Here’s how you make the world’s biggest matzah ball: take 200 pounds of matzah meal, 80 pounds of margarine, 20 pounds of chicken base, and 1,000 eggs, then boil for 20 hours, ending up with a kneidl – fluffy, of course – that measures 29.2 inches across and weighs 267 pounds.
Are here’s why: you want to promote a basketball game.
Noah’s Ark Deli, a kosher restaurant on the Lower East Side, created the record-setting matzah ball last week to bring attention to the exhibition game between the New York Knicks and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Madison Square Garden on Oct. 18. The contest will benefit Migdal Ohr, an orphanage and educational center in northern Israel.
The existing Guinness record for a matzah ball is 26 pounds, says Noam Sokolow, owner of Noah’s Ark, a supporter of Migdal Ohr. “We broke that record by a factor of ten.”
The ingredients were shaped together, by a team of 12 people, at the Manhattan restaurant, then taken off-site to be boiled in an industrial size kettle. “Our kettles were not big enough,” Sokolow says.
The concoction was boiled in plain water, he says. “Matzah balls are not usually cooked in chicken stock.”
Looking at the matzah ball, are, from left, Sokolow, Noah Ark Executive Chef Anthony Sylvestri, and Robert Katz, Migdal Ohr executive vice president.
After displaying the finished product for passers-by and visiting journalists, the restaurant donated it to – where else?—a nearby soup kitchen.
Last week’s culinary feat was a one-shot effort, he says. But if someone makes a bigger certified matzah ball, Sokolow is up for the challenge. “If someone dares to break our record, of course we’ll do it again,” he says.
