[Sca-cooks] Curious Quick Request...

[Christiane]

>
>Ok now here is a weird one... 
>
>Does anyone have a Middle Eastern Period Pork Recipe?  Are there any?  Within the next 2 hours would be great... you can even tell me where to simply look online (other than the Florilegium... I can't get sucked in today...) ;)  I am simply looking to point out one to someone else... 
>
>Thanks
>Nichola

Christians living in Middle Eastern countries technically could eat pork, but even the presence of pigs would have been considered unclean by their Muslim neighbors/lords. Although Christians could live as dhimmi (subject peoples) and continue to worship as Christians in Islamic lands, the keeping/eating of pigs would have pushed things a little too far.

In countries where Muslims and Jews were driven out (Spain and Southern Italy and Sicily), pork went back on the menu and the hanging of sausages and hams in the home was a very definite way of showing the Church and the Inquisition that you were definitely not Moorish, Jewish, or a lapsed converso. 

So, I don't think there were even Christian pork recipes in Middle Eastern lands; you wouldn't have been able to get pork at the local market and raising a pig would probably get you and your family slaughtered or your home burned down, or at the very least make it totally impossible to do business with your Muslim neighbors.

Gianotta