sucralose/splenda (was Re: [Sca-cooks] Gyro? Hero?)

[Stefan li Rous]

Irmele asked:
> Stefan wrote:
> > I also bought a bottle of their ... spearmint
> > flavored one. I'm hoping that I can use these to make
> > a passable Sekanjabin.
>
> What is the common mint used in Persian cooking? Neither
> peppermint nor spearmint taste right to me (they taste like
> Christmas or medicine, respectively).

I'm not sure about Persian cooking. Sekanjabin is among a family of
sugar syrup based drinks which were period, but which I thought was
more widespread than just Persia. I don't remember the period recipes
specifying a type of mint, so I think you have to fall back on what
was available in the area.

Within the SCA, I've had Sekanjabin made from both spearmint or
peppermint and probably others.

In this case, I was already using a non-period sweetener and the only
two choices of mint were spearmint or peppermint. I find spearmint to
be less obvious than peppermint, so that is why I chose that one. However,
I was mainly counting on the unflavored syrup for this. I just recently
started an herb garden with both spearmint and English mint and they
are intended primarily for Sekanjabin use. The spearmint flavored
syrup is meant as a backup, in case the Splenda based syrup can't be
flavored with mint leaves for some reason.

If you would like more information on period jalab type drinks, including
a number of period recipes, and various redactions of some of these
recipes, take a look at this file in the BEVERAGES section of my files:
jalabs-msg        (51K)  1/23/01    Drinks with a sugar or honey-syrup
base such
                                       as Sekanjabin (Persian Mint Drink).
http://www.florilegium.org/files/BEVERAGES/jalabs-msg.html
--
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****