[Sca-cooks] FW:request for recipe(s)

[Philippa Alderton]

--- Randy Goldberg MD <goldberg at bestweb.net> wrote:

> AFAIK, lamb is actually NOT that common on most
> Seder tables in America.
> The lamb shank (z'roa) appears on the Seder plate,
> but lamb has fallen
> out of favor as a main dish at Pesach in Ashkenazic
> families (the
> majority of American Jews) because we are unable to
> perform the
> sacrifice it represents. Sephardim still eat lamb,
> however.

Really? The families I know (admittedly not a large
proportion of American Jews) all have lamb on the
Passover table, except for the vegetarian family.
Maybe a regional thing?

And, I know the Moslems go through great difficulty in
order to acquire and sacrifice the lamb for their
holiday. My usual lamb supplier was breeding his ewes
so that there'd be plenty of lamb for that purpose.

> And don't forget no legumes, corn or leavened
> products.

Leavened products, yes, but doesn't the rest vary
according to which tradition you follow? I can't keep
them straight, but I've heard of at least two from
different areas of Europe, and if Jews disagree
amongst themselves half as much as Christians and
Muslims do, there are no doubt more.

> > Lamb, as you may know, is traditional in both the
> > Christian Easter meal and the Jewish Passover meal
> > because in Christ's time, lamb was sacrificed in
> the
> > temple on Passover, and the Last Meal was supposed
> to
> > be a Passover supper. (See, cuz, I really have
> been
> > studying ;-)
>
> Not "supposed to have been", dear - "was". I don't
> have a Christian
> Bible handy to quote you chapter and verse, but it
> WAS a Seder.

Ooops- disagreement here. I have read and enjoyed the
Bible for several reasons, but none of them have
included historical accuracy. I've heard one argument
that Christ and the Apostles COULDN'T have been having
lamb for dinner, because the sacrificial lamb would
not have been sacrificed yet, this being the evening
before Passover. Not having enough knowledge of either
traditional or historical practices to form a reasoned
opinion, this has been one of those "Dunno, keep an
open mind" passages.

> By the way, did you notice that first Seder is the
> Wednesday night of
> Holy Week this year? That means that the Jewish and
> Easter calendars are
> in the same synchronization as they were in the year
> of Jesus' death.

Not really, since neither I nor my persona are people
of the Book, but it is interesting. How often would
that happen? I know Easter is the first Sunday after
the first full moon after the spring equinox, but I
never have quite figured out how Passover is
determined. Likely nothing to do with Sunday, though
;-)

> As to the original request: you might consider some
> variation on
> Charoset, which appears on every Seder table, but
> varies greatly with
> your background. It represents the mortar which the
> Hebrews made to hold
> the bricks together as they built Pharaoh's cities.

Jeeze, Avraham, you really know how to tempt
somebody's appetite ;-) If the charoset is the morter,
are matzos the strawless bricks?

<recipes snipped>

The recipes do look pretty tasty. Question, though. I
notice that most of them include sweet red wine. Why
sweet and red? And, since more or less the same yeasty
beasties which cause wine to ferment also cause bread
to rise, why is wine not only allowed, but encouraged,
but leavened bread as well as certain other things
which MIGHT ferment are forbidden?

Forgive my many questions, but as you know by now, I'm
like that with any question which piques my interest.
For example, I just found out why Amish men wear full
beards, but not mustaches, after wanting to know for
more than 10 years . The only other group I was aware
of who do the same thing are scuba divers, and that's
not usually an Amish occupation ;-)

Phlip

=====
Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....

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