Matzo Ball Soup (Kneidlach)

Ashkenazi Jewish communities of Eastern Europe — the clear chicken broth with dumplings has been a Passover and Shabbat tradition for centuries; the matzo ball format developed as a way to use matzo meal during Passover

The canonical Ashkenazi Jewish comfort food is a clear, deeply flavoured chicken broth (goldene yoikh — golden broth) containing large, cloud-light dumplings of matzo meal, egg, and chicken fat (schmaltz) — the matzo ball or kneidlach. The soup is simultaneously the most debated dish in Ashkenazi cooking: the debate between 'floaters' (light, airy matzo balls) and 'sinkers' (dense, chewy ones) is intergenerational. The technical key for floaters: cold soda water, beaten egg whites, and resting the mixture refrigerated before forming — the gas bubbles provide lift during boiling. The chicken broth itself is a multi-hour labour: whole chicken simmered with onion, celery, carrot, parsnip, and dill, skimmed obsessively to produce a clear, golden liquid that smells, to generations of Ashkenazi Jews, like safety.

Served at Passover seder and every Shabbat dinner; the soup alone is a complete course; a matzo ball plus broth plus dill is the complete flavour; always followed by the chicken that made the broth (reused as a separate course)