[Sca-cooks] Redacting another Jewish dish (fwd)

[Tara Sersen Boroson]

Ok, here's the logic I used.  In the accounts listed in A Touch of 
Honey, the charges were generally brought based on the fact that the 
servant (or neighbor, etc.) observed the converso engaging in cooking 
procedures or ingredients that were stereotypically Semitic.  Therefore 
I am making the assumption that these middle class wives were active in 
their kitchens.  It's also clear from these accounts that they used 
their servents in the kitchen - but seemingly not exclusively.  To break 
that habit on Sabbath and stop their normal work, assigning it entirely 
to servents who were otherwise accustomed to their mistress' help, would 
be as no less or more obvious than using an ingredient like chard, or 
not using bacon fat.  Agreed, it would not be obvious if it happened 
occasionally (as per your "anna - i have a bad headache" example,) but 
if it happened *every* Friday night and Saturday day, the pattern would 
become obvious.

-Magdalena

margali wrote:

> um, isnt the definiton of servant 'one who is employed to do certain 
> tasks' so by definition, the servant cooking occasionally could have 
> been stipulated [anna - i have a bad headache, cook today for me.] or 
> even a regular part of her duties[wanted, one maid of all work who 
> will also cook.] what might have been odd is the mistress actually 
> doing the cooking on a particular day...as in well the servant cooking 
> normally is ok, but on the sabbath i as a jewess will cook for the 
> family, rendering the food 'more kosher'. it really doesnt specify if 
> she cooked all the time, or what flipped out the maid was she cooked 
> only on fridays...THAT would be a definite sign of someting.
>
> margali 


-- 
Tara Sersen Boroson

You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him to find it for himself. - Galileo Galilei