Old tricks
How to seal the pot
Branca's was sealed with dough and went into the oven. Other households had their own ways of keeping the heat until Saturday.
- Dough ropeFlour and water round the lid. What Branca's house did.
- Tapioca doughThe Brazilian version. Bakes pale and hard.
- ClayUsed to seal communal ovens overnight.
- Green lidCrushed chard over the food, as in Toledo.
- Embers and ashThe pot buried in the heat until morning.
- BlanketsThe pot wrapped up and kept warm.
Was it a pie?
No. Some books read it that way, but the witness says the meat went “na panella”, into the pot, and the dough sealed the testo, the lid. It was a pot.
Where each one comes from
Branca: “barravão lhe o testo com massa ao redor e metiamna dentro em hum forno” (Denunciações, p. 57). Dough rope and clay: A Drizzle of Honey, p. 18; Roden, pp. 126–127, 367. Chard: Toledo, 1523 (Piñer, Jews, Food, and Spain, p. 200). Embers: Piñer, Sephardi, p. 103. Blankets: Roden, p. 367. Tapioca dough: our inference.