SC - Recipe for Hunter's Stew

[Stefan li Rous]

Phillipa.

>My theory is that they ate very closely to what the non Jews ate except that 
>they "koshered" it up.  ie: redid the recipe to fit their dietary needs.  I 
>do feel that they would have chosen from the foodstuffs locally available and 
>made kosher versions of treif dishes.

I too am interested in what foods the Jews would have eaten historically, but in
Italy. There is at least one cookbook on Italian Jewish food which I have seen
but not read through. The book is called _Cucina Ebraica:Flavors of the Jewish
Italian Kitchen_ by Joyce Goldstein. I plan to take a closer look at it for
historical content. The quick browse I did agreed with your view that local
foods were used but certain items (fats, grains, etc) within the dishes were
modified.

On a related note, has anyone run across any mention of Jewish foods mentioned
in the Cairo Geniza documents or other Middle Eastern sources? The period
covered by these documents is the 11 into the 13th c. From some authors who have
studied these documents, there seems to be a reluctance on the part of the
people who created these written works to discuss food except in passing. As if
the discussion of foods was somehow very blase and in bad taste in legal
documents. I know so very little about Jewish history and culture and especially
about Egyptian Jewish history and culture. If someone had an insight here, I'd
really appreciate it.

Cedrin
Princess Oertha