[Sca-cooks] Period substitute for tomatoes?

[David Friedman]

>For someone looking for period Middle Eastern dishes, there are 
>excellent translations of Al-Baghdadi, Kitab al-Tabikh, and the 
>Anonymous Andalusian cookbook available.

There's also now a translation of al-Warraq, _Annals of the Caliphs' 
Kitchens_, which is 10th century, big, and has a wide range of 
dishes. I think one has to be a little cautious in believing the 
translator on details--as best I can tell, she's a native speaker of 
Arabic who is too willing to assume that you can deduce the 10th 
century meaning of a word from the modern meaning. But allowing for 
that, it's a great source.

Unfortunately, it's also expensive, so it may be worth trying to 
persuade a nearby library to get it, or obtaining it via interlibrary 
loan.
-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com