[Sca-cooks] Re: Hummus period source wanted

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Johnna, please forward this message to Violante and the MK Cooks list...
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Greetings, Violante:

You wrote:
>Does anyone know of or have a medieval or ancient recipe for hummus?

Hummos means chick peas, and chick peas are used in many surviving
Medieval Near Eastern recipes. However, i suspect you mean
hummos-bi-tahini, the puree of chick peas and tahini used in the
Levant as a sauce for falafel. I know of no Medieval or even
Renaissance period recipes for it.

The closest are a few recipes for salsa, the Arabic plural of sals, a
word most likely borrowed by Medieval Arabic speakers from a European
language, probably French. While the name is European in origin, the
recipes are quite Middle Eastern.

The surviving Middle Eastern recipe closest to modern
hummos-bi-tahini is Sals Abyad (White Sauce) which is a spiced
mixture of ground walnuts and tahini. While the original is
identified as a sauce, it doesn't say what it would be served with.

I hope this is of some help. If someone discovers another recipe that
is closer to hummos-bi-tahini, i'd love to see it, as it is a
favorite of mine, too.

Anahita


SALS ABYAD - White Sauce
Spiced Walnut-Sesame Sauce/Spread

ORIGINAL RECIPE:
from the 1373 CE "al-Kitab Wasf al-At'ima al-Mu'tada"
("The Book of the Description of Familiar Foods"),
translated by Charles Perry, in "Medieval Arab Cookery", p. 389

Walnuts, garlic, pepper, Chinese cinnamon, white mustard, tahineh and
lemon juice.

[that's the whole recipe]

MY RECIPE:
this has been adjusted downward from the one i made for 100 people.
This should make 2 to 3 cups.

1/2 pound shelled walnuts
2 cups sesame tahini from a Middle Eastern brand -
           health food sesame paste doesn't  work as well
1/2 to 1 ounce prepared garlic paste
           with NO additives or preservatives
           (or puree 1/2 to 1 ounce fresh garlic)
3/4 tsp ground black or white pepper
1-1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
1/4 ounce yellow mustard powder (or you could experiment with Dijon mustard)
juice from 1 to 2 lemons
1-1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste

1. Grind walnuts finely, in nut grinder, blender, or food processor -
or pound in a mortar with a pestle. Do not grind to a paste, but
leave some texture.
2. Stir walnuts with one cup tahini.
3. Mix pureed garlic, pepper, cinnamon, mustard powder, and salt into
the other cup of tahini.
4. Blend seasoned tahini into walnut-tahini blend.
5. Let stand overnight for flavors to develop.
6. Shortly before serving stir in fresh lemon juice and add water to
achieve desired consistency.
7. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Serve with Near Eastern flat breads - I served Lavosh and a Persian
flat bread whose name I have forgotten. It would probably be good as
a vegetable dip in a modern setting.