Best Charoset Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What can I substitute for wine in charoset? ›

Purple grape juice: Kosher red wine is the traditional choice, but grape juice keeps our version family-friendly! White grape juice also works as a substitute.

According to The Biblical and Historical Background of Jewish Customs and Ceremonies, the sticky, granular mixture of fruit and nuts is meant to recall the mortar that the Jews used to build the Egyptian pharaohs' buildings (not the pyramids).

Game plan: Though charoset is traditionally served as part of the Passover Seder, it's also appropriate for a Rosh Hashanah meal.

Star of the Seder Plate

Sweet and flavorful, charoset is usually everyone's favorite symbolic dish on the Passover seder plate, sitting beside a shank bone (zeroa), a roasted egg (beitzah), bitter herbs, or horseradish (maror), and a vegetable like parsley, lettuce, or celery (karpas).

Here's how to toast nuts for the best results. Wine or grape juice: You need a sweet red wine to make charoset. Manischewitz is the most popular kosher wine; you can use either the Concord grape or blackberry wine for this dish.

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. Cinnamon: Any ground cinnamon you like to use will work.

Usually freshly grated horseradish (if available). This symbolises the bitterness of slavery. If horseradish is not available, a bitter green lettuce, such as romaine, can be substituted in its place. The Hebrew term for the bitter herbs is maror and they are dipped into the charoset to lessen their bitterness.

Charoset, is one of the symbolic foods eaten by Jews during the Passover seder. There are no references to charoset in all the biblical text. The Torah never mentions eating it.

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.

What's the difference? Ashkenazi charoset is usually made from apples, walnuts, a lot of cinnamon, and sweet wine. Sephardic versions veer more toward dried fruit, balanced spices, and a variety of nuts. And in my experience, they have a far superior texture and depth of flavor.

Why do Jews eat charoset at the Seder? ›

Charoset – A sweet, brown mixture representing the mortar and brick used by the Hebrew slaves to build the structures of Egypt.

Charoset represents the mortar that the Israelites used to make bricks while they were slaves in Egypt.

The first known mention of apples and honey being eaten on Rosh Hashanah comes from the 14th-century legal work Arba'ah Turim, which states that German Jews ate apples and honey in order to bring sweetness into the New Year.

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

Also, if you don't happen to have an heirloom bottle of Concord grape wine lying around, you can substitute ruby Port, creme sherry, or grape juice in the walnut recipe.

White wine vinegar: This is an ideal substitute for dry white wine, especially when its purpose is to deglaze a pan. Made from white wine, white wine vinegar has many of the same flavor characteristics, minus the alcohol. Lemon juice: This is another good substitute for deglazing.

For those who may want to make the risotto and can use wine but don't have a bottle of wine open then you can use 3-4 tablespoons of dry white vermouth instead (a good storecupoard ingredient).