The Last Matzo Factory in Manhattan
<p>There is so much history folded into Streit's on New York's Lower East Side. The Daily Beast paid a visit in time for Passover before its doors shut for good in May.</p>
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
Streit's Matzo bakery has been a staple of New York City for nearly a century. Specializing in nine different kinds of matzo - and churning out an impressive two million pounds for Passover alone - the factory is in its last days in their Lower East Side location.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
A Streit's employee adds canola oil to a trough filled with Matzo dough. Matzo prepared for Passover, however, is only mixed with water.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
Two massive mixing devices sit unused in the Streit's factory. The mixers are reserved only for Passover batches of matzo. During that time, seven rabbis oversee the baking process.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
A Streit's employee guides folds of dough into rollers that flatten it. About 25 employees run the factory during the year, many of whom have been there for decades.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
Sheets of dough are then sliced into pieces and then pricked with tiny holes to keep the matzo from puffing up.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
Sheets of warm matzo roll out of a 72' oven, cooked at 900 degrees. The matzo is only in the oven for two minutes, and the entire process - dough to finished matzo - must take under 18 minutes to be kosher for Passover.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
Workers examine the finished matzo for quality control and stack the sheets.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
Streit's employees toss matzo that was undercooked and unusable into a bin to be recycled, while matzo that makes the cut is placed on hanging trays. All matzo at Streit's goes through a hand-picked quality control process.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
Bins filled with broken matzo line the outside of the oven. The matzo that is not perfect - undercooked, overcooked, or in any way uneven - is picked up by a company that then recycles it into pet food.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
A Streit's employee pulls stacks of matzo from a tray to be boxed.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
Matzo is pushed into boxes to be shipped. Making approximately 24,000 boxes of matzo a day, the Streit's factory still uses machinery from the 1930s.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
Unsalted Matzo boxes are wrapped with labels. The wrapping machine is one of the only modern machines in the facility, most of which - including the oven - are at least 70 years old.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
Finished matzo boxes line a conveyor belt, completing the process.
Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast
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