SC - SC murri

[Charles McCN]

Someone asked what it was. the web address for this is 
http://www.mpce.mq.edu.au/~gnott/interests/NVG/article2_sup.html

and the page says...
Ok, if you really want to know what this stuff murri is, then cop a load 
of this! This recipe was kindly supplied by Rick Cullinan
who has actually made it.

Byzantine Murri
Kitab Wasf, Sina'ah 52, p.56, Sina'ah 51, p. 65: Charles Perry tr. 

Description 

     There is taken, upon the name of God the Most High, of honey 
scorched in naqrah (perhaps this word means 'a
     silver vessel'), three ratls, pounded scorched oven bread, ten 
loaves; starch, half a ratl; roasted anise, fennel and
     nigelia, two uqiyahs of each; Byzantine saffron, an uqiya; celery 
seed, an uqiyah; Syrian Carob, half a ratl; fifty
     peeled walnuts, as much as half a ratl; split quinces, five; salt, 
half makkauk dissolved in honey; thirty ratls water;
     and the rest of the ingredients are thrown in it, and it is boiled 
on a slow flame until a third of the water is
     absorbed. Then it is strained well in a clean nosebag of hair. It is 
taken up in a greased glass or pottery vessel
     with a narrow top. A little lemon from Takranjiya (? Sina'ah 51 has 
Bakr Fahr) is thrown on it, and if it suits that a
     little water is thrown on the dough and it is boiled upon it and 
strained, it would be a second (infusion). The
     weights and measurements that are given are Antiochan and Zahiri 
[as] in Mayyafariqin. 

     The following quantities are for 1/32 of the above recipe. The first 
time I used more bread and the mixture was
     too thick. I have not discovered what a mukkuk is, so the salt is 
pure guesswork. 
     1 ratl = 12 uquiya = 600mL 

Recipe
3 tbls honey
45g bread
1 tbls wheat starch
2/3 tsp anise
2/3 tsp fennel
2/3 tsp nigelia DANGER: This plant is poisonous, omit from recipe
1/4 tsp saffron
1/3 tsp celery seed
3/2 tsp carob
3/2 tsp walnut
45g quince
1/8 tsp salt
600mL water
1/4 of a lemon

     I cooked the honey in a small frying pan, bringing it to a boil then 
turning off the heat several times; it tasted
     scorched. The bread was sliced white bread, toasted in a toaster to 
be somewhat blackened, then mashed in a
     mortar. The anise and fennel were toasted in a frying pan, then put 
in a mortar with celery seed and walnut, and
     ground. After it was all boiled together, it was put in a cloth bag 
and the liquid drained out and used. 

Reference 

     Kitab al Tibakhah, A Fifteenth-Century Cookbook, Charles Perry, tr.
     The translation was published in Petis Propos Culinaires #21. The 
original author is Ibn al-Mabrad or Ibn
     al-Mubarrad. Cited in The Islamic World - The Complete Anachronist 
#51 , September 1990, SCA Inc. 

So have fun...
Charles

============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================