[Sca-cooks] looking for za'atar

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

From: "chirhart_1" <chirhart_1 at netzero.net>
>Sumac isn't that poison, or an irritant.
>chirhart  (Or is there a safe kind)

Indeed, that is exactly what i was saying... What was that?

Well, there is the safe edible kind that is used in the Levant and
there are other kinds of sumac that are very much not safe. Which is
why i said that Kiri would need to determine just what kind of sumac
she has before she or anyone else tries to cook with those berries.

Of course the plant known as "poison sumac" is related to "poison
oak", which we had in the Mid West, and "poison oak", which we have
out here in California, and it is neither the kind of sumac one eats
nor is it the other dangerous kind of sumac. I don't want to THINK
about what ingesting "poison sumac" would do - well, actually, i
sorta know - i had some friends who decided to make themselves
"immune" to poison oak and made a tea out of it - imagine where they
were itching - or not, if you have a delicate sensibility...

I think we had a long discussion on the various types of sumacs
around the same time we had the discussion on zaatar last year - i'll
peek in the Florilegium and see if something turns up. After all, the
tasty safe sumac IS USED in SCA period Near Eastern cooking.

Anahita