Chremslach are fried pancakes or fritters typically made from matzoh meal. Recipes for Chremslach can be seen in various cultures dating back to the Roman Empire, but it is the Ashkenazi Jews who have adopted this sweet pancake as a tradition during Passover. Versions of this fried pancake vary from those dressed with fruit preserves or dipped in honey to fritters stuffed with fruits and nuts and sprinkled with powdered or cinnamon sugar.

One of the earliest recorded recipes for Pesach Chremslach can be found in Esther Levy’s Jewish Cookery Book on Principles of Economy Adapted for Jewish Housekeepers with the Addition of Many Useful Medicinal Recipes and Other Valuable Information Relative to Housekeeping and Domestic Management, published in 1871. Considered to be the first Jewish cookbook published in America, Levy’s book is both a collection of recipes and a manual of instruction on the day-to-day management of a 19th-century Jewish household. The Jewish Cookery Book includes explanations for setting a table, menu planning, and recommendations for cooking with seasonal ingredients. Among Levy’s recipes, suitable for preparation during Passover is a recipe for Grimslechs that incorporates apples, currants, raisins, and almonds into the batter before frying or baking.

Check out Esther Levy’s recipe for Chremslach:

Chop up half a pound of stoned raisins and almonds, with half a dozen apples and half a pound of currants, half a pound of brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, half a pound of fat, the rind of a lemon, two soaked matzas or unleavened bread; mix all the ingredients together with four well beaten eggs; do not stiffen too much with the matzo meal; make into oval shapes; either fry in fat, or bake in an oven a light brown.

Access the catalog record to Esther Levy’s Jewish Cookery Book in the online library catalog

–Jessica Lydon, Associate Archivist