3

Flour which is wet for 18 or more minutes is considered to be "leavened", and therefore chametz. However, though there's some disagreement, this restriction is generally not applied to matzo, or food items made from matzo meal (e.g., matzo ball soup).

Wikipedia tells me that this is because:

...matzo and its derivatives are neither "leavened" nor "leavenable" and therefore are permissible for consumption during Passover.

Matzo meal works reasonably well as a flour substitute in some recipes (though see linked question below about whether it would work for traditional leavened bread).

Since matzo meal is apparently considered not to be leavenable, would a traditional, leavened bread made using matzo meal in place of flour be considered kosher for Passover? If not, why not (and why doesn't the same reasoning apply to matzo ball soup)?

(This now has a companion question about whether such bread would be practical.)

| improve this question | |
  • 1
    Lots of people make rolls and cakes out of matza meal. I've never heard of bread, but that might be for practical reasons. It doesn't tend to cut nicely. – Heshy Apr 10 '17 at 21:39
  • @Heshy do you think that's an unavoidable consequence of working with matzo, or is it just because most people make matzo meal in a food processor (fairly coarse grind) rather than with a flour mill/quern/etc. that would grind it down to flour consistency (i.e., could you solve the texture problem just by grinding your matzo finer)? – A_S00 Apr 10 '17 at 21:48
  • Seems pretty kosher. I don't know how good it would taste. You can ask on cooking.se about the science here. I don't think the gluten develops right in a matza meal dough. – Double AA♦ Apr 10 '17 at 21:50
  • 1
    Welcome to Mi Yodeya! – mevaqesh Apr 10 '17 at 22:39
  • 1
    Similar: judaism.stackexchange.com/q/72979 – msh210♦ Apr 11 '17 at 20:12

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .