Haroset

Title:
Haroset

Yield:
1 Servings

Categories:
Haroset,
Information,
Passover




Ingredients:




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 Haroset (also charoset or charoses), the blend of fruit and nuts


 symbolizing the mortar which our forefathers used to build pyramids in


 Egypt, is one of the most popular and discussed foods served at the Seder.


 The fruit and nuts found in almost all haroset recipes refer to two verses


 in the Song of Songs closely linked with the spring season: "Under the


 apple tree I awakened thee" (8:5) and "I went down into the garden of nuts"


 (6:11). The red wine recalls the Red Sea, which parted its waters for the


 Jews.


 


 The real purpose of the haroset is to allay the bitterness of the maror


 (bitter herbs) required at the Seder. And from this combination of the


 haroset and maror between two pieces of matzo, the sandw ich may have been


 invented by the Rabbi Hillel, the great Jewish teacher who lived between 90


 BCE and 70CE. Haroset also shows how Jewish cookery was developed by the


 emigration from Mediterranean co untries to Easter Europe and by local


 ingredients supplemented or discarded based on their availability.


 


 Although most American Jews are familiar with the mixture of apples,


 almonds, cinnamon, wine and ginger, this is by no means the only


 combination possible. Walnuts, pine nuts, peanuts or chestnuts ma y be


 combined with apricots, coconuts, raisins, dates, figs, or even bananas.


 


 Whereas Ashkenazic (Eastern European) haroset is quite universal, differing


 only texturally, that of the Sephardic (Spanish/Arabic/Mediterranean) Jews


 changes according to the country and sometimes e ven the city of origin. On


 the island of Rhodes, for example, dates, walnuts, ginger and sweet wine


 are used. The Greek city of Salonika adds raisins to this basic recipe;


 Turkish Jews, not far away, include an orange. Egyptians eat dates, nuts,


 raisins and sugar, without the ginger or wine. Yemenites use chopped dates


 and figs, coriander and chili pepper. An interesting haroset from Venice


 has chestnut paste and apricots, while one from Surinam, Dutch Guinea,


 calls for seven fruits including coconut. Each Israeli uses the Diaspora


 haroset recipe of his ancestors or an Israeli version that might include


 pignolia nuts, peanuts, bananas, apples, dates, sesame seeds, matzo meal


 and red wine.


 


 Most people like their haroset recipe so well that it is not only spread on


 matzo and dipped in horseradish at the Seder table. Some families make


 large quantities to be eaten for breakfast, lunch an d snacks throughout


 Passover.


 


 NOTES : _The Jewish Holday Kitchen_, Joan Nathan. Schocken Books, New York:


 1988.


 


 Posted to MC-Recipe Digest V1 #550 by "Master Harper Gaellon"


 
on Apr 4, 1997