The Art of Matzo Ball Soup: A Retro-Inspired Masterpiece

We're kind of into the retro look, so like that yeah that's cute it's cute I mean honestly even cut them however you want the most important thing is that you're slicing them evenly so that they simmer and cook through at the same rate. So let's go back in with the chicken the shredded chicken well I almost spilled all that you match no oh my god that looks so good yeah it is like a golden elixir okay so the chicken is going back into the soup to warm through and now we're going to add the carrots because they need to cook we'll bring it over to the stove so for the last few minutes for a carrot that thick we're like 10 minutes max over or sort of a low simmer yeah I think mine were a little thinner so mine were like a 4 to 5 but you know you just taste one so we're gonna bring this back to a simmer and then the matzo balls go in here correct actually no matzo balls can go straight into their souls Oh so the matzo balls never get to hang out in the hot tub they don't need to I mean it's there they're cooked they're gonna get combined in the bowl they don't need to be cooked any further like it's we don't want to sully the bra okay between about eight more minutes on this guy yeah just bring it to a simmer yeah we're gonna check on the matzo balls let's go they are poaching let's the gorgeous over to the spotted spoon this guy yep right so part of a good matzo ball is that nice beautiful Oh Oh not ready well you can tell by the color also right yep it's still it's dense in there you can see that and it's still that like dark matzo meal color versus the outside which has that lighter cooked color so these need to go longer that should so it should be that color consistently all the way through it right yes this outside color I'm gonna bring these over because they've now been cooking for another 15 minutes or so okay let's give that a spoon test spoon test feels oh oh my god look at that look it up so look at the difference right there that's totally consistent and that's totally underdone when you look at it you can see that this is dense and that this is very like if you squeeze it there's so much moisture in there versus here no moisture the water is not inside there yet how are they it is that kind of like consistent it's got it's got some body to it mm-hmm but it's still fluffy almost it's nicely aerated throughout it's a happy medium yeah all right all right so you got the soup okay let's talk seasoning goes right as of yet we have put no salt in there except for the salt that is already on the chicken yes and in the matzo ball okay good point yeah like the home viewer decide how much we put in no they can decide in their own weight that's way more than that way more but that's a I don't know us that seems like a decent amount that's a lot of liquid perfect all right would you like I would like to matzo balls please no problem coming right up let me find you the most beautiful ones so a slotted spoon so that you don't carry over any of that very salty liquid into the soup two balls for you I need you to also I haven't had anything to eat yet today okay and then we're just the lead moving in I would like carrots with mine please great I'm gonna give you extra carrots and give me less look at the color of that suit yeah the orange and the green of the dilk I put the d-line now yeah no pepper Obul Dillon black pepper again so if you're doing this for Passover or any me all add the dill at the last minute did you want it to be fresh also what's really nice about the dill when you bring it to the table you smell that fresh dill yeah yeah which I like about this recipe I think it's like the sort of the best version of a classic as opposed to trying to reinvent something that doesn't need to be inventing might you call it das beste lawsuit I might call it beer his best just I mean just suggesting okay I want like to eat this now I would very much like to eat this now let's see how we did think awesome it's so good I mean it's perfect you hear that I love it cuz like there's so much flavor but there's no one overriding flavor it's just like delicious matzo ball soup that's why we call it B is best volleyballs Happy Passover to you and your husband Cheers

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ensorry I need a tablespoon measure I don't know we're trying to make matzo ball soup we're making matzo ball soup dude but boss keeps leaving the set there is not a single tablespoon measure in the kitchen we have one right here and today we are making B A's best matzo ball soup which is a recipe that I developed last year in time for the High Holidays and Adam sick one not the High Holidays Passover what's the High Holidays I think Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur do not eat multiple people I mean you could but it's a Passover thing the matzo anyway so she developer for Passover so I took a lot of care in developing this recipe Adams never made matzo ball soup as I just learned that is true so I'm looking to learn today oh so nice okay well let's start learning then we're gonna break this up into the stock the balls and the assembly so first things first we're gonna build a very beautiful chicken stock and that is going to start with chicken wings where are the wings they're in the oven behind door number one okay these have been in the oven for 40 minutes and we are just roasting them until they get nice golden brown color to develop some flavor before they go into the stock so that's the first step of this recipe so what is the roasting dude concentrating and caramelizing the flavors of the chicken and activating the my yard reaction which is that delicious golden brown carmelization that happens when you cook something all right so we got the bones in there now we're gonna add the veg all right one thing if I'm correct me if I'm wrong but when you're making stock you don't need to peel the veg right you're not wrong all right so we're doing what we got it one carrot just rough chop yeah rough chop it doesn't watch your fingers it's all gonna get strained out in the end anyway two stalks of celery also rough-chop okay this is a parsnip it lends a nice sort of subtle sweetness to the stoop yeah which I love I never used to do before and now I always do it yeah I'm a big fan of that now what about are we doing both onions yeah we're doing both onions and we're leaving the skins on I've heard correct me if I'm wrong that these skins actually import color to the sock is that true all right so just like order is fine yeah quarter quarter what about this there's a lot of it yep just go in all that in yep I'm just gonna chop it like a couple of times what's more manageable that way so I don't like lump together right doing am i doing a little lateral sort of thing here doing a lateral thing elliptical whatever the word is crosswise there you go boom peppercorns yep pull okay okay water so what's your what's your sort of guide for how much 14 cups so four quarts so and really you just want enough to kind of cover everything so that nothing's popping out all right so we're just gonna bring it to a simmer and then reduce it yeah once it comes to a simmer bring it down so it's very gently simmering all right so this is gonna cook for about an hour and a half total so it smells amazing and they scold in amber color yes correct but boss way through so at the 45 minute mark we're going to add these chicken legs into the soup I'm gonna season these legs with salt to allow them to get seasoned all the way throughout so they'll sit for 45 minutes with this seasoning on them and then we'll add them in all right so this stalks been going about 45 minutes so at a low burble so now the nicely salted legs they're gonna go in and they're gonna cook for 45 minutes yeah so they're basically gonna like braise more or less in this Roth until their impossibly tender I love look at the color of that wrong yeah already and we still at 45 minutes yeah it's so rich and you're getting like the roasted wings the onion peel get a little fat and everything the Fond and it smells friggin delish let's talk about matzo balls yes I feel like slash know that you have feelings about them I think so much of matzo balls come down to the texture yeah and that's where people either differ in their opinions or they complain I think these are a happy middle ground this matzo ball mixture has six eggs which I will beat as I chat the egg yolks are going to give richness to the balls and the egg whites are gonna give them some of that levity and fluffy texture so beating the six eggs first until there's no more streaks I also have 1/2 a cup of melted schmaltz which reminder is rendered chicken fat okay a couple questions yes if you can't find faults you still need some sort of fat in there correct yes would you use I would recommend using a neutral tasting oil like vegetable or canola oil I've tested this with melted butter actually and just found the flavor to be very bizarre to watch the next thing that's going in this bowl is six tablespoons of chicken broth which is taken right out of that pot so you don't necessarily need to use chicken stock or broth you could use water but since we already have that flavorful liquid right on the stove why not add it in here and then finally oh this is approximately three tablespoons of chopped dill really really nicely chopped it is beautiful one and a half teaspoons of salt it's really important to season your matzo mixture otherwise they will taste like nothing and lots of black pepper wait just two three teaspoons no those are half teaspoons and now we are whisking in one and a half cups of matzo meal so what happens now that everything is combined is we're gonna let this sit for at least 35 minutes and up to two hours and the matzo meal is going to hydrate from all of that liquid and this the consistency of this batter is gonna change pretty dramatically over that period of time when letting sit do we refrigerate or room to refrigerate and we'll cover it all so okay look how much it firmed up your mind it reminds me of like when you make falafel yeah it does look like faux pas make sure all right so what are we doing okay so we're gonna roll these into one and a half inch balls okay bearing in mind that these are going to almost double in size without cook because they're there's eggs in them they're gonna puff do you want to make that size to start yeah go in for like a little pile are you gonna get your hand wet first it's okay this is gonna get really dirty okay and then yeah using damp hands will help the matzo meal not stick to your fingers and then these poach for 30 to 40 minutes which is a really long time and if you were to open the pot like 15 minutes in you'd think that they are done because they look big and puffed but actually they're only cooked on the outside and they still need to cook on the inside so you really need to follow the recipe if you have leftovers as we often do when Maxine makes hers the next day take the leftover matzo balls slice them in half or into like Chuck's and fry them up and butter stop and have them with your scrambled eggs in the morning they're so good to get fried crispy that is Eddie's we have a pot of boiling water and there is exactly three quarts of water in here this is a measured amount of water and a measured amount of salt so that we have properly seasoned matzo balls at the end so you got a measure how much salt three tablespoons and then just use a spoon to gently lower them into the pot this will come back to a simmer they're already starting to float and once it comes to a simmer we'll cover it we'll set a timer for 30 minutes and at 30 minutes we'll come check on our tester matzo-ball okay okay we're bringing the soup over all right you're gonna how gorgeous is that you're gonna take the chicken out so just to recap this is one and a half hours of simmering and I am now taking the legs out and leaving behind the wings because the legs are gonna make their way into the final soup later on the legs have cooked for a total about 45 minutes which is enough to get them tender fall apart but not overcome yeah watch out for the splish Splash I got you get in there guys oh wow it smells so good and the steam is good for your face yeah the chicken stock facial yes I will do the Shred edge which you can also just do with your hands but this is very hot and then it's gonna go back in the soup okay then carrots also yes with the intention of staying as nostalgic as possible we decided to cut them into carrot coins which probably we would never do now okay so I'm just doing like that not even like not even on the bias Wow oh it's gone yeah like let's go for it okay all right we're kind of into the retro look so like that yeah that's cute it's cute I mean honestly even cut them however you want the most important thing is that you're slicing them evenly so that they simmer and cook through at the same rate so let's go back in with the chick the shredded chicken well I almost spilled all that you match no oh my god that looks so good yeah it is like a golden elixir okay so the chicken is going back into the soup to warm through and now we're going to add the carrots because they need to cook we'll bring it over to the stove so for the last few minutes for a carrot that thick we're like 10 minutes max over or sort of a low simmer yeah I think mine were a little thinner so mine were like a 4 to 5 but you know you just taste one so we're gonna bring this back to a simmer and then the matzo balls go in here correct actually no matzo balls can go straight into their souls Oh so the matzo balls never get to hang out in the hot tub they don't need to I mean it's there they're cooked they're gonna get combined in the bowl they don't need to be cooked any further like it's we don't want to sully the bra okay between about eight more minutes on this guy yeah just bring it to a simmer yeah we're gonna check on the matzo balls let's go they are poaching let's the gorgeous over to the spotted spoon this guy yep right so part of a good matzo ball is that nice beautiful Oh Oh not ready well you can tell by the color also right yep it's still it's dense in there you can see that and it's still that like dark matzo meal color versus the outside which has that lighter cooked color so these need to go longer that should so it should be that color consistently all the way through it right yes this outside color I'm gonna bring these over because they've now been cooking for another 15 minutes or so okay let's give that a spoon test spoon test feels oh oh my god look at that look it up so look at the difference right there that's totally consistent and that's totally underdone when you look at it you can see that this is dense and that this is very like if you squeeze it there's so much moisture in there versus here no moisture the water is not inside there yet how are they it is that kind of like consistent it's got it's got some body to it mm-hmm but it's still fluffy almost it's nicely aerated throughout it's a happy medium yeah all right all right so you got the soup okay let's talk seasoning goes right as of yet we have put no salt in there except for the salt that is already on the chicken yes and in the matzo ball okay good point yeah like the home viewer decide how much we put in no they can decide in their own weight that's way more than that way more but that's a I don't know us that seems like a decent amount that's a lot of liquid perfect all right would you like I would like to matzo balls please no problem coming right up let me find you the most beautiful ones so a slotted spoon so that you don't carry over any of that very salty liquid into the soup two balls for you I need you to also I haven't had anything to eat yet today okay and then we're just the lead moving in I would like carrots with mine please great I'm gonna give you extra carrots and give me less look at the color of that suit yeah the orange and the green of the dilk I put the d-line now yeah no pepper Obul Dillon black pepper again so if you're doing this for Passover or any me all add the dill at the last minute did you want it to be fresh also what's really nice about the dill when you bring it to the table you smell that fresh dill yeah yeah which I like about this recipe I think it's like the sort of the best version of a classic as opposed to trying to reinvent something that doesn't need to be inventing might you call it das beste lawsuit I might call it beer his best just I mean just suggesting okay I want like to eat this now I would very much like to eat this now let's see how we did think awesome it's so good I mean it's perfect you hear that I love it cuz like there's so much flavor but there's no one overriding flavor it's just like delicious matzo ball soup that's why we call it B is best volleyballs Happy Passover to you and your husband Cheerssorry I need a tablespoon measure I don't know we're trying to make matzo ball soup we're making matzo ball soup dude but boss keeps leaving the set there is not a single tablespoon measure in the kitchen we have one right here and today we are making B A's best matzo ball soup which is a recipe that I developed last year in time for the High Holidays and Adam sick one not the High Holidays Passover what's the High Holidays I think Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur do not eat multiple people I mean you could but it's a Passover thing the matzo anyway so she developer for Passover so I took a lot of care in developing this recipe Adams never made matzo ball soup as I just learned that is true so I'm looking to learn today oh so nice okay well let's start learning then we're gonna break this up into the stock the balls and the assembly so first things first we're gonna build a very beautiful chicken stock and that is going to start with chicken wings where are the wings they're in the oven behind door number one okay these have been in the oven for 40 minutes and we are just roasting them until they get nice golden brown color to develop some flavor before they go into the stock so that's the first step of this recipe so what is the roasting dude concentrating and caramelizing the flavors of the chicken and activating the my yard reaction which is that delicious golden brown carmelization that happens when you cook something all right so we got the bones in there now we're gonna add the veg all right one thing if I'm correct me if I'm wrong but when you're making stock you don't need to peel the veg right you're not wrong all right so we're doing what we got it one carrot just rough chop yeah rough chop it doesn't watch your fingers it's all gonna get strained out in the end anyway two stalks of celery also rough-chop okay this is a parsnip it lends a nice sort of subtle sweetness to the stoop yeah which I love I never used to do before and now I always do it yeah I'm a big fan of that now what about are we doing both onions yeah we're doing both onions and we're leaving the skins on I've heard correct me if I'm wrong that these skins actually import color to the sock is that true all right so just like order is fine yeah quarter quarter what about this there's a lot of it yep just go in all that in yep I'm just gonna chop it like a couple of times what's more manageable that way so I don't like lump together right doing am i doing a little lateral sort of thing here doing a lateral thing elliptical whatever the word is crosswise there you go boom peppercorns yep pull okay okay water so what's your what's your sort of guide for how much 14 cups so four quarts so and really you just want enough to kind of cover everything so that nothing's popping out all right so we're just gonna bring it to a simmer and then reduce it yeah once it comes to a simmer bring it down so it's very gently simmering all right so this is gonna cook for about an hour and a half total so it smells amazing and they scold in amber color yes correct but boss way through so at the 45 minute mark we're going to add these chicken legs into the soup I'm gonna season these legs with salt to allow them to get seasoned all the way throughout so they'll sit for 45 minutes with this seasoning on them and then we'll add them in all right so this stalks been going about 45 minutes so at a low burble so now the nicely salted legs they're gonna go in and they're gonna cook for 45 minutes yeah so they're basically gonna like braise more or less in this Roth until their impossibly tender I love look at the color of that wrong yeah already and we still at 45 minutes yeah it's so rich and you're getting like the roasted wings the onion peel get a little fat and everything the Fond and it smells friggin delish let's talk about matzo balls yes I feel like slash know that you have feelings about them I think so much of matzo balls come down to the texture yeah and that's where people either differ in their opinions or they complain I think these are a happy middle ground this matzo ball mixture has six eggs which I will beat as I chat the egg yolks are going to give richness to the balls and the egg whites are gonna give them some of that levity and fluffy texture so beating the six eggs first until there's no more streaks I also have 1/2 a cup of melted schmaltz which reminder is rendered chicken fat okay a couple questions yes if you can't find faults you still need some sort of fat in there correct yes would you use I would recommend using a neutral tasting oil like vegetable or canola oil I've tested this with melted butter actually and just found the flavor to be very bizarre to watch the next thing that's going in this bowl is six tablespoons of chicken broth which is taken right out of that pot so you don't necessarily need to use chicken stock or broth you could use water but since we already have that flavorful liquid right on the stove why not add it in here and then finally oh this is approximately three tablespoons of chopped dill really really nicely chopped it is beautiful one and a half teaspoons of salt it's really important to season your matzo mixture otherwise they will taste like nothing and lots of black pepper wait just two three teaspoons no those are half teaspoons and now we are whisking in one and a half cups of matzo meal so what happens now that everything is combined is we're gonna let this sit for at least 35 minutes and up to two hours and the matzo meal is going to hydrate from all of that liquid and this the consistency of this batter is gonna change pretty dramatically over that period of time when letting sit do we refrigerate or room to refrigerate and we'll cover it all so okay look how much it firmed up your mind it reminds me of like when you make falafel yeah it does look like faux pas make sure all right so what are we doing okay so we're gonna roll these into one and a half inch balls okay bearing in mind that these are going to almost double in size without cook because they're there's eggs in them they're gonna puff do you want to make that size to start yeah go in for like a little pile are you gonna get your hand wet first it's okay this is gonna get really dirty okay and then yeah using damp hands will help the matzo meal not stick to your fingers and then these poach for 30 to 40 minutes which is a really long time and if you were to open the pot like 15 minutes in you'd think that they are done because they look big and puffed but actually they're only cooked on the outside and they still need to cook on the inside so you really need to follow the recipe if you have leftovers as we often do when Maxine makes hers the next day take the leftover matzo balls slice them in half or into like Chuck's and fry them up and butter stop and have them with your scrambled eggs in the morning they're so good to get fried crispy that is Eddie's we have a pot of boiling water and there is exactly three quarts of water in here this is a measured amount of water and a measured amount of salt so that we have properly seasoned matzo balls at the end so you got a measure how much salt three tablespoons and then just use a spoon to gently lower them into the pot this will come back to a simmer they're already starting to float and once it comes to a simmer we'll cover it we'll set a timer for 30 minutes and at 30 minutes we'll come check on our tester matzo-ball okay okay we're bringing the soup over all right you're gonna how gorgeous is that you're gonna take the chicken out so just to recap this is one and a half hours of simmering and I am now taking the legs out and leaving behind the wings because the legs are gonna make their way into the final soup later on the legs have cooked for a total about 45 minutes which is enough to get them tender fall apart but not overcome yeah watch out for the splish Splash I got you get in there guys oh wow it smells so good and the steam is good for your face yeah the chicken stock facial yes I will do the Shred edge which you can also just do with your hands but this is very hot and then it's gonna go back in the soup okay then carrots also yes with the intention of staying as nostalgic as possible we decided to cut them into carrot coins which probably we would never do now okay so I'm just doing like that not even like not even on the bias Wow oh it's gone yeah like let's go for it okay all right we're kind of into the retro look so like that yeah that's cute it's cute I mean honestly even cut them however you want the most important thing is that you're slicing them evenly so that they simmer and cook through at the same rate so let's go back in with the chick the shredded chicken well I almost spilled all that you match no oh my god that looks so good yeah it is like a golden elixir okay so the chicken is going back into the soup to warm through and now we're going to add the carrots because they need to cook we'll bring it over to the stove so for the last few minutes for a carrot that thick we're like 10 minutes max over or sort of a low simmer yeah I think mine were a little thinner so mine were like a 4 to 5 but you know you just taste one so we're gonna bring this back to a simmer and then the matzo balls go in here correct actually no matzo balls can go straight into their souls Oh so the matzo balls never get to hang out in the hot tub they don't need to I mean it's there they're cooked they're gonna get combined in the bowl they don't need to be cooked any further like it's we don't want to sully the bra okay between about eight more minutes on this guy yeah just bring it to a simmer yeah we're gonna check on the matzo balls let's go they are poaching let's the gorgeous over to the spotted spoon this guy yep right so part of a good matzo ball is that nice beautiful Oh Oh not ready well you can tell by the color also right yep it's still it's dense in there you can see that and it's still that like dark matzo meal color versus the outside which has that lighter cooked color so these need to go longer that should so it should be that color consistently all the way through it right yes this outside color I'm gonna bring these over because they've now been cooking for another 15 minutes or so okay let's give that a spoon test spoon test feels oh oh my god look at that look it up so look at the difference right there that's totally consistent and that's totally underdone when you look at it you can see that this is dense and that this is very like if you squeeze it there's so much moisture in there versus here no moisture the water is not inside there yet how are they it is that kind of like consistent it's got it's got some body to it mm-hmm but it's still fluffy almost it's nicely aerated throughout it's a happy medium yeah all right all right so you got the soup okay let's talk seasoning goes right as of yet we have put no salt in there except for the salt that is already on the chicken yes and in the matzo ball okay good point yeah like the home viewer decide how much we put in no they can decide in their own weight that's way more than that way more but that's a I don't know us that seems like a decent amount that's a lot of liquid perfect all right would you like I would like to matzo balls please no problem coming right up let me find you the most beautiful ones so a slotted spoon so that you don't carry over any of that very salty liquid into the soup two balls for you I need you to also I haven't had anything to eat yet today okay and then we're just the lead moving in I would like carrots with mine please great I'm gonna give you extra carrots and give me less look at the color of that suit yeah the orange and the green of the dilk I put the d-line now yeah no pepper Obul Dillon black pepper again so if you're doing this for Passover or any me all add the dill at the last minute did you want it to be fresh also what's really nice about the dill when you bring it to the table you smell that fresh dill yeah yeah which I like about this recipe I think it's like the sort of the best version of a classic as opposed to trying to reinvent something that doesn't need to be inventing might you call it das beste lawsuit I might call it beer his best just I mean just suggesting okay I want like to eat this now I would very much like to eat this now let's see how we did think awesome it's so good I mean it's perfect you hear that I love it cuz like there's so much flavor but there's no one overriding flavor it's just like delicious matzo ball soup that's why we call it B is best volleyballs Happy Passover to you and your husband Cheers\n"