SC - Jewish food in period

[RuddR at aol.com]

Adamantius responds:

<< RuddR at aol.com wrote:
 
 > I suppose one could select medieval receipts that could be made using
kosher
 > ingredients, but does anyone have any leads on authentic period Jewish
 > cookery?
 > 
 > Rudd Rayfield

Okay, after a long and mostly fruitless search, I'll tell you what I
can, which is simply this: you want to find an article that appeared in
the New York Times on April 16th, 1997, entitled "Jewish Recipes of the
Spanish Inquisition", by Andree Brooks. It concerns the everyday and
holiday eating habits of Spain's "secret" Jews, people who professed
Catholicism in public but who continued to practice Judaism in private.
This would have taken place in the early 16th century, I suppose, and
the documentation for this includes trial and testimony transcripts from
people like household servants. These transcripts include descriptions
of matzoh making, as well as a process for making vermillioned eggs, and
a few others. The article includes worked-out recipes for the matzoh and
the eggs, as well, as fairly detailed descriptions of some other foods.

_SOMEWHERE_ I have a printout of this article, but it's kind of long to
type in all at once, and it seems to have been removed from the NYT
archives, which only go back a year on the Web. You should be able to
find it in the library, though.>>

And then adds:

 <<I found this book listed on the Amazon.com web site: it is by one of the
 people referred to in the New York Times article on Jewish Foods of the
 Spanish Inquisition I referenced earlier. The author of the book is one
 of the people who worked on something like 85 recipes of secret Jews
 living in Spain in the early 16th century -- the book may or may not
 include material about eating habits, but I would bet that it does. Of
 course, the book predates the NY Times article, so there's no guarantee
 it and the Times article are in any way the products of the same body of
 research. On the other hand, it's worth a shot.
 
 "Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of Crypto-Jews", by David M. Gitlitz,
 Jewish Publication Society of America, 1996, ASIN 0827605625.
 
 Summary courtesy of Amazon.com:
 
 > Despite the increased attention given to Hispano-Jewish topics, and
 > the "conversos" or Crypto-Jews in particular, this is the first
 > thorough compilation of their customs and practices. Gitlitz has
 > culled from Inquisition documents and other sources to paint a
 > portrait of the richness and diversity of Crypto-Jewish practices in
 > Spain, Portugal, and the New World.
 
 Adamantius>> 

Then Bogdan added:

<<Supposedly, one of the professors at the University of Chicago knows a lot
about jewish historical foods, but my fiance could ne'er get ahold of the
guy.  We are still trying, if anyting pans out, I will let you know.  

Bogdan>>
 
Thank you very much for sharing your research with us.  Adamantius, I'll have
a look and see what I can find.  Bogdan, let us know if anything turns up.

Out of curiosity, has anyone on the list held, attended, or heard of a sedar
where the majority of the dishes were based on medieval receipts from ANY
source?  What was served?  

This raises a question on the "Are Creations Period?" thread:  Is cameline
sauce thickened with matzoh instead of manchet, but following the original in
all other respects, still "period"?

Rudd Rayfield
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