SC - Under 40 crowd?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> 
> 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.

A pretty standard difficulty in cases like this. Since this happens with
recipes translated from English [Middle] to English [Modern], who am I
to quibble over problems with medieval Arabic?
 
> 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.

No, I have no reason to think you didn't do the best possible with the
information at hand. I only questioned the veracity of that information,
with no emotional involvement in whether it's accurate or not. It's just
a question I would have asked if I were doing it myself, is all.

Ya see, the problem I'm seeing here is that it looks a bit like you
could have gone into this wanting the dish to be hummus, and so made
some choices (which may well have been correct in any case) that would
highlight a perceived resemblance. I assume this would have been, if it
happened at all, unconscious. On the other hand, the dish may well _be_
a lot like hummus bis tahini. I'm not criticizing any of your choices; I
know they were made in good faith. But I also know that, if there _were_
a translator's error, you'd want to know about it.

I was wondering where the word "tahini" in the translation came from; is
it simply transliterated/copied from the original as being unnecessary
to translate ("Everyone knows what tahini is..."), or is it believed to
be the nearest modern equivalent to whatever the recipe actually
specifies? If the former, I'd say there's at least a chance the
translation is wrong. If the latter, then I guess it's hummus. Or
something like it, anyway.
  
Now of course, we both know His Most Saffroned Grace (voiced with
respect) is likely to say something like, well, we've established the
existence of a dip containing tahini in period, but how, exactly, does
this relate to hummus in any way but a superficial resemblance? And I
confess he'd be right to ask that...

Actually, it sounds like a version of skordalia (a lemony Greek garlic
sauce) to me, albeit it also sounds yummers.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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