St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-02-01
UNLEAVENED BREAD.
Cincinnati Bakers Are Three
Months Preparing for the Pass


Months Preparing for the Pass
over.
From the Cincinnati Times-Star
Over 5000 years ago the Israelites
made their exodus from bondage under
Egyptian rulers, and ever since that
time the week following the fifteenth
day of the first Hebrew month. the
month of Nison. has been set aside for
commemoration of their departure. 1t
was On the night of the fourteenth of
Nissan that the Hebrews, now numbering
10000 were led to freedom by Moses.
In chapters IL and Is of Genesis the
manner of celebration on the first night
of the feast is partly told. and there it is
commanded that unleavened bread be
eaten Oh the first night and no leaven
be kept in the house at any time during
the week. This is i'll remembrance of
the fact that the Jews. in their hurry to
leave Egypt, were forced to take along
unleavened bread, which they had to
bake in the sun. This observance has
been kept up by the Jews at all times,
in all places and under all circum-
stances. A great many Israelites have
a separate set Of dishes to be used once
a year during this week only, and those
who have not an extra set of dishes
scour out their dishes thoroughly. In
Europe, when they happen to have any
bread or other sort of leaven in the
house, the housewife locks the pantry
and hands over the key to some old
Christian friend of hers 10 keep it till
the feast is over.
The making of these uDleavened
cakes called matzOs has come to be
quite an industry in this country. For
three months before the feast of Pass
over the matZoS bakers are busy. and
nearly 100000 matzoS are baked in this
city from the middle of January to the
middle of April. This represents about
S445,000.
Said the head baker at Moses Bling
Jr.'s, bakery: "We make about 5000
matZos a day, for which we use four
barrels of -four"
$40 you use the ordinary -four"
Eyes, but it is the finest quality and
has to be examined by Hebrew. who
Judges whether it is satisfactory. We
buy ours in this city. Then the water
used must be put into a vessel before
shutdown and remain to settle for the
whole night. This bakery is for baking
unleavened bread only, and everything
is especially gotten for this bakery,
even 10 the rags we use."
'.HoW do you prepare the tiour?"
1--WE take, say fifteen pounds of -four,
and, mixing it with water, we put it
into a copper kettle, where it is thor
oughly mixed. Then this man, the
kneader, takes it, and on this block by
means of pressing on this heavy beam,
he kneads the dough to the proper CO.
hesiveness." The reporter saw block,
for <<f iob fnn
long, fastened by a spring at the back of
the block. and there was man jump
ing on and off the beam, so as to makS
a sort of artificial kneader, the beam
rising when the man jumped off.
ut is then taken to the next rOom."
said the baker. land about third of it
at time is passed seven times through
these rollers, which, you see, are ar
ranged like a clothes ringer'S rollers,
only these are iron. Having been so
pressed, it is of the proper thickness.
Care has to be taken here that while one
one piece of dough is being pressed
the other pieces should not become
too hard, therefore man IS continually
beating them. The piece of dough. now
a strip ten inches wide by ten feet long,
is put under the hands of man who
uses roller much like the ordinary
dough roller, except that there are
sharp projections sticking out all
around to make little holes in the cakes.
Next to him is man with a sharpened
wheel, which he uses to cut the strip
ibto pieces, each the length of a cake.
These pieces are put into an oven and
in two minutes they are done"
And the gentleman handed the re-
porter a matZo. which was almost taste
less except for the slight browning it
had received.
in Europe?''
mo; abroad there is more hard work.
Women knead the dough by hand, and
the cakes are thicker than we make
them here.
"Matzos cost about 10 cents pound,
and the meal which we make by grind
ing broken matzos costs IL cents
pound. We make 100 pounds of meal
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