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What is the internal temperature of a matzo ball?

6K views 22 replies 8 participants last post by  drirene 
#1 ·
In boiling water... anyone checked?

I'm not sure yet, because the thermometer I have doesn't read accurately if it's only inserted a short way in a small piece of dough, or liquid, whatever.
 
#4 ·
Oh, okay, I haven't made any of them that way, I was just testing out some dough in general. The reason I'd want to check my method is that I was reading about heat resistant salmonella being a potential pathogen in low moisture foods, like flour, and it has to be heated to around 170 degrees F (or the higher the better as far as that goes). I don't think dough gets as hot as the water, because when I tested a pot of oatmeal, the temperature seemed to vary 50 degrees between mush and slush, depending on how much water was mixed into it.
 
#7 ·
The reason I'd want to check my method is that I was reading about heat resistant salmonella being a potential pathogen in low moisture foods, like flour,
Where do you people come up with this stuff to worry about? I've never even heard of it and, if it was as dangerous as you think, I expect that we would have. Just maintain safe temperatures and you should be OK.
 
#6 ·
Thanks, I'd be making a vegan version, but it is necessary to heat the flour thoroughly methinks.

I see there's a recipe that recommends using a thermometer too: "Cover; cook about 12 min until internal temp of matzo ball reaches 165 degrees (check by inserting thermometer halfway into thickest part of matzo ball)." That's a shorter cooking time than other recipes I've seen. I guess golf ball sized is a little smaller than average there.
 
#14 · (Edited)
The journal of food protection is one source of info about it. This is a general interest article.
That's fine. But chefs aren't going to comb through scientific research and papers on the internet to determine how they are going to run their kitchens. That's what we have the FDA and health departments for. If this was a serious concern there would have been issued guidelines and instructions on how to deal with it.

While what you found probably does have some basis in fact, it's just unproven research.

Gold Medal flour now has "raw food hazard" warnings on the bags. I believe this is a relatively recent because I never noticed it before.
One word- LAWYERS.
 
#16 · (Edited)
Anyway, I couldn't find a digital thermo today (and didn't feel like shopping around either), so I made a grapefruit sized matzo ball, let it sit for an hour, then boiled it for an hour or so with a meat thermometer in there (well I didn't want to keep poking the thing and possibly break it apart). It got up to 180 eventually, and probably took an hour to get above 160, so I'd boil smaller ones about an hour too, until I get a better thermometer to tell me otherwise. I couldn't cover the pot though (because the thermometer was sticking up, but I had it mostly in the dough, and had the dough under water the whole time), so it might only take a half hour with golf ball sized matzo balls in that case.

Strangely enough, the dough went up to 190 degrees, sitting in the pot of water after it was turned off, so I guess it soaked up more of the moist heat there. I had it sitting in a minature collander within in the pot, and didn't make it a floater, but the bubbles were giving the collander some buoyancy.

Cutting through this now, it isn't soggy on the inside, and cools down quickly. Maybe I'll actually eat it, since my dog doesn't want any... :emoji_fork_knife_plate:
 
#19 · (Edited)
My mother was expert at making these, unfortunately her mind is not so much with us anymore to ask. Basically she mixed everything in a non-violent way, and simmered as all here suggested. Always light and fluffy. I think she also used more eggs than the typical recipe called for.

Grapefruit sized MB?????
 
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