SC - haroset balls for Passover

[Sharon R. Saroff]

Thank you for further documentation of Haroset.  So far what I have come up
with for actual recipe documentation is as follows:

The earliest is R' Saadia Gaon (Bavel (Iraq) 882-942): "you make a wet
sauce from dates walnuts and sesame and you knead it in vinegar, and
that is called haliq." (RSG's Siddur p. 135). 

The Rambam-Maimonides (12th century) describes the ingrediants of Haroset
as "[Haroset] how is it made? You take dates or figs or raisins or suchlike
and mash them, add vinegar and serve them as a condiment."

Tosafot (12th century France) (Tractate Pesachim 116a) say "you dip it
in wine or vinegar (apparently the custom in the time of the Mishna and
Talmud was to dip the *first* vegetable in the charoset, not to dip the
maror in it as we do today),... and in Responsa of the Gaonim (Babylonian
sages of the 7th-10th centuries) they explain to make haroset with fruits
that are compared to the community of Israel...apple...pomegranate...fig
...date...walnut...almond."  

Rokeach, R' Eleazar of Worms, 1160-1237: "The haroset is made from apples,
into which is put a little of the fruits from Song of Songs, walnuts figs
and pomegranates.  And pepper and ginger and cumin and horseradish and
mirtach [what? can't find it in any dictionaries, closest word is either
"weld" or a misspelling of "boil", I'd guess mix them together.]; but
apples and walnuts are the primary ingredients.

And from the Ma'om Lo'az a Rabbi who lived in the mid-1600's- his recipes
distinguish between Ashkanazic (Eastern Europe) and Sephardic (Spain & the
Middle East).  The Ashkanazic is the recipe I grew up with mundanely of
chopped apples, walnuts, cinnamon and sweet red wine and the Sephardic
recipe of dates, raisins, figs, almonds and vinegar.

Where can I get this book?  It sounds like a book I must have for my
cooking research.

Sindara






At 02:40 PM 3/10/99 EST, you wrote:
>Hi Everybody!
>	I just got a wonderful new book called:
>A Drizzle of Honey, The Life and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews, 
>by David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson.  
>St. Martin's Press       1999
>(I got it from Amazon.com)
><A
HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312198604/qid=921094173/002-7
>510346-0670226">Click here: Amazon.com: A Glance: Drizzle of Honey: The L...
></A> 
>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312198604/qid=921094173/002-7510346
- -06
>70226
>
>The title kind of says it all.  In honor of upcoming Pesach, (Passover) here
>is a charoset recipe.
>**Diego Diaz Nieto's Haroset Balls**    (this recipe is from before 1594)
>(makes 15 1" balls)
>
>2 pples cored, and finely diced
>6 Tbsp chopped almonds
>6 Tbsp chopped dates
>6 Tbsp raisins
>12 chestnuts, cooked and peeled
>3/4 tsp cinamon
>3 Tbsp sugar
>5 Tbsp white vinegar
>
>Place the diced apples, slmonds, dates, raisins, and chestnuts into an
>unbreakable bowl.  With a potato masher, mash all these ingredients
together.*
>
>Add cinamon and 1 Tbsp sugar and mix well.
>
>Place the remaining sugar in a small bowl.
>
>With your fingers, form the charoset mixture into small balls.  
>Roll them in sugar and put them on a plate
>
>Refrigerate until serving
>
>To serve:  
>Arrange the haroset balls on a plate.  
>Spoon the vinegar over them.   
>Let them sit until the vinegar is absorbed
>
>* Do not grind to a pulpy paste or they will not hold together
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