[Sca-cooks] Follow up on Marzipan question

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Anne duBosc:
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>[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
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>On Saturday, December 21, Brighid wrote:
>>The oldest recipe for marzipan (though it doesn't use that name) is
>>an Arabic one.  I *think* it's from the 13th century Anonymous
>>Andalusian Cookbook.  The oldest recipe which uses that name (or
>>a variant thereof) is in the 14th c. Catalan confectionary manual:
>>"Per Fer Mersepa".
>
>>Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
>
>
>Brighid, is this the recipe from The Anonymous Andalusian?  And
>where could I get a copy of Per Fer Marsepa?
>
>>From Charles Perry's translation of An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook:
>[62]Sukkariyya, a Sugar Dish from the Dictation of Abu 'Ali al-Bagdadi
>Take a ratl of sugar and put in two šqiyas of rosewater and boil it
>in a ceramic pot until it is on the point of thickening and sticks
>between the fingers. Then take a third of a ratl of split almonds,
>fried, not burnt, and pound well and throw the sugar on them and
>stir it on the fire until thickened. Then spread it out on a dish
>and sprinkle it with ground sugar.

Isn't this more like praline than like marzipan? Even though there's
a rosewater element involved, which what we think of , classically,
as praline, doesn't, it's the whole cooking process which makes me
think this. The sugar appears not to be cooked to a caramel, but then
the almonds are slightly toasted. I always thought of marzipan as a
dough, though, rather than as a cooked product. YMMV.

Adamantius