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Title: A Drizzle of Honey: The Life and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews by David M. Gitlitz, Linda Kay Davidson ISBN: 0-312-26730-4 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 25 September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.25 (12 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: cookbook, absorbing history of Jewish Inquisition victims
Comment: My review of this book would have to paraphrase that of "distinctive crypto jewish cusine"--this is the history of my grandmother's kitchen. There had been many indications that my family had had jewish origins, and this book reinforces that belief on every page. I used to think of my grandmother as the "swiss chard queen"; here I learned that it's a primary crypto jewish food, the injestion of which could have led one to be a victim of the inqisition for "judaizing." Not only is it a cookbook, as has been noted elsewhere, but a poignant, close-up history of those unfortunate souls persecuted by the spanish simply because they were jews. The recipes are all do-able and just like grandma used to make.
Rating: 5
Summary: When chicken soup got you killed instead of healed
Comment: I came across this in the shelves the other day and was mesmerized. David Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson are a husband and wife team and teachers at the the University of Rhode Island. David is a past winner of the 1996 National Jewish Book Award, and he is a specialist in aljamas (jewish neighborhoods), the converso/crypto Jews, the anusim (forced converts) and the meshumadim (willing coverts). Using cookbooks and Inquisition documents in Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan (including the rare 13th Century Al Andalus cookbook of the Cocina Hispano-Magribi), the authors have recreating over 90 recipes of the Converso jewish community. During the Inquisitions in the Iberian peninsula, Jews and Moslems were killed, exiled, or converted. Some of the converted remained Jewish or Moslem and became Crypto-Jews, Crypto-Moslems, or Conversos. Spain expelled Jews in 1492 (you know, when Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue); Portugal expelled Jews in 1497. The recipes are well categorized, and make use of lamb, beef, fish, eggplant, greens, turnips, chickpeas, as well as mace, cinnamon, ginger, lavender, rue, portulaca, and dozens of other spices. Most recipes include histories and characters of the period, which is the prime motivation to purchase this book. For example, along of the recipes of Beatrice Nunez, we learn that she was arrested in 1485. Her maid turned her in to the Inquisition for the crime of maintaining a kosher kitchen. She also prepared a Sabbath stew of lamb, chickpeas and eggs. Proof enough to have her burned at the stake. Among my favorite recipes is Mayor Gonzalez's Egg and Carrot Casserole. She was imprisoned in 1483 for killing a goose in "the Jewish way." Then there is Juan Sanchez's hamin of chickpeas, spinach and cabbage; and Maria de Luna's rasquillas, honey pastries that she prepared for the post-Yom Kippur fast. She was arrested in 1505 for this crime. There is also Juan de Teva's Roast Lamb dish. Juan's father was a rabbi who was burned to death i n1484. The authors also include the Roast Chicken with Fruit and Almori recipe of Anton de Montoro. Senor de Montoro was a rag merchat in Cordoba, but is most well known as being the converso poet to the Court of Queen Isabel of Castile. De Montoro was accused of preparing stuffed radishes (a Jewish dish) and Pollo Judio (jewish chicken). Easily, this is among the top three Jewish Cookbooks of the year.
Rating: 2
Summary: I Lost my Appetite
Comment: Sorry, I was looking for cool kosher Spanish recipes. The title "A Drizzle of Honey" sounded good but....
In front of each recipe is a story about someone who was tortured or burned at the stake or persecuted. Some of the descriptions are quite graphic, for example, a woman was tortured by putting a thin cloth over her mouth and the pouring a jug of water in which gave her the sensation of drowning. At the last moment, they pulled the cloth out, and she told them anything they wanted. She begged only to die, but they did it to her again. Following is her recipe for heaven-knows-what -- I'm not hungry anymore.
In another vignette, a daughter turns her mother in to be burned at the stake, by reporting that her mother threw a crucifix down the latrine. Another recipe follows.
It *was* a fascinating study of the Inquisition, but as a cookbook, it's terrible. Don't let the pretty picture on the cover fool you.
For now, I'll stick with my 1,000 Jewish Recipes book, which contains some healthy Sephardic recipes.
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Title: The Sephardic Table : The Vibrant Cooking of the Mediterranean Jews by Pamela Grau Twena ISBN: 0395892600 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 15 August, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Scent of Orange Blossoms: Sephardic Cuisine from Morocco by Kitty Morse, Danielle Mamane, Owen Morse ISBN: 1580082696 Publisher: Ten Speed Press Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Original Mediterranean Cuisine: Medieval Recipes for Today by Barbara Santich ISBN: 155652272X Publisher: Chicago Review Press Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy by Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, Silvano Serventi, Patricia Glee Smith, Edward Schneider ISBN: 0226706850 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: The Foods of Israel Today by Joan Nathan ISBN: 0679451072 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 06 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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