[Sca-cooks] Re: Period Jewish wine additive - OT

[Devra at aol.com]

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My friend Lew, whose years in SCA are many, and who is the author of the CA
book on Jewish life in period, asks for help with the definition of a
measure.


> A recipe for a period Jewish wine says:
>
> “Take two and a half dirhems’ weight of each of the following: lichen,
> ginger, pepper, and barley flour, and a half a dirhem of saffron.  Mix all
> these together, pound them, and bind the mixture with the same quantity
> [weight] of Egyptian bee honey and put it aside.  Put two and a half
> dirhems
> weight of this, together with one dirhem of colophony into each jar and
> plaster it over.  Leave it in the sun for seven days, after which, it can
> be
> used.
>
> If you wish to have vinegar, put only one and a quarter of this stuff into
> each jar and leave it in the sun for eleven days.”
>
> This recipe is obviously for some additive to ordinary grape wine.  The
> problem is that the translater, S.D. Goitein couldn’t determine the size of
>
> the jar (volume of wine) to which the mixture was to be added.  It was
> probably such a common size that whoever wrote the recipe didn’t feel the
> need to say.  The word “jarra,” the Arabic term from which the English
> word
> “jar” was taken, may even have been a government standardized measure.
> Any
> suggestions are welcome.
>
> * * * * *
>
> Thanks to you and the Cooks' List (in advance) for the help.  I'll be
> looking forward to whatever they can come up with.
>
> Lew Wolkoff
>
> <A HREF="mailto:lwolkoff at hotmail.com">lwolkoff at hotmail.com</A>

The resources of this list are amazing; I know that someone'll have a
suggestion! Thanks.

Devra





Devra Langsam
www.poisonpenpress.com
devra at aol.com