Because Friday 17 brings bad luck: superstitions at the table

2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-26 19:13

Okay, Dissapore readers are too smart to believe superstitions. So today, Friday 17th, you will pass under an open staircase, break a mirror, pour salt on the ground, tear off the letter with the chain of St. Anthony, open an umbrella indoors, and so on.

We know that the identification of the number 17 with something negative is typical of Greek civilization. Even the ancient Romans considered it bad luck for military reasons (legion 17 destroyed in a pitched battle).

While for the Anglo-Saxons the loser number is another: Friday 13th. Spaniards and Latin Americans even change the day: Tuesday 13th.

The world of food is not free from superstitions, superstitions and taboos, we often believe in it even if we do not know its origin.

The oldest? The left hand is forbidden at the table, the prohibition to look into the plate of an elderly or higher-ranking diner, the onion that protects from demons and helps to predict the climate, the young girls asleep under the almond tree who wake up pregnant.

There are others that are more recent or that despite everything resist better over time.

Let's see them together.

The psychosis of bread

The idea of a kitten doesn't even touch you, you'd rather take care of a stick of mother yeast. Well, happy you. Once you have identified your benefactor (“yeast donor” in technical jargon), be sure to visit him before sunset.

The exchange is a ritual to be consumed in the sunlight, otherwise the dough will fail and the garbage pail will fill up.

Then there is the matter of the overturned bread. If you have superstitious guests, an upside-down loaf on the table can make you look more disfigured than a Primitivo di Manduria served in a Cognac glass.

In 1400s France, the overturned bread was destined for the executioner, why? Crossing history and legend, we can say that the bakers, forced by Charles VII against his will to churn out loaves for the man without a face, gave it to him out of contempt.

Seasoning anxiety

If you break a bottle of fine extra virgin olive oil, we make the Roi brand (from Taggiasca olives divided into single origins, classified by Dissapore among the 10 best products of Eataly) and immediately think about the consequent misfortunes, it means that you have more to lose.

Good for you.

But next time, buy a common one, since you are not interested in extra virgin olive oil.

As for the salt, you already know the story. If he falls, to avoid bad luck he has to pull back three times. You will look as ridiculous as Lino Banfi in Occhio, evil eye, parsley and fennel, especially since the real reason for the belief is linked to the cost of the product, now low (unless it is Fleur de Sel from Trapani, unrefined and very precious raw salt, but that's another story).

In the past, however, salt was smuggled: it was hidden under anchovies so as not to pay heavy duties. This is how it was done between Liguria and Piedmont, which owes one of its most famous dishes, the Bagna Cauda, to this subterfuge.

Wrong toast curse

The wine is poured with the right hand. Today we don't even notice, but if in a medieval banquet the attendant used the other hand, that of the devil, he sent a bad signal.

For example, maybe just before he had a bidet, since his left hand was reserved for intimate hygiene. Add to this that toilets did not exist at the time.

If crossing the glasses by mistake is bad (the same can be said for the knives in the plate, an omen of a quarrel), doing it voluntarily means challenging fate and etiquette.

The practice is kitsch, it is done in the disco in the toast with the first price champagne.

Mayonnaise instability

The question is addressed to readers: is it not by chance that you are in that period? The one where Plasmon advertising makes you sob. If so, don't make mayonnaise, it will surely go crazy.

If you are not gullible and even practice gardening during the cycle, in spite of the terrible popular sayings according to which plants die at the touch of a woman with menstruation, then follow our advice: a wonder will come.

Then, since superstitions must be overcome but traditions kept, when you are done take a look at the basket. How are the eggs, broken? If they are still whole, throw it wrong.

Some evil and malicious spirits may be lurking around.