In Uncorrected, a new weekly series, we hunt for the media’s recent misprints — and imagine the possibilities in a world where the errors are reality.
The recipe for Dora Fegelman’s Matzo Meal Popovers in Wednesday’s Passover food story incorrectly called for 3/4 cup of salt. The measurement should be 3/4 teaspoon. (From the Boston Herald)
Matzo Meal Popovers Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ cup of water
- ½ cup of butter
- 3/4 cup of salt
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- 1 ½ cups of unsalted matzo meal
- 7 eggs
This Passover favorite has been in my family since the 1900s, created in the salt-laden lands of Brooklyn, N.Y. As a child, I’d haul pounds of pristine white salt up six flights of stairs to our small tenement room. Upon reaching the top, my young face was coated with sweat from the arduous task. My Bubby would slowly open the door, a cigarette in one hand and a glass of Maneschevitz in the other, and merely say “Oy, vey- you shleped that up here alone? Well, save a bisel of that salty sweat for the popovers shaineh maideleh!”
When Passover came around in April, I’d spend hours roaming Avenue U, blissfully ignorant of the overflowing fruit stands and the prostitutes, equally garish, as I fantasized about moist, salty matzo meal popovers. All of those sumptuous thoughts about the sharp sting of the deserts, their salt-studded tops burning my taste buds into oblivion. To compare them to any other Passover delight would be a paltry attempt at best. I can only insufficiently describe them as such: golden, dense pieces of heaven, with a supple, fluffy interior whose taste resembled concentrated seaweed stalks pickled in brine. In a word: satisfaction. If that description does not lure you into kosher food aisle of your grocery store, I don’t know what will besides brute force.
From my family to yours, enjoy baking matzo meal popovers in the joyful spirit of Passover. This desert will have your children twitching in delight at the very first bite; mainly from the multiple seizures and kidney failure that may or may not occur as a result of the most special ingredient of all — salt! Merely three-fourths of a cup will do the trick. That is, if the trick you most want to perform on a holiday that celebrates Jewish freedom from 400 years of slavery in Egypt is one that murders your friends and family by raising their blood pressure enough to explode into a million little pieces the color of the Red Sea. Azizin Pesach!
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bring water and butter to a boil. Threaten to throw Uncle Morty’s wig in the pot if he doesn’t stop trying to feed matzo to the dog. Stir in dry ingredients, including ¾ of a cup of sparkling kosher salt, until the mixture reeks of a toxic odor and saturates the air with a sodium fog. Cool the mixture slightly and beat in enough eggs to clog your arteries until you’re 100 years old, one at a time. Let the mixture stand for 30 minutes while you yell at the children to stop stacking their yarmulkes in a pile and pretending to eat them like pancakes. That’s sacrilegious! Pancakes are leavened bread! Carefully fill greased muffin tins ¾ of the way, saving ½ cup of the batter to eat as a late night heart-attack snack. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Eat for five minutes. Collapse in a heap on the kitchen floor as you experience the tingling sensation of sodium poisoning.
Serves 12 (including the ghost of Moses and Elijah.)