[Sca-cooks] Tharida questions (long)
lilinah at earthlink.net
lilinah at earthlink.net
Sun Nov 8 13:47:34 PST 2009
Here are the recipes, as "written" by Martinelli and from Duke
Cariadoc's website. Some of Martinelli's changes are minor, but a
few...
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Tharida with Lamb and Spinach, Moist Cheese and Butter
From Martinelli, p. 38: (she resentenced and added breaks)
This used to be made in Cordoba in the spring by the doctor Abu
al-Hasan al-Bunani, God have mercy on him and pardon us and him.
Take the meat of a fat lamb, cut it and put it in the pot with salt,
onion juice, pepper, coriander seed, caraway and oil. Put it on the
fire and when it has *cooked*, put in it chopped and washed spinach
in sufficient quantity, *grated* moist cheese *[a soft, fresh
cheese]* and butter.
When it has *cooked*, take the pot off the fire and *add more*
butter. Let there be crumbs of bread moderately leavened *[add the
crumbs to the liquid first, then]* put your meat on it.
And if he, God have mercy on him, lacked lamb meat, he would make a
tharida of spinach, moist cheese, butter and the previously mentioned
spices and eggs instead of meat.
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian8.htm
This used to be made in Cordoba in the spring by the doctor Abu
al-Hasan al-Bunani, God have mercy on him and pardon us and him. Take
the meat of a fat lamb, cut it and put it in the pot with salt, onion
juice, pepper, coriander seed, [p. 58, recto] caraway and oil; put it
to the fire and when it has *finished*, put in it chopped and washed
spinach in sufficient quantity, *rubbed* moist cheese[148] and
butter. When it has *finished*, take the pot off the fire and
*moisten with* butter. Let there be crumbs of bread moderately
leavened*, *and put your meat on them, and if he (God have mercy on
him) lacked lamb meat, he would make a tharida of spinach, moist
cheese, butter and the previously mentioned spices and eggs instead
of meat.
[148] Presumably a fresh farmer's cheese or cottage cheese. (CP)
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Tharida of Lamb with Garbanzos
From Martinelli, p. *43*:
Cut up lamb in large pieces and put with it spices, soaked garbanzos,
oil and salt. When it has fried, pour in enough water to cover *[and
boil]*. And when it is about *cooked*, throw in orach [a *flaky*
vegetable related to spinach]. When it is *cooked*, throw in fresh
cheese cut up in pieces like fingertips *[cubed]*, and break eggs
into it and crumble bread in it, and sprinkle it with pepper and
cinnamon, God willing.
From the Perry translation:
Cut up lamb in large pieces and put with it spices, soaked garbanzos,
oil and salt. When it has fried, pour in enough water to cover. And
when it is about *done*, throw in orach [a *leafy* vegetable related
to spinach]. When it is *done*, throw in fresh cheese cut up in
pieces like fingertips, and break eggs into it and crumble bread in
it, and sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon, God willing.
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Madhavi wrote:
> [Martinelli] states at the beginning of the section that couscous can be
> substituted for breadcrumbs in all of the tharida recipes, possibly
> because one of the tharida recipes (tharida mudhakkar, pg. 38) states
> that couscous can be substituted...
As Cariadoc has addressed the "issues" with this document, i will
not. But i have *asterisked* where she changed his text.
>...I think this would substantially alter
> the texture of all of these dishes and question that addition.
I agree.
> ...I have
> read the redacted tharida recipes in the Miscellany and by Urtatim, but
> both are different kinds of tharidas than the ones I am trying to
> redact.
I redacted The White Tharida of al-Rashid, translated by Charles
Perry and made available in His Grace's Miscellany, when i'd been in
the SCA a year or so, long before i had access to the book from which
it originally came - ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Kitab al-Tabikh - which
was published at the end of 2007. Now i know that recipe was supposed
to be served over torn or crumbled bread, which improves it.
> My questions are:
> Do you feel that couscous as an interchangeable ingredient for
> breadcrumbs in tharidas is historically accurate?
Nope.
Couscous may appear in a tharida recipe here and there, but the point
of a tharida is to use up bread that is less than the freshest. A
poor man's tharida is torn or crumbled bread with liquid. If they're
fortunate, the liquid is broth from some sort of meat, usually lamb,
but possibly of chicken. But at least one of the cookbooks (i forget
which) mentions that tharida can consist of torn or crumbled bread
moistened only by vinegar (i wonder if their vinegar was not as
strongly acidic as ours... other recipes make me wonder this as well).
> On reading the two tharida recipes specified above, what would you think
> is the texture of the final dish; soft like a savory bread pudding,
Other than for the poor, i doubt a tharida would be like a bread
pudding in which the bread dominates. While bread was an essential
part of every meal, the wealthy, from whom our recipes come, would
want a meaty dish, with the bread pieces underneath absorbing excess
moisture. This makes them a bit soggy and flaccid, but quite tasty.
> dry like a steamed couscous dish
The dish should not be dry, as the formerly dry bread crumbs are made
more edible by being moistened by the liquid, broth, or "stew". The
bread should be moist and tender.
> or something else entirely?
Uh-yup - see my comment under "savory bread pudding".
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
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