SC - Khushkananaj (was: Ideal vs. practical)

[david friedman]

At 11:11 PM -0500 3/26/99, Daniel Phelps wrote:
>David Waines in his book "In a Caliph's Kitchen" presents on page 68 his
>redaction of Khushknanaj from al-Baghdadi's manual.  his translation on page
>69 is identical to that in His Grace's Miscellany.  His ingredient list is a
>follows:

>175g./6 oz. strong white flour
>15g./1/2 oz yeast
>50g/2 oz. ground almonds
>1 teaspoon ground coriander
>1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
>1 tablespoon olive oil

The original starts:

Take fine white flour, and with every ratl mix three uqiya of sesame-oil,
kneading into a firm paste.

The original recipe gives an explicit ratio, by weight, for flour to oil--4
to one (a ratl has 12 uqiya) and specifies what kind of oil to use. The
recipe you quote from Waines has a ratio of more than  12 to one, and
specifies a different kind of oil. So it looks as though the book is not to
be trusted--something I didn't know, not having noticed that he had that
recipe.

His glaze of melted sugar and milk correspond to nothing in the original.
It rather looks as though he is using a modern middle eastern recipe that
is vaguely similar to the medieval one, but that's only a guess.


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


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