Pulsegleaner
Garden Master
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2014
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- Location
- Lower Hudson Valley, New York
Actually, the story is a little more complicated than that. For a time there were TWO forms of the sticks existing side by side marked at the same thing (possibly two different factories) the old kind and the new kind. The way you could tell was the tin itself, the old kind were blue, the new, red (with different logos). Then (some time after I went to college, and hence, hadn't gotten in any for a while) they started showing up in mini tins (about half the size of the old ones) which WERE blue, but contained the newer form of the sticks (the difference was the amount of AIR added. The old ones had a LOT of air forced into them, so they were fairly soft and easy to chew. The new ones had no air, so they, like a standard peppermint stick, were quite hard (as well as sort of knobby and misshapen). The new ones were also thinner, "classic" King Leos (which were distinctive enough I could recognize them OUTSIDE of the tin.) were pretty much the EXACT same length, width and weight of a cigar (a fact I utilized a lot for doing holiday Groucho Marx impressions.)
It's sort similar to what happened with the lemonade. When it was part of their line, I used to love the bottled lemonade made by Sweet Leaf Tea. But I had to make sure the bottles had RED caps, like the tea did. If they had YELLOW caps, I knew they were from a different factory, and would taste quite bad (I think they cooked theirs).
Same thing with Lipton's bottled iced green tea with honey and ginseng, had to be the individual glass bottles, not the 1/2 gallon carton. Same thing with Philadelphia cream cheese now, I suppose, I have to use the bar version, not the tub (I think the tub may add some gums to make it more spreadable, which ruins the flavor, while the bar, which is usually used for baking, doesn't need them.)
That's all pretty true. Matzoh does have "stripes" (actually ridges) and little holes (both to speed up the baking, since it has to take no more than 17 minutes between when you add the water to the dough and it's full baked, so it doesn't get leavened.)
You DO cover it with a cloth at the seder. And half of the middle one, called the afikomen, IS hidden somewhere in the house, and the children have to find it, whereupon is its ransomed back, broken up and is the last thing eaten that night (though there are two more cups of wine and a lot of prayers left to go before the seder is over, which has to happen by midnight (which doesn't sound so bad until you consider it can't START until sunset, so, depending on your latitude, you may not have all that much time.)
But that does remind me of an interesting tradition in our house, one I will perform tomorrow. There are three matzoth on the plate under the cloth. The middle on is used for the afikomen, and for the blessing. The bottom one is used to make the Hillel sandwiches (matzoh, bitter herbs and charoseth (a sort of apple nut honey wine mixture meant to symbolize mortar). But no use is specified for the top one, as far as I know. In larger gatherings (which are more common). I imagine it's there so there is enough to go around. But we are only four, so we don't need it. So, by tradition, during the meal, I take that one and put it away somewhere safe, intact. Then on the night Passover ENDS. I take it outside, face the setting sun, break it in half...….and then throw it on the ground and stomp on it, to symbolize how SICK we all are of matzoh by now!
