ABSTRACT
Late medieval Iberian society is especially notable for the coexistence of the three great monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The devotees of the latter two constituted minorities whose eating habits contrasted with those of the Christian majority. Sometimes this contrast was even complementary, although the spiritual leaders of the three faiths railed against interreligious contacts. Nonetheless, there were also frequent conflicts over food, which almost always concealed economic or political clashes. On the other hand, the forced conversion of many Jews and Muslims to Christianity between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries led to the emergence of a new condition: that of the convert. The eating habits of these neophytes were closely watched by the Inquisition, looking for rituals that would betray those who performed them as apostates. Thus, the food of the majority of society generated specific characteristics in the Iberian countries during this period, some of which were born out of this religious interaction and others, on the contrary, out of the affirmation of specificity in the face of the “different” neighbor.
