Why were things done that way ?

The traditions of your family may be associated with being part of a hidden Jewish group called the Anusim. Sephardic Bnei Anusim אנוסים ספרדיים, pronounced ['bnei anu'sim sfara'dim], lit. "Children [of the] coerced [converted] Spanish [Jews]) is a modern term used to define the contemporaryChristian descendants of estimated quarter of a million 15th-century Sephardic Jewish which were coerced or forced to convert to Catholicism during the 14th and 15th century in Spain.

THE IBERIAN PENINSULA

Forcible conversion of Jews occurred in many lands throughout the ages, but nowhere was this phenomenon more consequential and widespread than in the Iberian Peninsula, in the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. Crypto-Judaism in Sepharad began in 1391 as a result of the massacres that broke out in Seville and spread throughout the peninsula in the summer of that year. Located on the southwestern tip of the European continent, the Iberian Peninsula , includes the countries of Andorra, Portugal and Spain, and the British Crown colony ofGibraltar. At the nearest point, it is only 5 miles (8km) from the continent of Africa.

Spices that were used or unique ways the food was prepared.