Jewish law forbids lighting a fire on the Sabbath. In a 17th-century Palma household that had a very visible consequence: on Friday afternoon the kitchen worked twice as hard.
Francisca Martí, wife of Bartolomé Cortés de Alfonso, was cooking a dish of «muelles» one Friday night. Someone asked her when it was for. She said it was «for her and Bartholomé to eat the following Saturday, so as not to eat anything cooked». We cannot be sure what the dish was; we know exactly which day it was for.
In another house, a witness saw fish being cooked on Friday and drew the same conclusion: it was cooked «to be eaten on Saturday, so as not to eat anything cooked on Saturday, keeping it as a holy day».
No one had to see these families pray. It was enough to notice what was cooked, and when. The most hidden faith gave itself away at the stove.
