SC - vermilion/kermes, was Apicius / Kitab al-Tabikh

[Cindy Renfrow]

Hello!

To change this thread completely... There are a few recipes & mentions in
the Baghdad Cookery book of a red food coloring which has been translated
as 'vermilion'.

In one instance (p. 24), it is being smeared on boiled eggs to make
vermilioned eggs. The halwa recipe (p. 210) is colored with saffron or
vermilion.

I was wondering if anyone knew whether the original was referring to the
poisonous vermillion/cinnabar (mercuric sulphide -- zanjifrah), or to
kermes (qirmiz/chermez)?

Also, has anyone come across any early culinary references for kermes?

Regards,


Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu
renfrow at skylands.net
Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th
Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing
Recipes"
http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/


<snip>
>You mentioned a Kitab al-Tabikh in a Manuscript 'Oriental 5000' of the
>British library.
>
>Is it edited and/or translated somewhere?
>
>Besides the Kitab al-Tabikh that Arberry used for his translation in
>'Islamic Culture' 1939, he mentions another one in the Bodleian Library
>in Oxford (Hunt 187): Kitab al-Tabikh by Abu Muhammad al-Muzaffar b.
>Nasr ibn Saiyar al Warraq. Arberry says: "I hope to show in a
>forthcoming paper that this work which is of the greatest interest, was
>written some time during the 4/10th century, by a writer who had access
>to the actual recipe-book of the Abbasid Caliphs" (p. 30 note 5).
>
>Where, if ever, did this paper appear?
>[Grewe, 'Hispano-arabic cuisine', mentions an edition by Oehrnberg and
>Mroueh, Helsinki 1987; not seen]
>
>And what about the arabic cookery texts in the manuscripts Gotha
>1344-46, Arberry mentions in his note 1?
>
>Is there a good article/book about Arab culinary documents?
>
>So many questions. Be patient with me.
>
>Thomas
>


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