Title: fd-Jewish-msg
Subject: Jewish medieval food. Sources. Recipes.
Author: Edited by Mark S. Harris
Last saved by: Mark S. Harris
Keywords: medieval, Jew, Jewish, food, culture, recipe

fd-Jewish-msg – 3/16/08

Jewish medieval food. Sources. Recipes.

NOTE: See also the files: Jews-msg, Khazars-msg, Jewsh-Holiday-art, T-H-Dreidel-art, Islamic-Feast-art, Maimonides-msg.

************************************************************************
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This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

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Thank you,
    Mark S. Harris                  AKA:  THLord Stefan li Rous
                                          Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: James and/or Nancy Gilly <KatieMorag at worldnet.att.net>   
Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 22:27:25 +0000
Subject: SC - [fwd]  [EK] Jewish Recipes of the Spanish Inquisition

From the Eastrealm's mailing list - thought this might prove of interest:

   From: donna amato-salvacion <donna at npsa.com>
   To: sca-east at world.std.com
   Subject: [EK] Jewish Recipes of the Spanish Inquisition
   Date: Wed, 16 Apr 97 14:05:16 +0000
   
   Not that I want to start up the Religious ire of the list again.  but
   this is a very interesting article.
   
   http://search.nytimes.com/web/docsroot/yr/mo/day/news/style/spanish-passover.html

April 16, 1997
Jewish Recipes of the Spanish Inquisition
By ANDREE BROOKS

It was a few days before Passover in 1503 in northern Spain.
Angelina de Leon was kneading a dough of white flour, eggs and
olive oil, flavored with pepper and honey. She formed walnut-size
balls, flattening them into round cakes and pricking them with a
fork.

Maria Sancho, the family maid, was watching. This was exactly
the sort of recipe that the Inquisition authorities had told
servants to report. Maria had also seen her mistress soaking and
salting meat before placing it into the stew pot.

All of which would provide proof that this was a household of
secret Jews  --  Jews who had ostensibly converted to Catholicism
under pressure from the Church but who had clung to their Jewish
rituals.

Maria's detailed account of the preparation and cooking of
meals, along with similar testimony by informants at other
Inquisition trials, has left a rare opportunity for contemporary
cooks to recreate the Jewish cuisine of 16th-century Spain.

The recreations represent the combined labors of Dr. Linda
Davidson, a writer on medieval life and an adjunct professor of
Spanish at the University of Rhode Island, and her husband, Dr.
David M. Gitlitz, a professor of Hispanic studies there and a
specialist in crypto-Jewish culture. They have gathered 85 recipes
from testimony and have tested about 50.

The testimony rarely included measurements and often used
generalized terms, like spices, without specific names. So, they
turned to other sources: the handful of cookbooks still around from
that era, bookkeeping ledgers used in patrician households of the
day, travelers' journals and poems written to raise awareness of
covert Jewish practices.

Consider this poem, from the wedding feast of a nobleman's
daughter:

At this Jewish wedding party
bristly pig was not consumed;
not one single scaleless fish
went down the gullet of the groom;
instead, an eggplant casserole
with saffron and Swiss chard;
and whoever swore by Jesus
from the meatball pot was barred.

Even so, calculating each ingredient took trial and error,
"filling our compost heap with all sorts of stuff we couldn't
eat," Davidson said. Sometimes she removed an ingredient, like
rue, a salad leaf, or pennyroyal, a variety of mint, as both have
toxic properties. Sometimes she substituted a tool, like a food
processor for a wooden hand masher when preparing parsley or
cilantro juice.

There were some surprises. One was discovering the way in which
the secret Jews seemed not to adhere to certain Jewish dietary laws
while meticulously following others. For example, the Biblical ban
against eating meat with milk does not seem to have been followed,
for the prohibition was not found in testimony. Lungs, tripe and
intestines, equally prohibited, were also eaten.

But these Jews eliminated animal blood, another restriction,
Gitlitz said. And ritual slaughter and meat preparation were so
strictly followed that they were high on the Inquisition's list of
clues for Christians to detect hidden Jewish practices.

The couple concluded that lamb and beef were the favorite meats
among the secret Jews and that chickpeas, eggplant and chard were
recognized as Jewish vegetables. These Jews also loved cinnamon and
sugar on almost everything, Dr. Davidson said, even stews and fish.

Vinegar was "very, very important," she added. Two types were
used: a balsamic vinegar and a vinegar made from leftover red wine.

Spices were used in quantities that Davidson could hardly
believe. "Lots and lots of cilantro, lots and lots of saffron,"
she said. Perfumed waters, like rose or orange, were popular flavor
enhancers, too.

Ground almonds served as thickeners. Favorite desserts were
turron, an almond nougat; marzipan, and quince paste. And the cooks
were highly color-conscious, Davidson said, often naming dishes
based on color, like "green stew."

But they rarely did their own baking. Fires were a hazard in the
cramped wooden places where most lived. So, they would take their
prepared foods to a communal oven for baking. Gitlitz speculated
that Angelina probably took her pans of matzohs, hidden under other
foods in a basket, to a more affluent secret Jew who might have had
enough property for an outdoor oven.

A few weeks ago, the couple cooked a typical 16th-century
Spanish meal that might have been served on the first night of
Passover: Angelina's matzohs, with vermilioned eggs; roasted lamb
in a coating of chard, mint, garlic and egg; chickpeas cooked with
honey, onions and spices, and turron for dessert.

Excluded was haroseth, the paste of dates, raisins, honey,
walnuts, orange juice and cinnamon regularly eaten at this ritual
meal nowadays. "It was never mentioned anywhere," Gitlitz said.
"Some of these customs may not have been as widespread as we would
like to think."

Following are recipes gleaned from the testimony, including an
egg recipe of Pedro de la Cavalleria, a finance minister to the
King of Aragon until he was caught repeatedly celebrating the
Jewish Sabbath with foods identified with Jews of the day.

Angelina de Leon's Matzohs
Total time: 30 minutes  
   4 cups white flour
   1 tablespoon black pepper
   4 large eggs (beaten)
   6 tablespoons honey
   4 teaspoons olive oil
   8 tablespoons water.

      1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In large mixing bowl, combine
   flour and pepper. Mix well.
      2. Combine eggs, honey, olive oil and just enough water to make
   a very dry dough. Mix well; do not overmix.
      3. Divide into 12 equal portions, and shape into balls. On
   lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a thin disk about 8
   inches in diameter. Pierce all over with fork.
      4. Bake on cookie sheets for 10 minutes, or until matzohs are
   puffed and begin to brown. Cool on racks.
      Note: For Orthodox Jews conforming to contemporary kosher
   standards, matzoh cake meal may be substituted for the flour.
   Though it does not roll out as well, it is still acceptable. The
   researchers suggest using 1.5 times as much water and cooking for
   three minutes longer.
      Yield: 12 eight-inch matzohs.
      Approximate nutritional analysis per serving: 220 calories, 4
   grams fat, 70 milligrams cholesterol, 20 milligrams sodium, 6 grams
   protein, 40 grams carbohydrate.

      Pedro de la Cavalleria's Vermilioned Eggs

   (Huevos Haminados)

   Total time: 3 hours 15 minutes

   6 cups yellow onion skins
  12 large white eggs
 1/2 cup white vinegar.
      
      1. In large nonreactive pan, put half the onion skins. Gently
   place eggs on top, then top with remaining skins. Add vinegar and
   enough water to cover eggs and skins. Cover pan.
      2. Slowly bring water to a boil. Then, reduce heat to very low.
   Simmer for an hour.
      3. Remove eggs from pan. Tap each egg lightly with a spoon to
   form cracks in shell (this helps create spidery brown lines in egg
   white). Return eggs to water. Simmer for an additional two hours.
      4. Remove eggs from water and allow to cool. Peel shells. Rinse
   in cold water. Refrigerate until serving.
      Yield: 12 eggs.
      Approximate nutritional analysis per serving: 80 calories, 5
   grams fat, 210 milligrams cholesterol, 60 milligrams sodium, 6
   grams protein, 1 gram carbohydrate.

   Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company

Alasdair mac Iain of Elderslie        Argent, a chevron cotised azure
Dun an Leomhainn Bhig                 surmounted by a sword and in chief
Barony of Marinus                     two mullets sable
- -----------------------------
James and/or Nancy Gilly
katiemorag at worldnet.att.net

Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 01:10:21 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Jewish cuisine

At 1:12 PM +1100 12/16/97, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>So if anybody can point me in the
>direction of Jewish Medieval cooking knowledge, I would be very
>appreciative.

So far as I know, there are no surviving medieval Jewish cookbooks--which
seems surprising. There is a 13th c. Andalusian cookbook (_Manuscrito
Anonimo_) which has some recipes described as Jewish.

David/Cariadoc

Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 19:04:28 -0600 (CST)
From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming)
Subject: SC - Jewish Cooking (Poison Pen Press?)

Charles Ragnar wrote:
>I would be interested in serving the 400 or so people a jewish
>meal as one of the lunches or dinners. So if anybody can point me in
>the direction of Jewish Medieval cooking knowledge, I would be very
>appreciative. (This is in 18 months, so I can have a full scale
>attempt at redaction and road-testing plenty of stuff)

You might try a copy of _Eat and Be Satisfied_, A Social History of
Jewish Food by John Cooper, 1993, Jason Aronson, Inc.  ISBN is
0-87668-316-2.  It does not have recipes but it does list various
foods.  Sample chapter headings are "Traditional Jewish Food in the
Middle Ages" (divided into Italy, Germany, France; and the Islamic
World), "Sabbath and Festival Food in the Middle Ages" (including meat
consumption), material on the Spanish Jews, the Dutch and Portuguese
Jews.  I think the other chapters deal with later time periods.  Seems
to me I got my copy from Poison Pen Press.  Devra (I think) frequents
this list.

If you can find a copy of this book I think it will give you some good
documentation even if you need to use a modern recipe of a similar
name.

Alys Katharine

Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 16:42:49 -0900
From: Steve & Kerri Geppert <emster at alaska.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Jewish cuisine

Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
> I would be interested in serving the 400 or so people a jewish
> meal as one of the lunches or dinners. So if anybody can point me in the
> direction of Jewish Medieval cooking knowledge, I would be very
> appreciative.
>
> Charles Ragnar

I have a book by the Frugal Gourmet called "The Frugal Gourment Keeps
the Feast, Past Present, and Future."  From the jacket - "Food is always
more than eating and cooking for Jeff Smith.  In these pages he sets
Biblical recipes in their evolutionary context, showing how great dishes
came out of desperate times and a reliance on local seasonal bounty."
I've enjoyed reading it from the context of setting, food references in
the Bible and symbolic meanings.  The last half of the book has recipes,
however, there is no original recipe with the modern.  The selection of
recipes is good and sound very similar to recent discussions on this
list.  This might be a good starting point, he does have a good
bibliography which might be of help.  I don't know how available this
book is in Australia.  ISBN is 0-688-11568-3, published in 1995.  Hope
this helps.

Clare

Subject: Fw: kosher laws
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 98 10:54:23 PST
From: "Alderton, Philippa" <phlip at morganco.net>
To: "Stefan" <stefan at texas.net>

----------
: Date: Sunday, January 04, 1998 11:08:41
: From: Seton1355
: To: Me
: Subject: Re: kosher laws
:
: Dear Lady Philipa,
:      May I call you Lady Philipa?   (My name is Phillipa too...)
:
: <I was wondering if he could serve the meat part of the feast early, and later
: serve a milk dish as a dessert.>
: If one is going to eat both meat & dairy in a short time, you eat the dairy
: first and then wash out your mouth, teeth & lips and then eat the meat.
: (don't ask me why you can eat dairy first with out waiting...BTW, there are
: those who would wait 1 hr anyway.)
:
: <Does fish count as meat?>
: No fish is it's own catagory.  But, you serve it before the meat and on
: separate plates & utensils.  Eat the fish, remove the fish course & plates &
: utensils and then relay with new utensils for the meat course.
:
: <but what about frying chicken in egg batter?>
: That is perfectly ok.  Eggs are considered "parve"  that is, neither meat nor
: dairy.  EXCEPT:  If you kill a hen & find eggs (or rather the yolks) inside
: they are considered meat.  And of course this "egg batter" wouldn't contain
: any milk would it?
:
: <and one of the things that I admire about Jews, and also amuses me, is that
: you can be so nit-picky and yet so practical.>
: Yes we are a pain in the *** lot aren't we!  :)   Now, dear lady, you and I
: must be best of friends because I've just spoken to you plain!  (big grin on
: my face.)
: Seriously, I don't know why Jews are so nit-picky....My uncle, an ortho-rabbi
: won't eat in my mother's ortho-kosher home....go figure!
:
: <The other lady I know is VERY Kosher, to the extent that she has two
: separate ovens,>
: My aunt, now deceased, had a full kitchen & a pullman kitchen......
:
: Well in any case, best of luck on the feast.  Please let me know what was
: served & how things turned out.   I'm really intrigued  (sp?)  by now.
:
: All good wishes, from your cousin Phillipa....(would you believe my persona is
: a Tudor Protestant?)

Subject: Fw: kosher laws- long
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 98 10:56:36 PST
From: "Alderton, Philippa" <phlip at morganco.net>
To: "Stefan" <stefan at texas.net>

----------
: Date: Sunday, January 04, 1998 16:59:30
: From: Seton1355
: To: Me
: Subject: Re: kosher laws- long
:
: Good Cousin Greetings!!  :)
:      I am making my annual birthday trip to Lancaaster, Pa  tomorrow. When I
: get back on Wed, the 7th.  I'll start going through my cook books for you.
:      I read & translate modern Hebrew, my husband, bibical Hebrew.  Not
: perfectly  (hey, we're not Sabras...)  If you send me the Hebrew, I'll do my
: very best.
:      As to my uncle....He's an ortho rabbi.    What can I say.  In his mind;
: he's Jewish & we're not!
:       "dread-locked orthos"   I like that!!!   may I quote you???   :)
:      In the United States, only the fore-quarter of the cow is considered
: kosher for consuption because a major artery runs through the hind quarter.
: In Israel they go to the trouble to remove this vein, rendering the whole
: animal ok.  (although in Israel IMHO meat tastes terrible)  I'm not sure of
: the parts of other animals...sheep for instance.
:      BTW:  In the Middle Ages a dairy dessert would NEVER follow a meat meal.
: Just thought I'd mention that.  (You had mentioned that your friend was
: thinking of serving a dairy dessert...how long should the people wait.) Even
: though Dutch Jews, for instance, would wait 1 hr between meat & dairy, dessert
: is considered the end of the meal, part of the meal, so no Jewish matron would
: serve dairy.  Can you go parve?  (neutral?)
:
: <My respect for Kosher (Kaddish?)>
:   just for info:  Kaddish, the word, means "holy".  Kaddish, the prayer is the
: prayer for the dead.
:  I'd love the postings & what is omni-vorasity?  (hey, I only teach little
: kids, I don't know from big words!)
:
:    As I say, I'll start going through my kosher cook books as soon as I
: return.
: Be well, dear cousin,  A gizunt auf der   (be well, in Yiddish - a period
: language.)
:      Your Cousin Phillipa

Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 06:51:40 EST
From: CorwynWdwd <CorwynWdwd at aol.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Fw: [EK] Fw: Looking for Dessert Lasagna-OOP

Found it... <blush> Seems I had it on file and actually have cooked such a dish.
I can't say it's period or from period sources, but here's what we eat around
here.

Lokshen Kugel

8 0z Broad noodles
1 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup ricotta
1 egg. slightly beaten
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 cup sour cream

preheat oven to 350
cook the noodles al dente, drain. Stir in remaining ingredents reservuing half
the melted butter. Place in a greased casserole and pour over the remaining
melted butter. Bake uncovered for one hour.

Actually, it would be less if it were a gas oven.. the top was a BIT too
crunchy when we tried it with gas. The second time I did this, I substituted
chooped apples and added more cinnamon. that was good too. Hope this helps.

Corwyn

Date: Sun, 8 Feb 1998 02:36:54 -0500
From: David Friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Jewish food in period

I read a bunch of volumes of _Early Period_ some time back. I enjoyed the
publication, but my impression was that their food articles were rarely if
ever based on period recipes. So my guess would be that they took period or
biblical references to food and found modern ethnic recipes to fit.

On the other hand, there is a period tamarind drink in _Manuscrito
Anonimo_, if I remember correctly ...   .

David/Cariadoc

Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 13:27:46 -0500 (EST)
From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Jewish cuisine

Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
> >So if anybody can point me in the
> >direction of Jewish Medieval cooking knowledge, I would be very
> >appreciative.

And David Friedman replied:
> So far as I know, there are no surviving medieval Jewish cookbooks--which
> seems surprising. There is a 13th c. Andalusian cookbook (_Manuscrito
> Anonimo_) which has some recipes described as Jewish.

At one point I collected all the recipes I had found in the _Manuscrito
Anonimo_ that claimed to be "Jewish" and sent them to Yaakov
ha-Mizrachi for the newsletter of Jewish personae he was publishing at
the time.  I think the newsletter died shortly thereafter, I hope not
of indigestion :-) There may be other "Jewish" dishes in that source,
but not in the section I had on disk.

Anyway, here they are.  Bear in mind that the author of the cookbook
was probably Moslem, and certainly Arabic-speaking, but probably
encountered Jews on a daily basis in al-Andalus.  I haven't noticed any
obvious tref in these recipes, unlike the famous Portuguese (?) recipe
for "Moorish chicken" that includes bacon.

A Jewish Dish of Eggplants Stuffed with Meat

Scald the eggplants and take out their seeds and leave them whole.
Take leg of lamb, mince it with salt, pepper, canel, Chinese canel and
lavender, beat it with the white 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,
perfumes and a spoonful of aromatic rosewater, pine-nuts, a bud of
citrus, another of mint, and sufficient salt and water; boil gently and
throw in half of the stuffed eggplants.  And put in the second pot a
spoonful of vinegar, minced onion, spices and perfumes, a stick of
thyme, another of heather, citrus leaf, two sticks of fennel, a
spoonful of oil, almonds, soaked chickpeas, and some half a dirham of
ground saffron, and three cut cloves of garlic; steep in sufficient
water until it boils several times, and throw into it the rest of the
stuffed eggplants.  And put in the third pot a spoonful and a half of
strong vinegar, crushed onion, almond, pine-nuts, a stick of heather
and leaves of citrus.  Spray [the first?] with rosewater and sprinkle
with perfumes, and adorn the second with cut-up eggyolks, cut heather,
and sprinkle it with perfumes; cut an egg cooked with heather over the
third, sprinkle it with pepper, and present it.

Jewish Partridge

Clean the partridge and season it with salt, then beat its entrails
with almonds and pine-nuts and add murri, oil, a little cilantro juice,
pepper, canel, Chinese canel, lavender, five eggs and sufficient meat.
Boil two eggs, stuff the partridge with the stuffing and cover it with
the boiled eggs so that the stuffing is 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 and two of
salt.  Place the partridge in this pot and put it on the fire, after
reinforcing the cover with dough, stir it continuously so it will be
even, and when the sauce has dried, remove the lid1 and throw in half a
spoonful of vinegar, buds of citrus and mint, and break two or three
eggs over it.  Then place thou an earthenware or copper pot full of hot
coals over it until it is browned, and then around the sides until the
other side has browned, and fry [?] it all.  Then put it in a dish and
put thou  the stuffing around it, and adorn it with the eggyolks with
which thou has adorned the pot, and sprinkle it with pepper and canel,
then with sugar, and present it, God willing.

A Jewish Dish of Chicken

Clean the chicken and take out its entrails, cut the extremities from
its thighs, flanks, and necks, go away from the chicken and leave it.
Take these extremities, the neck and the entrails, and put them in a
pot with select spices and all the condiments: green cilantro juice,
onion juice, whole pine-nuts, a little vinegar and a little murri, good
oil, citrus leaves, and two buds of fennel.  Put thou this over a
moderate fire and when it is done and the greater part of the sauce has
gone, thicken it with three eggs, grated breadcrumbs and fine flour,
crush the liver, throw it into this paste, and cook it little by little
until the liver and the paste are cooked and they take body.  Then take
the chicken and fry it little by little and beat together two eggs, oil
and murri, and do not stop sprinkling the chicken above and below with
this until it is browned and fried.  Then take a second pot and put in
two spoonfuls of oil and half a spoonful of murri, another half
spoonful of vinegar and two of aromatic rosewater, onion juice, spices
and condiments.  Put this on the fire until it cooks slowly, and when
it has cooked, leave it until it is absorbed.  Then pour it in a second
dish and adorn it too with eggyolks; sprinkle it with select spices and
present both dishes, God willing.

A Jewish Dish of Partridge

Clean it, quarter it and put it in the pot with all the spices and
condiments, green cilantro juice, onion extract, murri, half a spoonful
of vinegar, three of oil, and sufficient water, buds of mint, citrus
and whole pine-nuts.  When it has boiled and consumed the greater part
of the sauce, pound the tripe and the liver gently and beat them with
three eggs and [into?] dough; coat the pot with this and stir it at the
sides until it thickens.  Cover it with eggyolks and then pour it and
adorn it with eggyolks and buds of mint, minced pine-nuts and
pistachios, spray it with a little rosewater and present it, God
willing.

A Jewish Dish of Chicken

Clean the chicken and pound its entrails with almonds, breadcrumbs, a
little flour, salt, fennel, and cut cilantro; beat it with six eggs and
the amount of four pounds [?] of water.  Then put the chicken over the
fire a little and place it in a clean pot with five spoonfuls of sweet
oil, and do not stop stirring it over the fire in the oil until it is
lightly browned.  Then make a mash of the stuffing prepared earlier and
leave it until it is bound together and thickened.  Pour it out and put
it around the stuffing, adorn with cut rue and fennel, buds of mint,
and minced almonds, and present it, God willing.

A Jewish Dish of Hidden Stuffing

Pound some meat, cutting it round, and be careful that there be no
bones in it.  Put it in a pot and put in all the spices except cumin,
four spoonfuls of oil, penetrating rosewater, a little onion juice, a
little salt, and cover it with a thick cloth.  Take it to a moderate
fire and cook it with care.  Pound meat for meatballs, season it and
make little meatballs and throw them in the pot until they are done.
When everything is done, beat together five eggs, salt, pepper, and
canel; make a thin foil of this in a frying pan, and beat five more
eggs with what will make another thin foil.  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 foils, pour the meat onto it, and cover with the other foil.
Then beat three eggs with a little white flour, pepper, canel, and some
rosewater with the rest of the pounded meat, and put this over the top
of the pot.  Then cover it with fire2 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 buds of mint, pistachios, and pine-nuts, and
add aromatic condiments.  [Or] put on this plate 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;
make with all this what was made of the first, if it please God.

1This passage is confusing.  "Reinforce the cover with dough" suggests
putting a lid on the pot and sealing the edge with dough, as in some
other recipes; "stir" must then be read as "agitate".  But how is the
sauce to dry up in a covered, sealed pot, and how are we to know when
it has? -- J.ibn-E.

2presumably a pan of coals, as in the Jewish Partridge dish above -- J.ibn-E.

                                        mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu

Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 13:35:32 -0500 (EST)
From: Stephen Bloch <sbloch at adl15.adelphi.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Eggplant follow-up

Someone wrote:

> << setting
>  >fire on top. >>

Ras asked:
> Could this be referring to  a covered casserole that is placed in the
>fire and the coals are piled over the top?

Adamantius said:
>Could be. Alternately (and this is my own personal interpretation) you
>could use the old fireplace-shovel, or equivalent, run across the top
>of the dish, with the coals in that. One of the things that leads me
>to question the Dutch-oven concept is simply the fact that I haven't
>seen anything like a casserole with a flanged cover among the various
>drawings, etc., of Islamic cooking utensils.

And Alys Katherine pointed out:
> This technique, however, is used periodically in the Moorish
> (Andalusian) recipes in Cariadoc's Collection.  If memory serves, the
> pot's lid was placed on top and coals were put on top of that.  It
> would sort of presume a flat lid, although one could probably use a
> tripod arrangement with the pot below and a flat "plate" above, on the
> tripod, with coals on the "plate".

(Everybody got that straight?  Good.)
I would further point out that the technique is used in two of the
"Jewish" dishes in my previous message.  I asked Yaakov about this, and
he explained that broiling is one of the legal means of koshering meat,
especially organ meats like liver.

                                        mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu

Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 21:41:34 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Jewish food in period

RuddR at aol.com wrote:
> This intrigues me.  My wife and I talked about the idea of having a medieval
> sedar this year, but apart from modern ethnic recipes that had a medieval
> "feel" about them, couldn't come up with anything authentically period on
> short notice.  We decided to hold off on the idea for a while.
>
> I suppose one could select medieval receipts that could be made using kosher
> ingredients, but does anyone have any leads on authentic period Jewish
> cookery?
>
> Rudd Rayfield

Okay, after a long and mostly fruitless search, I'll tell you what I
can, which is simply this: you want to find an article that appeared in
the New York Times on April 16th, 1997, entitled "Jewish Recipes of the
Spanish Inquisition", by Andree Brooks. It concerns the everyday and
holiday eating habits of Spain's "secret" Jews, people who professed
Catholicism in public but who continued to practice Judaism in private.
This would have taken place in the early 16th century, I suppose, and
the documentation for this includes trial and testimony transcripts from
people like household servants. These transcripts include descriptions
of matzoh making, as well as a process for making vermillioned eggs, and
a few others. The article includes worked-out recipes for the matzoh and
the eggs, as well, as fairly detailed descriptions of some other foods.

_SOMEWHERE_ I have a printout of this article, but it's kind of long to
type in all at once, and it seems to have been removed from the NYT
archives, which only go back a year on the Web. You should be able to
find it in the library, though.

Adamantius

Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 23:31:01 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: More on Re: SC - Jewish food in period

RuddR at aol.com wrote:
> I suppose one could select medieval receipts that could be made using kosher
> ingredients, but does anyone have any leads on authentic period Jewish
> cookery?
>
> Rudd Rayfield

I found this book listed on the Amazon.com web site: it is by one of the
people referred to in the New York Times article on Jewish Foods of the
Spanish Inquisition I referenced earlier. The author of the book is one
of the people who worked on something like 85 recipes of secret Jews
living in Spain in the early 16th century -- the book may or may not
include material about eating habits, but I would bet that it does. Of
course, the book predates the NY Times article, so there's no guarantee
it and the Times article are in any way the products of the same body of
research. On the other hand, it's worth a shot.

"Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of Crypto-Jews", by David M. Gitlitz,
Jewish Publication Society of America, 1996, ASIN 0827605625.

Summary courtesy of Amazon.com:

> Despite the increased attention given to Hispano-Jewish topics, and
> the "conversos" or Crypto-Jews in particular, this is the first
> thorough compilation of their customs and practices. Gitlitz has
> culled from Inquisition documents and other sources to paint a
> portrait of the richness and diversity of Crypto-Jewish practices in
> Spain, Portugal, and the New World.

Adamantius

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 09:34:12 +0100
From: "Yeldham, Caroline S" <csy20688 at GlaxoWellcome.co.uk>
Subject: RE: SC - Jewish food in period

In Ordnance of Pottage, Constance Hieatt refers to some work being done on
12th century Sephardic cooking in spain, specifically in the context of
closed pot cooking.  She gives a name but MLAH [My Library is At Home -ed.]
and I didn't make a note of it - that might be a starting point.

Caroline

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 09:46:22 EDT
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - Re: Jewish food in period-some comments

Let me comment on parts of this letter:

<< On the other hand, the chemical makeup of a modern attempt at period
cameline made with matzoh should be practically identical to one made with
crumbs from leavened
bread. >>

Not so.  Mundanely, I have cooked extensivly using motzoh meal (pulverized
matzoh) in place of regular bread crumbs.  In every case, the motzoh meal dish
came out heavier tasting than the bread crumb version.  I believe it has to do
with the levening used in regular bread crumbs, vs matzoh/matzoh meal, which
would be made without levening. Levening puts air/volume into a food item &
helps make it lighter, not so dense.

<< and whether or not they are appropriate for a seder is also in question.>>

Ah, now here's a place I can help with certainty!
Orthodoxly speaking, the rules haven't changed.  (Which isn't to say that
modern Jews do whatever.... me included.)  But back in the MA, there was
Halacha (the law) and not so many variations as today.  I don't recall the
beginning of this Jewish food thread, but if people are interested in  whether
or not a specific recipe would be kosher for Passover. Email me the
ingredients & I can tell you (having been raised ortho & taught & studied
ortho) & I can  also look it up in my ortho books.)

In service, Phillipa Seton

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 09:24:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Russell Gilman-Hunt <conchobar at rocketmail.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Jewish food in period

At the risk of endangering my already tenous grasp on my self-
respect, and the respect of the list, let me tell you of a book.

The Frugal Goremt Keeps the Feast, by Jeff Smith.
ISBN:0 688 11568 3

Remaindered for $2.99 at Borders Books.

"recipes and stories that [may] explain how the ancient table may be
celebrated in our time and how food functions as theological talk in
the Bible."

He uses anecdotes, proverbs and stories from the Bible to make recipes.
The recipes are modern-looking (to me), being things like "Hommus with
Sumac and Hyssop" and "Rolled Grape Leaves with Lamb".  On a brisk read,
I only saw the one citation: for a Bible (trans).

But he does talk about food references from the Old Testament, (and the
New), and you might be interested.
==
HL Sergeant Conchobar Mac Muirchertaig

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 15:12:56 -0400
From: Ceridwen <ceridwen at commnections.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Jewish food in period

Rudd,
    There was an article in Tournaments Illuminated a few issues back
on  recreating a medieval Seder, with recipes.  If you don't get TI, I
could scan it and send it as a JPG or type it in, if you'd like
Ceridwen

Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 15:25:07 -0500 (CDT)
From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming)
Subject: SC - Re: Jewish Food in Period

Greetings!  For Jewish food in period (minus recipes) you might want to
look at _Eat and Be Satisfied_: A Social History of Jewish Food by John
Cooper, published by Jason Aronson Inc., 1993.  Actually, he includes
four recipes from "Kitab al-tabih ft-l-Maghrib wa-al-Andalus fi 'asr
al-Muwahhidin" (whew!), "a 13th-century compilation by an anonymous
author".  While the book doesn't have recipes per se (except as above)
it does detail the specific foods )and sometimes the method of
preparation) for the numerous phases of Jewish life.

Alys Katharine

Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1998 17:37:46 -0400
From: "Philippa Alderton" <phlip at bright.net>
Subject: SC - Jewish Cooking

Well, my search for persona has led me again into some interesting Food
files, so if anybody's interested, please enjoy the following sites.

http://www.eskimo.com/~jefffree/recipes/
http://www.kashrus.org/recipes/recipes.html
http://www.betterbaking.com/baker2/index97.shtml
http://www.epicurious.com/e_eating/e06_jewish_cooking/recipes/recipes.html
http://www.marketnet.com/mktnet/kosher/recipes/chanukah/index.html
http://www.gourmetkosher.com/recipes/index.stm

The first site comes with some good music. Enjoy!

Phlip

Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 14:31:03 -0700
From: "needlwitch at msn.com" <needlewitch at email.msn.com>
Subject: Re: SC - The thingy recipe (a bit OT)

>Alys' recipe for bull penis:  Is it period and is the recipe
>available.  I'd love to serve this at a feast (if I could get my hands
>on half a dozen thingys).
>
>Drake.

Here is the recipie I have. Remember, you asked for it. :-)

Petits Propos Culinaires printed an article in 1987 entitled "Udder and
Other Extremeties: Recipes from the Jews of Yemen" by Barbara
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett.

Geed (penis of ox or bull)
500 grams penis               black pepper
1 tomato, chopped             cumin
1 onion chopped               saffron
cloves of garlic              salt
coriander
Scald the penis and clean it. Boil 10 minutes, remove and slice. Brown the
onion, garlic, coriander in oil. Add penis and fry. Mix (and add) chopped
tomato, pepper, cumin, saffron and salt. cover the pot. Cook over low flame
2 hours, adding a little water from time to time to prevent burning. Serve
hot.

Enjoy. Thorbjorn the Cook

Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 21:36:13 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - Medieval Hanukah/Purim

Snip.....In the book "Eat and be Satisfied" by John Cooper
(ISBN0-87668-316-2), there is a whole chapter talking about Sabbath and
Festival food in the Middle
Ages.  This is what it says about Hanukah and Purim:

"In the 14th century the Maharil mentioned that it was the custom to eat a
honey cake on Purim, and a century later we have evidence that the Austrian
Jews ate kreplekh on Purim and kremzlekh on holidays such as Passover.
Hayyim Schauss, following Moritz Steinschneider, assumed that the German
Jews had borrowed the custom of eating kreplekh on Purim from their Gentile
neighbors, who celebrated Shrove Tuesday, which occurred at the same time of
the year, by consuming pancakes that were similar.  Schauss further pointed
out that the beating and noise made on Purim in the synagogue when Haman's
name was mentioned was originally connected with an attempt to frighten
evile spirits at this time of the year, when winter changed into spring.
Hence the custom of eating kreplekh, boiled dumplings stuffed with meat that
had been chopped and "beaten." Although the custom of eating cheese dishes
on Hanukkah can be traced to the story of Judith, an Israelite heroine in
the Apocrypha who gave the enemy general Holofernes milk to dreink before
assassinating him, this practice of eating cheese delicacies did not become
popular until the Middle Ages, when it was referred to with approval by
Rabbi Nissim ben Reuben in the 14th century.  Kalonymos ben Kalonymos
(1287-1377) also stated that special cakes were eaten on Hanukkah, and he
wrote a poem for the festival extolling the merits of eating pancakes that
wree fried in oil. Throughout Europe and the Middle East, Jews ate these
pancakes to commemorate the miracle of the lights that burned for eight days
in the Temple, although there was a supply of oil sufficient for only one
day"

Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1998 15:50:39 EST
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Medieval Hanukah/Purim

Seton1355 at aol.com writes:
<< what was the name of the book in the original post?  >>

I'm not sure which 'original' post you're referring to so here are all the
titles, I have on file:
'
The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast-Past, Present, and Future' by Jeff Smith;
ISBN 0-688-11568-3. "Recipes and Stories That Explain How the Ancient Table
May Be Celebrated in Our Times and How Food Functions as Theological Talk in
the Bible."

two Copeland Marks books with information on that topic - Sephardic Cooking,
which details the cuisine of the various Sephardic communities of the world
(those descended from the first diaspora, which had emigrated to Babylon, and
then spread out). A second book of his, The Varied Cuisines of India, details
the cooking of a number of communities, and includes the Hindus and the Jews
of India.

<<When you read Jeff Smith on Jewish recipes/information, be careful.  He has
made a few mistakes in the past.  (My brother-in-law, who is ultra kosher &
likes to cook, caught them.)>>

He does occasionally make a mistake or two, agreed.

<<why would not the Bible be acceptable as a period source?>>

In the original and in a litteral translation it would be exceptable as a
'period' source. However, I am unaware of any English translations that are
not influenced by current theoligical thought. For instance, all translations
show 'the spirit of God' as moving on the waters when the Hebrew word
conotates a feminine aspect which would be closer to the original if
translated 'Goddess". :-) The same in the New testament where the Greek
'Sophia' is erromeously rendered as 'the Holy Spirit'. Elohim is translated as
'God' when the actual translation would be something like 'Gods'. These are
extreme examples but they leave little doubt in my mind that the rest of the
texts are probably equally corrupted.

Ras

Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1998 09:44:34 -0500
From: mermayde at juno.com (Christine A Seelye-King)
Subject: SC - Jewish Holidays -long

Here is my list of Jewish holidays and the observances and food that go
along with each of them.  The dates are marked with a * which denotes a
floating holiday, a full explaination is in the introduction of the book.
 So consider the calendar dates as a basic idea of when these holidays
occur.  Any additional observance information would be welcome.
        Mistress Christianna
JAN 29
Tu Bi-Sh'vot* - Jewish - "the 15th of Sh'vot" or the New Year of the
Trees- families plant a tree for each child born that year, cedars for
boys and cypress for girls. When the child married, the tree would be cut
down for a post for their wedding canopy.  Trees are blooming in the Land
of Israel now, and the fruits of those trees are eaten, oranges, dates,
figs, raisins, carob beans, and almonds.
MAR 16
Purim* - Jewish - "The Feast of Lots".  Only a Jew named Mordechai
refused to bow to Haman, wicked advisor to King Ahasuerus of Persia, and
Haman wanted to kill the Jews.  He convinced the king to draw a lot (or
pur) to decide the day of slaughter.  But the king's beautiful queen,
Esther, who was Jewish, asked him to save her people, and the king
remembered that Mordechai had warned him of a plot on his life.  He
proclaimed the Jews would live, and hanged Haman on the gallows he had
built for Mordechai.  On this day the Book of Esther is read, and people
drown out every mention of Haman with noisemakers and stomping feet.
Masks and costumes are worn, especially by companies of amateur actors
called Purim Shpieler (Purim Players), who act out the Purim story.
Triangular cakes filled with poppyseed or fruit are served called Haman
Taschen.  ('Purim' also means 'dice'.)
APRIL 22
Passover* - Jewish - "The Festival of Freedom".  More than 3,000 years
ago, the Jews were slaves in Egypt, building the pyramids.  One day God
spoke to the shepherd Moses from a burning bush, telling him to lead the
suffering Jews out of Egypt. But Pharaoh would not let the Jews go, even
though God struck Egypt with many plagues, including locusts, fire, and
hailstones. Finally Moses told Pharaoh that a tenth and last plague would
kill all the Egyptian's first born sons. As a signal to the Angel of
Death, the Jews sacrificed a lamb and sprinkled some of the blood on
their door posts, and the Angel "passed over" (pasah) their homes when he
came to kill the Egyptians. After this plague, Pharaoh finally gave in.
The Jews quickly left, and the waters of the Red Sea parted to let them
through. By now, Pharaoh had changed his mind and sent soldiers in
pursuit. The waters closed over the Egyptians. Today, to celebrate,
Jewish families eat a ceremonial dinner called the seder at which they
retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt, and serve special foods that
commemorate it. The matzah, a flat, unleavened bread, recalls the haste
with which the Jews had to leave Egypt: They couldn't wait for their
bread to rise. Blessings and songs also celebrate this day of freedom.
The Last Supper was a Passover feast.  The first Good Friday (the day on
which Christ died) was during Passover.
MAY 21
Shavuot* - Jewish - The "Festival of Weeks" comes exactly seven weeks
after Passover. It celebrates Moses' return from the top of Mt. Sinai in
the desert. He brought his people two stone tablets with God's Ten
Commandments, the fundamental laws of the Jewish faith. Shavuot was
originally an agricultural holiday to celebrate the beginning of the
wheat harvest, when farmers brought some of their bounty to the Temple in
Jerusalem. Today many Jews eat a dairy meal to symbolize the promised
land, " a land flowing with milk and honey".   At the age of 16, Jewish
teens go through a Confirmation ceremony on Shavout, to be counted among
all of the Jews in the world. ("Shabuoth", "Shovuos")
AUG 5
Tisha be-Av* - Jewish - This is a day of mourning and fasting in memory
of the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem,
which both happened on the same date (the "Ninth of Av"). In 586 BC, the
Babylonians destroyed the First Temple, and the Jews rebuilt it. In 70AD,
the Romans burned down the Second Temple, and a long period of Jewish
exile began. People read the sad poetry of the Book of Lamentations and
also grieve for all those times in history when Jews have suffered.
SEPT 11
Rosh ha-Shanah* - Jewish - Meaning "Head of the New Year", this holiday
marks the beginning of the High Holy Days, which continue for 10 days
until Yom Kippur. Celebrated at the beginning of the Hebrew Month Tishri,
the first month of the year, to commemorate the creation of the world,
which according to tradition started in 3761 BCE. (See Oct. 7th) The
story of Abraham, whose faith in God was so great that he was willing to
sacrifice his son, Issac to Him, is read during services. God relented
and Abraham sacrificed a ram instead, and a ram's horn is blown during
the service. Special food eaten includes the round loaf of Challah bread,
to signify that the year comes around to a new beginning, and apples
dipped in honey to make the New Year sweet. Ten days of self-examination
and repentance reach their fulfillment in Yom Kippur, the Day of
Atonement.
SEPT 21
Yom Kippur* - Jewish - "Day of Atonement" is the holiest day on the
Jewish calendar. They believe that God studies a book of everyone's deeds
during the past year on the first ten days of the New Year. On the tenth
day, Yom Kippur, He decides how each person will live in the year to
come. Many Jews fast from the sundown the day before until the sun sets
on Yom Kippur. They pray that God will forgive them their sins and that
they will live well in the New Year. A taper large enough to burn for 24
hours is lighted in each home to remember the dead.
OCT 1
Sukkot* - Jewish - The "Feast of Booths" commemorates the period after
the exodus from Egypt when  Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years.
During harvest times, they lived in temporary huts, or "Sukkot". Many
Jews build a "sukkah" out of branches or hay and leave them up for the
nine days of the festival, eating and sometimes sleeping in them.
("Succoth" - Jewish Thanksgiving Day)
OCT 8
Simhat Torah* - Jewish - Each synagogue has its own hand-lettered scrolls
of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. During a year of weekly
services the entire Torah is read, and on Simhat Torah, "Rejoicing in the
Law" the final book is completed and the cycle begins again. In
celebration
everyone dances and sings, passing the Torah scrolls to one another.
DEC 10
Hanukkah* - Jewish - More than 2,000 years ago, when the Syrian King
Antiochus IV occupied Jerusalem, he forced the Jews to worship the Greek
Gods.  For three years, Judah the Maccabee led a rebellion against the
Syrians, and when he finally defeated them, the Jews could worship freely
again. To rededicate the Temple, they cleaned it from top to bottom, and
then had to relight the 'menorah', a candelabrum. But only enough oil
could be found for 1 day, and it would take 8 days to get more oil.
Incredibly, the little bottle of oil did last for 8 days, and Hanukah
celebrates both this miracle and the "Rededication". An 8 day
celebration, families light one candle the first night, 2 candles the
second night, and so on.  There are songs, stories, presents, prayers,
and games of chance with tops called dreidels.

>From "366 Days of Celebrations, or, A Year Full of Reasons to Throw a
Party" by Christine Seelye-King

Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 11:36:36 -0600
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Jewish Holidays -long

There are 2 holidays not mentioned here that are mentioned in the Torah.
The first is Hoshana Rabba which is basically the last day of the holiday
of Sukkoth and the other is Shimini Atzeret.

Below is an explanation of these holidays taken from a research article I
wrote for the Elfsea Newsletter.  If anyone is interested in more
information, let me know.

Sindara

"The seventh day of "Sukkoth" has a special name because it is said that
God, the Master of the Universe, opens the gates of heaven one more time to
forgive sins on this day. The seventh day is called "Hoshana Rabbah" after
the special prayers recited on this day. During the "Sukkoth" prayer
service a special prayer called "Hoshanath" are recited. "Hoshanath" is a
group of seven prayers that ask God to "save us" and forgive our sins. Each
day a different "Hoshanath" prayer is recited. On "Hoshana Rabbah" all
seven are recited. Part of the custom of "Hoshanath" is to parade around
the synagogue, waving the "Lulav" and "Etrog". On the eve of "Hoshana
Rabbah" the men of the household spend all night in the "Sukkah" studying
passages from the Torah and the "Zohar-book of splendor". Those mourning a
loved one bring grapes and cake to those who are studying. This is served
with sweet coffee and cinnamon tea.
The day after "Hoshana Rabbah" is yet another holiday. It is called
"Shimini Hag Ha' Atzeret-the Eighth day Assembly Holiday". The Torah
commands us to celebrate this day with complete joy. We are not commanded
to eat any longer in the "Sukkah". We do not partake of the "Lulav" and
"Etrog". We are simply commanded to rejoice. Our God is asking us to spend
one more day with him before returning to our mundane lives. During the
prayer service it is customary to recite the prayer for "Geshem-rain" so
that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, will give a good rain and a good harvest
for the coming year."

Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 10:32:54 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Cookbook alert

Devra at aol.com wrote:
< Gitlitz, David, and Linda Kay Davidson, _A Drizzle of Honey: The Life and
 Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews_ St. Martin's Press, $29.95 352 pages.
 ISBN 0-312-19860-4>

I believe this book is the result of some research being done a while
back, that was reported on in the New York Times a year or so ago. I
have a printed copy of the article around here _some_where. It is not
available via the NYT on-line archives, but most local libraries would
probably have it available one way or another. As I recall it was based
largely on recently discovered trial testimonies of people like Gentile
kitchen maids, who had, either by choice or perforce, testified against
their employers. Some of these people were convicted of being Jews
largely on the basis of their culinary habits, so there was a good deal
of fairly detailed testimony about the "odd" way the defendants made
their bread, etc.

Adamantius

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 16:31:32 -0500 (EST)
From: Robin Carrollmann <harper at idt.net>
Subject: SC - Cookbook alert

I'm a librarian in mundane life, and I just spotted a review in the Dec.
21 issue of "Publishers Weekly" that is likely to be of interest to the
gentles on this list.  A cookbook is coming out in February:

Gitlitz, David, and Linda Kay Davidson, _A Drizzle of Honey: The Life and
Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews_ St. Martin's Press, $29.95 352 pages.
ISBN 0-312-19860-4

According to the review the authors are professors at the Univ. of Rhode
Island.  The work is a cookbook of Spanish crypto-Jews -- Jews who
outwardly converted to Christianity in the late 15th century, while
secretly maintaining much of their original faith and customs.  There are
16 pages of endnotes and a 6-page bibliography.  The review indicates that
the book contains redacted recipes.  There is no indication how many
recipes appear in the book and if the original recipes are included.
_Drizzle of Honey_ is listed at amazon.com.

Brighid ni Chiarain *** Robin Carroll-Mann

Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 14:40:59 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - haroset balls for Passover

I just got a wonderful new book called:
A Drizzle of Honey, The Life and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews,
by David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson.
St. Martin's Press       1999
(I got it from Amazon.com)

The title kind of says it all.  In honor of upcoming Pesach, (Passover) here
is a charoset recipe.
**Diego Diaz Nieto's Haroset Balls**    (this recipe is from before 1594)
(makes 15 1" balls)

2 apples cored, and finely diced
6 Tbsp chopped almonds
6 Tbsp chopped dates
6 Tbsp raisins
12 chestnuts, cooked and peeled
3/4 tsp cinamon
3 Tbsp sugar
5 Tbsp white vinegar

Place the diced apples, slmonds, dates, raisins, and chestnuts into an
unbreakable bowl.  With a potato masher, mash all these ingredients
together.*

Add cinamon and 1 Tbsp sugar and mix well.

Place the remaining sugar in a small bowl.

With your fingers, form the charoset mixture into small balls.
Roll them in sugar and put them on a plate.

Refrigerate until serving.

To serve:
Arrange the haroset balls on a plate.
Spoon the vinegar over them.
Let them sit until the vinegar is absorbed

* Do not grind to a pulpy paste or they will not hold together

Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 18:16:01 -0500
From: "Nick Sasso" <Njs at mccalla.com>
Subject: SC - Initial impressions of A Drizzle of Honey

A Drizzle of Honey, The Life and Recipes of Spain's
Secret Jews, by David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson.
St. Martin's Press       1999

My initial impressions from the copy I received in the mail three days
ago is that it is a great cooking book that has somewhat gauged value
as a historical cooking source.

The introduction is forthright in saying exactly what they have done
with their tome.  The authors inform the reader that they worked from
ingredients lists taken primarily from testimonial evidence from the
Inquisition (a brilliant source of information to say the least), and
not from period recipe sources.

The testimony is of christians using food traditions and culture to
coinvict the heretics.  We get good lists of foods in use by the
jewish conversoras  (public converts/covert jews).  What the sources
did not give was recipe work of any sort (proportions).  The authors
used contemporary sources to generate hypotheses as to what the dishes
would come out as.  they then experimented and changed as they thought
would be best.

I look forward to reading more of this book, and wanted to give a
really brief overview of this source for those who are considering it.
 Worth the $25 give or take including shipping, in my opinion.  The
only problem I have is that the pages on mine are really ragged on the
ends. . . should I have expected that from Amazon, or is this a reject
that Ishould send back?

niccolo difranceco

Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 18:40:45 EST
From: Acanthusbk at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Initial impressions of A Drizzle of Honey

Njs at mccalla.com writes:
>   Worth the $25 give or take including shipping, in my opinion.  The
>  only problem I have is that the pages on mine are really ragged on the
>  ends. . . should I have expected that from Amazon, or is this a reject
>  that Ishould send back?

This is a special cut the publisher used on the page edges. All of them are
this way, I don't like it either.

Amanda

Date: Wed, 10 Mar 1999 20:45:08 -0600
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: SC - haroset balls for Passover

Thank you for further documentation of Haroset.  So far what I have come up
with for actual recipe documentation is as follows:

The earliest is R' Saadia Gaon (Bavel (Iraq) 882-942): "you make a wet
sauce from dates walnuts and sesame and you knead it in vinegar, and
that is called haliq." (RSG's Siddur p. 135).

The Rambam-Maimonides (12th century) describes the ingrediants of Haroset
as "[Haroset] how is it made? You take dates or figs or raisins or suchlike
and mash them, add vinegar and serve them as a condiment."

Tosafot (12th century France) (Tractate Pesachim 116a) say "you dip it
in wine or vinegar (apparently the custom in the time of the Mishna and
Talmud was to dip the *first* vegetable in the charoset, not to dip the
maror in it as we do today),... and in Responsa of the Gaonim (Babylonian
sages of the 7th-10th centuries) they explain to make haroset with fruits
that are compared to the community of Israel...apple...pomegranate...fig
...date...walnut...almond."

Rokeach, R' Eleazar of Worms, 1160-1237: "The haroset is made from apples,
into which is put a little of the fruits from Song of Songs, walnuts figs
and pomegranates.  And pepper and ginger and cumin and horseradish and
mirtach [what? can't find it in any dictionaries, closest word is either
"weld" or a misspelling of "boil", I'd guess mix them together.]; but
apples and walnuts are the primary ingredients.

And from the Ma'om Lo'az a Rabbi who lived in the mid-1600's- his recipes
distinguish between Ashkanazic (Eastern Europe) and Sephardic (Spain & the
Middle East).  The Ashkanazic is the recipe I grew up with mundanely of
chopped apples, walnuts, cinnamon and sweet red wine and the Sephardic
recipe of dates, raisins, figs, almonds and vinegar.

Sindara

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 11:47:09 -0600
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Cooking for special requests

I will work on getting together the recipes this weekend.  I did one
recipe that I got out of a Passover cookbook called Chicken Gan Eden
(Chicken from the garden of Eden).  It is chicken pieces stewed in a sauce
of ginger, cinnamon, orange juice and honey.  Noodle Kugel (Noodle pudding)
I have found some limited documentation for.  Haroset can be used as a
condiment anytime of year.  I used to take it with me as a snack at events.
It is great on crackers.  I am in the process of researching recipes for
Cholent (Dafina, T'fina, Hammeem) which is a traditional Sabbath stew.  I
have found mention of it in the Talmud but I have yet to find any
documentation for the many recipes I have.  I wonder if "A Drizzle of
Honey" mentions a recipe.

Sindara

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 12:40:45 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Koser foods - history query

>  I found this fascinating. Since the Biblical injunction prohibiting the
combination og milk/meat is scripturally confined to the cooking of a young
animal in it's own mother's milk, I would like to know if there are any books
or other resource materials that detail the expansion of this rule into the
current system?

>  More importantly, was the expansive  prohibition regarding combining milk/
meat as opposed to the scriptural ban on combining child/mother's milk put
into use pre-period or was this a result of general religious prohibitions
set in place during later periods?
>  Ras

The prohibition against mixing meat and milk as opposed to JUST not cooking a
kid in it's mother's milk goes back approximately two thousand years. Rabbis
Akiba and Hillel debated this issue (not at the same time)  but I will have
to look up exact dates.

Certainly by "our" period, the prohibition against mixing any meat and any
dairy was codified and extensive.

Phillipa

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 15:37:18 -0600
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: SC - The Royal Table

>> The Royal Table.
>Never heard of this one.  Can you comment about it please?
>Phillipa

Since my copy is in storage, I am operating from memory.  It is a small
book that talks about the laws of keeping kosher and adding the spiritual
end.  Basically things dairy are equated with life because they are made
from milk and milk is how a mother sustains the life of her children.  Meat
is equated with death because the animal is no longer alive.  Spiritually
one should not mix death with life.  It lends another interesting dimension
to why one should keep kosher.

Sindara

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 18:55:53 -0500
From: "Margo Hablutzel" <margolh at nortelnetworks.com>
Subject: SC - Tzimmes

Sindara asked for my recipe, and documentation.  As for the latter, it is:
"oy, the recipe has been in our family for generations...!!"  (I was very
upset one time to learn that my mother's noodle kugel dated only to the copy
of "Love and Knishes" she received as a young bride.)

Of course, everybody does it differently.  This is my recipe:

Take a crockpot.  Put enough liquid in to glaze the bottom.  Add layers
 of: sweet potatoes, washed and chunked (peeling optional); carrots
 (same); an onion sliced over; the meat (cheap cuts of beef are best:
 I think short ribs are too fatty and use chuck or brisket); dried
 prunes and apricots.  Add the rest of the liquid, cover, and cook all
 day on low.

Needless to say, this is a fairly modern version!  It was slow-cooked or
baked until I decided that the crockpot was entirely too useful (my mother,
when we were growing up, used one often when we had more important things to
do that day, like school and work, or cleaning the gutters and installing
storm windows).   Tzimmes and other dishes, such as cholent, came about
because they slow-cooked, meaning the family did not have to cook on
Shabbat.  They were buried in a low fire, or hot coals, to cook slowly until
Saturday afternoon.  This is why tough cuts of beef, root vegetables, larger
dried beans (for cholent but not for tzimmes) and dried fruit are favoured,
they hold up to a long, slow cooking.

Cholent would not be appropriate for Pesach, as my preferred version
includes lima beans (may be OK if you are Sephardic) and barley (forbidden).
But it is good!   I note that the Ashkenazic Jews tend to ban more items
(rice, corn, beans, lentils, peas) than the Sephardic (whose diet probably
relies more upon them); one of the hardest things for me to give up at
Passover is peanut butter.  I actually like the honey cakes and sponge cakes
that become dessert for days (plus custards and the like, and lots of
fruit), and I just adore macaroons.  But peanut butter is also forbidden
under some traditions.

There are vegetarian tzimmes, as well as those made with beef.  I don't know
of any made with other meats.  The simplest tzimmes look horrifyingly like
the honeyed carrots that too many SCA Cooks learn as their first - and
sometimes their only - vegetable.  Tzimmes made with dried fruit is a
wonderful dessert also, like a compote.

As another note, lamb stews are very common for Passover, to connote the
paschal lamb.  I have not suggested this to Franz as lamb can be more
expensive than beef.

                    ---= Margo Lynn (the Jewish persona)
                       Morgan Cain * Steppes, Ansteorra

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 19:04:28 -0600
From: Heitman <fiondel at fastrans.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Koser foods - history query

At 09:12 AM 3/12/99 EST, you wrote:
>More importantly, was the expansive  prohibition regarding combining milk/meat
>as opposed to the scriptural ban on combining child/mother's milk put into use
>pre-period or was this a result of general religious prohibitions set in place
>during later periods?
>Ras

The teaching that I recieved from my ULTRA ORTHODOX Rabbi was the reason
behind the seperation of meat and dairy was cultural integrity. Iit dates
back to the Roman occupation of the Holy land, and the mixing of cultures
that occurs during any such situation.

The Romans evidently ate a fair number of "milk stews". The rabbis of the
time preached against such mixing to keep the Jewish culture from
disappearing into the "universal" one of Rome.

During a time of occupation and assimilation, Israel has survived by
maintaining a "seperate" existance from the "dominant" society.

Egypt, Assyria, Rome, Spain, Russia. Yet the Culture survives "intact".
Even in the great melting pot of NYC, where the Hassidics have their own
state funded public school. The rules seem to work when the motivation is
correct.
Franz

Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 19:35:08 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - meat & milk separation

>Phillipa writes:
>>>If one shold not cook a kid in it's mother's milk....to be ablsolutly certain
>that you don't you go the extra step of not cooking ANY kid in ANY milk....
>does that make sense to you?<<

>That makes sense -- but I've always wondered about poultry, which, to the best
>of my knowledge, does not suckle its young.

>Renata (who grew up Jewish, but not Kosher)

During the time of the Talmud  ( I believe it was the Talmud) chicken, since
it is warm blooded, was lumped in the catagory of "meat"  as in "do not mix
with milk"...so go yell at the rabbis!  :-)  (LOL)
Phillipa

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 19:46:50 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - REC:   Vermilioned Eggs

This is a recipe from A DRIZZLE OF HONEY, the food of the Spanish Jews.
This recipe is from 1492.  I have Sephardic Jewish friends that make this very
recipe. (Admittedly she was 90 when she told me about it...)  Anyway, has
anyone ever made hardboiled eggs which they have boiled for 3 hours?  The time
seems excessive to me. Surely the eggs would cook and take up the dye in much
less time.  Comments?
Phillipa

**Pedro de la Caballeria's Vermilioned Eggs**

Loose yellow or red onion skins                 12 whire eggs
(about 6 cups)                                  * C whire vinegar

In a large non-reactive pot, place hjalf the onion skins, then add the eggs
   and the rest of the onion skins.
Pour in the vinegar and add water to completely cover.
Cover the pot.
Slowly bring the water to a boilover medium heat and then turn down the heat
   to very low.
Cook over low heat for 1 hour.
Take the eggs out of the pot.
With a spatula, gently crack the eggs once or twice.  This allows the dye
   process to penetrate the egg whites.
Return the eggs to the water. Continue to cook the eggs over very low heat for
   another 2 hours.
Remove the eggs from the water, drain
When cool, refrigerate
Peel the eggs and wash off before serving

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 20:25:19 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - REC:   Vermilioned Eggs

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> Anyway, has
> anyone ever made hardboiled eggs which they have boiled for 3 hours?  The time
> seems excessive to me. Surely the eggs would cook and take up the dye in much
> less time.  Comments?
> Phillipa

Not having cooked this recipe, nor boiled eggs for three hours, I have
cooked hard-boiled eggs in breads, pies, steamed buns and in stuffings
for cabbage. The texture changes in what we might deem as overcooking,
but then concepts of "cook" and "done" are subjective at best.

For those who have done this kind of thing, think in terms of cooking
foods like squid and octopus: there's a very brief state of doneness at
which it is considered edible by some cultures, then it becomes
"overcooked", then it can be cooked slowly for a few hours longer and it
becomes tender again. It's kind of the same thing with boiled eggs. When
overcooked they become hard and rubbery, but when cooked longer still
they attain a texture almost like meat.

I can only assume that in the three-to-five minutes of simmering
required to cook what we'd call a hard-boiled egg, not enough color
seeps into the egg... .

Adamantius

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 11:05:19 -0800
From: kat <kat at kagan.com>
Subject: SC - RE:  Vermilioned Eggs

>Anyway, has anyone ever made hardboiled eggs which they have boiled for 3
>hours?  The time seems excessive to me. Surely the eggs would cook and
>take up the dye in much less time.  Comments?
>Phillipa

When my friend Merrin did her "Feast of Jewish Holidays," one of the things
we fixed were these eggs.  According to her recipe, you can boil them *or*
bake them in water at about 275* for 8 hours or overnight.

We used yellow onion skins, not red (the yellow onions went into something
else, I'm not sure what) and put dozens and dozens of eggs into a turkey
roaster and covered them with water.  I added a little water a couple of
times during the night, but basically we just left them alone.  Drained
them, took them to site as-is, peeled them there and served them cold on
the tables as appetizers.

They tasted exactly like ordinary hard-boiled eggs to me, though a couple
of people said the texture was "creamier."  I didn't notice much
difference, other than the really deep tan color, which was very
attractive.

- kat

Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 10:17:57 -0600From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>Subject: Re: SC - Receipe for Noodle dishWhile I don't have a recipe for this specific noodle  dish I have 2 noodleKugel (pudding) recipes.  I have done both for a large crowd.  One containsthin noodles, eggs, salt, pepper, sugar, and cinnamon and the othercontains wide noodles, cottage cheese, sour cream (I substitute non fatyogurt), eggs, cinnamon, sugar, dried fruit, and almonds.  I also have anoodle pancake recipe that contains thin noodles, shredded munster cheese,eggs, salt and pepper.  The first 2 are backed in a pan and the other isfried in little pancakes and served with sweet syrup, honey or jam.If anyone wants the recipes I will be glad to share.  The noodle kugelshave been in my family forever and similar can be found in any Jewishcookbook.Sindara

Date: Sun, 28 Mar 1999 23:56:52 -0600
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: SC - oop Receipe for Noodle dish

OK here are my family's 2 noodle kugel recipes.  BTW, the book The Jewish
Kitchen (I have mentioned this book before) has recipes that are fairly
close to my family's.

Sweet Dairy Noodle Kugel

1pkg broad noodles (large package)
1 lb container of cottage cheese
1 1/2 lb container of sour cream (I use nonfat plain yogurt)
3 eggs, separated
3 tbs sugar
1 tbs cinnamon
1 cup raisins
2 tbs of melted butter
enough apple slices to cover the top
slivered almonds

Mix together sugar, egg yolks, cheese, sour cream, cinnamon, and raisins.
Add wide cooked noodles and stir well.  Beat the egg whites until stiff and
fold into the noodle.  Place mixture into a greased rectangular pan.  Place
apple slices and slivered almonds on top and drizzle melted butter on it.
Bake at 300F for 30-45min or until golden brown on top and the apples are
soft.

Sabbath Kugel

The recipe for this Kugel is mix about 8 ounces of fine egg noodles, 5
eggs, 5 tablespoons of oil, * cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 2
teaspoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of black pepper together.  This is placed
in a rectangular pan and backed for about an hour.  When done, it should be
firm and golden brown on the top.

I made the second recently for our barony's potluck feast at our baronial
university.  There wasn't enough for everyone, but those that got to eat it
asked for the recipe.  I also entered it in the artisan competition that
day and had several laurels ask for the recipe and my documentation.  The
other kugel I have discussed with a couple of laurels here in Ansteorra.
They have told me that their families have similar recipes and they are not
Jewish.

Sindara

Subject: Re: SC - REC: My seder menu
Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 16:33:41 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
To: stefan at texas.net

Isabel Gonzalez's Eggplant and Onion Stew
Serves 4
1 medium eggplant, about 2 lbs          one half  tsp ground coriander
2 T salt                                1 tsp dried cilantro
2 C chicken broth                       one quarter  tsp gr cloves
2 med onions, quartered                 3 whole white cardomon pods
one and one half inches of cinnamon stick

Peel the eggplant and cut into one half inch thick slices.
Soak for 30 minutes in salted water.
Rinse the eggplant 3-4 times in cold water and press the slices between paper
towels  to remove excess liquid.
Cut the eggplant slices into thre quarter inch cubes.
Place the eggplant in a saucepan with the chicken broth.
Add the onion quarters.
Bring to a boil and reduce heat to low, cover the pan and simmer for 25
minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove the lid and stir in the 5 seasonings and continue to simmer for
another 30 - 40 minutes.

Isabel Garcia's Chickpeas and Honey with Cilantro

1 frozen 16 oz package of frozen pearl onions or 2 medium onions diced
1 bay leaf                              2 - 19 oz cans of chicpeas
2 T olive oil                           1 T dried thyme
one quarter  tsp gr. cardomon           one quarter C honey
one quarter C chopped fresh cilantro

In a large pan, saute the onions and bay leaf in the olive oil over medium
heat, for 8 minutes until onion is golden.
Add the drained chicpeas, thyme and cardomon.
Cook over medium low heat until heated through, about 6 minutes
Remove the bay leaf
Stir in the honey and simmer for 5 minutes
Stir in the chopped cilantro and serve at once

Garlic Snacks
6 whole head of garlic  1 - 2 Tbsp olive oil
kosher salt             one half C finely diced onion such as red or Vidalia
Preheat oven to 350o.
Place thewhole garlics close together in a Pyrex pan and pour salt over them
until only the tips show.
Roast them for about 35 minutes or until you see the garlic bubbling on top
of the salt.
Remove from the oven and cool, then peel the garlics.
Over medium heat, heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the diced onion.
Stir fry until it begins to brown.  Turn down the heat to low and then add
the garlic.
Stir fry for one minute more.
Serve warm on crackers.

Juana Nunez's Lettice and Radish Salad

SALAD:
1 - 2 oz watercress                     1 T chopped fresh mint
one half  head iceburg lettice          3 - 4 radishes, sliced
2 C torn up other greens                1 - 2 oz hard cheese such as romono
        radiccio, red lettice,          1 - 2 tsp coarsly gropund salt
        endive, fennel, romaine

DRESSING
1-2 tsp balsamic, red wine or cider vinegar
3 T olive oil
Remove the stems from the watercress.
Chop the leaves into bite-size pieces.
Tear the lettice into bite size pieces
Toss all the greens together in a large bowl.
Top with the radishes and the cheese.
Sprinkle with the salt.
Make the dressing:
Pour the vinegar into a jar.
Add the oive oil.
Cover and shake vigorously
Pour over the salad and toss before serving

Pedro de la Caballeria's Vermilioned Eggs

Loose yellow or red onion skins          12 whire eggs
(about 6 cups)                          one half C white vinegar

In a large non-reactive pot, place hjalf the onion skins, then add the eggs
and the rest of the onion skins.
Pour in the vinegar and add water to completely cover.
Cover the pot.
Slowly bring the water to a boilover medium heat and then turn down the heat
to very low.
Cook over low heat for 1 hour.
Take the eggs out of the pot.
With a spatula, gently crack the eggs once or twice.  This allows the dye
process to penetrate the egg whites.
Return the eggs to the water. Continue to cook the eggs over very low heat
for another 2 hours.
Remove the eggs from the water, drain
When cool, refrigerate
Peel the eggs and wash off before serving

Mayor Gonzalez's Roast Chicken Stuffed with Fruit and Basted with Almori

COATING:
8 Tbsp Nigella Almori           1 tsp dried powered thyme
1 Tbsp cumin seeds, ground      8 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp water

1 5 - 7 lbs roasting chicken

FOR STUFFING THE CAVITY
1 and a half C chopped pears    1 tsp cinnamon
1 and a half C chopped apple    one half  tsp cloves
2 cupps chopped mushrooms       1 and a half tsp gr. ginger
2 large garlic cloves, minced   1 and a half tsp dried lavender flowers, crushed

About 2 - 6 hours before cooking:
In a non-reactive bowl, combine the dry almori , cumin and thyme.
In a small saucepan, over medium low heat, heat the honey and water together
until they are hot but not boiling.
Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and combine thoroughly.
Put the mixture on the refridgerator for about 10 minutes.
Remove and discard the inards from the chicken cavity.
Pull off and discard the fatty parts around the cavity opening.
Wash the chicken inside and out and pat it dry.
Place it breast side up in a large ovenprogg glass baking dish,
Combine all the stuffing ingredints in a large bowl, mix well.
Stuff the cavity with the mixture.  If there is some left over refrigerate it
until it is time to bake the bird.
Remove the almori mixture from the refrigerator.
With a spatula, coat the chicken, except the back which is resting in the pan.

Cooking the Chicken
Preheat the oven to 325 F
Place the leftover stuffing mixture around the sides of the chicken
Put the chicken in it's pan in the center of the oven.
Cook until done, about 2 and a half - 3 hours (about 25 minutes per pound)
If it is cooking too fast (turning black) cover loosely with aluminum foil.
When the chicken is done, remove from oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes
Cut into serving pieces and place on a warm platter.
Serve the pan juices drizzled  over the meat.

Nigella Almori
(makes about 3/4 C)
3 T matzoh meal                 1 T caraway seeds
3 T bread crumbs                1 t fenugreek
2 T salt                        1 t anise
1 T Nigella*                    1 and a half  t cinnamon
1 t thyme                       1 t corriander seeds

Finely grind ingredients together until they are well combined.
Store in an airtight container.  The mixture will keep for a month.

*Nigella (Negilla sativa) is sometimes called black cumin. or kalonji.  It is
a staple in Indian cooking, often seen as black seeds in Nan bread.  If you
cannot find Negilla, an acceptable substitute is a mixture of finely ground
of:

1 tsp oregano   1 tsp pepper            1 tsp poppy seeds

Juan de Teva's Roast Lamb

1 boneless leg of lamb  (about 4 ponds)

Coating
3 C fresh cilantro              2 tsp pepper
1 C chopped fresh mint          2 tbsp fresh marjoram
1 T water                       1 and a half tsp salt
1 egg beaten

Sauce
one half C frozen orange juice concentrate    one quarter  tsp gr, cloves
one half  C water                             one half tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar.

The day before serving:
Place the lamb, free of any packing, in a non-reactive roasting pan.
Wash & pat dry the cilantro and the mint.
Put all the coating ingredients in a food processor and chop the mixture finely.
With a spatula, press the mixture into the slit where the bone has been
removed, and then onto the meat.
Cover the coated meat with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The day of serving
Preheat oven to 450 o
Remove the lmab from the refrigerator and take off plastic wrap.
Bake the lamb for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the sauce ingredients.
Heat over med-high heat until hot but not boiling.
After 30 minutes, remove the lamb from the oven and reduce heat to 350o
Slowly pour the sauce mixture over the lamb. Roast it another 15 min. per pound.
Remove lamb from the oven. Let it sit for 10 minutes.  Slice and serve.

Coimbra Chestnut Matza

1 jar cooked chestnuts (14.8 oz)        3 Tbsp honey or sugar
3 eggs beaten                           1 tsp cinnamon
3 T olive oil                           one half tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 450o.
With a large spoon or fork, mash the chestnusts until they are in small pieces.
In a food processor place one third of the chestnuts, 1 egg and 1 T of oil.
Process until it becomes a thick paste.
Add one third more of the chestnut pate, 1 egg and another teaspoon of oil;
Continue to process. Continue, until everything is used up - process to a
smooth paste.
Add the honey, cinnamon and pepper, process until they are mixed in.
Generously grease a foil lined cookie sheet.
Place 2 T of the mixture on the sheet and press with a spatula until about
1/4" thick.
Repeat for each motzah.  Leave about * inch around each matzoh.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Remove immediatly from the cookie sheet, cool on wire rack.

Date: Wed, 20 Oct 1999 14:19:15 -0700
From: Lilinah biti-Anat <lilinah at grin.net>
Subject: Re: SC - inauthentic

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
>why do you say this book is inauthentic?
when i said:
> >  i also now have the
> >  inauthentic but intriguing Hispano-Jewish "A Drizzle of Honey"

I made a rather strong blanket statement which, while not 100 per
cent accurate, is still essentially true regarding "A Drizzle of
Honey".

Many, if  not most, of the recipes appear to be based on nothing more
than a few general hints found in court records which are then
constructed into complete detailed modern style recipes by the
authors based on those few ingredients and consulting other sources;
few of the recipes are derived from actual recipes or notes made by
Jews or Conversos.

from the introduction, p. 3-4:
"There are no Jewish or crypto-Jewish cookbooks from this period.
Instead, hints about Jewish cuisine and an occasional recipe are
scattered through a variety of medieval documents, including the most
unlikely of sources: Inquisition trial testimonies..."

"To aid in the identification of Judaizers, comprehensive lists of
Judaizing customs were published... [followed by a quote from one of
these lists, mentioning some practices and some foodstuffs to watch
out for, but nothing even approaching a recipe, such as a list of
ingredients in a dish]"

"...these same lists of customs advised later generations of
conversos, who had great difficulty in obtaining information about
normative Judaism, precisely what they had to do to continue their
Jewish practices...the depositions are filled with statements like
those from the servant girl Francisca, who reported in the 1490's
that her mistress, Maria Alvarez , ordered her to pick out the vein
and trim off the fat with her thumbnail...Most of the recipes in this
book are based upon this sort of testimony."

[and if you've read anything about the Conversos and Moranos (sp?)
and their crypto-Judaism based on such lists of prohibited foods and
acts, you know that their practices differ widely from those of the
larger Jewish community (and yes, there are still some in Spain)]

The intro to each recipe in the book includes a quote or paraphrase
from the court proceedings, which sometimes does no more than mention
that the mistress of the house put honey on her eggplant or that the
family would gather in the doorway of someone's house and eat greens
with vinegar, or that the man ate a stew of lamb and chickpeas, with
no other information on ingredients or method of cooking. These
sections are footnoted, and the back of the book includes that
Spanish quotes from the trial documents.

But the authors follow their historical notes with complete detailed
recipes which they have based on...? ...other medieval recipes?
...modern ethnic and regional cookbooks? ..their own creativity?
Rarely are original recipes given in any language to indicate where
they got their ideas. More often, the authors merely assert that the
recipes are what the Jews or Conversos would have eaten, with no
other details on their sources.

There are a few, a very few, where the authors reproduce an actual
medieval recipe in translation with a foot note as to the source, but
these are the exception rather than the rule. Some of the recipes
come from Perry's translation of the Manuscrito Anonimo (sp), which
are, i believe, primarily Muslim rather than Jewish, which isn't to
say that they didn't eat similar foods - i don't really know, but
it's a possibility.

I note that books by some listees - "Take a Thousand Eggs or More" by
Cindy Renfrow and the Miscellany of David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook
- - are listed as *historical* sources, but as far as i can tell, many
of the authors' *culinary* resources are modern regional cookbooks
rather than period Jewish recipes.

Many of the recipes in  "A Drizzle of Honey" are tasty, but this book
does not represent authentic Medieval cuisine the way, for example,
Scully's books do, which, while containing his modern redactions,
also include the actual authentic recipes from sources such as le
Viandier de Taillevent or le Menagier de Paris, so you can see where
he got his ideas.

As for our Siculo-Norman feast, since we have, as far as i can tell,
limited information on what was eaten on the island of Sicily in the
12th century with its apparently comfortable mixture of Normans,
Sicilians, Near/Middle Easterners and others, who were Christian,
Jewish, and Muslim, i'm willing to use some of the recipes for our
feast which will make it more "peri-oid" than period, but you do what
you can with what you got.

Anahita

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1999 23:03:40 EDT
From: Kekilpenny at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Jewish food

 <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/8636/Food.html">Food in
Medieval Jewish Spain</A>
http://www.geocities.com/toto?s=76000021

Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2000 22:25:30 -0600
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: SC - New Year's Foods

>Does anyone know how (and what time of year) New Year's was celebrated
>foodwise in period? I was getting together our "traditional" collection of
>foods eaten for luck on New Year's Day, and it seemed likely that something
>similar would have been going on in medieval kitchens.

>Morwyn of Wye, O.L.
>Barony of Three Mountains, An Tir

       I know we are referring to the secular New Year.  On the Jewish calendar,
however there are 4 New Years.  The first is the First of Nissan which is
the first month on the Jewish calendar and the first day of Spring.  It is
considered the new year of kings.  It is traditional to make pickled
vegetables on this day for the upcoming Passover holiday.

        Next is the First of the month of Elul.  Elul is the month before Rosh
Hashana.  This day is considered the new year for animals.  The yearly
tithes are figured and paid on this day.  So far I have not found any food
traditions for this day.

        Rosh Hoshana is the official Jewish new year.  It is the birthday of
creation.  The following are traditionally eaten:
honey for a sweet new year
the head of a fish or lamb so that you will be at the head and not the tail
dates so that the wicked will be removed from the earth
pomegranates for riches
apples for joy during the whole year
pumpkins or gourds for a year of plenty
leeks for luck
beets to keep away our enemies
fish so that we will be fruitful and multiply
carrots so that our merits increase.

        The fourth new year is Tu B'Shevat, the new year of the trees.  On this
day (this year it falls on February 1st) it is customary to hold a sedar
with 4 cups of wine, and to eat various types of fruits and nuts.  The
traditional foods for this day include Stuffed grape leaves, a fruit and
nut confection that is very similar to Hais (from Al Bagdadi), puddings
made from wheat, Tajine, meatballs with cherries, and fruit preserves.

L'shana Tova V'Tikatevu, A good and sweet new year from Sindara

Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 23:03:27 -0600
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Pepper dessert

Jerusalem Kugel

2 tsp salt
1 pound fine egg noodles
1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp cinnamon

Cook noodle until they are al dente and drain.  Combine noodles with other
ingredients.  Make sure the ingredients are mixed well.  Place in greased
circular baking pan and bake at 350 for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until golden
brown on top.  Remove from pan and serve.

According to several cookbooks this recipe originated in Vilna in the house
of the Gaon of Vilna.  The Gaon was a great rabbi around the late 1700's.
Some of his followers set up a colony in Jerusalem around the turn of the
20th century.  That is how the Kugel got its present name.  The Gaon is
reported to have had twin daughters.  Those daughters were my great
grandmothers.  Luckshon Kugel (noodle pudding) has many other recipes and
can be traced to period according to various sources that I have found.

Sindara

Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 10:32:40 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - about gifillte fish & recipes

Hope this answers your question Lord Stephan.  I got this info from the 
Jewish Food Archives:
 http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/rfcj/FISH/Gefilte_Fish_2_-_pareve.html

This URL will take you to the gifillte fish page and from there you  could 
look around at other recipes if you wanted to.

It occurs that gifillte fish could be served as an illusion food as well.  If 
you buy a whole fish with head attached.  Slit open the body.  Take out & 
disgard the innards.  Cook up the flesh as in the recipe and restuff the 
skin.   I have had it served to me this way in several homes.

YIS, Phillipa Seton
<<  I've seen the word before and may have seen it in the grocery. So, what 
is "gifilte" fish? Is this a way of perserving/pickling fish? >>

**GIFILLTE FISH**
Stock
Head and bones from 2 pounds of firm, white-fleshed freshwater
fish such as whitefish, pike or carp
10 cups water, or enough to cover
1 onion, quartered
1 carrot, cut into chunks
1 stalk celery
Several sprigs parsley
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper

Put everthing in a large stock pot.  The water should just cover the fish   
trimmings.  
Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. 
Strain the stock to remove all the trimmings and vegetables.  
Place the clear stock in another large pot.  Set aside. 

**Gefilte Fish**
2 pounds boneless, skinless firm, white-fleshed freshwater fish such as
whitefish, pike or carp
2 medium or 1 very large onion
3 eggs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup matzoh meal
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced

Wash the fish and remove any scales. 
Grind fish and onions together (you can use a food processor, but   make sure 
it doesn't get gluey).  
Add the eggs, salt and pepper and mix well.  
Gradually blend in enough matzoh meal to just bind the fish mixture.  It    
should have the consistency of raw hamburger -- not too soft or too     firm.
Add the sliced carrots to the strained stock. 
Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.  
Bring the stock to a gentle simmer.
Wet your hands with cold water and shape the fish mixture into egg- sized 
balls (they get bigger as they cook).  
Gently lower the balls into the stock (a long-handled slotted spoon     works 
well here).  
Cover and simmer for about 1 hour.
Let the gefilte fish cool in the stock until about room temperature.  
To serve without broth, put each gefilte fish on an appetizer plate and     
serve with horsradish.  
To serve cold, remove the fish to a large bowl, garnish with the cooked     
carrot slices and pour the fish stock to cover.  
Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight or until the stock     
has jelled.  
Makes about a dozen pieces of gefilte fish.
Note:  This tastes NOTHING like that horrid stuff in jars.
***************************************
More GF recipes:
Here are a few tips, first:
  - Whether you go for a sweet fish or peppery, the mixture will need some 
sugar (even if only a couple teaspoons). If  you're leary of tasting the raw 
mixture, at least taste the stock by the time the cooking is half done. The 
amount of   sugar needed depends on the kind of fish you use Carp, for 
example, is naturally a sweet fish, so needs less.
 
- - Use a pot which is higher than it is wide (like a stock pot),  with only a 
few inches of water in it. The fish release a lot of moisture as they are 
cooking. The less water used,   the better the liquid gels afterwards.
 
 - The above necessitates removing the fish fairly quickly  after the cooking 
is completed. If you make only patties, as I do (rather than stuffing 
slices), this can be tricky, but  it's do-able. (Since I use only carp, which 
tends to be  sticky, it can be a challenge, but it yields a delicious product 
and fish soup which gels firmly.)
 
- - White pepper is excellent for gefilte fish, but bear in  mind that it is 
stronger than black. I often use a combination. Bear in mind that the stock 
will taste much spicier while hot than it will when it's cooled. If you're  
not generous enough with the salt and pepper, the fish will not be 
sufficiently seasoned.
 
- - Freezing: Yes, you can successfully freeze gefilte fish. The key is to thaw 
them thoroughly, squeezing out the excess liquid, if necessary. I place the 
fish in a colander and put that in a pot or bowl to catch the liquid. If you 
then boil the liquid, it will set up again as a gel.
 
 My mother's basic recipe is:
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 2 kilos (4.4 pounds) ground fish
 3 or more large onions, ground or finely minced
 3 eggs
 3 Tablespoons matza meal
 2 teaspoons +/- sugar 
 several sliced carrots and a large onion, roughly diced, for  the pot
 The key to preparing this recipe is to mix the mixture extensively, to 
introduce air for lightness, as you would  for a cake. I use a wire whisk.
 
 While mixing, set the pot to boil with the sliced carrots,  the one chopped 
onion, salt and pepper in about three inches of water.
 
 Form the fish into cakes/patties, layering them on top of  one another. 
Cover the pot and bring to a rolling boil. Lower the heat and simmer slowly 
for three hours.
 
 Yield: About 2 dozen pieces
 
 Bruria's Hungarian-style Gefilte Fish
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 In addition to the ingredients noted above, my friend fries 
 two or three finely diced onions sprinkled generously with sweet paprika  in 
oil until they are well browned (but not crisp). She then uses another two or 
three raw onions along with the fried ones.
 
 For *true* gefilte fish, you would get a large fish like a carp, cut into 
slices. Form the filling into a ball and fill.each slice, mounding it up. 
Some people will have the fishmonger cut the head in half and fill each half, 
also. The bones and tail also go into the pot, of  course, to enrich the 
stock. Most of my family and friends prepare a combination of filled slices 
and patties.

Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 14:38:30 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - gifillte fish

Second, as to gifillte fish... through the modern wonders of the Cuisinart and already scaled & skinned fish fillets, making GF is not that big a deal.  Although it does stink up the house!

1. Buy fish fillets from your fish monger. ( I use white & pike.. I'd use carp if I could get it) Also buy one big, sweet onion and a bag of already peeled carrots.
2. At home, peel & cut 1 very large onion into 4 pieces. Put universal blade into processor and whirl quartered onion until very tiny pieces  (usually takes 5 seconds)  Put into very large mixing bowl.
3. Do same deal with about 5 baby carrots. (Don't use too many carrots IN the GF or it will be disgustingly sweet.) Put into bowl.
4. Cut your fish fillets into big chunks, put into your food processer and process until almost pureed.  Put fish into bowl.
5. Add salt & pepper to taste. (Dont ask me.. I just *shitaran*  Yiddish for just throw it in.. no measure)
6. Add a large handful of matzoh meal or bread crumbs.Mix well.  I use my hands.  If the mixture seems too wet add a little more bread crumbs.
7.  Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add some sugar  (I donno  half cup??)  salt & pepper...here I *shitaran* again...
8. When the water is boiling, start forming balls out of the fish mixture. About the size of a larg golf ball...

Cook for about 15  - 20 minutes.Turn off heatLet cool
Tansfer to a platter.  
I keep the fish stock seperately.  The grandparents like to drink it.

Phillipa

Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 22:21:13 EDT
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - 2 REC for -Passover Eggs & chicken

These are 2 of the recipes I made for my period seder last year.
Phillipa Seton

MAYER GONZALEZ'S ROASTED CHICKEN STUFFED WITH FRUIT AND BASTED WITH ALMORI

COATING:
8 Tbsp Nigella Almori       1tsp dried powered thyme
1 Tbsp cumin seeds, ground  8 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp water

1 5- 7 lbs roasting chicken

FOR STUFFING THE CAVITY
1 Ω C chopped pears     1 tsp cinnamon
1 Ω C chopped apple     Ω tsp cloves
2 cupps chopped mushrooms   1 Ω tsp gr. ginger
2 large garlic cloves, minced   1 ½ tsp dried lavender flowers, crushed

About 2 - 6 hours before cooking:
In a non reactive bowl, combine the dry almori , cumin and thyme.
In a small saucepan, over medium low heat, heat the honey and water together 
until   they are hot but not boiling.
Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and combine thoroughly.
Put the mixture on the refridgerator for about 10 minutes.
Remove and discard the inards from the chicken cavity.
Pull off and discard the fatty parts around the cavity opening.
Wash the chicken inside and out and pat it dry.
Place it breast side up in a large ovenprogg glass baking dish,
Combine all the stuffing ingredints in a large bowl, mix well.
Stuff the cavity with the mixture.  If there is some left over refrigerate it 
until it is time to     bake the bird.
Remove the almori mixture from the refrigerator.
With a spatula, coat the chicken, except the back which is resting in the pan.

Cooking the Chicken
Preheat the oven to 325 F
Place the leftover stuffing mixture around the sides of the chicken
Put the chicken in it's pan in the center of the oven.
Cook until done, about 2 1/2 - 3 hours   (about 25 minutes per pound)
If it is cooking too fast (turning black) cover loosely with aluminum foil.
When the chicken is done, remove from oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes
Cut into serving pieces and place on a warm platter.
Serve the pan juices drizzled  over the meat.

NIGELLA ALMORI
(makes about 3/4 C)
3 T matzoh meal         1 T caraway seeds
3 T bread crumbs            1 t fenugreek
2 T salt                1 t anise
1 T Nigella*                1 1/2 t cinnamon
1 t thyme               1 t corriander seeds

Finely grind ingredients together until they are well combined.
Store in an airtight container.  The mixture will keep for a month.

*Nigella (Negilla sativa) is sometimes called black cumin. or kalonji.  It is 
a staple in Indian cooking, often seen as black seeds in Nan bread.  If you 
cannot find Negilla, an acceptable substitute is a mixture of finely ground 
of:

1 tsp oregano   1 tsp pepper        1 tsp poppy seeds

PEDRO DE LA CABALLERIA'S VERMILLIONED EGGS

Loose yellow or red onion skins         12 whire eggs
(about 6 cups)                  Ω C whire vinegar

In a large non-reactive pot, place hjalf the onion skins, then add the eggs 
and the rest    of the onion skins.
Pour in the vinegar and add water to completely cover.
Cover the pot.
Slowly bring the water to a boilover medium heat and then turn down the heat 
to very     low.
Cook over low heat for 1 hour.
Take the eggs out of the pot.
With a spatula, gently crack the eggs once or twice.  This allows the dye 
process to  penetrate the egg whites.
Return the eggs to the water. Continue to cook the eggs over very low heat 
for another     2 hours.
Remove the eggs from the water, drain
When cool, refrigerate
Peel the eggs and wash off before serving

Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 23:41:55 EDT
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - 2 REC for -Passover Eggs & chicken

Not a dumb question at all Magdalena!  I'm rather red-faced for not checking 
the recipe.  For Passover you would omit the bread crumbs and use 6 T of 
matzoh meal instead.  Matzoh meal containing no levening agent of course.  
You _could_ use ground up matzoh in place ot the meal, just be sure it is 
ground up very fine!
<< 
 > NIGELLA ALMORI
 > (makes about 3/4 C)
 > 3 T matzoh meal         1 T caraway seeds
 > 3 T bread crumbs            1 t fenugreek
 > 2 T salt                1 t anise
 > 1 T Nigella*                1 Ω t cinnamon
 > 1 t thyme               1 t corriander seeds
 
>>>>>On a similar note, I am told that corn syrup is out for Passover, 
because corn can be made into bread >>>
No, corn products are out because they *appear* to rise (IE, get bigger when 
cooked)  Over the course of the Middle Ages a lot of rules were made called 
*minhag*  (custom) to assure that people would not break the basic rule.  
(It's called *Fences around the Torah, but let's not go there.. it's late)  
Anyway foods that *appear* to rise, ie, get bigger such as rice, beans, corn 
are not eaten during the Passover.

>>>I have a recipe that contains no inherently unkosher ingredients except 
that one.  Does anybody know if I could substitute simple syrup, or some 
other sugar product?>>>

What? Corn syrup?  If the item is intended as a sweetener, just substitute 
another sweetener.
Phillipa Seton
 
 Thank you,
 Magdalena vander Brugghe
>>

Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 15:00:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: alysk at ix.netcom.com
Subject: SC - Re: I Have A Theory

Gunthar mentioned _A Drizzle of Honey_ for information on medieval
Jewish foods.  Another source is _Eat and Be Satisfied_, A Social
History of Jewish Food, by John Cooper, 1993.  He begins with biblical
times and works his way up through history with quotes and references
to period sources.  While there are no recipes involved, the foodstuffs
are listed and sometimes how they were prepared.

Alys Katharine

Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 18:38:04 EDT
From: Morgana Abbey <morgana.abbey at juno.com>
Subject: Re: SC - I HAVE A THEORY

There's also Claudia Roden's _Book of Jewish Food_.  Really big, I
haven't finished reading through it.  It maybe a bit light in the
histories, but the recipes are really nice.

Morgana

Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 20:07:43 -0500
From: "RANDALL DIAMOND" <ringofkings at mindspring.com>
Subject: SC - Re: SC- I HAVE A THEORY

Phillipa writes:
>>>>Even though my persona is not Jewish, I am very 
interested in how and what the Jews of the Middle Ages 
and Renaissance cooked. The dishes they prepared.

My theory is that they ate very closely to what the 
non Jews ate except that they "koshered" it up.  ie: 
redid the recipe to fit their dietary needs.  I do feel that 
they would have chosen from the foodstuffs locally 
available and made kosher versions of treif dishes.<<<<

You might excercise some caution here in any recipe
assumptions of Jewish cookery in the Middle Ages.
The current orthodox Jewish dietary laws were put
into effect around the early 16th century in central
European gettos.  This is much, much stricter than
the enforced laws in the previous centuries.  The
change came about when the Jews in the Germanic
states were elvolving even their own language (Yiddish)
from German.  The farmers supplying the ghettos were
suspected of cheating their Jewish customers, adultrating
or deliberately contaminating the food.  In an angry reaction
to these non-jews (goyiem or "cattle"), the Jewish elders
set up the current system of supervised harvest and slaughter
still in use today.  Obviously, before this the Jews would
not have eaten grossly forbidden food items like blood or
bacon, but they likely slaughtered the animals like anyone
else did and didn't have all the ritual regarding utensils and
such we have now.  Probably, earlier practice was similar to
many followers of Islam who ocassionally take a nip of wine.

If you do adjust period recipes, keep in mind the current
kosher practices are not the same.

Akim Yaroslavich

Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 22:41:38 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <harper at idt.net>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: SC- I HAVE A THEORY

And it came to pass on 21 Jun 00,, that RANDALL DIAMOND wrote:
> In an angry reaction
> to these non-jews (goyiem or "cattle"), the Jewish elders
> set up the current system of supervised harvest and slaughter
> still in use today. 
[snip]

> Akim Yaroslavich

Let me start with a caveat: I am not Orthodox and am not qualified to 
discourse in detail on the history of the laws of kashruth.  The basic 
laws are set forth in the Torah, and the interpretations of how they are to 
be implemented are in the Talmud, which was codified long before the 
16th century.  The _Shulkhan Arukh_, a Jewish legal handbook which 
was (and still is) one of the most significant textbooks of Orthodox 
Jewish practice, was compiled in the mid-14th century.  (I hope that 
someone more knowledgeable than I can correct this, if I am mistaken.)

Your statement about "goyiem" [sic] is not correct.  Goyim does NOT 
mean "cattle".  It is the plural of the Hebrew word "goy" meaning 
"nation. " "Goyim" (ie., the nations of the world) is the traditional Hebrew 
way of referring to non-Jews.  "Gentiles" is the usual English translation. 
 If you search in a good search engine like Google, you *will* find a few 
websites that state that "goyim" means "cattle".  Most of those 
websites belong to vehemently anti-semitic organizations, like the 
Posse Comitatus, Stormfront White Pride Worldwide, and Aryan 
Nations.  Not surprising, since that particular mistranslation is straight 
out of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a 19th century forgery 
written by Czarist secret police which purports to be the blueprint of the 
Zionist plan to take over the world.

I very much hope that you have quoted this misinformation because you 
were ignorant of its falseness and its hateful source.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)

Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 19:03:42 -0800
From: Kerri Canepa <kerric at pobox.alaska.net>
Subject: Re: SC - I HAVE A THEORY

Phillipa.

>My theory is that they ate very closely to what the non Jews ate except that 
>they "koshered" it up.  ie: redid the recipe to fit their dietary needs.  I 
>do feel that they would have chosen from the foodstuffs locally available and 
>made kosher versions of treif dishes.

I too am interested in what foods the Jews would have eaten historically, but in
Italy. There is at least one cookbook on Italian Jewish food which I have seen
but not read through. The book is called _Cucina Ebraica:Flavors of the Jewish
Italian Kitchen_ by Joyce Goldstein. I plan to take a closer look at it for
historical content. The quick browse I did agreed with your view that local
foods were used but certain items (fats, grains, etc) within the dishes were
modified.

On a related note, has anyone run across any mention of Jewish foods mentioned
in the Cairo Geniza documents or other Middle Eastern sources? The period
covered by these documents is the 11 into the 13th c. From some authors who have
studied these documents, there seems to be a reluctance on the part of the
people who created these written works to discuss food except in passing. As if
the discussion of foods was somehow very blase and in bad taste in legal
documents. I know so very little about Jewish history and culture and especially
about Egyptian Jewish history and culture. If someone had an insight here, I'd
really appreciate it.

Cedrin
Princess Oertha

Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 00:20:07 -0500
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: SC - I HAVE A THEORY

Gil Marks' The World of Jewish Cooking and Claudia Roden's The Book of
Jewish Food discuss traditional foods.  Also the book The Jewish Kitchen
does the same.  The problem is that these books don't tell you really how
far back a recipe was found.  They do, however, site sources such as the
Torah to show how old the tradition is.  For instance, Cholent is a stew of
meat, beans, root veggie's and spices.  It is traditionally served on the
Sabbath.  It is supposedly discussed in the Talmud though as far as I can
tell, no actual recipe was given.

This is an area of research that I am working on.

Sindara

Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 00:22:33 -0500
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: I Have A Theory

>Gunthar mentioned _A Drizzle of Honey_ for information on medieval
>Jewish foods.

Another good book is "In Search of Plenty" by Oded Schwartz.

Sindara

Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 18:47:35 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - CHAROSET RECIPES

Posting charoset recipes again for people's enjoyment. (hope this is not 
considered too religious - no offense ment to anyone.)  And a website for 
many more charoset recipes.
http://www.cyber-kitchen.com/rfcj/
Phillipa

VENETIAN CHAROSET
This delicious charoset comes from the Luzzatto family of Venice.  Members of 
the family have lived in Italy since 1541.

1 1/ 2 C chestnut paste                     
1/ 2 C pine nuts
10 oz chopped dates                     
grated rind of one orange
12 oz chopped figs                          
1/ 2 C white raisins
2 Tbsp poppy seeds                      
1/ 2 C chopped dried apricots
1/ 2 C chopped walnuts                      
1/ 2 C brandy
1/ 2 C chopped almonds                      
honey to bind

Combine all ingredients gradually adding just enough honey and brandy to bind 
mixture.
Makes 4 Cups

RAMBAM'S CHAROSET
This is taken from the recipe given by Moses Maimonides.

1 C pitted dates, chopped figs or raisins
2 C water
1/4 C wine vinegar
2 Tbsp fresh or 1 Tbsp dried hyssop leaves  (not ground)

Pour water over fruit and let sit overnight.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring frequently 
until mixture forms a paste-like consistancy.
Cool
Stir in hyssop and vinegar

Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2001 23:28:29 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - Dutch  Portuguese Sephardic Haroset

Just passing this along.  I believe it to be late period.
Phillipa
 
 << As Pesach approaches I find it may interest this group to offer 
 discuss various  Spanish-Portuguese minhagim related to the 
 festival., And as a starter I am  offering the recipe for haroset as 
 handed down in my family. My family  immigrated to Amsterdam from 
 Portugal via Antwerp in the 17th century and  from Amsterdam to 
 America in the first half of the 19th century.  This  recipe as far 
 as I can tell, is unique among the recipes for haroset that I  have 
 seen but ...with all modesty, is the best haroset I have ever tasted.
 
  1 lb. of dates
  6 oz. of almonds - already ground very very fine - almost to a powder
  3 tb. cherry jam
  a glass of fresh orange juice with pulp
  3 tbs. of sweet grape wine, cointreau or sherry
 
  soak the dates in fresh orange juice to soften 
  place the dates with the juice into a blender
  remove the dates, mix with the wine and cherry jam
 
  sprinkle the almond powder over the haroset before serving.
 
  As explained to me by my grandparents over 50 years ago, the concept 
 is to  make the haroset as the Torah quote - as black as pitch or 
 morter but sweet  as written in Shir Ha Shirim - shachora ani 
 v'na'va -I am black and beautiful. We always served the "Portuguese 
 haroset" on a small silver filigree plate which further enhanced the 
 hiddur mitzvah - making the mitzvah of observing pesach even more 
 beautiful.

Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 11:06:12 -0800
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks Dutch Portugese Sephardic Haroset

Sarah bas Mordechai wrote:
>Does anyone else have some period Charoses recipes?  I'm sure there are some
>in a Drizzle of Honey.

There are NO period Jewish recipes in "A Drizzle of Honey".

IIRC, there's one period Muslim recipe and one Spanish recipe that 
says it's Jewish that includes lard or pork. Most the recipes are 
reconstructions/inventions of the authors, since no Jewish cookbooks 
have come down to us from Medieval and Renaissance Spain.

Anahita amina al-maktabah

Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 14:17:43 EST
From: Seton1355 at aol.com
Subject: SC - period charoset recipes for Sarah bas Mordechai

Here are some Period recipes and a few Sephardic recipes thown in.  The 
Sephardic Ritual food has survived more "in tact" vis a vis the MA than has 
Azkenasic foods.
Phillipa

EGYPTIAN CHAROSET
1 Lb raisins                    
1/4 C sugar
8 oz pitted dates               
1/4 C chopped walnuts or pecans
2 Cups water

Place raisns and dates in a bowl with enough water to cover.  Let stand for 
one hour.
Add sugar and process mixture in a food processor or blender.
Transfer fruit mixture to a saucepan and simmer for 20 minutes, until all 
liquid is absorbed.
Remove from heat, cool, transfer to a bowl and cover with chopped nuts.

VENETIAN CHAROSET
This delicious charoset comes from the Luzzatto family of Venice.  Members of 
the family have lived in Italy since 1541.

1 1/2 C chestnut paste                      
1/2 C pine nuts
10 oz chopped dates                     
grated rind of one orange
12 oz chopped figs                          
1/2 C white raisins
2 Tbsp poppy seeds                      
1/2 C chopped dried apricots
1/2 C chopped walnuts                       
1/2 C brandy
1/2 C chopped almonds                       
honey to bind

Combine all ingredients gradually adding just enough honey and brandy to bind 
mixture.
Makes 4 Cups

RAMBAM'S CHAROSET
This is taken from the recipe given by Moses Maimonides.

1 C pitted dates, chopped figs or raisins
2 C water
1/4 C wine vinegar
2 Tbsp fresh or 1 Tbsp dried hyssop leaves  (not ground)

Pour water over fruit and let sit overnight.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring frequently 
until mixture forms a paste-like consistancy.
Cool
Stir in hyssop and vinegar

Greek Charoset -- from Zakynthos
1/4  cup           ground almonds
1/4  cup           raisins -- mashed in vinegar
                      good pinch pepper
                      good pinch finely ground brick

Mix all the ingredients together and serve. Makes 1/2 cup.

GREEK HAROSETH
Makes 2-1/2 to 3 cups
2 c. pitted dates, chopped
1/2 c. raisins, chopped
1/2 c. sweet Passover wine
1/4 c. walnuts, ground
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
Mix together and shape into balls or a mound.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill.

MOROCCAN HAROSETH
Makes 6 dozen 1-inch balls (about 3 cups)
Put through the fine blade of grinder or finely grind together in food 
processor
2 cups walnut pieces
1 c. blanched, slivered or whole almonds
25 pitted dates
10 large, brown dried figs
20 dried apricots
10 large, pitted prunes
1/2 c. shelled Pistachios (optional)
Mix in just enough wine to make a smooth paste that is soft and malleable.
1/2 c. sweet red Passover wine, as needed
Form one-inch balls.
If desired, sprinkle balls lightly with  Ground cinnamon (optional)
Store balls in tightly covered container in refrigerator for up to two weeks.
For best flavor, let them come to room temperature before serving.

MOROCCAN HAROST BALLS WITH 
DATES, RAISINS AND NUTS  

Recipe courtesy of Gourmet Magazine

1 to 2 tablespoons sweet red passover wine
2 cups pitted dates
1/2 cup golden raisins 
1/2 cup dark raisins
1/2 cup walnuts
Process the dates, raisins, and walnuts in a food processor until the
mixture is finely chopped and begins to stick together.  Add enough wine
to make a sticky mass.  Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.  Drop
slightly rounded measuring teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a lined sheet.
 Roll each mound with moistened palms into hazelnut-size balls. 
Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or until firm.  

Soofer Family lranian-Israeli Haroset
 
     1/3           cup  shelled pistachio nuts
     1/3           cup  unblanched almonds
     3/4           cup  cashews
     1/3           cup  hazelnuts
     3/4           cup  walnuts
  2                     pears -- peeled and quartered
  2                     red apples -- peeled and quartered
  3               cups  seedless black raisins
  1                cup  seedless golden raisins
  2 3/4           cups  dates -- pits removed
  1 1/4           cups  pomegranate juice
  3               cups  sweet red wine (about)
  1           teaspoon  cinnamon
     1/2      teaspoon  cayenne pepper -- or to taste
  1           teaspoon  ground cardamom
     1/2      teaspoon  ground cloves
  1           teaspoon  ground coriander
  1           teaspoon  cumin
  1           teaspoon  ground nutmeg
  1           teaspoon  ground ginger

This flavorful version, with so many nuts, reminds me of the Talmudic
suggestion as to the symbolism of haroset: that it represents the fruit
trees under which Jewish women slaves enticed their husbands to make love,
and thus propagated the Jewish people.

1. Roast the pistachio nuts, almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, and walnuts by
placing them in the microwave on medium power for about 5 minutes, stirring
frequently.

2. Place the roasted nuts in a food processor fitted with a steel blade and
process until coarsely ground. Add the pears, apples, raisins, and dates and
pulse until the nuts are finely ground and the fruits coarsely chopped.
Gradually add the pomegranate juice, continuing to process until thick. Add
the wine and the spices and process once more to incorporate, adjusting to
taste.

Yield: 10 cups

The Foods of Israel Today by Joan Nathan
Knopf, ISBN: 0679451072

Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 09:16:46 -0500
From: rcmann4 at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: SC - Re: sca-cooks Dutch Portugese Sephardic Haroset

And it came to pass on 28 Mar 01, , that Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Wow! All your TI's are in one room? At one time mine were. Maybe they
> will be again someday....

Mine are in one closet.  Not in order, mind you, but in one closet.  
And since no one else has dug it out yet, here's the recipe, as 
quoted and redacted in the TI article by Eleazar Ha-Levi.  It's from a 
1654 Haggadah, published in Italy, but written in Spanish.  I have 
not transcribed the entire article.

- - - - - begin quoted material - - -

"Take apples or pears, cooked in water, hazelnuts or almonds, 
shelled chestnuts or walnuts, figs or raisins.  And after cooking, 
grind them thoroughly and dissolve in the strongest wine vinegar 
that can be found.  Then mix in a bit of brick dust, in memory of the 
bricks which our father made in Egypt.  For eating, a little 
cinnamon powder is sprinkled above.  Those who wish to add other 
fruits and spices into the concoction may do so."

I tried this last year for my own Seder using the recipe given below. 
 My one big change was to substitute brown sugar for the brick 
dust.  (Anyone who's ever tried to break apart a blcok of brown 
sugar after it has been exposed to the air should agree to the 
similarity between it and a brick.)"

1 medium apple and 1 medium pear
1 ounce chopped walnuts
1 ounce chopped almonds
2 ounces raisins
1-2 ounces vinegar
2 tsps brown sugar
cinnamon

Peel fruit and cut into small pieces.  Combine with all other 
ingredients, except cinnamon, and blend/chop for about 15 
seconds.  (You want a coarse chop, not a puree.)  Serve with the 
cinnamon and allow each guest to season to his or her own taste.  
Note: if you wish to mix cinnamon with other ingredients, I estimate 
that one teaspoon, at most should be sufficient.

- - - -  end quoted material - - -

Looks good.  Maybe I'll try this one.  Right now, I'm trying to decide 
what to bake for Passover.  My aunt is having 20 people at her 
Seder....

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)

Date: Tue, 08 May 2001 01:28:01 +0200
From: tgl at mailer.uni-marburg.de
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] uiuanda alla Hebraica, di Carne, 1557 ('A Jewish dish, with meat')

On my harddisk, I found what seems to be a 16th century recipe for a
Jewish dish from an Italian cookbook: Christofaro di Meisbugo: Libro
novo nel qval s'insegna a far d'ogni sorte di uiuanda ... In Venetia
MXLVII, fol. 115. Obviously, I transcribed this recipe earlier from the
facsimile.

Given that early recipes for Jewish dishes seem to be rare, I
thought I might try and produce a rough English paraphrase. However,
neither 16th century Italian nor modern Italian nor English is my
mothertongue, so this is only a preliminary draft.

I have three questions:
-- would the recipe "work" this way (no binding agent for the meat?)
-- is there a tradition for this kind of dish?
-- do you see errors in the paraphrase? Suggestions to improve it?

A fare uiuanda alla Hebraica, di Carne.
PIgliarai di Carne di Vitello nella polpa libre tre, e nettale bene
dalle pellegate, e nerui, e pestala minutamente. Poi habbi una pestata
d'herbe oliose, & uua passa, & un poco di speciie d'ogni sorte, e metti
ogni cosa insieme. Poi piglia i Torli di quattro Oue dure, cio =E8 il
Torlo solo integro. Poi piglia la mit=E0 della Compositione sopradetta in
forma di mezze balle da uento, e metteli fra mezzo i quattro Torli sopra
detti, & serrale, poi in forma de una balla integra, e ponila a cuocere
nel buon brodo con una pestata d'herbe oliose, e un poco di Noce
moscata, e tanto Zaffrano che li dia il colore. poi le imbandirai una, o
due per piatello secondo la grandezza di che le farai col detto brodo
con fette di pan sotto se ge ne uorrai.

To make a Jewish dish, with meat
Take calf meat, such that there are three pounds of meat (not counting
the skin and other non-meat parts). Remove the skinny parts and the
sinews and chop it finely. Then take chopped oleiferous herbs, dried
raisins, a small amount of different seasonings/spices, and put all
these ingredients together. Then take the yolks of four hard-boiled
eggs: take only the yolks and watchout that the yolks remain whole/
undivided. Then take half of the above-mentioned mass and bring it into
the form of one half of a ball with a hole in the middle. Put the
above-mentioned yolks into these holes and knead whole balls using the
rest of the mass. Cook these balls in a good broth with chopped
oleiferous herbs, a small amount of nutmeg and a sufficient amount of
saffron, such that the saffron will color the balls. Serve the balls one
or two per plate, according to the size you made, together with the
broth and on a slice of bread, if you like to.

Thomas

Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002 09:48:18 -0800
From: Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] FW:request for recipe(s)

Kiri wrote:
> I don't have it handy, but there was a great Charoset recipe published in a
> TI a number of years ago...

I knew that keeping a "haroset" file would come in handy!  I forget who posted
this on this list last year, but here it is.

"...here's the recipe, as  quoted and redacted in the TI article by Eleazar
Ha-Levi.  It's from a 1654 Haggadah, published in Italy, but written in
Spanish.  I have
not transcribed the entire article.

- - - - begin quoted material - - -
"Take apples or pears, cooked in water, hazelnuts or almonds,
shelled chestnuts or walnuts, figs or raisins.  And after cooking,
grind them thoroughly and dissolve in the strongest wine vinegar
that can be found.  Then mix in a bit of brick dust, in memory of the
bricks which our father made in Egypt.  For eating, a little
cinnamon powder is sprinkled above.  Those who wish to add other
fruits and spices into the concoction may do so."

I tried this last year for my own Seder using the recipe given below.
 My one big change was to substitute brown sugar for the brick
dust.  (Anyone who's ever tried to break apart a blcok of brown
sugar after it has been exposed to the air should agree to the
similarity between it and a brick.)"

1 medium apple and 1 medium pear
1 ounce chopped walnuts
1 ounce chopped almonds
2 ounces raisins
1-2 ounces vinegar
2 tsps brown sugar
cinnamon

Peel fruit and cut into small pieces.  Combine with all other
ingredients, except cinnamon, and blend/chop for about 15
seconds.  (You want a coarse chop, not a puree.)  Serve with the
cinnamon and allow each guest to season to his or her own taste.
Note: if you wish to mix cinnamon with other ingredients, I estimate
that one teaspoon, at most should be sufficient.
- - -  end quoted material - - -

Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 09:23:31 -0400
From: "Phlip" <phlip at 99main.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Fw: [khazaria-announce] Khazaria.com News - July
	25,	2003- OT
To: "SCA-Cooks" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Because I know we have quite a few Jewish folk on the List, I'm fwding this
along. As some of you may know, I'm very interested in the Khazars because
of their relation to my persona studies (they were developing as a culture,
while I'm working as a travelling blacksmith amongst them). While most of
what Kevin is finding is too late in period to be of direct assistance to my
research, there's a lot that isn't, and he's a very nice guy, who has been
very helpful in answering direct questions- including quite a few on
available foodstuffs.

So, enjoy, anyone, who has an interest.

Phlip

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Brook" <kbrook at pi.pair.com>
To: <khazaria-announce at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 8:53 AM
Subject: [khazaria-announce] Khazaria.com News - July 25, 2003

KHAZARIA.COM NEWS
The International Email Newsletter of Khazar Studies
Editor: Kevin Alan Brook
July 25, 2003

My latest article, "The Origins of East European Jews", is now in print.
It is contained in the Spring-Summer 2003 issue (volume 30, numbers 1-2)
of the academic journal Russian History/Histoire Russe, on pages 1 to 22.
This fully-sourced, comprehensive, and up-to-date article is essential
reading for anyone interested in the subject of Ashkenazi Jewish origins,
whether for personal interest or research or teaching purposes.

The structure of the article is as follows:

I. Introduction of the problem

II. Documentary evidence -- covers issues like the extent of the
conversion of Khazars to Judaism according to surviving chronicles and
written evidence for the resettlement of German and Czech Jews in Poland

III. Onomastic evidence -- evaluates the names of Jews on the Kievan
Letter, Slavic and Germanic names of early Jews in Lithuania and Belarus,
and surnames of East Ashkenazi Jews

IV. Genetic evidence -- presents the latest data from studies of Jews' Y
DNA, mtDNA, and genetic diseases

V. Linguistic evidence -- discusses the origins of the Yiddish language
and reasons for its eventual dominance among East European Jewish
communities

VI. Archaeological evidence -- provides data on known artifacts of
Khazarian Jews and tombstones of East European Jews

VII. Architectural evidence -- provides examples of synagogue
architectural designs in Eastern Europe that derived from Germany and
Spain and debunks the claim that Polish wooden synagogues were
Khazar-styled

VIII. Conclusions -- I'll quote this section, since it summarizes the
findings in the article: "When the existing evidence is considered in its
entirety, it becomes clear that East European Jews are descended both
from the Jews of the ancient Middle East and from non-Jewish peoples, with
the Israelite component predominating.  The story of the Russian Jews,
according to the most current data, is that of Central European Jews who
migrated eastward and joined with the existing (and apparently smaller)
Jewish communities of the east, including the East Slavic-speaking Jews.
The major periods of immigration included the 13th-15th centuries for mass
migration from Central Europe into Poland and the 15th-17th centuries for
the movement of western Jews further east into today's Belarus and
Lithuania.  The composition of the Central European Jewish component is
not entirely Rhenish, as had been alleged in most 20th-century
scholarship; although many Rhenish Jews did in fact eventually settle in
Eastern Europe, Russian Jewry also includes very substantial origins in
Bohemia, Moravia, southeastern Germany (including Bavaria), Austria, and
eastern Germany.  As for the Khazarian Jews, Iraqi Jews, and Byzantine
Jews, the degree of their impact, if any, upon the demography of Russian
Jews is still uncertain.  Finally, over the past two thousand years, it
appears that more non-Jewish women than men converted to Judaism and
joined Jewish communities in Europe."

Printed copies of the article can be made upon request.  Please contact me
at kbrook at khazaria.com if you want a copy, and I'll provide it for only
the cost of photocopying and shipping.  (I can accept postal money orders
and checks drawn on U.S. funds.)  Eventually the article will also be
obtainable through the interlibrary loan system.

Kevin Alan Brook

Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 19:29:54 -0700
From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] redaction help
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Ok, so I'm going to work on redacting this recipe:
>
> A Jewish Dish of Chicken
>
> Clean the chicken and pound its entrails with almonds, breadcrumbs, a
> little flour, salt, fennel, and cut cilantro; beat it with six eggs and
> the amount of four pounds [?] of water.  Then put the chicken over the
> fire a little and place it in a clean pot with five spoonfuls of sweet
> oil, and do not stop stirring it over the fire in the oil until it is
> lightly browned.  Then make a mash of the stuffing prepared earlier and
> leave it until it is bound together and thickened.  Pour it out and put
> it around the stuffing, adorn with cut rue and fennel, buds of mint,
> and minced almonds, and present it, God willing.

What source are you going from? The Perry translation has two recipes
with ths title. The one close to what you are quoting is:
---
A Jewish Dish of Chicken

Clean the chicken and pound its entrails with almonds, breadcrumbs, a
little flour, salt, and cut-up fennel and cilantro. Beat it with six
eggs and the amount of a quarter ratl of water. Then expose the
chicken over the fire a little and place it in a clean pot with five
spoonfuls of fresh oil, and do not stop turning it on the fire in the
oil until it is well browned. Then cover the contents of the pot with
stuffing prepared earlier and leave it until it is bound together and
wrinkled. Ladle it out and put the stuffing around it, garnish with
cut rue and fennel, eyes of mint, and toasted almonds, and present
it, God willing.
---

There is also:
---
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.

[Bracketed matter in Arabic but not in Huici Miranda's translation.]
---
Is this your translation from Huici Miranda, or the retranslation
from Huici Miranda done by several people that I was distributing
before I got Perry to redo it from the Arabic, or ... ?

The Perry translation is webbed at:

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/ 
andalusian_contents.htm
-- 
David/Cariadoc

Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 20:38:26 -0700
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] redaction help

>> Just curious where the recipe came from. And was any mention made
> of kashering the chicken and especially the heart?
>
> It's from the Anonymous Andalusian, I believe. Someone had posted 'all  
> the "Jewish" labelled recipes' from it, and Stefan put them in the
> Florilegium.

That probably explains it. The version you gave must be from the
English translation of the Spanish translation that I included in
early versions of my cookbook collection. The whole Perry translation
is webbed on my site, and considerably more reliable.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/

Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 10:52:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] A Jewish Dish of Chicken
To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

So, we ran a first test of the chicken dish this weekend.

from Perry's translation of the Andalusian manuscript, webbed on Cariadoc's site:
	Clean the chicken [p. 20, recto] and pound its entrails with
	almonds, breadcrumbs, a little flour, salt, and cut-up fennel and
	cilantro. Beat it with six eggs and the amount of a quarter ratl of water.
	Then expose the chicken over the fire a little and place it in a clean pot
	with five spoonfuls of fresh oil, and do not stop turning it on the fire
	in the oil until it is well browned. Then cover the contents of the pot
	with stuffing prepared earlier and leave it until it is bound together and
	wrinkled. Ladle it out and put the stuffing around it, garnish with cut
	rue and fennel, eyes of mint, and toasted almonds, and present it, God
	willing.

So, what I did:

- I had decided to use chicken pieces because I couldn't figure out how to
handle a whole chicken and thought maybe it would be ok to use chicken
pieces instead. Boneless pieces are just easier to deal with, though I
realize that they take less time to cook. We defrosted about 4 pounds of
chicken breast (ok, we had thought it was boneless chicken breasts but it
turned out to be chicken breast tenders).

- After conversation with the list and with Sarah bas Mordechai who was
raised Orthodox Jewish, we decided that only the liver and the gizzards
would have been used of the innards. We bought chicken livers, but
couldn't find gizzards.

- Chicken livers (in modern times) are 'koshered' by searing with a
flame-- we seared them in a cast-iron pan because we were working with 
an electric stove.

- I chose to grind the almonds finely, and to use store bought fluffy 
cheap white bread for the bread crumbs.

- we didn't have fennel because I forgot to get it. We also didn't have a
tool for mashing the cilantro leaves so they were just cut up with a
knife, not finely minced.

So:

The stuffing:
- about 12 slices of bread, some toasted, ground to breadcrumbs
- about a cup of ground almonds
- leaves from 1/3 of a large bunch of cilantro
- about 1 tablespoon of ground coriander.
- pinch flour
- 4 seared chicken livers, minced and squished
- 6 eggs

I realized too late that 6 eggs were probably too much for this mixture
(we had to add the last 6 slices of bread to make it stuffing-y). So no
water was added. If I do this again for the same size servings, I would
add some water but less eggs.

We sauteed the chicken in a little oil in a deep cast-iron skillet until
it was browned, then combined all the chicken in the skillet and spread
the stuffing on top.

Then we baked it in a 325 degree Farenheit oven for about an hour-- we
might have used a 350 degree oven instead but we were baking bread at 
the time as well.

It came out very good, the spice tastes penetrated through to the chicken
and the stuffing was yummy. We didn't bother with the serving suggestion
but just took it out with a pie server.

However, a little of the stuffing went a long way, so I suspect that next
time I will use crumbs of good, not fluffy-white, bread, and make the
stuffing less moist so it isn't as dense.

We decided that for 40=60 people we will probably only need about one
container of chicken livers to make this... it could have used more
cilantro but I think I like it this way.

My biggest concern is seeing if it can be baked in a covered electric
roaster, as this version was baked uncovered.

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2003 06:35:53 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Book advice
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

Yes, but I haven't seen it.  From some conversations, I was left with the
impression it was interesting, but modern.  

Bear

Has anybody heard of this book? The Sephardic Table : The Vibrant
Cooking of the Mediterranean Jews by Pamela Grau Twena

Elewyiss

Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2003 10:13:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Kosher Feast
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

> Does anyone know of any period Jewish sources, the only think I have  
> is an off hand comment about meat pies on Shabbat in the Shulkhan Aruch.

Well....

There are 5 (count them 5) recipes in the Anonymous Andalusian manuscript
referred to as 'Jewish' and there are a few things mentioned in the
Inquisition records of the conversos (identified as Jewish foods) that  
Are enough information to make an attempt at the recipe.

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 09:57:47 -0700
From: elisabetta at klotz.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] RE: Historical Passover Seder
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

> I received a call from an SCA friend last night with a non-SCA
> historical cooking question.  He is an accomplished professional cook
> mundanely,  recently getting involved in historical cooking through the
> SCA.  It seems  he has volunteered himself to cook a "period seder" for
> his church on next  Maundy Thursday as an example of what the Last
> Supper might have been  like.  He called me asking about books on the subject.
> I told him about A Drizzle of Honey, which is one of the few books on
> historical Jewish cooking that I'm aware of.  Can anyone point me to any
> more resources to share with him?  It's not immediately urgent; he has a
> meeting with the pastor sometime in the fall to share research and a
> potential  menu.
>
> Brangwayna

Claudia Roden has a great book called "The Book of Jewish Food : An Odyssey from
Samarkand to New York".

Drizzle of Honey is about hidden Jews in Spanish American culture, so that would
be late period New World. Roden's book is the best that I have seen.

I have not found any period sources for Jewish food. There is the Adulsian
cookbook, but those recipes seem to about a style of cooking. I contacted the
Medeival Jewish Manuscript program in Israel, and they ran a search for me. At
the time they had close to 6000 Jewish period manuscripts in their archive.
There were 4 hits on foods; none were recipes. 3 were from the same Italian
manuscript.

Historical documentation, like letters, say stuff like this: "I was invited to
eat with the Mayor of the town. They served an unusual fish dish, which was
delicious." Try redacting that one.

There are certain foods that are associated with certain holidays.  Based on the
where and when, I would suggest Sephardic Passover foods, like leeks. I'll have
to do more research on this.

Elisabetta

Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 18:10:59 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Jewish Influence in Spanish Medieval Cookery
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

>    In short my question is: did Jews influence Spanish Medieval
> Cookery? If so precisely in what way and how can I research this
> more? I am fascinated with what my friends in Mallorca say they have
> to offer. . .but not convinced.
> From the dark of the night,
> Sue

The 13th c. Andalusian cookbook that's webbed on my site has a number
of recipes described as jewish in their titles. "A Jewish Dish of
Chicken," "A Stuffed, Buried Jewish Dish," ...

http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/ 
andalusian_contents.htm
-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/

Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 07:14:27 -0700
From: elisabetta at klotz.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: dynamite Jewish dessert
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

Period Jewish desserts:

Cheesecake and honey cake (lekah). For eastern European, poppy seed
cakes/pastries (Mohn torte) and apple cakes/pastries. For Sephardic,  
orange cake, figs or date cakes/pastries and rice pudding.

Another great dessert is teiglach (soup nuts with
honey)(http://www.beliefnet.com/story/42/story_4227_1.html#teiglach). 
 
This is usually made for Passover (with matzah meal) or Rosh Hashana. Not  
sure of it's history, but I've been looking.

Elisabetta

Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 16:41:55 -0700
From: lilinah at earthlink.net
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Jewish Recipes
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

Lyse wrote:
>  Does anyone have a source for period Jewish recipes?

Not really.

There are several recipes identified as Jewish in the Anonymous
Andalusian Cookbook, but that doesn't guarantee they are really
Jewish. However, given the food rules of Muslims and Jews, the dishes
are certainly potentially Jewish...

"A Drizzle of Honey" has recipes invented by the authors based on
slim testimony against Jews by neighbors and servants in late 15th c.
Spain, so they aren't really period Jewish recipes.

I have not noticed any recipes identified as Jewish in other European
cookbooks.
-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita

Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 23:11:57 -0400
From: "Sharon R. Saroff" <sindara at pobox.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Jewish Recipes
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>

> Does anyone have a source for period Jewish recipes?
> Lyse

I have documented some recipes by going to jewish scholarly texts which
note ingredients of certain traditional foods.  For instance,  I have 10
descriptions for charoset from such individuals as Maimonides and the
Sa'adya Goan.  I do refer A drizzle of Honey, but there are a couple of
others that I refer to once I have read the actual rabbinical
references.  Here is a brief list of books that I use:

In Search of Plenty by Oded Schwartz
World of Jewish Cooking by Gil Marks
The Jewish Kitchen by Alena Krekulova & Jana Dolezalova
The Sephardic Holiday Cookbook by Gilda Angel
The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden

I use these books because they provide some historical background on the
recipes.  They do not note how old the recipes are.  I do know that at
least the first 2 books are written by individuals who are Jewish food
historians. A good book for information of types of foods traditionally
eaten on various holidays is The Jewish Festivals by Hayyim Schaus.

Sindara

Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 08:33:00 -0700
From: elisabetta at klotz.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Period Jewish Recipes
To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org

>> I have not noticed any recipes identified as Jewish in other European
>> cookbooks.
>
> They are rather unlikely to turn up there. Unlike in many parts of the
> medieval Muslim world, the Jews of Europe largely lived a parallel existence
> separate from their Christian neighbours after the thirteenth century
> (apparently this was quite different before then, but cookbook manuscripts
> are thin on the ground then). Their written culture was in Hebrew, to the
> point that the Ashkenasi Jews wrote their native tongue - a German dialect -
> in the Hebrew alphabet. If we wanted to find Jewish recipes, that is most
> likely where we must look. Does anyone know of scholarly research in that
> direction? I'm no Hebraist, unfortunately.
>
> Giano

   That sounds logical, but it doesn't exist. About 2 years I contacted
the Jewish manuscript project, which at the time at about 6700 Jewish
medeival and Ren manuscripts in their database, in all different
languages.

They ran a search for me. There was 1 possible hit in a Italian
manuscript. It described a fish dish. That's it. A fish dish. What
type of fish? How was it cooked? No mention.

I have not found any period sources for Jewish recipes. I read the
"Jewish" recipes in the Andulsion Cookbook as a style and technique
direction, more than a recipe.

There is historical data to what was eaten, and when based on holidays
and seasons, but no actual recipes. They were all handed down orally.

My search continues, but based on information we have, it is very
doubtful that we will find any recipes sources. The best example of
the oral tradition is when the Jews were kicked out of the sugar
business. Since none of the processes were written down, it took about
50 years for the Christian sugar traders to figure out how to process
the cane correctly.

Due to the open nature of the culture in Germany and Italy, those are
the best places to look. I have been checking out the di Medici papers
(http://www.medici.org/jewish/) on and off, as they are taking a long
time translating.

Elisabetta

Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 10:45:53 -0400
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] found by the side of the search
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>

I'm once again working with the Chocolate research of someone editing
Madame de Sevigny's letters, and she's looking for background material
on the development of medicinal food theory in 17th-18th c. France.

Anyway, this article popped up as I was searching:
Medieval French food for Jewish New Year:
http://www.triviumpublishing.com/articles/medievaljewishnewyear.html
-- 
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net 

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