The Dish: Matzoh ball soup from Radin's Delicatessen

yum time now for the dish we could not think of a better way to warm you up soup I mean it is soup season it's on and not just any soup the authentic Jewish cural matab ball soup I had to Raiden's Delicatessen in Cherry Hill where a fourth generation Deli owner with a famous history shares some secrets for his family's recipe we are deep into soup season and I came here because I said it's time for the Jewish penicillin a pot like that which is 40 gallons this time of year we could go through one of those a day a day just in chicken soup and today we're making one of the crown jewels at Raiden's delicatess and in Cherry Hill the matah balls that go in that soup around here they're as big as softballs you're famous for big yeah we're we're we're not on diets here go Big Russ Cowen opened Raiden last February he had just sold famous Fourth Street delicatess in in Philadelphia after 19 years no I didn't want to retire but I figure I have one more store in me Cowen is a fourth generation Deli owner I had Deli on both sides of the family my grandmother and my grandfather I love this I come from we come from Deli we have Deli on both sides of the family it's a deli DNA Raiden is in honor of the store he grew up in it's a family name everything here is scratch made including the matzah balls which start with a simple mixture eggs white pepper salt chicken base baking powder matzah and oil chicken base is a concentrated form of chicken stock now you can make your own or get it at the store it's the seasoning it's the secret sauce now getting the right consistency is something Cowen says you can't teach you just have to feel it if there's not enough matah they'll be too wet and they'll break apart if there's too much matam they'll be hard like golf balls because some mozam meals are fine and others are coarse texture is key you can tell if you've hit the right ratio by how easily they roll here it's a sport oh my gosh Dave is going so fast that I'm like this is like a Olympic matab ball rolling now pop them into salted boiling water and cover the pot and they're going to go for hour hour and 15 minutes no way yeah they're dense yeah check on them sporadically but there's really only one way to know if they're ready it's a very fine line between a good matah ball and a bad matzah ball right and if you take a matah ball and it's too soft when you're cooking it the edges will flake and then if you don't cook it enough the center will be hard as we get to the end we actually poke every matz ble to make sure it's the right texture oh you poke it everyone and then when they come out we give them an ice there to chill them to stop because if you don't do that the edges will start to flake off so that kind of firms it now you want to eat this hot so add them to your soup and serve there it is on the inside it's tight it's didn't flake that's that's the key really it's Moz ball Perfection and I spared everyone the moment where we ate the matab ball soup because you know it's not a pretty television bite but it is delicious and I do want to tell you so we tried to Cobble the recipe together because Russ doesn't have it any of it really kind of written down it's all about the feel it's he's like a little this a little that but here's what he doesn't put in it Seltzer he said that's an old wives tale it does nothing don't ask him about the Seltzer they don't use it we did put a recipe on 6abc.com okay thank you who knew yeah no Seltzer all right