[Sca-cooks] New Challenge

[David Friedman]

>I have a first question. What would a Spanish jew have eaten who "kept
>kosher" of their time eaten just before they were expelled from Spain?


Since you asked. From _Manuscrito Anonimo_:

Jewish Partridge

Clean the partridge and season it with salt, then 
crush its entrails with almonds and pine-nuts and 
add murri naqî ', oil, a little cilantro juice, 
pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, lavender, 
five eggs and sufficient salt. Boil two eggs, 
stuff the partridge with the stuffing and insert 
the boiled eggs and let the stuffing be between 
the skin and the meat, and some of it in the 
interior of the partridge. Then take a new pot 
and put in four spoonfuls of oil, half a spoonful 
of murri naqî ' and two of salt. Put the 
partridge in it and put it on the fire, after 
attaching the cover with dough, and agitate it 
continuously so it will be thoroughly done, and 
when the sauce has dried, remove the lid and 
throw in half a spoonful of vinegar, throw in an 
"eye" of citron [leaves] and an "eye" of mint, 
and break two or three eggs into it. Then put a 
potsherd or copper pot full of burning coals on 
it until it is browned, and then turn (the 
contents) around so that the other side browns, 
and roast it all. Then put it in a dish and put 
the stuffing around it, and garnish it with the 
eggyolks with which you dotted the pot, or with 
roast pistachios, almonds and pine nuts, and 
sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon after 
moistening with sugar, and present it, God 
willing.

A Jewish Dish of Chicken

Clean the chicken and take out its entrails, cut 
off the extremities of its thighs and wings and 
the neck, and salt the chicken and leave it. Take 
these extremities and the neck and the entrails, 
and put them in a pot with fine spices and all 
the flavorings and cilantro juice, onion juice, 
whole pine-nuts, a little vinegar and a little 
murri, good oil, citron leaves, and stalks of 
fennel. Put this over a moderate fire and when it 
is done and the greater part of the sauce has 
gone, cover the contents of the pot with three 
eggs, grated breadcrumbs and fine flour, crush 
the liver, add it to this crust and cook 
carefully until the liver and the crust are 
cooked and wrinkled. Then take the chicken and 
roast it carefully, and strike it with two eggs, 
oil and murri, and do not stop greasing [basting] 
the chicken inside and out with this until it is 
browned and roasted. Then take a second little 
pot and put in two spoonfuls of oil and half a 
spoonful of murri, half a spoonful of vinegar and 
two spoons of aromatic rosewater, onion juice, 
spices and flavorings. Put this on the fire so 
that it cooks gently, and when it has cooked, cut 
up ...[about two words missing]... and leave it 
until it is absorbed. Then ladle it into a dish 
[and pour the rest of the sauce on it, and cut up 
an egg and sprinkle with spices, and ladle the 
preceding almonds into another dish], and garnish 
it too with eggyolks; sprinkle it with fine 
spices and present both dishes, God willing.

A Stuffed, Buried Jewish Dish

Pound some meat cut round, and be careful that 
there be no bones in it. Put it in a pot and 
throw in all the spices except cumin, four 
spoonfuls of oil, two spoonfuls of penetrating 
rosewater, a little onion juice, a little water 
and salt, and veil it with a thick cloth. Put it 
on a moderate fire and cook it with care. Pound 
meat as for meatballs, season it and make little 
meatballs and throw them [p. 21, recto] in the 
pot until they are done. When everything is done, 
beat five eggs with salt, pepper, and cinnamon; 
make a thin layer [a flat omelette or egg crepe; 
literally "a tajine"] of this in a frying pan, 
and beat five more eggs with what will make 
another thin layer. Then take a new pot and put 
in a spoonful of oil and boil it a little, put in 
the bottom one of the two layers, pour the meat 
onto it, and cover with the other layer. Then 
beat three eggs with a little white flour, 
pepper, cinnamon, and some rosewater with the 
rest of the pounded meat, and put this over the 
top of the pot. Then cover it with a potsherd of 
fire  until it is browned, and be careful that it 
not burn. Then break the pot and put the whole 
mass on a dish, and cover it with "eyes" of mint, 
pistachios and pine-nuts, and add spices. You 
might put on this dish all that has been 
indicated, and leave out the rosewater and 
replace it with a spoonful of juice of cilantro 
pounded with onion, and half a spoonful of murri 
naqî '; put in it all that was put in the first, 
God, the Most High, willing.

(the translator notes on this one:
A version of adafina (from an Arabic word meaning 
"buried treasure," related to the word madfû n, 
"buried," which is found in the name of this 
dish), the Sephardic equivalent of the Ashkenazi 
dish cholent, which could be left in the oven 
overnight on Friday so that Jewish housewives 
wouldn't have to violate the Sabbath by cooking. 
(CP)

Which might be helpful for Judith.

A Jewish Dish of Eggplants Stuffed with Meat

Boil the eggplants and take out their small seeds 
and leave [the skins] whole. Take leg meat from a 
lamb and pound it with salt, pepper, cinnamon, 
Chinese cinnamon and spikenard. Beat it with the 
whites of eight eggs and separate six eggyolks. 
Stuff the eggplants with this stuffing. Then take 
three pots and put in one of them four spoonfuls 
of oil, onion juice, spices, aromatics and two 
spoonfuls of fragrant rosewater, pine-nuts, an 
"eye" of citron [leaves], another of mint, and 
sufficient salt and water; boil well and throw in 
half of the stuffed eggplants. In the second pot 
put a spoonful of vinegar, a teaspoon of murri, a 
grated onion, spices and aromatics, a sprig of 
thyme, another of rue, citron leaf, two stalks of 
fennel, two spoonfuls of oil, almonds, soaked 
garbanzos, some half a dirham of ground saffron, 
and three cut garlics. Boil in sufficient water 
until it boils several times, and throw into it 
the rest of the stuffed eggplants. And in the 
third pot put a spoonful and a half of oil, a 
spoonful of cilantro water, half a spoon of sharp 
vinegar, crushed onion, almond, pine-nuts, a 
sprig of rue and citron leaves. Sprinkle with 
rosewater and dust with spices. Decorate the 
second with cut-up eggyolks and cut rue and 
sprinkle it with aromatic herbs; cut an egg 
cooked with rue over the third pot, sprinkle it 
with pepper, and present it.


>And
>the Moorish counterpart living in Spain at the same time?

The rest of _Manuscrito Anonimo_, all of which is 
webbed on my site, although it's a bit earlier 
than you are asking for.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com