[Sca-cooks] al-Kindi's resat jelly is not mead

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I have a copy of
The Medical Formulary or Aqrabadhin of al-Kindi
Translated with a study of its Materia Medica
by Martin Levey
The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Milwaukee, and London
1966

The formula that was misrepresented in the TI is

Number 108.

The best resat jellies are taken in the winter for a stiff neck. It
is useful with God's help.

Ten dawariq of the best juice from pulp of the grape is taken. A
dawariq is four and one half ratls. It is cooked over a low fire
until its foam disappears.

Then the best genuine honey is put in. The proportion is one ratl of
honey for every five ratls. It is boiled over a low fire until its
foam also disappears. One half evaporates.

Then one dirham each is taken of
lesser cardamom
cardamom
Ceylonese cinnamon
clove
and
long pepper
It is well pulverized and put into a fine linen cloth.

Then it is thrown into the decoction after the froth has been removed.
When the cooking is over, it is possible to introduce the hand into it.
The powder is macerated into it strongly.
It is taken out and three dirhams of saffron is put in.
It is put into flasks and the tops are stoppered. After a little sun
is allowed on it, one may use it.
The older it gets, the better, God willing.

-------

Levey says Resat jelly - from the Arabic risatun - In the East risat
is called faludhaj, and in the Maghrib sabuniya (Dozy, I:525).

I will not reproduce the author's misguided article. There's a link
to it below.

I will say that i think the author of the TI missed a few important
things - one is that the volume of the grape juice and honey are
cooked until they are reduced by half. This would be rather thick,
and retain the consistency of honey. Second, i think this would not
have natural yeast in it, not after long hot boiling, and would be
unlikely to ferment. And if it did? It wouldn't be mead. It has the
consistency of honey - thick and viscous. Anyway, His Grace said it
much better than i can... and i've included his post below.

Anahita

"The truth must be taken wherever it is to be found,
whether it be in the past or among strange peoples."
	-- al-Kindi, Baghdad (801-873)


---------------------

Here's HG Cariadoc's rebuttal. It was published in a subsequent TI


Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 19:05:10 -0700
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] "An Arab Mead" !!!
Reply-To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org

The latest T.I. has an article describing a recipe from an Arabic
medicinal formulary which the author thinks is a mead or, more
precisely, pyment. I have sent off the following letter to T.I..
Comments?
-----
The article "An Arab Mead" in T.I. 140 describes its recipe as
"clearly a variety of mead (or, more properly, a sort of sack
pyment)." I would have said that, on the evidence provided, it is
clearly nothing of the sort. Consider:

1. The recipe specifies boiling the liquid until it is reduced by
half. That is a very long boil, and one could not reasonably expect
any yeast in the original grape pulp to survive it. Nothing is said
about adding any additional source of yeast after the liquid has
cooled.

2. The liquid contains grape juice at about twice its natural
concentration, plus about three pounds of honey per gallon. The
combination comes to roughly three times the sugar concentration
normally used to make wine or mead.

3. The recipe says to put the liquid into flasks and stopper them.
There is no intermediate fermentation and nothing is said about
leaving the stoppers loose. Failing to do so, as the author of the
article points out, leads to problems.

Each of those points by itself is evidence that what is being
described is not a fermented drink. Combining them and  adding the
religious prohibition against drinking fermented gape juice makes the
article's interpretation highly implausible.
---
Those of you who have not received you T.I. yet will find the article
webbed by the author at:

http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/arabmead.html
--
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/