SC - inauthentic

[Lilinah biti-Anat]

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
>why do you say this book is inauthentic?
when i said:
> >  i also now have the
> >  inauthentic but intriguing Hispano-Jewish "A Drizzle of Honey"

I made a rather strong blanket statement which, while not 100 per 
cent accurate, is still essentially true regarding "A Drizzle of 
Honey".

Many, if  not most, of the recipes appear to be based on nothing more 
than a few general hints found in court records which are then 
constructed into complete detailed modern style recipes by the 
authors based on those few ingredients and consulting other sources; 
few of the recipes are derived from actual recipes or notes made by 
Jews or Conversos.

from the introduction, p. 3-4:
"There are no Jewish or crypto-Jewish cookbooks from this period. 
Instead, hints about Jewish cuisine and an occasional recipe are 
scattered through a variety of medieval documents, including the most 
unlikely of sources: Inquisition trial testimonies..."

"To aid in the identification of Judaizers, comprehensive lists of 
Judaizing customs were published... [followed by a quote from one of 
these lists, mentioning some practices and some foodstuffs to watch 
out for, but nothing even approaching a recipe, such as a list of 
ingredients in a dish]"

"...these same lists of customs advised later generations of 
conversos, who had great difficulty in obtaining information about 
normative Judaism, precisely what they had to do to continue their 
Jewish practices...the depositions are filled with statements like 
those from the servant girl Francisca, who reported in the 1490's 
that her mistress, Maria Alvarez , ordered her to pick out the vein 
and trim off the fat with her thumbnail...Most of the recipes in this 
book are based upon this sort of testimony."

[and if you've read anything about the Conversos and Moranos (sp?) 
and their crypto-Judaism based on such lists of prohibited foods and 
acts, you know that their practices differ widely from those of the 
larger Jewish community (and yes, there are still some in Spain)]

The intro to each recipe in the book includes a quote or paraphrase 
from the court proceedings, which sometimes does no more than mention 
that the mistress of the house put honey on her eggplant or that the 
family would gather in the doorway of someone's house and eat greens 
with vinegar, or that the man ate a stew of lamb and chickpeas, with 
no other information on ingredients or method of cooking. These 
sections are footnoted, and the back of the book includes that 
Spanish quotes from the trial documents.

But the authors follow their historical notes with complete detailed 
recipes which they have based on...? ...other medieval recipes? 
...modern ethnic and regional cookbooks? ..their own creativity? 
Rarely are original recipes given in any language to indicate where 
they got their ideas. More often, the authors merely assert that the 
recipes are what the Jews or Conversos would have eaten, with no 
other details on their sources.

There are a few, a very few, where the authors reproduce an actual 
medieval recipe in translation with a foot note as to the source, but 
these are the exception rather than the rule. Some of the recipes 
come from Perry's translation of the Manuscrito Anonimo (sp), which 
are, i believe, primarily Muslim rather than Jewish, which isn't to 
say that they didn't eat similar foods - i don't really know, but 
it's a possibility.

I note that books by some listees - "Take a Thousand Eggs or More" by 
Cindy Renfrow and the Miscellany of David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook 
- - are listed as *historical* sources, but as far as i can tell, many 
of the authors' *culinary* resources are modern regional cookbooks 
rather than period Jewish recipes.

Many of the recipes in  "A Drizzle of Honey" are tasty, but this book 
does not represent authentic Medieval cuisine the way, for example, 
Scully's books do, which, while containing his modern redactions, 
also include the actual authentic recipes from sources such as le 
Viandier de Taillevent or le Menagier de Paris, so you can see where 
he got his ideas.

As for our Siculo-Norman feast, since we have, as far as i can tell, 
limited information on what was eaten on the island of Sicily in the 
12th century with its apparently comfortable mixture of Normans, 
Sicilians, Near/Middle Easterners and others, who were Christian, 
Jewish, and Muslim, i'm willing to use some of the recipes for our 
feast which will make it more "peri-oid" than period, but you do what 
you can with what you got.

Anahita

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