[Sca-cooks] "Blattes de Bysance" in the Baghdad cookery book

[David Dendy]

Greetings

The direct meaning of the "blattes de Byzance" is the operculum or
shell-hinge of a species of mollusc, used in perfumery. However, Arberry's
translation was confused because the editor of the Arabic version of the
text, not finding the actual word used in his modern Arabic dictionaries,
had altered the spelling to what he guessed it might be, and so got the
wrong word. I include below a bit out a survey of spice mixes which I am
working on, which should give you an idea of the real thing

Francesco Sirene

ATRAF AT-TIB ("PARTICLES OF PERFUME")

 This is the spice mix most often called for in the Wusla; in the Kitab
al-tabikh it appears in eight recipes, including meat stew, fish dishes,
savory relishes, and sauces. [Arberry, "Baghdad Cookery-Book", pp. 36, 203,
205-207. Arberry's confusion about the name and composition of this
seasoning, which he translates as "blattes de Bysance" (an odiferous
substance, the operculums of the shells of Strombus lentigosus, which is
used in perfumery), is corrected in Rodinson, "Recherches", p. 132.]

" . . .definition of "atraf at-tib"; it is a spice mixture very often used
in cooking; this mixture includes lavender, areca (betel) nut, bay leaves,
nutmeg, mace, cardamom, cloves, rosebuds, beechnuts, ginger and pepper, this
last being previously ground separately." [Rodinson, "Recherches", pp. 132,
152. My translation from the French.]

Considering the complexity and types of ingredients in this mixture, it
seems to be an ancestor of the modern Moroccan mixture called ras el hanout
("top (or head) of the shop"), perhaps because it is the finest and best the
spice merchant has to offer. Ras el hanout will include anywhere from ten
spices upwards to perhaps more than a hundred ingredients.

-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Carroll-Mann <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: May 14, 2002 9:27 PM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] "Blattes de Bysance" in the Baghdad cookery book


>Does anyone who what this mystery ingredient is?  Our cook's
>guild is doing Middle Eastern for the next meeting, so I've been
>reading through the Anonymous Andalusian and al-Baghdadi.  The
>literal translation seems to be "cockroaches of Byzantium".  I
>thought I'd seen this discussed somewhere, but a Google search
>isn't turning anything up.
>
>
>Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
>Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
>rcmann4 at earthlink.net
>_______________________________________________
>Sca-cooks mailing list
>Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
>http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks