[Sca-cooks] Spice Storage

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Johnna suggested i write to Charles Perry! So i did. And got an 
answer back pretty quickly! Below is my message and his response.

Urtatim, formerly Anahita
(that's err-tah-TEEM)

----- My Message -----

Dear Mr. Perry:

I'm an avid cook, especially of Southeast Asian, Near and Middle
Eastern, and historical food - and, when I lived in Los Angeles, I
often cooked Mexican from Diane Kennedy's and Rick Bayless's books.

I use your translation of the so-called Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook
with great frequency and I purchased "Medieval Arabic Cookery"
shortly after it was published. I have been enjoying them immensely,
and cook from them with some regularity, including for dinner
parties. In fact, even though I am not Christian, I cooked and ate a
number of the Lenten recipes from the Book of the Description of
Familiar Foods this year before Easter.

One thing I've been thinking about is spice storage in the "average"
kitchen within Medieval Arabic culture. My recollection from reading
some 15th century European cookbooks is that spices were often kept
in leather bags at that time. But I do not recall reading what the
average Medieval Arab cook stored spices in, if there was a typical
storage container.

I wonder if you might have any information on the subject or
suggestions for books that i might be able to find. Alas, I do not
read Arabic, although I can make out some words. I can read French,
and with a dictionary can decipher a fair bit of German, Italian, and
Spanish.

I no longer live in Los Angeles, but I often read your articles on
the internet. I find them most informative and enjoyable. I thank you
so much for sharing your knowledge, ideas, and experiments.

Sincerely,

----- His Response -----

	Thanks for the kind words. I've labored long and hard in this 
field, it's gratifying to hear that somebody appreciates it.

	I think the leather bags everybody mentions were used in 
transporting spices overland (woven panniers were also known) but not 
used for kitchen storage. There might be some information on this 
subject in "Social Life in Baghdad Under the Abbasids" (not sure of 
the exact title) by M.M. Ahsan which was published in the 1980s by 
the Librairie du Liban; long out of print but it's probably in the 
Cal library system somewhere. (Ahsan is learned, but  I'd take what 
he says about the nature of dishes with a grain of salt, he's 
obviously one of those scholars who never go into the kitchen.)

	The medieval cookbooks don't say anything about where spices 
are kept. The most likely place would have been small pottery 
vessels, though some things might have been kept in glass jars (the 
word "jar" actually comes from Arabic); I imagine saffron might be 
one, because you wouldn't have huge quantities of it in the first 
place. There are references to putting a "lid" or "cover" (ghata) on 
pots and jugs (not in a spice context) but I don't know how 
tight-fitting it would have been. Often there are instructions to 
cover the mouth of a vessel with cloth, esparto or leather. You could 
also store things in a wooden box (huqqa).

	In Europe, where spices were rare and precious, a great house 
would lay in a store of spices which would be watched over and ground 
to order by a servant known as a spicer. In the Middle East, where 
spices were cheaper and more abundant, people shopped for spices more 
frequently. To me, this implies that that they did not keep large 
quantities of spices at home. They might have kept spices open in 
small bowls. The spice used most abundantly was coriander, so I would 
not be surprised if there were jars for coriander (and pepper), but I 
don't think people kept any spices very long at home.

	In Middle Eastern spice shops, spices are usually kept in 
wooden bins until they're brought out for display. I expect that was 
the medieval practice also. Bins, pots, boxes, but probably not 
leather bags, which would probably have been emptied in the shop and 
gone right back on the road.