A while ago I had a bit of a brush from the past. As a child, my family and I would occasionally eat matzah. I liked it, but didn't love it, as I recall. So I kind of forgot about it, mostly. It is sometimes part of gefilte fish (see my post on April 6, 2013), which I've enjoyed frequently as an adult. But I haven't had it separate from the ground up gefilte fish in decades. Anyway, I saw some on the shelf, and decided to revisit it. The fact that it was made in Israel sealed the deal. However, there is a big caveat. What I tried here was not technically matzah--it was a gluten-free approximation of it. Or, as the box put it, "Matz-style squares." From the Yehuda Matzos company, out of Jerusalem.
The reason the company was so adamant about calling their product "matzo-style" instead of "matzo" is because the food is very strictly defined. Most notably, almost all Jewish groups agree that matzah must be made using one of five accepted grains--wheat, spelt, barley, rye, or oats. Along with water that's usually it, for the ingredients. Some sects allow the addition of egg, and/or fruit juices, but that's about it as far as variants go. Also, if you're confused about the spellings I've used so far, accepted renderings for this food are "matzah," "matzo," and "mazzah." Looking at the allowable grain bases used for matzah, you might have noticed a huge problem for those with celiac disease or gluten allergies. Wheat, spelt, rye, and barley all contain gluten. Oats do not, but there's still potential snags. Some Jewish groups don't think that oats are permissible as a grain base for matzah, and claim that their inclusion is based on a mistranslation of holy texts. And, even if oats are allowed, they're often made into matzah in facilities that also process gluten-containing grains, so there's a strong potential of contamination. And since even miniscule amounts of gluten can cause misery for celiac and gluten-allergy sufferers, they're in quite a dilemma. So, gluten-free versions like the Yehuda Matzos type I tried seek to solve this problem. (Although some rabbis don't accept them. So depending on how strict you are, this product might not qualify as being acceptable.) It's complicated, as you can see. For the record, the matzo I ate for this post was made from tapioca starch, water, potato starch, potato flakes, palm oil, honey, egg yolks, natural vinegar, and salt. And the box notes that it's "not a replacement for matzo at the Seder." As for the information about the manufacturer's origins, there's not much. Yehuda Matzos dates back to 1921, when the Ludmir family started making it in the Israeli town of Safed. In 1949 the business moved its headquarters to Jerusalem. Aside from the gluten-free matzo-style squares, the company also makes real matzo, matzo flour, cookies, biscuits, and coated biscuits (coated in chocolate). And the importing company was the Kenover Marketing Group, out of New Jersey.
Yehuda Matzos original gluten-free matzo-style squares: These pieces measured about 6 inches by 5.5 inches, or about 15.5 cm. by 14 cm. (So they weren't technically squares, but they were close, to be nitpicky.) They looked like the typical matzah I recall, like a whitish cracker with many small holes in it and rib like ridges, with brownish marks near the edges from the cooking. The texture was dry and crunchy. Again, it was quite some time ago, but these tasted pretty much like I remember the official matzah tasting--a bit bland plain, with some saltiness. Kind of similar to a saltine cracker. Some ketchup on it improved the taste, and with cheese on it the matzah was a proper canape, and very good. It was a little more crumbly than most canape bases, but still effective. So, to my mind this is a very credible and nice substitute for those folks who can't have gluten but want to eat matzah, or something very similar to it, to be technical. I would definitely recommend it, and I'll try to sample this company's "real" matzah and cookies/biscuits if/when I encounter them.
A few days ago I recorded a Zoom video interview with Rod Gilley, who is the owner and publisher of RDG Books and served as the host. As regular readers hopefully recall, RDG put out "It's Dark in Their Minds Vol. II" back in October of 2025, and this horror anthology contains one of my stories, "Wet Nightmare." As soon as this segment is edited and available for viewing I'll post the link here. I'm hoping this will be soon, perhaps by next Saturday, or even before. Stay tuned!
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