[Ansteorra] Sekanjabin recipe

[Stefan li Rous]

On Jun 8, 2010, at 12:41 AM, Cody Chezem wrote:

> Has anyone substituted honey for the sugar?
>  
> Centurion Thorvald

Yes.

In fact, the fourth message in the Florilegium jalabs-msg file, which I mentioned earlier, specifically talks about replacing the sugar with honey. The original recipe that Cariadoc quotes appears to offer the option of honey, but it looks like His Grace chose to use only sugar.

Also remember that this would be cane sugar. Beet sugar is an 18th century invention. And I believe corn syrup is 20th C.

<<<
From: bloch at thor.ucsd.edu (Steve Bloch)
Date: 4 Jan 91 01:53:52 GMT

Several recipes appear in Cariadoc's _Miscellany_, which I have not
before me.  One is taken from Claudia Roden's book of Middle-Eastern
cookery (in print, not too hard to find), and calls for water,
vinegar, sugar, and mint.  There are also one or two 13th-century
Andalusian recipes quoted there, omitting the mint (which is so
essential to the flavor as most of us are accustomed to it that
leaving it out borders on heresy.  And the mint IS documentable to the
10th century or so, just not with enough specificity to make a
recipe.)

I have tried these recipes, fiddled with them, and much prefer the
following, which uses honey rather than sugar:

Dissolve 1-1/2 cups of honey in 1 cup of water.  Bring to a boil, then
add 1/2 cup of vinegar and simmer for half an hour or more.  After
removing from the heat, add a good-sized handful of mint leaves.  Let
stand until you want to drink it (I have no idea how long it takes for
the mint to express!), at which time the mint should be strained out
and the syrup diluted by about 7 times as much water (10 is for
wimps).  Delicious either hot (while shivering around a campfire) or
cool (at a feast, or coming off the battlefield).  And the syrup
keeps unrefrigerated for months, because of the vinegar.

The honey should have some flavor (clover is for wimps) but not too
much (desert sage honey completely overwhelms the mint, and the
drinker).  Likewise the vinegar: white vinegar will simply be sour,
balsamic would be weird, and either cider or wine is ideal.  You can
use dried mint, but fresh is much better, and you probably have some
growing as a weed in your back yard.

Note: I used to add the mint at the same time as the vinegar, before
simmering, and was chastised for this insensitivity by an Iraqi
gentleman to whom I served it ("Very good, but the spices aren't
right.  He burned the mint.")

Note also: various people of this Barony have discovered sekanjabin
syrup (a sugar version) for sale in 24-ounce bottles in Middle-
Eastern grocery stores.

As Cariadoc will no doubt point out, sekanjabin is merely the most
popular (in the SCA) of dozens or hundreds of similar drinks from al-Andalus.  Others call for lemon, or pomegranate, or a variety of
roots and herbs, and I have made an excellent drink syrup from
rhubarb (but cannot document it).
-- 
Stephen Bloch
Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
>>>

In the next message, Cariadoc explains where he came up with his particular version:
<<<
Date: 14 May 92 
From: ddfr at quads.uchicago.edu (david director friedman)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations

           Sekanjabin

Dissolve 4 cups sugar in 2 1/2 cups of water; when it comes to a boil
add 1 cup wine vinegar. Simmer 1/2 hour. Add a handful of mint,
remove from fire, let cool. Dilute the resulting syrup to taste with
ice water (5 to 10 parts water to 1 part syrup).  The syrup stores
without refrigeration.

This recipe is based on a modern source:  A Book of Middle Eastern
Food, by Claudia Roden. Sekanjabin is a period drink; it is mentioned
in the Fihrist  of al-Nadim, which was written in the tenth century.
The only period recipe I have found for it (in the Andalusian
cookbook) is called "Sekanjabin Simple" and omits the mint. It is one
of a large variety of similar drinks described in that
cookbook of flavored syrups intended to be diluted in either hot or cold
water before drinking.

This is the period recipe--it appears to be two recipes with some
bits missing:

Syrup of Simple Sakanyabin

Take a pound of strong vinegar and mix it with two pounds of sugar,
and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup.  Drink an ounce
of this with three of hot water when fasting: it is beneficial for
fevers of jaundice, and calms jaundice and cuts the thirst, since
sakanyabin syrup is beneficial in phlegmatic fevers: make it with six
ounce of sour vinegar for a pound of honey and it is admirable ...
and a pound of sugar; cook all this until it takes the form of a
drink.  Its benefit is to relax the bowels and cut the thirst and
vomit, and it is beneficial in yellow fevers.

Cariadoc/David
>>>

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****