A Drizzle of Honey : The Lives and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews [Hardcover]

David M. Gitlitz (Author), Dr. Linda Kay Davidson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1999

When tens of thousands of Iberian Jews were converted to Catholicism under duress during the Inquisition, many rapidly assimilated to their new religious culture. Others, the crypto-Jews, struggled to retain their Jewish identity in private while projecting Christian conformity in the public sphere. In order to root out these "heretics," the courts of the Inquisition published checklists of Jewish household habits and koshering practices and grilled the servants, neighbors, and even the children of those suspected of practicing their religion at home.

From these testimonies and other primary sources, Gitlitz and Davidson have drawn a fascinating picture of the secret culinary life of the crypto-Jews and the customs and foods that threatened their existence while securing their precarious sense of identity. From nearly a hundred specific references to Sephardic cuisine, the authors have recreated these recipes. They combine Christian and Islamic traditions in cooking lamb, beef, fish, eggplants, chickpeas, and greens and use seasonings such as saffron, mace, ginger, and cinnamon. These recipes, with accompanying text that tells the stories of their creators, promise to delight the adventurous palate and give insights into the foundations of modern Sephardic cuisine.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A husband-and-wife team of University of Rhode Island professors presents a cookbook of medieval recipes that is, more significantly, a document of religious persecution during the Spanish Inquisition. Sixteen pages of endnotes and a six-page bibliography attest to its authority. Thousands of Iberian Jews were forced to convert to Christianity in the late 15th century, and while many assimilated, others clung to earlier customs?including dietary edicts. Gitlitz and Davidson report trial testimonies in which crypto-Jews?those who secretly struggled to maintain their Jewish identity and customs?were betrayed by what they ate, what they wouldn't eat and how their food was prepared. Recipes reconstructed for today's kitchens include dishes such as Isabel Gonzalez's Eggplant and Onion Stew and Blanca Ramierez's Meatball Stew. Another revealing dish is Radishes and Stuffed Crop, skin from chicken necks stuffed with radishes and herbs. Many meals reflect a fondness for the sweetness of honey and the savory blend of herbs and spices. They range from Mayor Gonzalez's Cold White Lamb Casserole, made with rose water, cinnamon and almond milk, to five different matzas, including one with mashed chestnuts. Gitlitz and Davidson offer an erudite look into both culinary and Jewish history.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The "secret Jews" are the Iberian Jews who were forcibly converted to Catholicism under the Spanish Inquisition but still maintained Jewish religious practices in the privacy of their homes. Since this was strictly forbidden, the courts devoted a lot of time to ferreting out the "secret Jews," using the testimony of neighbors, servants, and family members. The authors, specialists in Spanish history and culture, have written a meticulously researched scholarly work focusing on this aspect of the Inquisition, using a variety of primary sources but relying mostly on the testimony of those questioned and often sentenced to imprisonment or worse. From these sources, they have re-created dozens of medieval recipes. While their efforts to discover and preserve this aspect of Jewish heritage are laudable, perhaps the idea of a cookbook was misguided. A recipe headnote that concludes "Maria went to the stake on November 20, 1486" is unlikely to make many readers feel like making Maria Sanchez's Greens. For religious/cultural history collections and some specialized cookery collections.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 332 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (January 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312198604
• ISBN-13: 978-0312198602
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #889,408 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When chicken soup got you killed instead of healed, May 16, 1999

By 

Larry Mark "editor of MyJewishBooks.com" (nyc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Drizzle of Honey : The Lives and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews (Hardcover)

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.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars cookbook, absorbing history of Jewish Inquisition victims, December 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: A Drizzle of Honey : The Lives and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews (Hardcover)

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.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent piece of scholarship; so-so as a cookbook, October 11, 2000

By 

Courtney L. Lewis "Sassy Librarian" (Kingston, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Drizzle of Honey : The Lives and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews (Hardcover)

David Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson have successfully compiled numerous recipes from the medieval timeperiod. As a vegetarian, this book was of little use to me in the kitchen (three-quarters of the recipes are meat based) but if I did eat meat, some of the stews would probably be delicious and easily adapted to a crockpot! The real strength of this book comes from the meticulous scholarship of the authors who give a fascinating glimpse into the lives of conversos (Jews living as Christians for survival). In many of the stories (and a little vignette accompanies each recipe), jealous neighbors or suspicious gentile servants reveal the outcomes of their spying on their neighbors (my favorite being the servant who noted that her mistress must definitely be a Jew since she uncomplainingly leapt into bed with her husband on Friday night in contrast to all the other days of the week!). Gitlitz and Davidson pain an excellent picture of medieval life in close quarters and successfully transmit the constant stress and tension in the lives of these individuals trying to straddle two worlds.