[Sca-cooks] A Dizzle of Honey

[Susan Lin]

Suey:
The book "A Drizzle Of Honey" is a compilation of stories of the conversos
as recipes.  The recipes seem to be extrapolated from inquisition testimony.

It was not uncommon for friends, neighbors and even other family to turn on
each other and turn each other in to the inquisition.  Some of the stories
in the book seem to indicate that the inquisitors would have had additional
"information" provided by informants.

I enjoy the book and I used it when I taught Jewish Food Traditions at a
Hebrew School in Albany, NY where I used to live.

The conversos where the secret Jews of Spain but they also emigrated to
Mexico and were found throughout Europe.

It is also possible that the combination of foods or the times of year that
certain foods were eaten could have "tipped off" the inquisitors.  Or, it's
all fabrication and we don't really know anything except the stories that
were passed down from generation to generation without any written history
at all.

I remember hearing a story of a Christian family who would go down to their
basement and light candles every Friday night.  They didn't know why but
that is what their family had done for generations.  It is likely that this
family at one time were Jews trying to keep their religion secret.
 Somewhere along the way the religion disappeared but the practice
continued.

As for the almond milk.  A Jew would have not eaten milk and meat together
so it could be that for a converso to eat "milk" and meat they would make
almond "milk" that would not break their dietary laws.  An inquisitor might
have assumed that if an accused  used almond "milk" and not cow or goat milk
that they were trying to keep the Kashrut (Kosher) laws and therefore that
is what he based his determination on.

Just some thoughts.

Shoshanna

On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 3:06 PM, Suey <lordhunt at gmail.com> wrote:

> Perhaps some of you with more knowledge of Jewish culinary customs than I
> can help me to appreciate this book which was highly recommended to me by a
> friend who is now deceased so I can't ask him darn it. The authors give
> recipes that are totally mundane in Medieval cookery such as almond milk and
> almori or murri.  I don't get the point. How did these recipes convince the
> inquisition that the accused was a Jew?
> Suey
>
>
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