SC - fishiness

[LrdRas@aol.com]

In a message dated 7/28/99 11:35:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time, troy at asan.com 
writes:

<< n the original Arabic recipe for white sals (which I assume is the name
 supplied by the English translator), that is being translated as tahini?
 If it's tahini, and we believe Perry, it could mean flour, and/or could
 be at odds with the dictionary entry you quoted. If, on the other hand,
 it's a sesame paste product that we'd now call tahini, what did they
 call it then? >>

The AOL dictionary is in fact the current Mirriam-Webster dictionary to get 
that particular bit out of the way. :-)

Anyway the word translated as tahinae by the translator is derived, I assume, 
from the Arabic dialect tahina, from tahana to grind. The question then 
becomes what is the difference between the Arabic ending -ina and -ana. I am 
not an expert in Arabic. I can't even read Arabic unless you count the 
meaning of my SCA name. :-)

However, the translator seemed to think that the word meant tahini as that is 
what they translated it as. I am aware that my redaction is only valid so far 
as the translator is accurate. 

In my home test of the recipe, which is the version posted, I actually ground 
sesame seeds and did not use the store bought version of tahini. Yes, the 
texture was slightly different (e.g., not as smooth as commercial tahini). 
And it needed slightly more lemon juice to get a good texture. However, do 
you have any reason to believe that this redaction was not as close as 
possible to the translation I had to work with. If I have used an ingredient 
not intended, I would be most willing to redo the correct version. But again 
the question of the translator's use of the word tahinae suggests that the 
sesame product is meant.

Wadji, would you be able to shed any light on this subject?

Ras
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