[Sca-cooks] What kind of gum do I have?

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On 29 Oct 2001, at 19:19, Olwen the Odd wrote:

> OK I just came back from the International Market.  What I got is a
> cellophane packet with a smaller cellophane packet in it and it is
> Angel Brand Gum Arabic.

Thank you, Lady Olwen!  The "edible gum" was certainly behaving
like all of the descriptions of gum arabic that I found on the web.
It's nice to have it verified.

Since I had the stuff on hand, I decided to try out a recipe that
contained it.  There's a kind of honey taffy in the Anonymous
Andalucian cookbook which calls for gum arabic.  The recipe is on
Cariadoc's website:
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalus
ian9.htm

It's "Faludhaj", and is the variant entitled "Its Preparation with
Sugar".  I added the almond oil, wheat starch and diluted gum
arabic when the syrup got to the soft ball stage, and cooked it until
it got to the hard ball stage.  Then I mixed in slivered almonds and
poured it out onto a greased marble slab.  After cooling, it had the
consistency of saltwater taffy.  Next time I will try cooking it only to
firm ball stage.  The recipes says only "until it thickens", so I didn't
know how much to cook it.


Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net