[Sca-cooks] Sekanjabin Origins

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Part One

This message came through one of my SCA Middle Eastern lists:
>  ...The last couple of weeks has seen me putting an A&S entry together...
>  My idea was to serve a dual purpose however. I have noticed a trend
>  lately of how the heavy weapons guys frequently have a
>  "mini-commissariat" at the List at events now. I thought I would do
>  the same, but do one for the Fencers.
>  ...and my plan was to enter it in the A&S Competition.
>
>This is where I ran into a problem. I have spent days looking for an
>original text. Hopefully you will know what I mean.
>
>I am looking for the "original text" (primary documentation), IN ARABIC,
>for Sekanjabin (aka Persian Mint Drink). It is in a book called Fihrist of
>al-Nadim, circa 10th c. If I recall correctly this is the first printed
>cookbook from the ME!. What I am looking for is either a scan of said
>recipe, a hard copy (photocopy) of same, or electronic text of some sort
>(Email, Word etc). My computer supports Arabic so that's not a problem. :)

Does anyone have access to an original SCA-period Arabic (or Persian) 
recipe for Sekanjabin?

-----

Part Two

Someone answered the above message by saying:
>  A slight correction - Sekanjabin does not mean Mint.  It means a
>  sugar/vinegar syrup. It may be flavored with mint, or cardamom, or ginger,
>  or strawberry, or anything else.  It is sometimes mixed with water to drink,
>  sometimes milk, and sometimes left alone as a salad dip/dressing.
>  I got my recipes from doing a search on the word sekanjabin on Google.
>  After seeing that all the recipes were variations fo the same technique, I
>  branched out on my own.  I have no idea where you'd get a copy of an
>  original recipe.  Ask Cariadoc is all I can think of.

To the best of my knowledge, the basic sweet (originally honey) and 
vinegar mixture used diluted with water as a beverage is called 
oxymel (from the Greek for vinegar and honey) and was known to the 
ancient Greeks and Romans (who also called it oxymel since they used 
a lot of Greek food terms).

 From what i can tell, many, if not most, of other flavored recipes 
are SCAisms. While sekanjabin is a kind of oxymel, not all oxymels 
are sekanjabin.

And, uh, i've never heard of mixing an oxymel with milk - i'd think 
that would curdle the milk. Or am i wrong?

Anahita