[Sca-cooks] alajú question

[Stefan li Rous]

Thank you for posting this, Kiri. But I have a question about it.
> Manual de mugeres translated by Meisterine Karen Larsdatter (a 16th C.
> Spanish manuscript)
>
>  Recipe for making a conserve of alajú (a delicacy of Arabic origin,
> basically a *paste* made of almonds, walnuts, or pine nuts, toasted
> breadcrumbs, spices, and honey).
[above emphasis is mine]
> Knead together well-sifted flour with oil and water. And leave the 
> dough
> somewhat hard and knead it well. And make thin cakes and cook them 
> well,
> so they can be ground; and grind them and sift them. And then take a
> celemín of ground cleaned walnuts, and two pounds of ground toasted
> almonds. And while you crush the walnuts and almonds, mix thm. Put a
> well-measured azumbre of honey to the fire, and the best that you can
> find, skim it and return it to the fire. And when the honey rises, add
> the walnuts and almonds in it. And cook it until the honey is cooked.
> And when it is, remove it from the ire and put with it a half a celemín
> of the grated flour cakes, and mix it well. And then add a half-ounce 
> of
> cloves and another half (ounce) of cinnamon, and two nutmegs, all
> ground-up. And then repeat the stirring a lot. And then make it into
> cakes or pt it in boxes, whichever you desire more.

>   Made 3 doz. Small heart cakes. (We made them in heart shapes to go
> along with the theme of the event...but you could use any kind of mold
> you wish.)
So is the final product supposed to be a cake or a paste? It says 
"paste" near the top but it mentions "cakes" near the end. "put it in 
boxes" could be either cakes or a paste, since quince paste is often 
sold that way.

I was at first going to put this in my spreads-msg file but maybe it 
should go in candy-msg or since there are a number of period nut candy 
recipes, perhaps I should split some of the candy file off as 
nut-candy-msg? Where would folks look for this kind of recipe?

Thanks,
   Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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