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1. The group should be of 4 people. One person in charge of kneading, two people for rolling, and one by the oven. (A larger group will be too crowded, and everyone will just get in the way of one another.)
2. The dough should be exactly the size of 3 matzos. Person #1 takes care of the flour, water, kneading and all that.
3. As soon as the dough is ready, persons #2 and #3 are handed their pieces of dough. #2 will work on it the fastest, making it oven-ready, while #3 and #1 work on theirs a little slower.
4. After rolling, #2 makes the holes in his matzah, and #4 will take it to the oven.
5. When #2 has his hands empty, #1 hands him the third piece of dough to roll out, make holes, and send off.
6. #1, now free, returns to knead the next three-matzah batch. (Starting again from step 2.)
7. By the time #2’s matzah is baked, #3’s should be ready for the oven. (Meanwhile, #2 is working on the third matzah of the first batch.)
8. When #3’s matzah comes out, #2’s second one goes in. By this time, the dough from batch 2 should be ready, and they start again from step 3. (By this round it would make sense to have #2 and #3 switch roles, because #3 is now empty-handed, while #2 is still working on the third matzah of the first batch.)
Some pointers:
A: A Chai-minute shift holds about three rounds of steps 2-8, and takes approximately fifteen minutes. At this point everyone/everything washes up and the fifteen-minute shift starts over.
B: Every fifteen minute shift yields 9 matzos. (Depending on thickness of the matzah, this will usually be about 1 – 1 1/4 lbs. of matzah.)
C: Oven time is about 50 seconds, though there are many variables that strongly influence the speed of baking (including the humidity in the air!).
D: Take it easy! Don’t rush, as there is no point. Your matzos are limited to the capacity of the oven.
While technically, this is not really meant to be a time saver compared to the regular sized chaburahs in matzah bakeries, there is a certain serenity that you won’t find anywhere else. In addition, you can implement any chumras and minhagim as you wish, something that in a regular chabura or commercial bakery you’d have no authority over.
I hope it makes sense, and doesn’t come across as written too nerdy, but this is the “short” version of it… 😉
There’s a ton of fascinating science to the overall mtazha-baking process, including the type of fuel used (gas vs. wood vs. charcoal), weather conditions, origin of the wheat of which the flour is made, and even the length of the chimney! (But I have to leave something for the long version… 😀 )
Disclaimer: I haven’t tried it myself yet, I only got the details from a friend who’s been doing in an Ooni for a couple years now. I can get back with first-hand tips and/or changes once I actually try it. I do, however, run a regular chaburah for the past 15 years, so I am intimately familiar with the nuances of the general process.
2. The dough should be exactly the size of 3 matzos. Person #1 takes care of the flour, water, kneading and all that.
3. As soon as the dough is ready, persons #2 and #3 are handed their pieces of dough. #2 will work on it the fastest, making it oven-ready, while #3 and #1 work on theirs a little slower.
4. After rolling, #2 makes the holes in his matzah, and #4 will take it to the oven.
5. When #2 has his hands empty, #1 hands him the third piece of dough to roll out, make holes, and send off.
6. #1, now free, returns to knead the next three-matzah batch. (Starting again from step 2.)
7. By the time #2’s matzah is baked, #3’s should be ready for the oven. (Meanwhile, #2 is working on the third matzah of the first batch.)
8. When #3’s matzah comes out, #2’s second one goes in. By this time, the dough from batch 2 should be ready, and they start again from step 3. (By this round it would make sense to have #2 and #3 switch roles, because #3 is now empty-handed, while #2 is still working on the third matzah of the first batch.)
Some pointers:
A: A Chai-minute shift holds about three rounds of steps 2-8, and takes approximately fifteen minutes. At this point everyone/everything washes up and the fifteen-minute shift starts over.
B: Every fifteen minute shift yields 9 matzos. (Depending on thickness of the matzah, this will usually be about 1 – 1 1/4 lbs. of matzah.)
C: Oven time is about 50 seconds, though there are many variables that strongly influence the speed of baking (including the humidity in the air!).
D: Take it easy! Don’t rush, as there is no point. Your matzos are limited to the capacity of the oven.
While technically, this is not really meant to be a time saver compared to the regular sized chaburahs in matzah bakeries, there is a certain serenity that you won’t find anywhere else. In addition, you can implement any chumras and minhagim as you wish, something that in a regular chabura or commercial bakery you’d have no authority over.
I hope it makes sense, and doesn’t come across as written too nerdy, but this is the “short” version of it… 😉
There’s a ton of fascinating science to the overall mtazha-baking process, including the type of fuel used (gas vs. wood vs. charcoal), weather conditions, origin of the wheat of which the flour is made, and even the length of the chimney! (But I have to leave something for the long version… 😀 )
Disclaimer: I haven’t tried it myself yet, I only got the details from a friend who’s been doing in an Ooni for a couple years now. I can get back with first-hand tips and/or changes once I actually try it. I do, however, run a regular chaburah for the past 15 years, so I am intimately familiar with the nuances of the general process.
« Last edited by Abebee on March 10, 2023, 10:53:08 AM »
