School bus as matzo oven

by Joe DiStefano, Posted Mar 27th 2007 @ 10:03AM

As a veteran of many a barbeque competition, I've seen all kinds of weird cookers ranging from offset smokers made from repurposed propane tanks to contraptions cobbled together from stacks of 50-gallon drums. But I've never seen anything like the device pictured here.

This converted school bus has never seen pound one of pork, largely because it was designed to bake matzos for Passover. It's the invention of Rabbi Aaron Winternitz, leader of Congregation Mivtzar Hatorah in Spring Valley, N.Y. The inside of the bus is one gigantic oven, which Rabbi Winternitz had used to churn out 100 pounds of matzos for each of the past three Passovers.

The rabbi may not get to bake matzos this year because his makeshift bakery was shut down by a local building inspector after a neighbor complained of smoke late last Friday night. If Winternitz provides engineer's plans and switches from using gas to wood he may just be able to fire his contraption up in time for Passover. As any 'cuemaster worth his grease-stained overalls will tell you, wood's the way to go. Gas oven, feh!

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Filed Under: Food Oddities, Ingredients, Bakeries
Tags: Congregation Mivtzar Hatorah, CongregationMivtzarHatorah, east coast, grains, matzo, matzos, oddities, Passover, Passover matzos, PassoverMatzos, Rabbi Aaron Winternitz, RabbiAaronWinternitz, Spring Valley, N.Y., SpringValley,N.y.