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Matzo Makers Hard At Work On LES Ahead Of Passover

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Passover starts on Friday at sundown and that means it's been a busy time at a Lower East Side matzo factory.

WCBS 880's Peter Haskell On The Story

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"You can see it's getting overlapped up top. Four times that way and then four times this way down here," fifth generation matzo maker Aaron Gross said as he showed off the process at the Streit's Matzo Co.

The dough was being fed into what's called a sheeter.

"A sheeter is what's going to take the dough and form it and to make it look like something that it's going to look like a piece of matzo, rather than just a big clump of dough," Gross told WCBS 880 reporter Peter Haskell.

The matzo spends all of 90 seconds in the oven.

"So, there's actually going to be a guy at the end of the oven for quality control, making sure all everything looks good," said Gross.

Matzo in wire baskets is then moved mechanically to the second floor for automated boxing and labeling.

Jewish people eat matzo, and no leavened bread, during Passover because the their ancestors didn't have time to allow the bread to rise as they were in their exodus from Egypt.

What's your favorite way to eat matzo? Share your tips below.

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