From the Streit's box
Although I am chary of stomping on someone else's entry, I suspect I may be the person who has most often made matzoh balls based on this recipe. Given that, and the fact that I don't follow it exactly, I thought that perhaps I should add some comments so that the user may have a choice of making it according to the original posting, or according to the method that will produce the matzoh balls eaten in my soup. They may be the same (as commented below), but maybe not. I've put all my comments in a different color. -- Jennie
Makes about 10 1-1/2" balls (I usually get about 12)
1 cup matzo meal
4 large eggs
1/4 c. melted butter or chicken fat (Dad's homemade shmaltz is great for this, try hard to make matzoh balls after he has been making chopped liver. Otherwise I use butter).
1/4 cup water or seltzer (I use water)
1 tsp. salt or to taste
pinch of ground pepper
Beat eggs. Add water, salt, shortening, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add matzo meal and stir thoroughly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour. (or as long as overnight)
Partially (mostly) fill a large pot with water (and 4 tbsp salt, which raises the boiling point of the water) and bring to a boil. Moisten palms with cold water. Form mixture into balls about 1" diameter, drop matzo balls into boiling water. (I find the moistening palms thing to be a waste of time, you will be sticky no matter what. I use a 1 tbsp cookie scoop to scoop the mixture and roll it. I roll all the balls before adding them to the pot so that they can be added rapidly -- see below)
When all the matzo balls are in the pot, reduce heat to low. Simmer covered for about 30 minutes or until done. Remove with slotted spoon to a large bowl.
The directions above bear little resemblance to the ones I follow religiously. This does not mean that they will not work, and my practice may just be superstition, but since it always works when I do it my way I have no intention of trying it some other way that may not work. Long ago when I was a wee wink, learning to make matzoh balls from I don't even remember who, I was given to understand (note that since I can't remember who said this, its veracity may be suspect) that a very important thing about matzoh balls is to cook them evenly, and that the difficulty in this is that when they are partially cooked they float, so that the tops (out of the water) do not necessarily experience the same temperature etc. conditions as the bottoms (in the water). The solution to this is steam. Therefore, it is important to add salt to the water (this increases the boiling point of the water, so that during the time when the lid is off and it is cooling it maintains a higher average temperature than regular water, good for matzoh ball cooking) and also important to make sure there is always a good head of steam over the matzoh balls. Controlling the steam is achieved by 1) filling the pot as full as reasonable, so there is less space to have to fill with steam (this also helps with maintaining the temp when the lid is off) and 2) adding the matzoh balls as quickly as possible and 3) do not turn the heat down after you add the matzoh balls, although you may turn it down as much as necessary if it starts to boil over a few minutes after you have replaced the lid and 4) ABSOLUTELY NEVER remove the lid for any reason until the matzoh balls have been in the pot for at least 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, though, they're cooked (as opposed to the 30 minutes above).
Simmer the matzo balls for 15 minutes in chicken soup before serving.