My Family's Apple Harosets Recipe & What Passover Is Really About (2024)

FAQs

What is haroset made of? ›

Though the ingredients vary depending on the region from which it evolved, haroset can be made with dried fruit, nuts, and seeds, as well as fresh fruit like apples and pomegranate seeds, plus a little sweet wine and honey.

Place apples and walnuts into a large bowl. Mix cinnamon and sugar together; sprinkle over apple mixture. Stir in honey and sweet wine. Serve immediately, or refrigerate until serving.

Charoset (pronounced har-o-set) comes from the Hebrew word cheres that means "clay," though it goes by many different names around the world. It is a sweet relish made with fruits, nuts, spices, as well as wine and a binder such as honey.

Charoset, haroset, or charoises (Hebrew: חֲרֽוֹסֶת, romanized: ḥəróseṯ, Yiddish: חרוסת, romanized: kheróyses) is a sweet, dark-colored mixture of finely chopped fruits and nuts eaten at the Passover Seder.

Charoset – A sweet, brown mixture representing the mortar and brick used by the Hebrew slaves to build the structures of Egypt. In Ashkenazi Jewish homes, Charoset is traditionally made from chopped nuts, grated apples, cinnamon, and sweet red wine.

During Passover, Ashkenazi Jews traditionally stay away from not only leavened foods like bread, namely barley, oats, rye, spelt, and wheat, but also legumes, rice, seeds, and corn. The ban has been in place since the 13th century, but it's always been controversial.

Most of the ceremonial foods for Passover are presented on the Seder plate and should be prepared or purchased in advance. Although there is variance when it comes to the representative foods, there are a few items that are always the same: the lamb shank bone, an egg, and horseradish.

A second bitter item, which is sometimes left off the Seder plate entirely, romaine lettuce symbolizes the fact that the Jewish stay in Egypt began soft and ended hard and bitter (look at the two ends of a piece of lettuce). How it's used: Some families do use the chazeret and the maror interchangeably or together.

A hard-boiled egg, usually roasted, is often placed on the Seder plate. Its roundness alludes to the cycle of rebirth and renewal, while it's burnt, sometimes cracked shell serves as a reminder of ancient sacrificial offerings.

What does כרפס mean? ›

Haggadah Section: Karpas. The word karpas [כרפס] appears only once in the Bible, in the phrase ותכלת כרפס חור u'tekhelet karpas hur, that is found in the Book of Esther. In this context it means "a fine linen," using a word borrowed from the Sanskrit or Persian kirpas.

Walnuts: Look for chopped walnuts in the store. If you can only find whole or walnut halves, take the time to chop them up before adding them to the recipe. Sweet Red Wine: Manischewitz wine is the classic sweet red wine for Passover, but if you need to stay away from wine you can absolutely substitute for grape juice.

If one of the five grains – wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt – sits in water for more than 18 minutes it becomes chametz, and one may not eat, derive benefit from or own it on Pesach.

According to one opinion, the sweet paste is meant to remind people of the mortar used by the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt, while another says that the charoset is meant to remind the modern Jewish people of the apple trees in Egypt.

The Golden Haggadah measures 24.7×19.5 cm, is made of vellum, and consists of 101 leaves. It is a Hebrew text written in square Sephardi script. There are fourteen full-page miniatures, each consisting of four scenes on a gold ground.