[Sca-cooks] Redacting another Jewish dish (fwd)
Tara Sersen Boroson
tara at kolaviv.com
Wed Sep 24 11:08:38 PDT 2003
>The authors' translation doesn't include the beginning phrase, "On FRIDAYS... her mistress used to make..." [Emphasis added] I think the significant thing is that she was making a certain dish regularly on Fridays. This would be an indication to the Inquisitors that the woman might have been secretly observing the Jewish Sabbath. I don't think the absense of bacon fat is an issue here, since Christians would be abstaining from meat on Fridays.
>
You are probably right, though using olive oil rather than butter might
also have played a part? However, the book also specifies "The
Inquisition's informants keyed on the principal ingredient of the main
dish, it's relation to the Jewish or Christian calender of ritual, and a
few foods - chard, chickpeas, eggplant - that old-Christians associated
with Semitic cuisine." So, it may have been the use of chard in that
particular season, combined with it's particular use on Fridays, that
drew attention. I wonder what record there is of foods associated with
seasonal rituals for Jews at that time? Certainly, there are enough
seasonal foods these days - charoset, latkes, etc.
-Magdalena vander Brugghe
--
Tara Sersen Boroson
You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it for himself. - Galileo Galilei
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