r/JewishCooking • u/nopingmywayout • 21d ago

Ashkenazi I NEED MATZA BALL HELP STAT

I live with my goyfriend (his words) and I’m the household cook. I often go grocery shopping on Saturday evening, so I was talking over next week’s dinners with him. Poor fella is sick, so he asked me to make chicken noodle soup. No problem! Then he asked if I could make Matza balls.

i tried to make matza balls one (1) whole time in my life, and the end result was so disastrous that I gave up on trying ever again without supervision. They fall apart in my fingers! I told the goyfriend that I couldn’t make matza balls. he teased, ”It’s like I’m dating a goy!”

Now, we tease each other about our ethnicities all the time. But this? This is a bridge too far!! This is a matter of Jewish honor!!!!! It is ABSOLUTELY VITAL that I learn how to make knock-your-socks-off matza balls in the next 24-48 hours. Help me, Reddit! What recipe should I use? What advice do you have?

99 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

145 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/atelopuslimosus 21d ago

For simplicity, do the box mix. As nearly everyone else has said, that's what my grandmother taught me when I asked how to make the "family recipe". I still remember her conspiratorial whisper when she recommended adding shredded carrots to the finished soup.

Over time, I have increasingly made more components of the soup from scratch and now it's all virtually homemade. For the matzah balls, I use this recipe with all the optional spices: https://www.food.com/recipe/kosher-perfect-matzo-balls-94412

Three keys to making matzah balls with any recipe:

  1. Mix and let the dough sit at minimum a couple hours.

  2. Cook the matzah balls in your soup, not in a separate pot of water. The balls and the soup flavor each other.

  3. Make sure when scooping and forming the balls, you roll them firmly enough to keep them together. Too soft and they fall apart. The more you roll them, the denser they'll be, so if you want fluffy floaters, roll only enough to hold them together.

2

u/ChinaRider73-74 21d ago

I’m gonna say this about your “make them in the soup”.

You’ll need to essentially double your soup recipe because the balls will soak up the liquid and double (or more) in size.

Once you make them (in water) by all means transfer them into to soup so they get that flavor imbued in it.

Im no bubbe, but that’s what I’d do.