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Pesach prep
Kitchen switched over (except what's needed for
this Shabbat): check.
Books packed for trip, including tikkun and trope book (so I can work on my upcoming portion): check.
Green card (his; I'm a citizen) successfully renewed (with days to spare!): check. Now we can cross the border with some expectation of being permitted to return.
Bar-mitzvah present for random in-law, because there's no way we're going back up there in a couple weeks: check.
Emergency stash of Diet Coke (now with lime!) to leave in the car until needed (because I suspect my in-laws under-estimate the magnitude of the problem): check.
Floppy containing installer for SSH (hope springs eternal): check.
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So, I'm not too clear on exactly what is restricted during passover, but I'm pretty sure non-flat bread is one of the items, which is why matzo is eaten instead. Okay, so, why do I walk into Giant Eagle and see a lot of "Kosher for Passover!" stickers on all these bakery items that are clearly cakey-fluffy-like things? Is baking soda okay, even if bread yeast is not?
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Chametz (that's the word for the broad category of food forbidden during Pesach, and is more compact to write than "food forbidden during Pesach", so I'm going to make you learn the word :-) ) involves grains (wheat, oats, barley, spelt, and... um, one more) that have encountered yeast. Beer is forbidden too; it's not just about breadstuffs. The reason matzah is ok is not that it's flat but that it's baked so quickly that yeast doesn't have time to take hold; the whole process must be completed within 18 minutes.
(Tangent: what's special about 18 minutes? I don't know, but this isn't the only time we see this meausre. Shabbat begins 18 minutes before sundown, too. I don't know where this comes from.)
Some people are very strict and avoid foods that have come into contect with liquid (e.g. matzah crumbled up and scrambled with eggs), because moisture could lead to yeast. It is, I understand, a minority position.
I assume, but do not know, that the kosher-for-Pesach cakes are made with baking soda and under conditions that do not enable wild yeasts to get involved (baked quickly or some such). I don't really know for sure, though. Persoanlly, I prefer to avoid these cakes etc -- not because I'm ultra-strict, but rather because I think if we make Pesach seem like the rest of the year by faking out desserts through special rules tweaks and the like, we have missed part of the point. If someone handed me a loaf of ordinary-looking bread and showed me a "kosher for Pesach" certification from an absolutely-trustworthy source, I still wouldn't eat it. It would be halachically valid, but IMO it would be wrong.
So as a result, I haven't paid a lot of attention to these cakes, and I don't completely understand the halacha behind permitted ingredients in them.
(Besides, what better excuse can you have for "having" to eat the cholesterol-laden flourless chocolate cake? :-) )
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(wheat, oats, barley, spelt, and... um, one more)
Rye. I admit I cheated and looked this up.
the whole process must be completed within 18 minutes.
Actually, I think it's 18 and a half minutes, which unfortunately destroys the connection to Shabbat. I think that number was picked by the Rabbis[1] as the minimum possible time it takes for leavening to occur.
The problem about Passover is that the Rabbis weren't totally up to speed on what exactly caused leavening and what didn't. There were many cases where the Rabbis weren't sure about something, and decided it wasn't allowed. Things were also declared forbidden because they looked or sounded like forbidden things. A lot of this happened after the division between Ashkenazim and Sephardim, often somewhat related to what foods were commonly eaten in their areas[2]. So Ashkenazic Rabbis said that Rice was forbidden, but that wasn't a big deal then because nobody really ate rice anyhow. I think that Sephardic Rabbis might have forbidden potatoes, but again nobody in Spain ate 'em. There's a whole category of "Kitnyot", which includes legumes (beans and peas, but notstring beans), rice and corn, which Ashkenazic Rabbis have forbidden. Then there's the whole question of derivatives of Kitnyot. If corn is forbidden, is corn oil? What about corn syrup? Some Rabbis say those are forbidden too; others permit those, since those are a fence around a fence.
I assume, but do not know, that the kosher-for-Pesach cakes are made with baking soda and under conditions that do not enable wild yeasts to get involved (baked quickly or some such). I don't really know for sure, though.
I'm not sure, but I think that baking soda and baking powder are also forbidden. The cakes aren't leavened at all; they're made fluffy (if they are, in fact, fluffy) with lots of eggs. Mmm, eggs. They can't be made with flour, but if you take matzah and you smush it up really small, you get matzah meal, which you can use because it's pre-cooked.
I think if we make Pesach seem like the rest of the year by faking out desserts through special rules tweaks and the like, we have missed part of the point.
I agree. I will eat the kosher for passover cakes, but only because I have a sweet tooth. And you know what? They're not really worth it. They're never very good. I don't eat the "Kosher for passover" cereal, pasta, etc. for the reasons that Monica mentioned.
[1] I'm not sure how they settled upon 18.5 minutes. I doubt it was by what we think of as the scientific method, but by this point, it's a tradition, so nobody wants to look too hard at the numbers. What's to be gained? Since it's a minimum, you'd only be able to prove that the real time is less than 18.5 minutes, and the matzah bakers have a hard enough time as it is!
[2] Ashkenazic Jews, in general, were living in Germany and Eastern Europe in the middle ages; Sephardic Jews, in general, were living in Spain and other muslim lands.
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*smacks forehead with palm twice*
Rye. Duh. My favorite variety of bread and I space on it!
Matzah meal replacing flour. Sigh; I even knew that, but we all know that the real problem with the brain is not storage but indexing.
I do wonder just how they can get those big tall fluffy cakes with just eggs and no baking {soda, powder}. I suspect steroids. :-) I basically eat the cakes at the seders because it's expected, but I don't seek them out. And I usually go for fruit instead if it's an option.
Kitniyot, by the way, is the reason that this is the time of year to get the good Coke (if you're into the non-diet variety). Real sugar; no corn syrup. Mmm.