[Sca-cooks] Ka'ak recipes

[Susan Lin]

I'm no expert and I do not have any recipe to share but from what you have
said I'm guessing the "blah" is because there isn't any salt.  Our mundane
palate is used to salt (too much at times) and without it stuff tastes
blah.  I'm not sure the case was the same in the 13th century.

good luck.

On Mon, Aug 24, 2009 at 11:46 PM, David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>wrote:

> Ka'ak are a middle eastern cookie/cracker, usually but not always ring
> shaped; a number of different versions are still made. I've now tried two
> period recipes, one from al-Warraq and one that Charles Perry sent me from
> Wusla (13th c.).
>
> The al-Warraq one makes a square biscuit, rather bland but not bad. There's
> only one problem. It's flavored with saffron, which I don't like, it has
> quantities, and following the quantities makes something I have no desire to
> eat. It turned out better the first time I made it, when we happened to be
> out of saffron.
>
> The Wusla version makes something rather like a pie crust cookie--almond
> oil (a lot of it) and semolina and not much else (some milk and sourdough).
> Part of the reason it turned out badly was probably the age of the almond
> oil I happened to have, but my guess is that using fresh almond oil would
> only change it from bad tasting to blah. I'll try the experiment, but am not
> very optimistic
>
> Does anyone have any other period ka-ak recipes I could try?
>
> On the other hand, I made the broth of chickpeas from al-Warraq for dinner
> tonight and it was pretty good. Also very easy.
> --
> David/Cariadoc
> www.daviddfriedman.com
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