[Sca-cooks] Re: chocolate

[elisabetta at klotz.org]

Greetings-

My chocolate research indicated that chocolate was available to everyone (not
just nobility) as a spice and drink before 1600, but in very limited areas.

St. Esprit, the Jewish ghetto of Bayonne, France
Bralizan colonies, both French (like Recife, 1550s?) and Porteguese
Mexico

Ok, granted only one is in Europe, and since I don't speak French my 
research is
at a stand-still. The Musuem of Bayonne does have records, which one 
day I hope
to see translated versions of them. Long story short, Jews fled from the
Inquistation. The Jews in the New World (mostly conversios), who became known
for chocolate and sugar production, sent goods over to family members still in
Europe. The Jewish encylopedia has more on Jews in Bayonne:
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=445&letter=B

One of the businesses they opened up in Bayonne was chocolat houses. 
Supposedly
there are church records condemning the local Christains who went to 
"the wrong
side of the tracks" for chocolat. The church looked at chocolat like our
government looks at pot. These treatise, and trade manifests, are what I am
interested in, because they will at least prove that people were eating a form
of chocolat prior to 1600 in Europe.

Where I have not found any proof of pre-1600 use of chocolate in Italy, there
are history rumors that Spanish Jews who moved to both Holland and Italy
brought the chocolate recipes with them, and that a chocolate bread-type cake
might have existed pre-1600 in Italy.

My advice is to see if there was an influx in the Jewish communities, and look
at those records. If I find anything concrete on Italian chocolate, I will
forward it on.

:)
Elisabetta

> Message: 6
> Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2005 07:57:18 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Christiane <christianetrue at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Coronation Laurels, cubebs, and chocolate (LONG)
> To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Message-ID:
> 	<7515608.1112713043666.JavaMail.root at thecount.psp.pas.earthlink.net>
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>
> I had posted awhile ago about Modican (Sicilian) chocolate, and it 
> turns out there had been a huge chocolate event  in Modica over 
> Easter. I found this release on the Website, including a bit about 
> the history of chocolate in Modica and the ingredients for a game pie 
> that includes chocolate with a bit of apocryphal history. There is 
> also a detailed description on how Modican chocolate is made. I'm 
> still bound and determined to find out if there are any records of 
> chocolate being produced in Modica for private consumption, before 
> 1600, and will be writing to Eurochocolate for assistance. The  
> production of chocolate as a publicly available luxury did not seem 
> to come into being until the 18th century.
>