[Sca-cooks] Sekunjabin question

[Maggie MacDonald]

At 01:57 AM 9/14/01 -0500,Haraldr said something like:
>lilinah at earthlink.net wrote in a message to All:
>
>  le> I recently made my first batch of sekanjabin (about 3 quarts of
>  le> syrup for an event), and i have a few comments:
>
>  le> I really really did NOT like the taste of cider vinegar in it. Next
>  le> time i will use white wine vinegar. Apples are not particularly
>  le> common in the Near East, but grapes are, and there were plenty of
>  le> Muslims drinking wine throughout the Near East. I suspect Near
>  le> Eastern vinegar was not cider vinegar, but grape based vinegar.

I found that if I boiled the vinegar with the sugar syrup it reduced the
harsh sharpness of the vinegar. I've also played with using red wine
vinegar, and once I got some very pleasant results by using plain distilled
white vinegar and adding a smidge of some very nasty boxed red wine (faux
wine vinegar).

>  le> I used His Grace, Lord Cariadoc's proportions, and then reduced the
>  le> amount of sugar and increased the amount of mint and vinegar, and
>  le> it was still waaaay too sweet for my taste. And, yes, i diluted it,
>  le> extremely, before drinking it (like, a tsp or two of syrup to 8 oz.
>  le> water). I'll probably also add verjus, as some i've found is rather
>  le> drinkable to my taste, or Middle Eastern sour grape juice.
>
>The usual dilution is 10:1 up to 12:1. That works out to less than a teaspoon
>for an 8oz glass.
>
>Haraldr Bassi, Frosted Hills, East
>haraldr at drakkar.org
>
>Dave Calafrancesco, Team OS/2
>dave at drakkar.org

Well, an 8 oz glass has 48 teaspoons in it. If you use the 12:1 ratio,
thats 4 teaspoons (or so).

Perhaps in this situation you need to play with the recipe a bit more til
you find a combination that you like.  Very few recipes are completely
sacred, and writ in stone, therefore they are just a guide of where to start.

Regards,
Maggie MacD.