SC - SC murri

[david friedman]

At 4:58 PM +1100 10/24/97, Charles McCN wrote:
>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

1. You or Rick is confusing your sources. Charles Perry did translate Ibn
al Mubarrad (as well as Manuscrito Anonymo), but it isn't the source for
his Byzantine Murri recipe--as you can tell by the notes just under the
title.

2. Nigella is an ingredient in Indian cooking, also known as kalonji or
black onion seed. I have no reason to believe it is poisonous, and
routinely use it in making Byzantine Murri without ill effects. There are
other things called "Nigella," however, and it is possible Rick was
thinking of one of them.

3. The recipe you have from Rick is the version in the _Miscellany_ at
least two editions back, via my article on Islamic cooking in C.A.; there
are a couple of changes, such as the comment on Nigella and translating my
ounces of bread to grams.  The "I" in the recipe you gave is me, not Rick.
Since then, I got more information on what a Makkuk was. The result is to
drastically increase the amount of salt. The version in the current
Miscellany is:
- ---
The following quantities are for 1/32 of the above recipe.

3 T honey	2/3 t nigela	1 1/2 oz quince
1 1/2 oz bread or 1/3 c breadcrumbs	1/4 t saffron	1/2 c salt in 3 T honey
1 T wheat starch	1/3 t celery seed	1 pint water
2/3 t anise	1/4 oz carob = 1 T	lemon (1/4 of one)
2/3 t fennel	1/4 oz walnut

Cook the honey in a small frying pan on medium heat, bringing it to a boil
then turning off the heat and repeating several times; it will taste
scorched. The bread is sliced white bread, toasted in a toaster to be
somewhat blackened, then mashed in a mortar. Toast the anise, fennel and
nigela in a frying pan or roast under a broiler, then grind in a mortar
with celery seed and walnuts. The quince is quartered and cored. Boil all
but the lemon together for about 2 hours, then put it in a potato ricer,
squeeze out the liquid and add lemon juice to it; this is the murri. The
recipe generates about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 c of liquid.  You can then add
another 1/2 c of water to the residue, simmer 1/2 hr -1 hr, and squeeze out
that liquid for the second infusion, which yields about 1/3 c. A third
infusion using 1/3 c yields another 1/4 c or so.
- ---

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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