SC - OOP - Wedding favor question

[Philippa Alderton]

- --- LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 8/26/00 8:04:12 PM Eastern
> Daylight Time, 
> margali at 99main.com writes:
> 
> << The third, abbasid qata'if sounds like a filled
> pita or maybe
>  ravioli cooked... >>
> 
> It sounds to me like phyllo pastry as a base. I fail
> to see how others are 
> getting a noodle interpretation outside the desire
> to find something 
> different in the recipe..... Explain, please....
> From the poem cited very 
> thin pastry is suggested....ONLY phyllo fits this
> description. There is no 
> noodle dough that does so. When cooked phyllo
> clearly raises the recipe from 
> common to the sublime. I cannot see how any caliph
> would settle for less than 
> the indicated sublime......
> 
> Ras

Except for the fact that filo/phyllo dough was not
created until the mid-17th century.  According to the
Oxford Companion to Food, the medieval predecesors
were thin breads and noodles, which the varying qatâif
recipes seem to prove.  As for the poem, which is a
puzzle, I ask this: how thin was paper during the time
that this poem was written?  A lot of the home-made
papers that I have seen many paper-makers produce
don't come anywhere near as thin as modern papers or
modern filo dough.

And as for noodle dough not being thin enough, I think
that depends on the recipe and the maker.  Perhaps you
don't make thin noodles, but I have seen expert
noodlers come up with some very fine, thin noodles.

Huette  

=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.

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