[Sca-cooks] Sekanjabin Origins

[Stephen Bloch]

Maire wrote:

>>There's a whole darned chapter of the Anon. Andalusian with some 
>>very odd flavorings for sekanjabin or oxymel (like carrot), so it's 
>>not really an SCAism, although specific occurences might be.
>>I can't, personally, imagine wanting to put any of the varieties in 
>>milk <<huge shudder>>, or use as a dip--wrong flavors!

I believe I translated that chapter, which does indeed have lots of 
drink syrups, some involving numerous obscure herbs and spices.  I 
never thought of them as "flavorings" for sekanjabin, but rather as 
conceptual siblings of sekanjabin; one wouldn't have been surprised 
to see sekanjabin appear as one of the dozens of entries.

David replied:
>Except that the chapter doesn't identify the other drinks as 
>"sekanjabin." And many of the drinks don't have vinegar, and so are 
>not oxymels either. I think an old discussion on this list concluded 
>that "jalab" was the proper generic term for such drinnks, but I'm 
>not sure.

I've seen the word "jalab" used, by modern Middle Eastern grocers, to 
a particular drink syrup flavored with rosewater, but it's quite 
possible that it has or had a broader meaning of "drink syrup" in 
general.  Charles Perry would be the person to ask....

Side note: A parenthetical remark in the Anon. Andalusian refers to 
some particular recipe (which had nothing to do with drink syrups) as 
"the sekanjabin of the kitchen".  I never figured out why.

Another side note: IIRC, just after the chapter of drink syrups is an 
equally-long chapter of "pastes" -- some sweetened, some not, most 
involving obscure herbs and spices, with medical commentary.  Has 
anybody ever tried any of these?

-- 
                                    John Elys
         (the artist formerly known as mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib)
                                mka Stephen Bloch
                                sbloch at adelphi.edu