[Sca-cooks] Food Poem

[Olwen the Odd]

>[page 207]
>"KAMAKH RIJAL
>There are several varieties of this, but all follow the same recipe, only
>differing in ingredients. First take a large, dry pumpkin-shell from which
>all the pith and seeds have been removed: soak in water for two hours, then
>dry thoroughly. Put in 5 ratls of sour milk, 10 ratls of fresh milk, and 1
>1/2 ratls of fine-brayed salt, and stir.  Cover, and leave for some days in
>the hot sun. This is first made in June, at the beginning of the
>mid-summer. Each morning add 3 ratls of fresh milk, and stir morning and
>evening. Add milk as the liquid lessens, until the beginning of August. Now
>take mint-leaves, shuniz, and quarters of peeled garlic, throw in, and
>stir, adding fresh milk to make up as usual, until the middle of September.
>Cover until the beginning of October: then remove from the sun until set,
>and serve. There is also the simple variety, in which no [aromatic]
>ingredients are used; another, in which shuniz and garlic are used; and
>another, in which are used the dried leaves of the red rose cut off from
>the stalk."
>
>HTH,
>
>Cindy

Am I reading this right?  Are they actually talking about using a dried
gourd and just describing it oddly?  Does anyone think buttermilk would
work?  How the heck did they keep the flies out?  I mean, that is a long
time to let milk set out.  What in the world is shuniz?  Oh, so many
questions.
Olwen

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