SC - Re: sca-cooks V1 #2588

[Vincent Cuenca]

At 9:08 AM -0400 9/12/00, Jenne Heise wrote:

>By the way, I'm a little confused about the documentation for the mint
>flavored sekanjabin syrup in cold water... I thought it was documented
>only for _hot water_ and the cold version was 'creative anachronism'. (I
>keep introducing herbalists to this drink, but I squirm a little bit
>because I'm confused about it.)

The only period recipes for sekanjabin (13th c. Andalusian) I am 
familiar with are for "simple sekanjabin" and don't contain mint. 
They (one sugar and one honey) are:
- ---
Syrup of Simple Sikanjabîn (Oxymel)

Take a ratl of strong vinegar and mix it with two ratls of sugar, and 
cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup. Drink an ûqiya of 
this with three of hot water when fasting: it is beneficial for 
fevers of jaundice, and calms jaundice and cuts the thirst, since 
sikanjabîn syrup is beneficial in phlegmatic fevers: make it with six 
ûqiyas of sour vinegar for a ratl of honey and it is admirable.
- ---

Serving it cold, and having mint in the syrup, is modern Persian 
practice; my standard recipe is from Claudia Roden's middle eastern 
cookbook. I think it likely that it was drunk cold as well as hot, 
judging by the other recipes in the chapter on syrups in the 
Andalusin cookbook.

There is a reference to sekanjabin in the _Fihrist_ of al-Nadim, but 
I don't remember just what it says, and it isn't in the index. There 
are other period references to drinking sweet flavored non-alcoholic 
drinks in period.
- -- 
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/