For favorite Passover recipes from my kitchen, please see Essential Passover from Scratch: Recipes and Stories from My Mother’s Kitchen
With Passover beginning in three days, I continued with my preparations today by visiting several grocery stores, calling my sister every 20 minutes to ask was she bringing the horseradish? kosher wine? cucumbers? and cooking up some eingie. My grandmother, Mollye, made eingie for the entire family every year. She made it for us and also shipped it to California to her son’s family. Later my mother, Ruth, took over the eingie duty, making it ahead and shipping it to her kids. Now I make the eingie.
Eingie is short for eingemacht, which is Yiddish for preserve. In this case it is an apricot-pineapple jam, something like a marmalade in consistency. In our family we spoon it liberally on top of fried matzo and on matzo meal pancakes. Other families eat their Passover breakfast matzo plain, but to me these dishes just don’t taste right without a large spoonful of eingie.
While I was running around town today I found myself close to my mother’s nursing home. She has dementia, and visiting her always makes me sad, so I don’t go to see her very often. Today I felt the need to see her, to make that connection to the women who came before me, to hold her hand and let her know that I am making the eingie this year.
Our traditional eingie is on the left. On the right is a batch made with dried cherries — something new that I think my brother-in-law Leo will especially enjoy.
Ingredients
- 1¾ lbs. dried apricots, soaked overnight
- 2 20-ounce cans
unsweetened crushed
pineapple, drained - 4 c. sugar
Directions
Drain and chop the apricots, then combine all ingredients in a large pot. Cook until very hot and bubbly, and slightly thick. Spoon into hot, sterilized jars and process, or store in covered jars in refrigerator.
The Plate is My Canvas 
Would you be willing to share the recipe?
Mollye’s Eingie
dried apricots
canned crushed pineapple in its own juice
sugar
Put the apricots in a bowl. Cover with boiling water and let soak for a couple of hours, or more. Chop them up, mix with the drained pineapple and sugar. Cook until slightly thickened, and can.
Amounts, you’re wondering? I kind of estimate. But it’s about like this: 2 cups apricots to 1-1/2 cups pineapple to 1-1/2 cups sugar. You can change the proportions depending on whether you prefer apricot or pineapple as the dominant flavor.
yet another thing to look forward to. i think you described this to us once…
Thanks! Going shopping for Passover goodies today–I’ll pick up some pineapple and dried apricots and give it a try!
I’ve been steadily trying to build some Passover traditions out of a something of a vacuum. So far I’ve got a brisket recipe, a matzah toffee recipe, okay matzoh granola, a flourless chocolate cake to die for, and a few years back a friend’s grandfather taught me to make good matzoh brei…but I’m always looking for other things to add on to the repertoire.
I googled eingemacht and found conflicting definitions. I also found this posting and read the 5 or so replies.
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You Yiddish experts out there, what is the literal meaning of “eingemacht” and what does it mean in context as in beet eingemacht or esrig eingemacht (both of which are going into my book.) And is esrig just Yiddish for esrog? Thanks! JudyK
Judy Bart Kancigor
author, Melting Pot Memories
http://www.cookingjewish.com
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The lack of agreement on word meaning was interesting, but probably not somewhere I want to meander about any further.
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