Hamantash

Guide Note

Hamantash is a three-cornered cookie eaten during the Jewish holiday of Purim, and named after the Old Testament villain Haman (via the Yiddish word 'montashn,' the generic name for such cookies).

Fast Facts

1. Traditionally filled with poppy seeds
2. Can be made with numerous fillings
3. AKA: Haman's pocket, Haman's ears
4. Plural is 'Hamantashen'

The earliest known mention of Hamantashen is reportedly in a 16th Century Hebrew stage comedy published in Europe. Whatever the date of their invention, they became a staple item of Ashkenazi cuisine, filled with the traditional poppy seeds, or with other sweet fillings such as prune butter or strawberry preserves. An ongoing mock dispute in the tradition of Jewish theological scholarship is the Great Latke-Hamantash debate, in which great symbolic weight is given to an expressed preference for potato pancakes over tri-cornered cookies, or vice versa. In 2005 the debate celebrated its 60th year, although the reasonable and correct side (i.e. latkes) seems no closer to victory.