Short on Shortening

After we had dinner last night, I had a "D'oh!" moment.

I prepared a bunch of traditional foods for the Jewish New Year. Several of these recipes started out as Xerox copies of my mother-in-law's index cards (since my traditional Italian family recipes wouldn't really cut it). I've modified some of them over the years, reducing the fat content or changing to healthier ingredients. My husband goes so far as to say that traditional Jewish cooking has killed more Jews than Hitler did.

Anyway, I've stuck faithfully to the matzo ball recipe (including the 1/2 cup of seltzer which creates the fluffy texture). I must've been really tired on Thursday night when I made the batter for this year's "balls" because I realized last night that I'd forgotten to melt the 1/2 cup of shortening and add it to the batter before I refrigerated it. Well, it was after 10PM, after the kids had gone to bed, and that's late for me to be thinking straight...

But when I thought about it, I hadn't tasted a difference so I asked hubby. He said he thought they tasted the same too. Normally the recipe calls for refrigerating the batter at least one hour before scooping it out into balls. This batch had been refrigerated for almost 20 hours. Hmm, I think I'll do the same every year if possible, so I can avoid including 1/2 cup of solid fat. Yeah baby!

I'll bet that many of the best changes to recipes have been accidental.