Streit’s Matzos celebrates its 100th anniversary this year—and it’s come a long way from its humble origins on Pitt Street, and then Rivington Street, on the Lower East Side.
In the 1890s, Aron Streit and his wife, Nettie, left Europe for America. In 1925, Streit launched his Lower East Side bakery, with his sons joining him. Today, the fifth generation of Streits endure, working from a replica factory in suburban Orangeburg, New York. JewishBoston chatted with Aaron Gross, one of Streit’s great-great grandsons, about the milestone—and about the best way to eat matzo.
Tell us about the history of Streit’s. A century is a very long time to be making matzo.
We started in 1925 on the Lower East Side, and we remained there up until 10 years ago. We left Manhattan in 2015 and moved up to Orangeburg, New York, and we wanted to remain the New York company we’d always been. We started as a neighborhood bakery on Rivington Street and grew to 50,000 square feet. In the 1960s and 1970s, we evolved into national distribution because the Jewish population wasn’t centered in the Lower East Side like they were back in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940.
To start something from scratch was more difficult than we anticipated—but we wanted to control our own destiny. We thought about outsourcing our production and becoming a marketing company. We weighed all our options, but it just kept coming back to: We want to replicate the same quality matzo that our great-great-grandfather made, just on a larger scale.
How have people’s tastes changed over the years? What does the modern matzo consumer want?
There are two different things. When Passover comes around, we have our five-pound [matzo] bundle, and that is going to taste very similar, with texture and darkness, as it did if you bought our product in the 1950s. That was really important for us to replicate.
We use a very different laminating process than our competitors. We overlap the dough numerous times to create air pockets to make it crispier, more like a pastry. And then we also use a convection oven and cook at a way higher temperature than others. We cook higher and faster. Others use direct fire ovens and roll the product right over the fire. We actually take the heat source and blow it from top to bottom to encompass the whole product, so all the heat doesn’t get stuck on one side. It gets a more even bake. I want this to be the taste of a memory that comes once a year. We want to replicate exactly what your grandparents had and loved.
Now, we have a whole new soup line for daily production, concentrated on ethnic Eastern European Jewish food, which is all kosher as well. The Streit name is very important to us, and I think it’s very special. We strive to keep that authenticity alive. We do try to keep up with trends: We’re doing a hot honey seasoning, which is not kosher for Passover. We do a matzo topper, kind of like an everything bagel topper, too.
What do you eat with your matzo? What’s your personal favorite pairing?
Simple butter with salt is my go-to. Maybe a cream cheese. If I take matzo off the line, I take it back to my office [and] put some butter on it.
What are you doing to celebrate the 100th anniversary?
We’ve incorporated it in our packaging. We’ve done a small social media campaign. We’re still a small family business. We don’t have these huge marketing funds. We have a nice 100-year logo. We’re just really trying to let the public know that we’re here and we’re still concentrating on quality, and we’re still the brand that you grew up on and your grandparents grew up on.
What do you wish more people knew about matzo? Do you believe it’s an underrated food?
One hundred percent; it’s an underrated food. It’s a clean palette that you could do anything with. Our 11-ounce box is anywhere from $3.99 to $4.99; you’re not going to find anything else like that in stores. It’s clean on brominate and unbleached flour—all clean ingredients. So it’s a clean bread alternative that can be used for anything, and I think it’s the best value in the store.
Rather than having a bagel for breakfast, grab a box of matzo. Just take a sheet out, put whatever spread you want on it and that’s your breakfast. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s a great college food. I always had it in college: If you had butter in the fridge, or a peanut butter, and you had boxes of matzo, you always had food. All my buddies from college are still doing it.
You need a matzo cookbook!
My cousin, Michele Streit Heilbrun, came out with a beautiful one a few years back. The desserts are crazy!
