The Inquisitor’s Palace in Vittoriosa will come alive once again on November 18 with a Heritage Malta cookalong session.

The session will be focusing on eggs in 17th and 18th century Malta and will include a 1748 meringue recipe. 

Recognised as a power food, eggs and egg-based dishes were included in several period cookery books. This product caught the attention of leading European chefs whose imagination highlights the versatility of this basic food.

Eggs were also used as a means to differentiate social class, especially since the majority could afford to consume eggs on a daily basis. Apart from the traditional boiling, frying and poaching, culinary knowledge about the use of either the yolk or the white of the egg allowed for improved tastes and textures of many products, including the pan de Spagna and the meringue, HM said.

It said that the kitchen complex at the Inquisitor’s Palace is probably Malta’s best-documented early modern kitchen.

Research into numerous 17th and 18th century inventories reveal an impressive facility, fully equipped to store and cook a myriad of ingredients, including eggs.

The criminal proceedings of the tribunal of the inquisition also shed light on the consumption of eggs in early modern Malta.

In 1637 Inquisitor Fabio Chigi left no stones unturned when three friends were reported for eating eggs on lean days.

Following public humiliation in Vittoriosa, they were, in a matter of days, found guilty of committing similar offences, costing them two years of forced rowing on the galleys of the Knights. 

The cookalong session is being held in conjunction with Taste History and its multidisciplinary team of food historians, chefs and curators who have, in the past years, seen Heritage Malta present unique historic culinary experiences.

Food historian Noel Buttigieg will explore this fascinating theme, while Taste History chef Malcolm Baldacchino will be conducting an exclusive historic cookalong demonstration of egg meringue from 1748. 

This event will take place in the newly refurbished Cardinals’ Hall on the top floor of the Inquisitor’s Palace and will start at 7pm. 

Tickets, at €12 per person and €10 for Heritage Malta members, are available from all Heritage Malta museums and sites, and also online. All attendees will be given a complimentary copy of the Heritage Malta publication ‘MUŻA – The National Community Art Museum’.