[Sca-cooks] Apician date recipe

[Elaine Koogler]

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I don't know...I do know that one I plan to use at an event this weekend, an
Arabic version of a similar thing, calls for the dates to be boiled in the
honey.  However, it states that you take the fresh dates and allow them to dry
for two weeks:

Take fresh ripe dates freshly harvested for immersion and spread the out in
the shade and air for two days.  Then remove their pits from the bottom, using
a packing needle or sharpened stick, and put excellent peeled sweet almonds in
place of all the pits.  For every ten pounds, take two pounds of honey and
thin it with two ounces of rosewater.  Put it up on the fire, and when it
boils, remove its scum.  Then colour it with half a dirham of saffron and
throw the dates in it.  And when it boils, stir them nicely, lightly, so that
they absorb the honey.  Then take them down from the fire and spread them out
in a tray of briar wood.  When they have cooled off, sprinkle them with spiced
finely pounded sugar.  If you want them to be heating, it is with musk,
spikenard and a bit of [hot] spices [afawih].  If you want them to be cooling,
spice them with camphor and a little poppy seed.  Put them up in glass vessels
and only use them during the chilly season and when fresh date season is over.
-- Kitab Wasf al-At’ima al-Mu’tada (The Description of Familiar Foods) trans.
Charles Perry.

This is from Medieval Arab Cookery, ed. Charles Perry et al.

When I read this, I was struck by the similarities to the Dates Alexandrine
from Apicius.  The main difference is in the seasonings.  I haven't actually
redacted it yet, but will send that, along with the other things I'm thinking
of doing early next week.

Kiri

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

Sue Clemenger wrote:
>
> Hmmm....I wonder why they rolled them in salt? How would that affect the
> frying? Would it do anything to the temp of the honey, or the way the
> honey would adhere to the dates?
> --maire

I wonder if perhaps they're talking about fresh dates, rather than dried
ones. Salting them might help keep things from splattering.

Adamantius

>
> Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
> >
> > "Mark.S Harris" wrote:
> > >
> > > Adamantius said:
> > > > And then there's that Apician recipe that calls for frying dates in
> > > > honey. Which, when you consider its boiling point, isn't all that
> > > > outlandish, if a bit dangerous.
> > >
> > > Could someone please post this recipe and a redaction if there is
> > > one? My recently started dates-msg file is still small and this
> > > sounds like a good addition.
> >
> > Apicius Book VII, chapter xiii, recipe i:
> >
> > DULCIA DOMESTICA: palmulas vel dactylos excepto semine, nuce vel nucleis
> > vel pipere trito infercies. sale foris contingis,  frigis in melle
> > cocto, et inferes.
> >
> > Flower and Rosenbaum's translation:
> >
> > VII, xiii, i. HOME-MADE SWEET.  Stone dates, and stuff with nuts,
> > pine-kernels, or ground pepper. Roll in salt, fry in cooked honey, and
serve.
> > .
> > .
> > .
> > The honey may be cooked for stabilization purposes: boiling honey can
> > foam alarmingly; maybe they cooked it in a big pot to prevent it from
> > bubbling over in the frying pan later. I'm only speculating, though.
> >
> > Adamantius
> > --
> > Phil & Susan Troy
> >
> > troy at asan.com
> >
> > "It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
> > things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
> > let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98
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--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98
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