Secret Foods of the Spanish Inquisition

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LINKS TO SOURCES**
A Drizzle of Honey by David M. Gitlitz and Linda Kay Davidson: amzn.to/3gyf0CY
The Spanish Inquisition by Henry Kamen: amzn.to/3B9EbVX
RECIPE
1 cup (160g) dried fava beans
1 cup (180g) dried chickpeas
2 1/2 lbs or 1kg beef
¼ cup (60ml) Olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 large onion diced
1 quart (1L) beef broth or water
2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 teaspoon ground caraway
2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 Eggplant, peeled and chopped
A large handful of chard leaves
1.Coat the eggplant in salt, cover, and set aside for several hours.
2. Boil the fava beans and chickpeas in a large pot for 2 minutes, then drain and set aside. In the same pot, heat half of the olive oil over medium heat then, add the onions and half of the salt and cook until lightly brown, about 8 minutes. Remove the onions and add the beef to the empty pot with the rest of the oil and salt. Cook until lightly brown, about 5 minutes. Add the onions back in as well as the beef broth/water. Bring to a simmer and cover, letting the stew simmer for 1 hour.
3. Drain and rinse the eggplant, then add it into the pot along with the fava bean, chickpeas, and spices. Cover and let cook for another 2 hours.
4. Chop the chard, then pound it flat with a rolling pin, and add it into the pot. Set the pot into the oven at 200°F and cook overnight (or at least 6 hours). Alternately, you can transfer the adafina to a slow cooker overnight. Serve alone or over rice.
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Subtitles: Jose Mendoza | IG @ worldagainstjose
#tastinghistory #jewishcooking #spanishinquisition

[@TastingHistory]

Lots of conversation about this video in the comments! Also feel free to join in on Reddit or Discord: Reddit ► www.reddit.com/r/TastingHistory/ Discord ► discord.gg/d7nbEpy

[@DavidRamirez-gk6yi]

Hey Max, as a Sephardic Jew myself, thank you for this nod to Sephardic cooking via Converso history. Just a couple of correctives, the word "Marrano" is an anti-Semitic word used by non-Jewish Spaniards to denigrate the Converso population -- it means little piglet (referring to being "recently" born Christian, and alluding that this animal is forbidden for Jewish consumption -- double injury). Interestingly enough, the Church officials never used it, just the common stupid folk who hated Jews used it. Yeah, I know, a lot of scholars, mainly Ashkenazi, do use the term, and it has been normalized in academia since the 19th century -- but they do not know any better, or they just do not like the Sephardim. Don't worry, I am not offended by you using it, so do not go crazy and edit the video for fear it being censored by KZbin. Anyway... I digress... Also, when Toráh-observant (i.e. religious) Jews boil meat, we shave off the foam that it forms, as this is the blood of the meat that is released through the cooking process, and as you probably know, we are also forbidden to eat blood. Third observation, besides being called Adafina, Hamín or Transnochado, we also call it Cocido, for which there are tons of recipes in the Hispanic world, a Jewish contribution that still survives in Iberian and Ibero-American cooking 🙂. Otherwise, excellent work!

[@gbarnardoh]

@@DavidRamirez-gk6yi Maybe the thing about skimming off the foam is a Sephardic thing. I am an observant Ashkenazi Jew, and my understanding is that, once the meat has been soaked and salted, any remaining liquid that might look like blood doesn't count. People skim the foam off boiling meat for aesthetic reasons, and a spoon used for that purpose is called a shamleffel (foam spoon).

[@willgreen9719]

@@gbarnardoh prior to the widespread proliferation of salt and the ease in which meat can be ritually salted and removed of blood, boiling was done in certain communities. As for the degrading term Morano, my entire family is spanish, north african jews and they were prosecuted in the inquisition. They all use the term, so the infighting seems nonsense to me.

[@FoodNerds]

Am I the only one who was more than a little turned off by the Silence of the Lambs movie when it came to eating fava beans?

[@DavidRamirez-gk6yi]

@@gbarnardoh I cannot quote you the pesaq halakháh right now, but my understanding is that if you're going to use the broth, then it has to be skimmed, but if you are not going to use it, then just take the meat out when cooked, and throw the broth. In cases when you are going to boil the meat, bake, or grill it, the meat does not need to be salted -- as long as it does not cook on those juices.

[@zombiemanjosh]

Of every topic, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition.

[@technicallythecenteroftheu1349]

Of course. Their chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear. Their two chief weapons are surprise, fear, and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope.

[@shredderly]

No one expects the Spanish inquisition.

[@northstarpokeshipper2148]

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!

[@zombiemanjosh]

@@technicallythecenteroftheu1349 I gotta watch some Flying Circus on my lunch break today.

[@imhigh0013]

Oy vey!!

[@bloomingtoncreativeglassce7365]

I am so pleased to see you using the book a drizzle of honey. It was written by my father and stepmother and was quite a labor of love. We spent months taste testing recipes. He actually found the oldest known recipe for charoset, a traditional Passover dish. He found it after the manuscript had been approved and they had to stop the presses in order to add this historically significant recipe.

[@TastingHistory]

Really?! It's absolutely wonderful as are your father's articles. I'll have to take a look at the charoset. They really created something special in that book and I'm only sad that I can't speak with them about it.

[@DIEGhostfish]

The title reminds me of my friend once asking if Honey was kosher. We're not jewish but I knew enough I had to say "You know it's called the land of Milk and Honey for a reason right? Would be kinda weird if it was the land of milk and that thing we're not allowed to eat"

[@brt5273]

Wish you could manage a re-release. I could not find a copy for less than $119 soft cover and that was used. At least there is an Ebook version.

[@farticlesofconflatulation]

@@DIEGhostfish honey in the biblical sense was more likely a date syrup. But I digress.

[@TheRealNormanBates]

@@DIEGhostfish I can _totally_ hear Mel Brooks saying this.

[@IMfromNYCity]

My Scoutmaster originally came from Mexico. When he was growing up, he noticed that his mother never put cheese and meat in the same dish. When he asked his mother why, she said that she didn't know other than her own mother did the same thing (and she didn't know the reason either, other than family tradition). Later, when my Scoutmaster went to school in Los Angeles, he discovered that the meat and cheese separation was part of kosher. He began to research his family's genealogy, and he discovered that not only his mother's family (Moreno), but also his father's family (Cardenas) had Sephardic Jewish roots. The earliest history he could find was that both of his ancestral families originally lived in Sicily around the 10th century, which was then under Arab Muslim control. After the Normans conquered the island in the early 1100s, the Normans expelled the Jews and Muslims, and most of them (including my Scoutmasters ancestors) fled to Spain. 400 years later when the Reconquista was complete and the Spanish Inquisition came, my Scoutmaster's ancestors fled to Mexico in hopes of avoiding the eyes of the Inquisition and thus continue their religion in secret. They actually first arrived in Nuevo Leon, which was then under the control of the Carabajal Family, who were secretly Jewish and thus allowed the Marranos some freedom of worship. Unfortunately, the Spanish Inquisition sailed into Mexico eventually, and they made their presence known to Mexico's Jewish community by burning to death the Carabajal family. After that brutal show of force, my Scoutmaster's family slowly became Catholics over the next centuries, although they somehow managed to retain certain practices from their Jewish roots like separating meat and cheese in their dishes.

[@jdane2277]

There are Catholic families in New Mexico who also traditionally do not eat pork and light candles on Friday night. They are considered to have descended from Maranos or the hidden Jews who fled Spain.

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

Fascinating!

[@hotmixxable]

Fascinating and tragic. Just Horrible!!

[@johnisaacfelipe6357]

The Spanish Inquisition is probably the best documented one out of all of the inquisitions, as the amount of document both produced and preserved is absolutely immense. It is also the one that has the biggest impact in popular culture, in no small part due to the Monty Python's sketch on the Inquisition never being expected. So, what do the numbers say? The most exhaustive study up to now is still the one by Henry Kamen titled "The Spanish Inquisition, a historical revision". According to the documents he managed, which are the ones in the Archivo Histórico Nacional, where there are not only the documents from the Council of the Supreme Inquisition but also from territorial tribunals such as the tribunal of Llerena or the tribunal of Toledo, throughout the 350 odd years the Inquisition was active, it initiated some 350,000 procedures which resulted in 50,000 guilty verdicts, and 3,500 death sentences of which some 2,000 were actually carried out (the other 1,500 were executions "in effigy" which means that it was carried out away from the purview of the inquisitor, probably surrendered to the secular court for execution). The Spanish Inquisition was far more thorough than the civilian courts of justice in the matter of the onus probandi, always going the principles of "in dubio pro reo" and the concept of reasonable doubt. They were also not quite keen on the employment of torture, as it was of very dubious efficacy for extracting actual confessions. On this matter I shall quote the Instucciones by Diego de Deza from the year 1500, as he put forward the point very eloquently: 49. [...] Experience teaches us that the accused, in that agony, would confess anything that is suggested to them, which causes damages to third parties, and occasion for their confessions to be revoked. 50. The Inquisitors shall carefully examine whether the sentence of torment is justified or not, and preceded by legitimate evidence. In case they have issues with this, or doubts, as the damage could be irreparable, for in cases of heresy interlocutory sentences can be appealed, shall then the appeal be granted. [...] When in doubt, appeal shall always be granted. Also, the sentence of torment shall not be executed until the cause is concluded, and having received the accused's defendants. 53. Twenty four hours having passed after the torment, the accused shall ratify his confessions, and in case he revokes them, he shall be repaired as provided by the Law. There were also some serious procedural guarantees, such as having the right to be assisted by an attorney, and in case you could not afford one, he would be paid at the tribunal's expense, as the court would normally have some funds set aside for these contingencies. It was also not necessarily a religious court, as the Instrucciones indicate that tribunals shall be consitituted by one jurist and one theologian, or two jurists, but never two theologians. Concerning the convictions, the Inquisition would normally impose an abjuration de levi for first time offenders, with public pennance and pecuniary punishment (paying for a number of masses and some fines), an abjuration de vehementi for second time offenders, confiscation and public auction of goods for relapse convicts, and for extremely grave offenses you would get "relaxed to the secular arm" id est public execution. For example, didn't the Sephardic Jews run away because of the Spanish Inquisition? Kind of. They ran away because they were expelled via the Edict of the Alhambra or Edict of Granada of 1492. With the Reconquista over and the last Muslim bastion conquered, the Catholic Monarchs decided to have religious unity, and that meant no jews. Of course, things get complicated from then on. The jews had two options: converting of leaving. Conversion was not always seen in a good light, as it may be seen as insincere, that is why there was a very heavy scrutiny by envious neighbours always willing to screw over that succesful former jewish neighbour. High-class jews did not quite have those problems, with the most notorious case being Abraham Seneor, chief tax officer of Segovia prior to 1492 and moneylender to the Crown, and who held the same office after the Edict of Granada having converted to Christianity and taken the name Fernán Núñez Coronel, even becoming the genearch of a very wealthy lineage in Segovia. Conversos had different levels of scrutiny in different parts of Spain. In Burgos, the conversos tended to be very rich and succesful, very active in commerce and finance, with names as important as the lineages of Ossorio, Lerma, Salamanca, Santa Cruz, or Cartagena. One of the Cartagenas, Alonso, went as far as to claim that conversos are truer knights than the old Christians, as the new Christians had to actually make efforts into the faith (with many of the conversos becoming ardent defenders of catholicism), while the old ones were simply born into it. These conversos of Burgos were protected by the Constable of Castile against the Archbishop of Toledo, no less. In 1547, Juan Martínez Guijarro instituted the Statutes of Blood Purity, forbidding any person with any conversos in the past four generations of their pedigree from holding public office. The conversos from Burgos were so prominent and held so many offices, that the Constable decided to not enforce the Statutes, and went as far as to tell Guijarro that if he wanted to enforce them in Burgos, then he should come at the head of an army. The Spanish Inquisition never cared all that much about "witchcraft", they had bigger fish to fry, like the alumbrados or the lutherans. Furthermore, after the famous Zugarramurdi case, which was full of irregularities, was appealed by one Inquisitor (Alonso de Salazar Frías) to the Council of the Supreme Inquisition, the Supreme Council set jurisprudence that "witchcraft" was not real. Witchcraft only existed in the minds of envious neighbours and people acting in bad faith, or either collective hysteria. Up to Zugarramurdi, the number of "witches" executed by the Spanish Inquisition was 59, and then it stopped thanks to the good sense and expertise of Alonso de Salazar (who was of converso ancestry from Burgos, by the way). So your claim that this person was burned is incredibly suspect.

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

@@johnisaacfelipe6357 There are a relatively good number of sources for the execution of at least nine members of the Carabajal family. Also, what you say about the Inquisition is true, but I think it's important to emphasize that, while their methods were clearly far more legally sound than most of the courts in Europe at the time, their directive was still to eliminate religious freedom in the Spanish realm and to punish those that didn't conform.

[@ceciliaramos7034]

Being Portuguese, I’m hoping you do an episode on homemade alheira choriço. Started as a means of pretending to be Christian by having what looked to be pork sausage in your kitchen, but was actually made with game meat or fowl, spiced up to look like typical pork sausage and stretched with bread because, hey we’re poor we need to make the most of what protein we have (that’s why the texture is off). Now it’s a beloved Portuguese sausage in all its iterations.

[@Thingsandcosas]

Very interesting!

[@RevShifty]

I'm neither Portuguese nor religious, but that sounds amazing. Thanks for the head's up, I'm going to have to look up some recipes. Any recommendations for places to look for good ones?

[@ceciliaramos7034]

@@RevShifty There are very regional varieties of alheiras. Farinheiras are also of Jewish origin. Depends on what you like. Just start searching for Portuguese alheira recipes. There is a huge regional debate on enchidos (sausages) in Portugal. I’m not a fan of linguiça, I prefer chouriça de Arganil caseiro. Those are fighting words with someone not from my area of Portugal!

[@RevShifty]

@@ceciliaramos7034 Thanks so much. It looks like I have a lot of researching and cooking to do, which is great because those are some of my favorite ways to spend free time. Getting to eat them all helps, too. I only understood some of those Portuguese words you used, and mostly just from context. But if I bump into you again after about a year and lots of practice making what I find and start trying to pick a fight over favorite sausages, it's just my way of saying thanks.

[@ceciliaramos7034]

@@RevShifty Watch out if you start researching bacalhau recipes! We have more recipes than days in a year, as the joke goes. My favorite is Bacalhau a Gomes de Sá. But all the recipes you find online for that have been fancied up! Not the way Mom made it. Yes, traditionally, takes boiled eggs and Portuguese black olives (saw Kalamata olives in one recipe - sacrilege!), but Mom never added them. Gasp! None of this caramelized onions stuff either, that’s Food Network corruption. You bake the bacalhau, potatoes, onions and olive oil all at once in the same dish. DON’T FORGET TO SOAK THE BACALHAU. Bacalhau refers to dry salt cod, bacalhau fresco referes to fresh (not dry salt) cod. Have fun researching Portuguese cuisine, and while you are at it, if you drink wine, research Portuguese wines!

[@amitsiovitz4000]

The main purpose of Chamin in our house was to drive the family crazy with the smells escaping the pot for over 15 hours.... 15 hours of mouth watering anticipation

[@Con5tantine]

I'd go crazy. This sounds amazing ☺

[@marialiyubman]

And then 30 minutes of eating And 15 hours on the toilet. 😂

[@amitsiovitz4000]

@@marialiyubman All good things have a price

[@shahaking]

@@marialiyubman I have to agree on that one - after all of the family members have had their full, the entire house becomes...how to put it gently...gassy. be careful not to light a match😁

[@bsteven885]

At first I thought you said CHARMIN! 😯 (SNL ref. to Emily Latella: "... Never mind!") But some comments make it seem like people may need it AFTER the Chamin... 😂😂😂

[@TheDiplomancer]

There was a woman in my temple who found out she was descended from Marranos when she was young. Every Friday night, her grandmother would take her down to the basement to light candles, and no one knew the reason, not even her grandmother. It was just something their family had always done. And then she looked into it and traced the reason back to the Spanish Inquisition. That's when she decided to convert to Judaism, to sort of "return" to the culture her family lost.

[@Kahandran]

That's fascinating

[@marialiyubman]

Wow.. yeah, that happens more often than you think..

[@willemventer3935]

Just show forced conversion never really work. The inquisition charged people for the most ridiculous reasons and conversions were never ever really accepted .

[@limecilla7612]

Also, something that's usually lost on a lot of people is that a very high number of people accused of being crypto-jewish by the Inquisition were women - because a lot of usual accusations were based on customs, like preparation for Sabbath or daily cooking, that were done by them. Also, women were the ones that passed on these customs to younger generations. Men were usually accused of verbally atacking the catholic dogma or the Church as an institution (some of these men were even priests, or had some relationship to the church), and these kinds of acts sometimes were not easily distinguishable from Protestant claims in trials.

[@blairbug]

That’s beautiful. I’m Jewish and it warms my heart to hear that someone felt the urge to go back to their roots.

[@ntheg]

As a Sfardi jew it's so strange hearing a dish we eat every week be discussed like this. Great vid thanks

[@SewardWriter]

Hey, Tribe! 💙

[@MrsZion613]

We are a Jewish family and have been waiting a long time for you to do some Jewish food! We're Ashkenazic (of German/eastern European descent), not Sephardic, but my kids and I were very appreciative of this fascinating (if sad) excursion into the history of our Sephardic siblings. We'd love for you to show us more Jewish recipes from times ancient and modern - there is so much interesting food lore to draw from! Thank you for your excellent program.

[@neinundnein6358]

But this dish is very traditional even in eastern Europe. In Hungary non-Jewish people like it as well. Ok, they put different ingredients into it. No wonder, the South Europeans had other stuff, but then, you can see how many varieties there are even in Eastern Europe. Or just see what the ashkenazi immigrants make of it in the USA. You scarcely recognize it!

[@omer1996d2]

For the same reasons that the IDF can't desecrate Shabbat hamin is also a very popular saturday mess hall meal.

[@M4th3u54ndr4d3]

Ashkenazi call adafina by a different name: cholent

[@neinundnein6358]

@@M4th3u54ndr4d3 Wikipedia says that cholent/cholet from the french or spanish word for "warm" (chaloir, chalant), and it came in medieval times from those sephards to Hungary. Howewer, there should be some traditional prehistoric dish of the same kind, with beans and barley and smoked meat, and of course without those mediteranean ingredients. So I think that as usual in such cases, your people adapted the traditional Jewish dish to the local situation

[@GaviLazan]

@@omer1996d2 but the IDF chamin is really horrible. Not like any cholent or chamin I've ever had.

[@Lauren.E.O]

Hanging chorizo to ward off the inquisitors was the Spanish equivalent of hanging garlic to ward off the vampires. If I had to choose, I’d rather deal with a vampire than the Inquisition.

[@oneblacksun]

At least with vampires, you can just not let them in. The Spanish Inquisition inquires whether you like it or not.

[@limecilla7612]

@roy dunn or the contrary! When my grandfather was a child, he lived in his grandparents farm, and slept just next to the room where they hanged chorizos and hams to season. He sneakily entered the room every night to nibble on a bit. His grandfather thought at first it was rats, but later he found him on the spot, and that got him spanked.

[@prismus6520]

Little do you know, you won't expect a Spanish vampire inquisition!

[@ragnkja]

Use both, just to be safe.

[@Justanotherconsumer]

@roy dunn for me chorizo would just attract and lure me in like a honey pot.

[@stevemonkey6666]

There are many versions of this dish in Jewish cuisine. The Hungarian Jewish version is Solet ("sholet") which consists of slow and long cooked dried beans, barley, onions, smoked meat, paprika and caraway seeds. A similar dish is cholent. Solet is one of my favorite things to eat in the world...

[@lightdanger]

Cholent being the Yiddish word for "hot meal" (more or less) these dishes would be all over Jewish cooking under different names with different recipes based on the region

[@judit576]

Imádom!

[@ronmaximilian6953]

Hungarians actually have adopted the dish, but cook it with pork. I've had it in a Hungarian restaurant, but it just didn't feel right.

[@Fixtheproblemwithgoodpolicy]

Yes, this is definitely a version of cholent.

[@photinodecay]

I can't help but wonder if the word "soylent" was somehow based on the name for this dish...

[@maormedina5065]

As a Sephardi Jew, I thank you. It's hard to find pieces of our history since the inquisition tried to eliminate every trace... my ancestors fled Medina del Campo in Spain as soon as that mess started, and except for one book and many stories, not much is left about the family's true story, so even this recipe helps me feel closer to my own personal history.

[@5secsofspainx]

have you ever been to medina del campo?

[@ana_d_73]

My ancestors fled to Mexico to escape the Inquisition. They eventually turned to Catholicism around the turn of the century, but some of our Jewish past remains in the family recipes passed down through the generations. It's sad that our family has had their past erased like thisa, but at least we can say that some of our heritage survived, and that others, like your family, survived too and still practice the original faith. :)

[@maormedina5065]

@@5secsofspainx sadly, no... but a relative of mine have been there to check historical documents that confirmed my family came from there

[@TonyAlmeida610]

Wow! Interestingly there is a dish from Tunisia that is called "madfouna", which has the same Arabic root of dafina. It's also of Jewish origin (Jewish Tunisians call it bkaila also) and has fatty beef and some herb that look like chard. Maybe was it brought by Jewish Spaniards settling around Tunis. That makes me think of an episode idea, a period of history rarely spoken about: north African Jewish cuisine (from the Jewish migration following the reconquista to the "pieds noirs" cuisine if you want a more modern take)

[@lkriticos7619]

You might be on to something. I think a lot of people fleeing Spain after the Alhambra decree went to Tunisia.

[@liwiathan]

Fun for the next star wars party

[@lydiathornton1999]

Probably, since a lot of North African Jews have connections to the Old Spanish Jewish community.

[@-jank-willson]

@@lkriticos7619 and morroco and algeria

[@laurencalin3755]

Pkaila is made with confit spinach. :) Moroccan Jews still call their stew "dafina" or "adafina."

[@rokushou]

Taking a wild guess on the background Pokemon. Espeon has the magic bounce ability (reflects non-damaging moves back at the user) and is rarely used in competitive teams. Hence, "nobody expects" using a non-damaging move only to have your opponent switch to an espeon and reflect it.

[@TastingHistory]

⬆️ This

[@KetchupwithMaxandJose]

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@darekkonik9186]

I didn't expect that

[@shaunacorrigan9372]

Thank you for this, cuz I was really struggling with coming up with a tie in!

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Nobody expects the Spanish... Inqu-Espeon?

[@frenchiberrutti5520]

Hola, Max, tu pronunciación del español está muy bien ;) Saludos desde Argentina

[@TastingHistory]

Gracias 🙏

[@GothosRedux]

Jose has taught Matt how to be a cunning linguist.

[@franciscoromero966]

@@TastingHistory Only it is Estéban, not Estebán ;-) but very good other than that!

[@aramere3650]

I'm proud to have understood this sentence, knowing only as much Spanish as Dora the Explorer taught me when I was 3.

[@Nemo_Anom]

@@franciscoromero966 I, in all my life, have never heard Esteban from a fellow hispanohablante say "Esteban". It's "Estevan". And Adafina has a soft d.

[@MrRedeemedAssassin]

This is a really wonderful video! My Mother's family can trace their ancestry back to when they left Spain in 1492 when the edict against Jews was issued. They emigrated to the Ottoman Empire, living in Italy, and eventually moved to the Isle of Rhodes. I am only here today because they saw the signs of war in the 1910's and some of them emigrated again to America (all the way to Seattle, as far away as they could get they reasoned). Those who stayed ended up being killed in the Holocaust. We don't have our relatives, or the local history for our former homes, all we have are the recipes my Great Grandmother brought over with her, and even most of those are gone, as my Grandma only passed down several dozen of her favorites to us by memory. No recipe cards used, only teaching from memory, mother to daughter. As a budding chef I have been working to recreate my Grandmother's and Great Grandmother's recipes so I can record them for our family for the future. Seeing a recipe like this which goes back to my family's earliest known origins is truly fascinating to me, and feels like learning about a past I never got to know about (we are Americans, as my Grandma would say, as she refused to teach us any of her parent's Ladino or Spanish and told us to learn America's history). Thank you for making this video, especially about such a very niche Jewish community which is very unheard of to most people.

[@vivaportugalhabs]

With many people hanging chouriço outside their doors as you mentioned, Portuguese conversos developed alheira, a sausage that looks pretty close to the pork one but is made of chicken. It remains pretty popular in Portugal today actually!

[@luchadorito]

Wow I never thought of the fact that the Sephardim had their own local version of Cholent. I mean it makes sense that they do but I was so used to the garlic-heavy, barley-based Askenazi(Central European) version

[@aramere3650]

There is a lot of really great Sephardic food out there! if you can find a cookbook in English or any other language you speak, there is plenty of food from the Spanish years, as well as of all the other countries in Europe and North Africa where Sephardim went.

[@TheDiplomancer]

I was just going to say that! It's Sephardi cholent! And I love cholent, so I'm definitely going to try this out. Though I'll probably still prefer Askhie cholent because it's what I grew up with.

[@aramere3650]

@@TheDiplomancer what's great is, Cholent, Hamin, Adafina, its really just a style of slow cooking! you can use almost any ingredients, and embrace any flavor profile!

[@HeyNonyNonymous]

Every Jewish community has its own version.

[@ElisaAvigayil]

@@aramere3650 Try "Aromas of Aleppo."

[@daveandgena3166]

Eggplants get bitter as they mature and develop seeds. They also have a super short shelf life which contributes to bitterness. Best thing to do is get smaller fruit and cook your eggplant the day (literally) you buy it. Growing an eggplant plant is totally worth it if you get hot summers, they're really kind of pretty! The ending of the episode really hit me hard. It was important to hear, though. I'm glad you shared it.

[@patricialynveal4017]

It is a night shade plant, that in general like original peppers and tomatoes makes it bitter, warning: we could be a poison, taste vibe

[@Kimichitsuzuku]

Japanese eggplant is often milder & sweeter than Italian eggplant varieties. I've grown them several times in patio planters.

[@kathleenhensley5951]

I tried growing it so i could make an Italian dish... I waited too long to harvest it! Our summers are hot but quick. We don't even warm up seriously until mid June. My mother made the most delicious marinated eggplant imaginable. It is almost impossible to find good quality eggplant in the supermarket.

[@marialiyubman]

Pro tip: Once you cover them in a salt-rub for about 30 minutes most of the bitterness goes away along with the liquids. Also, cover the eggplants in a cup of tomatoe paste, crushed garlic and 3-4 tablespoons of coconut oil (or beef tallow), and put in the oven on medium-low for like 30 minutes until soft. (Why did I add a recipe in a comment? I’m sorry lol I can’t help it).

[@pattheplanter]

I find rosemary takes away the bitterness when they are cooked together for a while.

[@fishbein42]

As you mentioned, the name of the dish, adafina, is clearly Arabic. دفين (dafīn) means "buried" or even "secret." The feminine form دفينة (dafīna) can be used to mean "buried treasure." Add ال (al-) the definite article, assimilated to ad- before a word that begins with d, and you get الدفينة (addafīna) and simplify the double consonant (Spanish, unlike Italian, lost most of its double consonants) and, presto, one gets "adafina." Another comment refers to a Tunisian dish called madfouna (مدفونة) which would be a form related to dafina, from the same root.

[@sandrawiersma2512]

Couldn't it also just be Hebrew, as it is a Jewish dish? Hebrew and Arabic are closely related languages. I speak neither, so it's just a hunch.

[@habitualforeigner]

Aha! That was borrowed into Turkish as well. Defnetmek is to bury, and "Define Adası" is Treasure Island in Turkish.

[@dragonwitch27]

@@sandrawiersma2512 Probably not, because Hebrew wasn't revived as a spoken/written language until the late 19th-early 20th century.

[@fishbein42]

@@sandrawiersma2512 I checked the Hebrew dictionaries, and the root D-F-N is not common. It isn't in Aramaic (Syriac) either. The Hebrew root Ṣ-P-N (hide, e.g. a treasure) may be related, but the phonetic correspondence is irregular. The Hebrew form would be something like ṣāfūn (ṣ in modern Hebrew is realized as ts). The root appears in the name of the biblical prophet Zephaniah (God's treasure). All in all, the Arabic etymology is much more likely.

[@kinebrembry6224]

I love nerdom.

[@carolelindagonzalez1087]

Genie Milgrom, a Cuban and raised Catholic, received recipes handed down by family from Spain to her. Among the papers, she found evidence that her family was once Jewish. One of the recipes produced a dish that looked like pork chops so that it would appear that the family was not Jewish and ate pork. She published this and other recipes.

[@DIEGhostfish]

Interesting though ti seems at some point they gave up on that and just raised their kids catholic

[@carolelindagonzalez1087]

@@DIEGhostfish Yes, Milgrom's family is still Catholic and despite the news of their ancestry had no interest in converting. She did.

[@DIEGhostfish]

@@carolelindagonzalez1087 Heh. You sounded like Yoda there at the end,

[@GreatDayEveryone]

The same thing happened to me! My dad was Puerto Rican, but we found out they moved from Spain a couple generations ago, and then we found that they left Spain because they were Jewish. I'm trying to learn about Judaism

[@orionfernandes4587]

@@carolelindagonzalez1087 That tends to be the case, As most people are afraid of circumcision

[@BobBob-wi6ct]

I’m much more adventurous with my spices and flavors at home because of you. And the history snippets are great. Thx Max

[@RadTradX]

You should try making Ruz buzkhari one day, it’s an Arab dish but I made it along some chicken tiki masala with homemade masala sauce and I made the garam masala with it and everyone absolutely loved it. It’s just good also to help you be more adventurous with your spices since you are using coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, and a bunch of other spices you normally don’t use with chicken or rice. That rice takes hours to make but it is really good to get you out of your comfort zone

[@johnknight9969]

Same here. They are a small thing that can add so much.

[@katietoole8345]

What a great topic! I think the Spanish Inquisition is undertaught and understudied (maybe that's why no one expects it). I mean 1826! Who knew. Great looking recipe as well. This is one of my favorite episodes so far.

[@jewishjedi]

It didn't officially end until 1992. I remember someone at my childhood synagogue being excited that they could go to Spain now.

[@IONATVS]

And while the Spanish Inquisition ended then, the office of the Church that was responsible for *forming* new inquisitions and giving them their original mission, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition (though in practice it was the national governments that gave them real enforcement power, hence why Spain’s version was so much longer lived and more extreme), still exists to this day, it was merely renamed in 1908 to the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office once the church revoked the offer of establishing future inquisitions, and then to The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1965. Today it generally makes rulings on obscure doctrinal issues or reviews cases where priests are accused of preaching heresy. Benedict XVI was Prefect of the Congregation before becoming Pope. Pope Francis seems to have a reorganization of the Roman Curia in the works though, so its role may be further diminished-though as the oldest Congregation within the Curia, it will almost certainly continue in some form or other.

[@louis-vd3ur]

@@IONATVS The Holy Office of The Inquisition is NOW The Congregation for the Doctrine of The Faith. They make daily communications as modern society is threatening more and more to the Faith. Any faithful and informed Catholic should have their letters on their shelf, as I do. The Church has taken a failed intellectual approach at keeping public order amongst CATHOLICS; as only CATHOLICS could be tried by the Inquisition with the request of the STATE. The STATE was the entity that asked the Inquisition to come and try heretical CATHOLICS.

[@dhombios]

@@jewishjedi as far as I know it ended up in 1834. The only thing I have found that happened in 1992 was a collaboration treaty with the FCJE

[@anonomooose]

The synagogue in Jamaica is one of the few in the world that had sand on the floor. This is because during the inquisition, jews put sand on the floors of their basements so they could worship. The sand was to muffle the sound of their footsteps so they wouldn't get found out.

[@Detahramet]

4:27 As an interesting aside, while salt was relatively expensive, it wasn't so expensive that you couldn't use a bunch of salt for your eggplants. This isn't because they were dumping a fist full of salt in the pot, but rather because they would preserve their vegetables and other food by salting the ever living hell out of them. Before the advent of canning in the early 1800s there were four major ways to preserve your food: Dry them, Pickle them (with or without vinegar), cook it in a shit tonne of sugar or honey (which was expensive but not unaffordable), or Salt them (or store them in salt). By the time of the Spanish Inquisition there was a a sizable middle class that grew with the renaissance, of which a not insignificant portion of which was jewish. For the people cooking this dish it wouldn't be a stretch to say they could afford the extra salt. This is actually part of why the Spanish Inquisition was so damaging, because many jews had to flee Spain for their own safety and because laws at the time prevented the carrying of gold, silver, spices, and many trade goods it left countless jews destitute. This was to such a degree that there was historically significant spike in jewish pirates aligned against spain, both in the Mediterranean and in the New World, which fucking awesome but a story for another time.

[@shahaking]

I would realy like to see a Jewish jack sparrow LOL!🤣 or any other refrence or movie about jewish pirates! now that will be somthing realy funny!

[@frostincubus4045]

@@shahaking that would be a movie worth watching 🤣

[@aaronsirkman8375]

Oh yeah! The wave of Jewish Piracy which arose from the expulsion from Spain is sad, but badass. Extra History has a great series of videos on that, if anyone wants to check them out.

[@johnisaacfelipe6357]

You don't want to be tied to the history of piracy against Spain during the high medieval era since the vast majority of piracy was for slave trading, abducting spaniards and french from coastlines to be sold in north Africa.

[@Detahramet]

@@johnisaacfelipe6357 In fairness, so was basically every other oceanic commerce at the time. You were either a slave, took slaves, or directly benefited from slavery if you were involved in any maritine profession. Many jews were forced into becoming galley slaves, some of whom were bought and utilized by pirates, both sephardic (the old term for spain) jews and non jews. Never forget that just because a group is oppressed that they can also oppress others. Yay nuance.

[@technicallythecenteroftheu1349]

Growing up in an Ashkenazi community, I thought I knew cholent, but it's really cool to see a different version of it.

[@TastingHistory]

I even found versions in India that are made with curry spice

[@Konpekikaminari]

@@TastingHistory and I thought my father was creative for using pasta instead of rice last week who knew it was just the tip of the hamin/cholent iceberg

[@peoplethings963]

tbh cholent/hamin/adafina/ect is Everywhere in Jewish communities. for example the Iraqi version is called t'bit and it's basically spiced rice and chicken. idk much about other Jewish communities thou.

[@Coops1985]

@@TastingHistory ooh intriguing! i've tried lentils with curry when i was out of beans but it was meh.

[@rlt94]

Our version came from this one.

[@NickPoeschek]

Came to make a “no one expects!” joke and Max got it out of the way before I could finish typing. That’s why I love this channel, Max’s humour and references are always on-point!

[@TastingHistory]

Happy to oblige 🤣

[@Sadfluffybear]

Came here to do the same thing, found this comment.

[@sasquatchdonut2674]

Max never disappoints

[@jetfowl]

The reason so many Spanish Jews ended up in the Ottoman Empire following the Alhombra Decree was because Sultan Bayezid II dispatched the Ottoman Navy to Spain in order to bring as many Jews out as possible. And there's a quote attributed to the Sultan which explains why he did so. That quote was: "Those who say that Ferdinand and Isabella are wise are indeed fools; for he gives me, his enemy, his national treasure, the Jews."

[@HurairaHerbals]

Jews and Muslims were once allies and protected each other.

[@orionfernandes4587]

He isn’t wrong, but the people at the time didn’t like the jews

[@adamkirsch1904]

Wonderful to see the food of my culture and heritage represented here! Sephardic Jewish food is often overlooked in favour of Ashkenazi Jewish food, which is really unfortunate. Also, fun fact: Modern Sephardic Jews still speak our own version of Spanish called Ladino/Judeo-Spanish, which is basically 1400s Castillian Spanish, mixed with some Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish.

[@naamadossantossilva4736]

I thought yiddish was the only jewish dialect.This habit of creating dialects was bad for your people,it sounded like some sort of spy code.

[@Kybeline]

@@naamadossantossilva4736 No way! yiddish is only spoken by 1)Askenazi, whose culture hat historical contact to medieval and/or barrock german culture and language. There are still 2 other groups: 2) the oriental Jews, (mizra?) and 3) the sephardic jews. Besides, I think that the ethiopian Jews and the karaite (and/or khasar?) are totally different. You cannot include them in the 3 main groups. At least this is as much as I know about them.

[@BinBinB4]

@@naamadossantossilva4736 There are many, many Jewish languages aside from Yiddish. There's Ladino, spoken by Sephardim, Judeo-Piedmontese from Italy, Judeo-Malayalam from India, Judeo-Arabic, etc. It's not a spy code. It's a language made from having a unique tradition, and wanting to keep ties with our people. It's also from being in exile and needing a way to communicate with our neighbors while still keeping our traditions.

[@BinBinB4]

@@Kybeline There are Ashkenazi, Chinese, Ethiopian, Indian, Italian, Mizrachi, Sephardi, etc. Jews. Karaites are descended from Jews, but are not considered Jewish now -- although, I have been told that Egyptian Karaites are considered Jewish. Khasars were around about 1000 years ago, and were a small country that converted to Judaism along with their king. They are no longer around. That could be because they were absorbed into the rest of the Jewish population, or because they were absorbed into surrounding nations.

[@AlexMint]

@@naamadossantossilva4736 there are actually dozens of Jewish dialects, though many are dying out with "centralization" of modern Hebrew, both incidentally and intentionally.

[@ex_potato]

Wonderful video Max! I love how you clearly express the impossibility of explaining a 300-year long phenomenon in a mere 15 minutes which has to accommodate the story and the recipe as well. Your channel is such a gem for nerds of cooking who also love their history!

[@Lauren.E.O]

You never expect the Secret Foods of the Spanish Inquisition (A recipe from a trial transcript? That’s definitely a different type of source)

[@TastingHistory]

Definitely unexpected

[@NICK....]

​@@TastingHistory If I'm ever convicted I'm definitely going to bring up my Gran's carbonara recipe

[@sasquatchdonut2674]

I was looking for this

[@sarahwatts7152]

@@NICK.... I'm going with meatloaf, all the way.

[@liwiathan]

What are you referencing?

[@ronmaximilian6953]

I've had this or rather similar dishes from Sephardic communities in Morocco, Italy, and Greece. The flavor profiles are different, because they are always affected by local cuisine and food that is in season. I've also had Yemeni hamin, which was a real treat. Being Ashkenazi, I've also had multiple versions of cholent, most exotic of which was made with salmon.

[@vredbt]

The salmon one sounds so good...

[@ronmaximilian6953]

@@vredbt it was interesting. I was dating a woman who kept kosher, but didn't eat meat other than fish. It probably would have been better with fresh salmon rather than canned pink salmon, but it was the only time I actually like a dish with canned salmon.

[@lasagnasux4934]

As a 25% ethnic Mizrachi Jew, people expect me to know all about Ashkenazi and Sephardi history and get surprised when they learn that my grandma was the first person in her family to leave Israel in thousands of years and I know no more about American and western Jewish culture than any other slightly entrenched observer would. That being said, Yiddish has the best insults I've ever heard, ya putz! Edit: the point was, glad to learn some cool stuff! And maybe I'll have some new knowledge for that weird dude in the dairy department that asks me all about "Jewish stuff"

[@leefrenchfry]

FYI this dish, and other versions of chollent or Hamim were served hot of the fire. Point being in store that although Jews are not allowed to actively cook on the Sabbath, they are allowed to eat hot/warm foods that were left untouched from Sundown Friday until it was removed from the heat source the next day to be served immediately for the midday meal. And that being the case, if your want to experience the dish s it was ori intended, you have to let it cook on medium heat for minimum 16-18 hours.

[@stotter1]

Exactly right. In eastern Europe, the villages would have a bread bakery, but it was not used during the Sabbath but was left stoked because it would take forever to heat up if turned off. so each family would make their own pot of Chollent and take it to the baker and put it in the oven, and after the sabbath prayers, swing by the baker's and pick up their pot that was slow cooking all night on low heat. So basically, a meal that was prepared on Friday and eaten as lunch on Saturday.

[@melenatorr]

"A Drizzle of Honey" is a wonderful book, agreed!

[@keeperofthegood]

Salting egg plant is at least 8000 years old in documented archeology (look for Harappan eggplant curry though it isn't a curry or even related to curry it is really good done-as-found served on hot millet and the science is really exciting). The seeds contain nicotine and salting draws that out and yes in the nanograms the bitterness of nicotine is detectable.

[@bigred9428]

It also removes the, "Uh, oh. I have to run to the bathroom element of eggplant."

[@C2C.]

I'm a descendent of Portuguese conversos. I love your videos, but this episode resonated with me personally. Thanks for connecting us to history -- and people across cultures -- through your work, Max. You not only entertain and teach us, but you perform a public service to humanity. 💗🙏

[@andrewstiller1662]

It's interesting that you mention the word cholent. It is actually a butchering of two French words: Chaud (meaning warm) and Lent (meaning slow). So the dish, as you point out so beautifully, was cooked slowly (overnight) on a low flame. I LOVE this channel. Thanks for another great episode.

[@goosiechild]

butcher shmutcher. we just corrected their pronunciation.

[@limecilla7612]

Basically, a lot of traditional Spanish regional stews come from the adafina, but adding chorizo, blood sausage, lard and/or other kind of pork meat to make them "catholic-friendly". You cand find them as cocidos, potes or potajes.

[@ragnkja]

Or rather, Jew- and Muslim-UNfriendly.

[@nunyabiznes33]

@@ragnkja LOL yeah. Make sure the heathens can't eat them! That way when you see someone chow down you know he's faithful. LOL

[@limecilla7612]

@@nunyabiznes33 that's something it was done, giving someone a torrezno ( a piece of fried bacon with its skin) and watching if he/she ate it. I personally think the cocidos are probably adafina versions made by several generations converso families that wanted to be sure they weren't suspicious to anyone. It's like the custom of doing general house cleaning on Saturday: a way of protecting one's family from delations by overzealing.

[@ragnkja]

@@limecilla7612 The custom of cleaning and bathing on Saturdays could also have come from Norse cultures.

[@limecilla7612]

@@ragnkja we're talking about Spain: it's not impossible, but Norse influence is quite far.

[@anothertarnishedone5960]

In Spain, we usually call this kind of dishes "potajes", or "potes", but the meat is usually pork, or cod fish in lent.

[@paulwagner688]

You should cover from the period BEFORE the Inquisition--the Golden Age of Al Andalus. A true multicultural, multi religious, and diverse time. Where even the native Spanish spoke Arabic as a mother tongue. Where you had both Christians and Jews serving in high positions in the court of the Caliph. A truly remarkable time, all too short.

[@HurairaHerbals]

I scrolled forever looking for a comment like this. How easily people gloss over Al Andalus. Growing up (i'm Muslim) we are taught about the inquisition as starting from the taking of Muslim lands in spain, and then the subsequent forced conversions of muslims and jews, or their deaths, and then their exile. What people don't ever seem to say is that when the muslims went back to Africa, Arabia, and the Levant, the Jews went back with them for the most part, because they knew they would be protected with the muslims.

[@herodotus945]

It all depended on individual rulers and time periods. Al andalus was not some utopia in which everyone was happy, it was still an oppressive medieval monarchy with legal slavery, also read about Granada massacre of 1066 of martyrs of Cordoba-.

[@paulwagner688]

@@HurairaHerbals Two names: Ibn Khaldun and Maimonides. I can sense you are an OSP fan, so....yeah.

[@paulwagner688]

@@herodotus945 See OSP as I said. You are correct, but so am I

[@habitualforeigner]

Agreed! My wife and I were married in Fez, Morocco (long story), and we then honeymooned in Andalucía. I spoke Spanish and she spoke French, with a little Arabic, so we got along just fine. Starting out in Morocco really made the similarities between the two regions pop out, including all the dishes with garbanzos!

[@zenkakuji3776]

Who knew that records of the Spanish Inquisition may include the first Slow Cooker recipe! Fascinating history and relevant to our times as well.

[@athena608]

Fun fact, the electric slow cooker was actually invented by a Jewish man because of this overnight Sabbath stew tradition. He wanted to create a cooking device that was less of a fire hazard than leaving a modern gas oven on overnight.

[@zenkakuji3776]

@@athena608 Amazing! Thanks for sharing this info.

[@GreyDevil]

To add some subtext to the term Marrano towards converted jews to Catholicism but still practiced their original faith. The word actually means swine/pig, so it's a fairly derogatory word considering that the faith disallows for the consumption of pigs so calling them as such is meant to be a deep cutting insult.

[@perik7124]

The word marrano was also used by Europeans to refer to the Spanish because they considered them impure for having relations and mixing with Jews. Oh, the irony.

[@SephardicHawaiian]

Thank you for this. My family are Portuguese Anusim (Marranos) who lived in fear of the Inquisition for 500 years in Portugal. I try to cook old Sephardic recipes, and some family recipes that resemble old Spanish and Portuguese recipes like those in A Drizzle of Honey, every Shabbat. I make adafina for Shabbat and put eggs in it; we call it Dafina.

[@williamrust374]

I started studying about the Crypto-Jews when I researched duck (goose) prosciutto. There is lore that those of the Jewish faith would hang a tied "sausage" of the prosciutto in the rafter so to protect them from the Inquisitors. it does look like ham. I made some out of duck. While prosciutto normally isn't smoked, it does add a nice "porky" aroma and taste.

[@widowkeeper4739]

Jewish cooking is a treat! I definitely going to have to try this version. I am not Jewish, but I've had the good fortune to be gifted some recipes by beloved Jewish friends (a humbling compliment if there ever was one.) I have a recipe for Cholent that has whole eggs within it. Cholent Ingredients 2 1/2 lbs beef stew meat or brisket, cut into chunks (for a smaller slow cooker, use 2 lbs) 2 marrow bones 2 1/2 lbs large red potatoes, peeled and halved (for a smaller slow cooker, use 2 lbs) 2 whole onions, chopped 1 cup dried beans of choice - lima, pinto, chickpeas, fava, red beans (not kidney), or a mixture 1/2 cup pearl barley or coarse-grain kasha (optional - for gluten free, do not use pearl barley) 3 whole garlic cloves 6 eggs 1/2 tsp black pepper 1 quart low sodium chicken broth 1 tbsp kosher salt 1 1/2 tsp paprika 1 1/2 tsp turmeric 1 tsp cumin 1/4 tsp cayenne 1 kishke (optional - we never add this, but many families like it) Water (varies) Instructions Note: The beans in this recipe will soften without any pre-soaking due to the long slow cooking process, however they will be easier to digest with a simple quick soak prior to cooking. To do this, place the beans into the bottom of a large pot and cover with water. The beans will expand to over double their size, so make sure you cover by several inches of water to allow for expansion. Bring the beans to a boil for 5 minutes, then remove from heat. Let them soak in the cooking water for 1 hour, then drain and rinse well before proceeding with the recipe. Also note that it is not recommended to slow-cook kidney beans. In a large slow cooker (the larger the better!), place the potatoes in a single layer on the bottom of the cooking vessel. Sprinkle the onions over the potatoes. Place the beef in a single layer on top of the onions and potatoes. Place the two marrow bones in the meat. If you're adding a kishke, now would be the time to put it in the cooker. Rinse the beans clean, checking for any stones or impurities. If using barley or kasha, do the same with the grains. Sprinkle the beans (raw or pre-soaked) and optional grains over the top of the meat. Place the three whole garlic cloves into the meat, evenly spaced. Sprinkle the whole mixture with the black pepper. If using eggs, rinse them well and then tuck them into the meat. In a 4-cup container, whisk together the low sodium chicken broth, kosher salt, paprika, turmeric, cumin and cayenne. Pour the liquid over the cholent. Add additional water until all of the beans and pieces of meat are covered. For us, it's usually another 1-2 cups of water in our slow cooker-- it will vary; I usually add a bit more liquid if using grains, because they will soak it up. Cover the slow cooker. Cook on low heat for 16 hours. Check occasionally as it's cooking; add additional water and stir a bit if it's looking too dry. Most cookers will auto-switch to warm when the cooking is complete. If yours doesn’t, set it to warm until ready to serve. Peel the eggs before serving the cholent. To cook this recipe in the oven, layer the ingredients in a large heavy 7-8 quart Dutch oven. Make sure you have enough liquid to just cover all ingredients. Cover with lid and cook cholent at 200 degrees F for 12-16 hours.

[@adventureswithcorrine]

It's interesting how we use certain terms in our daily lives like, "what is this, the Spanish inquisition!?" when we feel unjustly prodded on a subject but don't really think about the sometimes dark origins. Also...YAY! The unabashed Max is back! I love your mannerisms and humanity and I'm happy to see you being you this morning! Miles of smiles here.

[@TastingHistory]

Thank you, Corrine!

[@colbunkmust]

I mean, that's sort of the whole point of the original joke though... Monty Python's reduction of a feared ecclesiastical institution to comedic absurdity only works as being comedic with its historical context. The pretext of the skit happens in a torture chamber after all. It was never meant to divorce itself from the actual "dark origins".

[@riograndedosulball248]

Ironically, of everybody in XVII century Europe, the Spanish Inquisition was the most likely to give you a fair judgement. Because royal courts would use magic card "the Hang" for most stuff. That's why our current court system is, well, the Inquisitorial System. Also, if we consider that, on average, for all of the Spanish Empire, the Inquisition only performed one execution a month, it was laughably merciful in comparison to protestant countries courts

[@zeekeno823]

@@riograndedosulball248 the strangest thing for me to learn was that to be tried for witchcraft by the church was typically safer than by the people or municipalities. The reason was the church deemed the belief in witchcraft as heretical, and had very systematic laws and measures. The people on the other hand had no such restraints.

[@tomifost]

@@zeekeno823 I was thinking about this as I watched the video. I once read witch hunters or any other type of rogue-fighter against dark magic were considered heretics for believing God could ever lose a fight to the devil. I cant remember it exactly so I'll have to do more research.

[@catharinepizzarello4784]

This was powerful. I clean house for a few Hasidic Jews. What a horrific time! My father’s people lived in Gibraltar at that time and were told, “Convert, leave, or die.” They went to Calabria, a very poor area, even now. They ended up converting anyway. Thank you so much, Max! You have opened new worlds for me, delicious, hilarious, joyful, sad, and sometimes terrifying. I’m definitely going to make this, I bet my father will love it!

[@lynndifer4163]

My family were the same but they went to Sicily

[@cratorcic9362]

As a descendant of a Sephardic-Berber Jewish man who ended up in Italy as a child and ended up marrying one of the local Italkim Jewish women, and who later was persecuted by the Naples Inquisition, I am glad the stories are being told

[@JudgeNicodemus]

Nobody expects the Spanish In-cuisine-tion!

[@samovarsa2640]

Boo!

[@marialiyubman]

Ha Haha! 😂

[@sasquatchdonut2674]

Ba dum tss

[@kezkezooie8595]

Well played!

[@FrankEdavidson]

They did though. They announced their visits to towns.

[@DrGlynnWix]

I really appreciate that you provide the metric weights for your recipes. It's a nice touch to acknowledge your global reach :)

[@juandacharroninja]

Marrano means hog, pork or boar and it was a despective term used by Spaniards for Jews since they consider pig unclean; it was another way to insult and discriminate them.

[@perik7124]

That word was also used by Europeans to refer to the Spanish, because they considered Spaniards impure for mixing with Jews and Moors. What an irony, right?

[@FrikInCasualMode]

Fun fact (not so much): Inquisition is still alive and well. It just changed the name to " Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith". How. Nice.

[@dvid51524]

Just to add to this "Sephardi" in Hebrew literarily means Spanish, as a thing or someone from Spain. You are absolutely right about Hamin. Here in Israel we have tons of variation of this dish, and you can see the effects of the countries the people lived before migrating here

[@Coops1985]

another israeli! hi!

[@EladLerner]

היי!

[@avishai7830]

ישראלייייייייים

[@Archihuman]

So what about the sephardic jews in Portugal, are they spanish too?

[@afrikasmith1049]

I think the reason why there are some sources that says the soup was served cold was because it depends on how hot it was outside. Some people just don't like hot soups on summer days.

[@JCSalomon]

Neither cold nor rewarmed is right. The point of all these dishes (hammin, cholent, etc.) is that they are kept hot in banked ashes or the like up until the Sabbath meal. So although lighting a fire and cooking are both forbidden on Shabbat, one can still have a hot dish at the meal.

[@AppliedScience]

Your videos are all so interesting and well presented. Thanks for making this channel, and going full time!

[@TastingHistory]

Thank you for watching them!

[@blanchekonieczka9935]

I thought that dish might be cholent. I was a chef in a Kosher meat kitchen and occasionally we'd make cholent in the oven on low overnight on Friday. There are cholent pots but we were cooking for 160 to 180 people and they don't make them that big!

[@Coops1985]

right? we once made for 50 or so people and we used a large crockpot and a giant crockpot. at home i use a small pot and i keep it on the hot plate over night.

[@blanchekonieczka9935]

@@Coops1985 we used the ovens at 225° Fahrenheit overnight. My boss said there wasn't a cholent pot big enough for our needs. I enjoyed working there. I miss matzoh ball soup, challa and gefilte fish. I prefer gefilte fish with regular white horseradish. Brioche is almost as good as challa but not quite. I live alone so don't fuss much with cooking for myself.

[@Coops1985]

@@blanchekonieczka9935 for that many people no pot is big enough LOL. my oven cholent hasnt worked out yet so i have abandoned trying it. too burned, too wet, forget it. if i want just the oven on i make yapchik.

[@blanchekonieczka9935]

@@Coops1985 we made sure there was plenty of liquid, kept it at 200° and covered the pans with plastic wrap covered with foil. Also cooked it for approximately 18-20 hours, put it in just before sundown and removed it after 12 noon on Saturday

[@blanchekonieczka9935]

@@Coops1985 I've never had or made yapchik. Sounds wonderful. I love potato kugel and with meat it would be divine!

[@mrsnufflegums]

I actually didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition to be the subject of a Tasting History episode so this is great

[@giuseppelogiurato5718]

Well, that's why this channel is so successful... Everyone in history ate food, so there are almost limitless ways to tie the two together.

[@GhassenAthmni]

A significant number of Jews (and Muslims) expelled from Spain after the Alhambra Decree also ended up in North Africa where you find similar recipes (Tunisian Madfouna for example whose name is pretty much a synonym)

[@joelcooper6441]

hi max, Jew here, Cholent (as it is called where i'm from in north london) is still eaten and for the same reason, no work on saturday including cooking. ours is a lot less exotic and is a lot more english but it does have dumplings which i say is mandatory. Great vid though!

[@Coops1985]

what kind of dumplings? kishke or kreplach? also lol we have the same last name (probably not related although my FIL is from london)

[@joelcooper6441]

@@Coops1985 kneidlach, I don't know if they have another name but they are light and made of matzo meal

[@athena608]

@@joelcooper6441 American Jews usually just call them matzo balls. I'm not Jewish myself but my (Reform) Jewish husband makes a killer matzo ball soup for Pesach.

[@Coops1985]

ah yes matza balls, i tried those in cholent once and it was amazing. i forgot about that, should do again. i don't make them very often as my recipe is very involved BUT they come out really really fluffy and light if i do it right. sadly my pesach stove is not the right type to really make good ones. plus the super orthodox matza meal is also super expensive so i tend to save it for cakes and stuff but during the year it's cheap. (regular is like 4 shekel, certified kosher ultra orthodox on pesach is 25-30 shekel - but gotta have pesach brownies!)

[@joelcooper6441]

@@Coops1985 we use the cheaper stuff, actually you can get ready made dumpling mix though I doubt it's as good as yours Never had pasech brownies, should look that up

[@morganray542]

In my Sunday school, we would joke about how jewish history is pretty much move somewhere, settle, get discriminated against, move to certain areas of that place, get scapegoated for something, get kicked out, repeat from step one. (Because I know this is the internet I should clarify I am jewish and went to a jewish Sunday school)

[@loganl3746]

And for the holidays: "They tried to kill us, we survived, let's eat". Happy Purim Katan :)

[@cova4218]

@@loganl3746 Came here to say this quote, great minds and all

[@nobelissimos8719]

I wonder why?

[@tessat338]

Many Sephardic Jewish families also took the keys to their old houses in Spain and then passed them down over generations. Very poignant.

[@kellysouter4381]

I suppose there's no hope for regaining their property?

[@tessat338]

@@kellysouter4381 700 years on? Probably not at this point.

[@lydiathornton1999]

@@tessat338 I mean, most European countries are utterly uninterested in restoring any property to the literal children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors or even making it easier for us to get citizenship--and that happened waaaay more recently. So I would think this is basically impossible. There is still so much denial and antisemitism in Europe about the atrocities over the years. I feel like we never talk very much about what a tragedy the purging of the Jewish (and Muslim) populations of Spain remains. Entire well-established, culturally rich communities gone forever. Recreating some of their food seems like a deeply respectful way to remember them--I have tried a few recipes myself.

[@tessat338]

@@lydiathornton1999 And after all that, the US is stumbling towards Fascism.

[@hogwashmcturnip8930]

That would be just like Modern day Palestinians thrown out by illegal Jewish Settlers then!

[@petergray7576]

True fact: Emma Lazarus, the journalist that penned the New Collossus (the poem inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty) was herself.a Sephardic Jew of Portuguese origin. Her inspiration actually came from another tragic event in Jewish history, the mass expulsion of Russian and Polish Ashkenazi Jews following the assassination of Russian Ysar Alrxander II in 1881 by anarchists.

[@Cholovstam]

I've heard it said the only truly Jewish food is food crafted for shabbat and Pesach (passover). So much is borrowed, enjoyed, and shaped to aline to kashrut standards from surrounding communities which is wonderful, but I love seeing Jewish food highlighted that is truly unique both ingredient-wise ( some things just can't withstand cooking for 14 hours, you know?) and for it's intended purpose. Chulent (and any other name it falls under) is so quintessential and both special and routine. I could talk for hours about this! This episode on your channel was just great. I love your content!

[@dragonwitch27]

So interesting! I had no idea there was a Spanish version of cholent. I'm being nitpicky here, but Jews from Portugal are also considered Sephardim!

[@debbiek4951]

Yes! Jews from Portugal are Sephardim! Also Jews from the Middle East and many other countries.

[@peoplethings963]

technically speaking there are two definitions to the term Sephardi. Sephardic Jews can are the Jewish ppl who were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492 obvs, but Sephardim can refer to most rabbinical Jews who aren't Ashkenazi bc the liturgy is similar. But if we're speaking only of the former group then bc of diaspora shenanigans there are Sephardic communities in a lot of different countries (like...so many). I know in North Africa there was often a distinct separation between the Magrebim that were there before and Sephardi immigrants, but in places like Iraq for example ppl didn't really make a distinction (thou Iraq is a bit of an outlier bc of historical stuff I won't get into now). Which is why Mizrahim and Sephardim are sometimes used interchangeably. it's not really bc they're Sephardim of the former definition per say. (thou in some places it's near impossible to know)

[@debbiek4951]

@@WinstonSmithGPT Yes, Italy is one of the many countries that would be considered Sephardim.

[@debbiek4951]

@@WinstonSmithGPT Do you have a favorite Sephardic Italian dish?

[@habitualforeigner]

Sephardim comes from the word for travel. It's related to the Arabic word safari.

[@lesbinturong9605]

my jewish ass got SO UNBELIEVABLY EXCITED when i saw that today's video is about me and my people!

[@mikegarcia09ole]

Hey Max! Loved this episode, especially because my grandmother used to make me a very similar dish when I was growing up back home in La Mancha. This is like bringing a small piece of home back with me. Thank you for this!

[@Mageling55]

If packed in properly, a cholent could definitely still be warm by lunchtime on Saturday, but outside of inquisition times it definitely would not have been heated back up, which would be a violation. Modern recipes just say oven on the lowest setting, which is ok as long as you don't turn it off till after havdala. I definitely will need to try this one, it looks very tasty. I like Hummus Ful, so a beefy version should be right up my alley

[@bigred9428]

What about a Crock Pot, or does that start burning if you leave it on after the food is removed?

[@Mageling55]

@@bigred9428 Newer crock pots are probably ok, but older ones might get super hot with nothing in them

[@angusorvid8840]

My Israeli mother makes a lot of Sephardic dishes which are wonderful. It's like a kosher version of Spanish food, so no pork, shellfish, or mixing of dairy and meat, with the exception of fish. One dish that has a lot of Sephardic overtones is the Moroccan dish tagine, which my mom makes often with chicken. It's terrific.

[@rx500android]

As a Sephardic Jew, you have no idea how much this video means to me! We are so often forgotten about when it comes to Jewish history. Hamin is a part of many Jewish cultures, especially in different Sephardic and Ashkenazi cultures. It holds a special and often nostalgic meaning to many Jewish people. Sending lots of love from a Turkish Sephardic Jew❤

[@grapefruitsc5478]

One of my favorite parts of this dish are the eggs, or huevos haminados (after the equivalent name hamin). You simply stick the eggs on top of the stew and let them steam with the rest of it. It sounds insane to cook eggs for so long, but because of the low temperature, the egg whites actually don't get too hard. Instead they cook long enough to caramelize, turn brown, and gain a meaty flavor through Maillard reactions (like searing meat). A near equivalent recipe can be found with East Asian hot spring eggs, but these are certainly one of the more unique preparations for the ubiquitous egg.

[@anival9576]

So you crack them on top of the stew or you cook them in the shell?

[@ididntknowtheyhadwifiinhell]

@@anival9576 in the shell like hard boiled eggs. sometimes cooked and eaten with jachnun en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jachnun

[@alexandracastro9619]

A now very well loved "Alheira" in Portugal was a faux chouriço/chorizo for Jewish communities to fool catholics. It looks like a sausage/chorizo but it's stuffed with chicken and game meats bonded by breading. A very tragic reason but a very delicious result! It's ironically one of the most portuguese things you can eat!

[@mosesbrown4126]

Fun fact: Torquemada himself was a Converso. Also, I worked for years for a Lebanese woman in a restaurant, and the flavor/ingredient profile is very similar to that of Falafel. The only real difference is in the addition of beef and eggplant-- and of course, the preparation and final form. All the spices and the garbanzo/fava combo are 1 to 1 tho. We used chard sometimes for the blend (gives the falafel balls a nice green inside), but more often used flat leaf parsley for that effect. Still, we had a chard and lentil soup on deck as a permanent menu item.

[@samweldon8104]

That's so interesting about Torquemada, so I had to look it up. It seems his great-great-grandmother was a converso. It strikes me that maybe he felt some sort of misplaced shame about that familial connection, which eventually led him to his crusade. Perhaps the relation to the converso community was far enough removed that he felt no guilt, but close enough to cause shame.

[@nunyabiznes33]

@@samweldon8104 Kinda like the "white guilt" all those white sjws have I suppose.

[@vysharra]

@@nunyabiznes33 no, it’s not

[@nunyabiznes33]

@@vysharra oh, that's not what they were thinking when they kneel in front of black students in university?

[@mosesbrown4126]

@@samweldon8104 History is a rich tapestry , and the realities of almost all events are seldom as cut and dry as people are taught or like to believe :) Cheers, friendos.

[@yuvalnai]

I'm Sephardi, my family eats this dish almost every Shabbat morning so it's crazy to hear you talking about it haha

[@lewlavabra6811]

as soon as i heard "cooked overnight" i thought... wait, is the sephardic version of our ashkenazi tcholent ? and sure enough, it is :) my family originated from poland and my grandmother makes tcholent with barley grains, black beans, pinto beans, diced beef, sausage, onions and garlic. she makes it every winter and it's always a huge feast. truly one of my favorite traditional jewish meals out there, along with kneidelekh (matzo-ball soup)

[@soren633]

Really happy to see Sephardic history awareness on this channel! My Tunisian Sephardic grandmother always used to make a very similar version of this which is called Pkaila or Tfina Pkaila for special occasions. She always used far more than 1/4 cup of oil but it was still always delicious! Super interesting to see the roots of these dishes and see their connections with my heritage.

[@Coops1985]

yay food of my people finally! although i am ashkenazi so not familiar with this particular one. but cholent is a regular staple here (i do make it with rice and hard boiled eggs which is more sephardi). btw your pronunciation of hamin was *chef's kiss* but of cholent was a bit cringe, but understandable. only thing: the whole point of leaving it overnight is because you are not allowed to heat it up during the shabbat day, so idk why 1 you'd eat it cold or 2 why they'd reheat it. although sephardim are more lenient with heating foods, we only heat up dry foods while sephardim heat food that has a little bit of liquid too, although not stuff like soup or whatever.

[@jillparks]

A situation in which "Biggles - bring the comfy chair!" would apply extremely appropriately.

[@Sebastian-xs6wh]

Is this the Jewish version of traditional European Chickpea soup?

[@FrankEdavidson]

No. It's a slow-cooked stew of meat(s), legumes and veg, whatever is available which can handle long slow cooking.

[@FrankEdavidson]

And it's for Shabbat so elevated above a weekday meal. One wouldn't use weekday leftovers in Shabbat lunch, so meat would be specifically for Shabbat. Scrimping and leftovers is for the rest of the week.

[@debs11100]

You really have an ear for languages. Love listening to you pronounce things, feels so accurate.

[@johncanaparius3233]

Please never stop making these. So immensely enjoyable.

[@victoriahoward8244]

Murrano Jews was an insult. It meant “pig.” And being a Converso did not save you. They’d still get you for having been a Jew. We could not win.

[@perik7124]

The majority of the Spanish Jewish population converted and stayed, so... Marrano was also used to refer to Spaniards because the rest of Europe considered them impure for mixing with Jews.

[@taan1424]

I am as Ashkenazi as they come, but I've immediately recognised this dish as hamin. Goes to show how deeply the roots of the Jewish culture go, that we are able to share recipes despite being separated by generations and continents appart.

[@varden506]

Oh how I love when one of the recipes you cover contains ingredients I already have in my pantry, I don’t even have to leave the house to try this haha 🎉

[@oaktreeman4369]

The Spanish Inquisition extended as far as Goa in India, which was a Portuguese colony, for a time. An Indian scholar a while back wrote a book about it. Worth tracking down.

[@sasquatchdonut2674]

Nobody expected that, but it makes sense

[@frostincubus4045]

@@sasquatchdonut2674 NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition

[@sasquatchdonut2674]

@@frostincubus4045 exactly

[@lunarisita26]

you know almost every european country had their own inquisition do you? what does the spanish one have to do with a portuguese colony? blame the portuguese inquisition for that...

[@Mark723]

My grandfather always maintained a day one learns a new thing is a day that is not wasted.

[@TastingHistory]

Agreed

[@uroghai3439]

The invention of the slow cooker was in fact inspired by the traditional way of making cholent in an oven kept hot overnight.

[@SKPetel]

Hamin is one of the best things on a Saturday morning. For a dish I've been eating all my life, it's wonderful to see its history.

[@DrBrunoRecipes]

Brilliant 👌🏻 Greetings from Scotland 😊 Have a wonderful day everyone 🌻

[@LPdedicated]

I love how obviously well researched and -produced your videos are! Can't stop watching!

[@Joe___R]

If you eat that dish on the sabbath, it would have been eaten at room temperature since the coals would have gone out well before it was consumed. I would definitely eat it warmed even though it wasn't traditionally served that way.

[@howl-pendragon]

I love to finally see a Jewish recipe! Especially a Sephardic recipe. It's great to learn a but more about Sephardim, especially while I'm learning Ladino

[@jonesnori]

Oh, cool! I've sung several songs in Ladino with the women's choir I used to belong to. Our founding director was a specialist.

[@UnaRose13]

Hi Max! I hope you're having an awesome day. Happy Valentines!

[@TastingHistory]

Thank you, Una!

[@merbertancriwalli8622]

Cholent was the name that my mother used - she used to reminisce about eating this wonderful dish in her childhood - before she came to Australia.

[@foryoumysofteyes]

I am truly from my heart grateful for this post. My children are a branch of BenJoya., who had to leave Spain and remained in Turkey until their great-grandmother's family came to America, turn of the 19th century. Respectfully posted! Peace!!!

[@micahr-y620]

Excited to finally have an episode about Jewish cuisine!

[@marialiyubman]

TBH, I usually find Jewish cooking really boring.. but what I love about Jewish food is that our ancestors traveled so much that they discovered so many amazing recipes from other peoples. But I’m not a fan of gfilte fisch. Lol.

[@Coops1985]

@@marialiyubman as a rule sephardi food is much more exciting than ashkenazi. what type of gefilte fish did you try? in the "we're trying gefilte fish" videos they always use jarred which is so gross! a frozen loaf cooked is soooo much better. i even bake mine in the oven with different sauces, but the traditional cooked with an onion and carrot in water with sugar/salt/pepper is also good. and not jelly at all.

[@santiagoperez5431]

Can we take a moment and appreciate that Max is now the king of product plugs

[@MegaDocjoe]

In Tunisia we have a similar jewish stew from the region of the capital Tunis, it's a thick and rich fiery stew made from beans, cow feet, beef meat and meatballs, tomato paste and a big quantity of leafs (spinach and beta vulgaris) and spices mainly harissa, bay leaves and coriander....the particularity is that the leafs must be first deep fried without burning and then ground until they form a dark green almost black paste, and it's put to cook several hours (traditionally overnight) until the white beans and the cow feet become tender.... Aaaaaaaaand the name of it is.........." Madfouna" "مدفونة" (you can find recipes in youtube) this dish is also known for it's difficulty and time of preparation. This dish is very probably descendant from thedish in the video, as many sephardim jews during the inquisition fled to north africa

[@bradwilder6227]

Yiddish is spoken by the Ashkenazi, the Sephardim speak Ladino. With that said, I love everything about you and your channel