Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

A Little Revisionist Passover History

Posted by Ed Levine, April 2, 2007 at 7:00 AM

Here at Serious Eats world headquarters there are Jews like me heading for seders tonight and tomorrow night to celebrate the first two nights of Passover. And what, some of you might rightfully ask, are we doing celebrating National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day on the site today instead of dispensing advice on how to cook brisket or even haroset, the apples and honey dish that is supposed to symbolize the mortar Jews used to build the pyramids in Egypt?

But, as my wife makes her haroset with apples and walnuts in the room next to me, I have decided that peanut butter and jelly would also make a terrific haroset. Peanut butter and jelly has the exact same characteristics as apples and honey. It's sticky, sweet, and thick enough to approximate mortar. I know to some of you it might seem like a stretch, but you have to admit it's more than a little plausible.

And to carry the analogy a little further, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on matzo makes as much sense culinarily and historically as a haroset sandwich on matzoh.

This year, apple, honey, and walnut haroset in New York, next year peanut butter and jelly haroset in Jerusalem.

2 Comments | Tags: National PBJ Day, Passover, PBJ