Uncovering Concealed Jewish Origins from Inquisition-Era Recipes and Vestiges of Jewish Law

Several years ago, Genie Milgrom—raised a Catholic by Cuban-born parents—discovered that her mother kept a collection of handwritten recipes apparently passed down in the family for many generations. These included instructions for making such dishes as fried bread dressed up to resemble pork chops. Sometime later, Milgrom realized that these were recipes used by Spanish Jewish converts to Christianity, and their descendants, during the Inquisition to convince neighbors and churchmen that they had shed their Jewish ways. Milgrom then began to recognize the Jewish origins of culinary traditions taught to her by her maternal grandmother—such as checking eggs for bloodspots—and would go on to discover more. (Interview by Greg Allen. Audio, 5 minutes. A text version can be found at the link below.)