SC - Bal-po Soup- Redaction of the Week

[Alderton, Philippa]

Had an interesting conversation with Paul Buell about hot spices in China
and the East, in period, and he sent me the following recipe, with
measurements as stated.

Reminders- this is copyrighted, by:

Paul D. Buell and Eugene N. Anderson, A Soup for the Qan, Kegan Paul
International, London, 2000

It is from page 278, and the year is 1330, or about. It's from the Yin-shan
cheng-yao, "Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor's Food and Drink."
This is a dietary manual prepared for a Mongol emperor in China, one
Tugh-temir.

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[3.] Bal-po Soup (This is the name of a Western Indian food)

It supplements the center, and brings down ch'i. It extends the diaphragm.

Mutton (leg; bone and cut up), tsaoko cardamoms (five), chickpeas (half a
sheng; pulverize and remove the skins), Chinese radish.

Boil ingredients together to make a soup. Strain [broth. Cut up meat and
Chinese radish and put aside]. Add to the soup [the] mutton cut up into
sashuq [coin]-sized pieces, [the] cooked Chinese radish cut up into
sashuq-sized pieces, 1 ch'ien of za'faran [saffron], 2 ch'ien of turmeric, 2
ch'ien of black ["Iranian"] pepper, half a ch'ien of kasni,
[asafoetida], coriander leaves. Evenly adjust flavors with a little salt.
Eat over cooked aromatic non-glutinous rice. Add a little Vinegar.

Bal-po is Nepal, in this case probably Kashmir. Tsaoko cardamom's
are the large smoky ones used in Punjabi cooking. You don't eat them
but just use them for flavoring. Very nice. Mongol sheep were
small so don't use a large leg of lamb for this. This is a curry,
by the way, a very early one. Later chilies would have
been used but this was before Columbus, so... {Buell}

Notes:

A ch'ien is today 3.12 g or .011 oz and is one-tenth of a liang. Sixteen
liang make a chin (about 500 g). A sheng is today 31.5 cu in (slightly less
in the fourteenth century), and is comprised of 10 ho (each 3.17 cu in). Ten
sheng make a tou.

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Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

"All things are poisons.  It is simply the dose that distinguishes between a
poison and a remedy." -Paracelsus

"Oats -- a grain which in England sustains the horses, and in
Scotland, the men." -- Johnson

"It was pleasant to me to find that 'oats,' the 'food of horses,' were
so much used as the food of the people in Johnson's own town." --
Boswell

"And where will you find such horses, and such men?" -- Anonymous