Soda was [Sca-cooks] steam-baking

[Philippa Alderton]

--- Susan Fox-Davis <selene at earthlink.net> wrote:

> My question is:  where did the Chinese get soda in
> the Qan's time?  Is this a
> period ingredient, or some redactor's addition to
> appeal to modern tastes?

I asked Paul Buell this very question earlier today,
and following is his response. FYI, Paul is not
subject to worrying about modern tastes- he's a very
serious scholar searching for truth, rather than
trying to rearrange the world to suit his own
preconceptions. Good man, good friend ;-)

Phlip

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The Arabs used borax (al-bawraq) to glaze bread. See
Ahsan, Social Life
under the Abbasids, Librairie de Liban, 1979, 88. The
Chinese used
leavens
made in very complex ways to start breads and other
dough
fermentations.
don't recall if they included any chemicals. Soda, not
pure soda, was
used
in Arabic medicine and the Chinese probably got the
idea from the Arabs
for
their medicine. See the Read volume on minerals.

Paul


=====
Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....

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