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From a friend of mine who would like to remain anonymous:

1. If you’ve never had it, mint jelly with lamb chops actually is surprisingly delicious!

2. I was once given the following reason for the mint and lamb which I remember only in part and which could be wholly invented. During the reign of Queen (Mary?), there was a shortage of lamb due to (?). On religious grounds resting on some peculiar knowledge of Jewish Passover, the Queen issued an edict that lamb was only to be eaten when accompanied by bitter herbs. This was to reduce the consumption of lamb as compared with mutton or other meats. Mint was considered a bitter herb, and perhaps it wasn’t to the taste of the English, but in the form of a highly sweetened preserve it was, so thus was the rule bent by those who could afford or were in the know about such exotic condiments, and maybe it persisted in part for that class reason.

I say peculiar knowledge because: lamb as the paschal meal was biblical, of course. The bitter herb was rabbinic, introduced with the Seder, so you’d need more knowledge than just a copy of the bible to make that connection. As a further complication, Ashkenaz Jews are proscribed from eating lamb at the Seder (so that it not be confused with satisfying the commandment of the paschal feast, which can no longer be performed), so they would ONLY have the bitter herb, and never the lamb, in that context. Sephards traditionally DO eat lamb (but never roast lamb) on Passover. Though I’m unaware of any tradition in which they combine it with the bitter herb, but there could certainly have been one. Unlike the Ashkenazim, the bitter herb is not traditionally horseradish, but romaine lettuce. Still not mint, but who knows.

If I’m right about it being Mary, it makes sense that she would be familiar with the practice of Sephardic rather than Ashkenazic Jews. I suppose it would have been something her relatives in Spain would still have been on the alert for, to spot post-Inquisition Jews-in-hiding.

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