[Sca-cooks] Not Fussy with Drizzle of Honey

[Suey]

Else Fleming  wrote:

McKenna wrote:
  >My recommendation for the absolute best cookbook to give a medievalist
  >is :
  >A Drizzle of Honey: The Life and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews

No quibble about the tastiness of the recipes. If you are trying to
recreate a medieval dish, however, you need to be careful to pick those
that have a translation of the original recipe.  Not all recipes come
with an "original" version. In a quick scan of the book, all but one of
the recipes in the lamb/goat, eggs, and fish chapters, are put together
using references to those ingredients, not from actual recipes.  Some
chapters have more original recipes than is indicated here.  For tasty
dishes, it's a nice book.  For dishes made from actual period recipes,
it's not so good.

Alys K., being fussy

I do not find you fussy at all. I cite the book very seldom and only because a friend really enjoyed it but I have thoroughly reviewed it and it does not cut the mustard. I do not find the recipes to be authentic; it does not explain kosher practices - we get a person who served chickpeas for example and, therefore, was burned at the stake with no further explanation. Obviously, that is not the case as thousands of Spaniards prepared and served chickpeas during the same time period. What the book fails to point out is that the chickpeas were served with meat properly bleed as per the kosher way. - I find the recipes are made up - they do not follow the lines of the MSS available during that time. It would have been more convincing to serve the chickpeas with lamb or goat purchased through or from the local rabbi than pork. I have found local orthodox synagogues offer more authentic dishes on Saturdays - you know the type for which the Spanish Inquisition could have burned a Jew at the stake! - Their dafinas are awesome!
Suey