Filo/phyllo-- was [Re: SC - duck and bread]
david friedman
ddfr at best.com
Thu Aug 31 11:18:43 PDT 2000
At 9:02 AM -0700 8/31/00, Susan Fox-Davis wrote:
>That's why my question to Paul via Kiri included all those
>speculations. It is
>clearly a Muslim recipe after all, and does list "Muslim oil" [butter] as an
>ingredient; perhaps the bean was unfamiliar as well. Shrug. I don't know,
>that's why I asked.
One of the points the translators of _A Soup for the Qan_ make is
that the Mongol empire in China was in reasonably close touch with
the Ilkhans in Persia, with people going back and forth. One result
is a cuisine that mixes Mongol, Middle-Eastern, and Chinese elements.
The fact that they are using ghee and calling it "Muslim oil" doesn't
mean that the recipe is based on a middle-eastern recipe, although it
could be. I can't think of anything at all similar using bean paste
in period middle-eastern cooking--that sounds to me like a Chinese
element in the recipe.
The Chinese had wheat flour in the north and rice flour in the
south--doesn't either seem a more likely substitution for semolina
than bean paste?
>
>Also: if this source documents the use of WHITE sugar, it could be
>a boon to SCA
>cooks for years to come. Goodness! Only the Qan could probably
>afford it, but
>then again, we all imagine ourselves to be rich nobles don't we?
Is there any reason to believe that people in period didn't have
white sugar? I am fairly sure I have seen recipes that specified
black or dark sugar, implying that an alternative existed. And I also
think I have seen references in Arabic poetry about food that imply
the sugar is white, although I haven't checked my memory on that.
Sugar in period was expensive in most of Europe because it had to be
imported. But transporting a pound of refined sugar from Sicily or
wherever to London doesn't cost any more than transporting a pound of
unrefined sugar.
A different issue is whether they had granulated sugar--my
impression is that it came in a solid cone and had to be ground
before using.
- --
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
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