[Sca-cooks] catching drippings

[david friedman]

>Kiri commented:
>>I don't know if it has any bearing on this, but there are a number of
>>recipes in the mid-Eastern books that call for something being baked
>>under a piece of meat hung above it so that the fat from the meat can
>>drip down into the item being baked.

and Stefan replied:

>Interesting. Can you give some examples of these Middle Eastern 
>recipes? Are the foods put under the meats breads or vegetables or 
>different items? Also, are these items being baked in an oven? Or 
>actually roasted, such as on spits near the fire? Since the dripping 
>are recognized now for the flavor they bring now, and I suppose 
>then, I can see that capturing and using these drippings would 
>often be done.

I've just skimmed through al-Bagdadi, and umless I'm missing 
something, the only recipes in that book with the chickens above for 
dripping are recipes for Judhab--here is a sample:

Judhab Lhubz al-Qata'if. Take qata'if-bread as required: spray the 
dish with a little rose-water, and place the bread thereon in layers, 
putting between each layer almonds and sugar, or pistachio ground 
fine: spray again with rose-water. When the bread fills the dish, 
pour on a little fresh sesame-oil, and cover with syrup. Hang over it 
a fat plucked chicken, smeared with saffron: when cooked, remove. 
Small stuffed qata'if are also treated in this way.

A later judhab recipe says:

The method of suspending the chicken over judhab is as follows. Hang 
it up in the oven, and watch: then, when the fat is about to run, 
place the judhab under it.

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook