[Sca-cooks] Period Recipe Fail.

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On 02/29/2012 11:16 PM, Susan Fox wrote:
> Chronicled for future edification.
>
> Recipe:  NUHUD AL-ADHRA [Virgin's breasts]
> found in KITAB WASF AL-AT 'IMA AL-MU 'TADA, The Description of 
> Familiar Foods
> published in MEDIEVAL ARAB COOKERY
> translated by Charles Perry
>
> "Knead sugar, almonds, samid [semolina] and clarified butter, equal 
> parts, and make them like breasts, and arrange them in a brass 
> tray.Put into a bread oven until done, and take it out.It comes out 
> excellently."
>
>
> So that's what I did.  Almonds ground in food processor, conventional 
> table sugar, fine semolina and ghee.
>
> Two shape versions:  one in small balls in muffin tins, the other 
> free-standing ovoids on a flat baking pan.
>
> Everything collapsed.  The ones in the muffin pans crawled up the 
> sides and over the edges.  If these were in individual pie tins they 
> might have made an interesting crust for a fruit tart.  The ones in 
> the flat pan just flattened out.  Somebody is going to get a tasty if 
> non-cohering baked treat in his lunchbox for a few days, anyway.
>
> Two things I'm considering here. Firstly "semolina" might have been 
> too coarse, or maybe a better translation might be flour. I'm not sure 
> that would help, this mix has much too high a proportion of butter to 
> flour and almonds.  Compare with my usual shortbread formula:   2 
> parts butter, 1 part sugar, 3 parts plain white flour, 1 part rice flour.

I'm wondering: what if you left the almonds blanched but whole? More 
gluten. It doesn't say to grind them, does it?

Adamantius, nudge

Adamantius