Akiva Miller wrote
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">I can testify that when I was part of my yeshiva's chabura making hand matzos, they were NOT baked until they were hard.<br>
<br>Rather, they were baked until they were "done", as in "fit to eat".When they came out of the oven, they were still soft, pliable, and moist.<br><br>However, about a minute or so after being removed from the oven, the matza would dry out and become hard. But this was a separate step, which occurs *after* the matza is done baking.<br>
<br>If any posek considers this to be a requirement, custom, or whatever (as RMR is searching for), I predict it will be difficult to find, as it would be phrased in terms of "the matza is baked until such time as it will become hard after it is removed from the oven."<br>
<br>Rather, I suspect that no such requirement exists according to anyone, and that all poskim of all stripes merely require that the matza be fully baked, and that the hardness is merely a result of thinness of the matza, which *is* something that the poskim mention. Making a thin wafer-like dough *is* mentioned as a way to insure that the matza can be baked quickly, easily, and fully. The resulting hardness is not required - maybe not even desired - but is merely an inevitable side-effect.<br>
<br>Perhaps someday, someone will figure out a way to make matzos which are cracker-thin and fully-baked, yet still soft. But if that does happen, I predict that a machlokes will arise over the definition of "fully baked", and some will claim that the softness is evidence that it is *not* fully baked.<br>
end quote</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">I accept your observations. Matzos, as do biscuits, become hard and crisp as they cool and their moisture evaporates. I use the word 'bake' loosely to include this, out of the oven stage.</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">The ShO defines baking as when no stringy doughy threads stretch between the two pieces of Matza that is torn apart.</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">The MBerura adds that this test can be performed only when the Matza is still warm out of the oven. I dont understand this. Is the MB suggesting that if the Matza was not fully baked when it came out of the oven, i.e. there would have been stringy doughy threads, then after it has cooled it will longer have such threads?</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">Also, the thin Matza mentioned in ShO, is the Ramo who speaks of Rekikin. However, the BHeitev says this refers to Matza 10 - 12 mm thick. Thin is a relative term, not absolute. Compared to matza that is Kosher if only slightly less than one Tefach thick, one finger thickness is quite thin.</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">Furthermore, the MB adds a second test, poking the Matza with a finger (or a skewer) to see if any dough sticks, again limited to being tested whilst still warm from the oven.</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">I think this all points towards the Matza being soft even after it has cooled. I would have thought that the MB would say in discussing these matters, something along the lines of, these days the custom is to bake Matza until hard and crisp, which he apparently does not.</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">In Halacha, bread dough that has been baked hard and crisp is no longer bread but Mezonos. It is therefore V difficult to imagine that matza is made crisp and hard is the preferred style Matza of Halacha.</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">I have produced last year and will PG produce next year soft matza that is less than 1 mm thick, machine made, produced in less than 40 seconds, whose dough is idle in total for not more than 5 seconds, the oven conveyor belt is constantly being cleaned and kashered on its return journey and in view of these considerations, I think is probably the most Mehudar Matza available in the world today.</span></div>
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