crumbly as a cookie. In shops and restaurants in both the old ghetto area in the Marais and the newer North African—Jewish neighborhood surrounding the rue des Richers in the ninth arrondissement, I came across sweet varieties as well, prepared with wine, orange flower water, and sugar, tasting like exotic tea biscuits. They were, the boxes revealed, made from a secret family recipe from Oran, Algeria.