Charoset! [orichalcum]

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So, I was double-checking my Sephardic charoset recipe, as well as the more traditional Ashkenazi one, and started wandering around the net and discovered two cool things:

1. I can get pomegranate molasses, which has been used as the sweetener/glue for Middle Eastern charoset for, oh, 2600 years or so (references to it in very early texts) at the local Middle Eastern market, a few blocks away from me!

2. I am now sad about the pistachio recall, because this springtime charoset recipe from the Jew and the Carrot looks really awesome. OK, yes, totally untraditional, but yummy! And hey, the blood oranges can be symbolic.

I wonder what nuts I could substitute easily that would work well - pecans or walnuts, like with a more trad charoset? Peanuts, for that PB&J matzoh feel? Almonds are a bit exp.

Mood::

happy

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There are 22 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Hazelnuts or macadamia nuts might be okay substitutes(though pricey). Pine nuts might also be interesting!

The recipe makes me think of the saffron, pistachio and dried apricot charoset i made a few years back. Yummy, but odd.

Ooh, good thoughts, although yeah, worried about the pricey-ness.

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That recipe does *not* look like charoset to me. Could be a tasty dish but if you put it on a seder table it would not occur to me that it was the charoset. Doesn't even have any wine or grape juice in it... I think of that as a common factor in different recipes.

Curious what texts reference pomegranate molasses... please share.

The blog I was reading says it's annotated in "Jewish Food: The World at Table." Apparently, the specific references are to Deut 8:8 and the idea that the pomegranate has 613 seeds (like the mitzvot). Also, apparently the paschal lambs were originally roasted on spits of pomegranate-wood. The molasses part is specifically an Iranian Jewish/Babylonian Jewish extension of general pomegranate-iness to charoset.

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Yeah, the ritual importance of the pomegranate is not in doubt. But I agree with

stone_and_star that the wine is kinda the point. OTOH, I also agree with

marginaleye: I hate charoses and would far rather a decent batch of hot horseradish (which has been banned from our family seder after a near choking caused us to have to call 911 a few years back).

If you find a really good charoses recipe, do share, because I would love not to hate the stuff. OTOH, peanuts are not kosher for Passover for me (being Ashkenazi), so if you end up using those be sure to point it out.

BTW, oranges have taken on some seder symbolism in recent years, so the addition of oranges to charoses is interesting from that perspective.

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A friend of ACNH's just wrote an article that mentions the oranges - people reading this post might enjoy it. http://www.forward.com/articles/104249/

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Interesting. That's the second post I've read recently about the mistaken story behind the orange.

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Oh wow. I'd always heard the mistaken story about the orange, and tell it gleefully every year when the time comes to explain the significance of things on the seder plate. The real story is even more fascinating. Thank you for posting it!

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Worlds collide! My aunt brought that article to our seder, because she knew one of the people mentioned in it! She works with the woman who started the Miriam's Cup tradition. The world is way too small :)

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Really? Huh! Well, I can highly recommend my Sephardic haroset ball recipe, which is Sephardic but should still be kosher for Pesach for you:

2 cups pitted dates
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dark raisins
1/2 cup walnuts
1 tablespoon sweet red passover wine -- (up to 2)

Process the dates, raisins, and walnuts in a food processor until the mixture
is finely chopped and begins to stick together. Add enough wine to make a
sticky mass. Line a baking sheet with waxed paper. Drop slightly rounded
measuring teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a lined sheet. Roll each mound with
moistened palms into hazelnut-size balls. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or
until firm.

I'm trying out a new Ashkenazic recipe this year; I'll report back on how it goes! At some level, though, if you're anti fruit-nut mixtures, you may be out of luck.

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Certainly pomegranates are among the special foods of Israel according to the Torah. Dvarim 8:8: "It is a land of wheat, barley, grapes, figs and pomegranates - a land of oil-olives and honey-[dates]." The rule about the sacrifice being roasted on pomegranate wood comes from Mishnah, Pesachim 7:1.

I've never heard of pomegranate molasses, though, or had charoset with pomegranates. I will have to look up the citation at some point.

I don't think pomegranates *actually* have 613 seeds, though to be fair I've never counted. :)

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Pomegranate molasses is basically just pomegranate jam; apparently you can make it easily by boiling pomegranate juice, sugar, and lemon juice.

Apparently, realistically, pomegranates tend to have somewhere in the 500-700 seed range, and well, it's easy to see how someone might sometime have gotten 613 and then generalized/exaggerated.

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I would say that the problem with adding wine or grape juice is that it wouldn't go well with the other flavors, and the orange juice may compensate in this case. I agree that it's definitely supplemental, but I was complaining to ladybird97 yesterday that it seemed odd to have apples as a central part of a springtime festival, since the apples at my local farmers' market were pretty lousy on Sunday, and I can't imagine that they were all that great in springtime in Russia in my great-grandmother's time. I like the idea of celebrating locally seasonal fruits, but I agree that there is an issue of still getting the right consistency and general charoset feel/taste.

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I had to look up charoset to figure out what it was. Not a lot of practicing Jewish folks in my area, y'know? WOW, that stuff sounds amazing. <3

Charoset is TOTALLY the best part of the seder :)

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Dessert can be pretty good too! :) Funny how no one is ever like "maror is the _best_ part of the Seder." :)

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My opinion doesn't really count for much, since I'm a goy, but I think the horseradish is the best part of the seder (the hotter and more pungent, the better). Of course, I also prefer murg vindaloo served full-strength.

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I'm a quarter Slovak and I am SO WITH YOU about horseradish.

And vindaloo.

But I grew up having my hot hot horseradish on Easter ham, so.

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I looove pomegranate molasses. That charsoset recipe, while non-traditional, looks delicious. I thought cerridwynn had good ideas for nut substitutions.

Can't wait to taste whatever you come up with!

Looking forward to it as well, though I don't know if I'll have time and energy yet for the strawberries and orange one as well as the other two; depends how work goes.

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Oh, goodness. Don't feel obligated to do more than two! I thought you were considering the strawberry one as a substitute for another recipe, not as an addition.

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Don't worry; it's not a matter of obligation. It's a matter of fun-cooking-time versus how-many-students-want-to-see-me-in-office-hours time. :)

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