[Sca-cooks] olive oil too expensive to be used as a cooking oil?
Sayyeda al-Kaslaania
samia at idlelion.net
Mon Jan 30 02:43:41 PST 2012
Here is what S.D. Goitein says, all typos mine:
p 120
"Next to wheat, the nutrition of the common people depended mainly on
oil, obtained either from plants or from the olive tree. As oil,
together with wax, was also the almost exclusive material for artificial
lighting, its importance can be easily gauged. Because of the enormous
extent of flax-growing, linseed oil was widely used, in particular for
lighting. It was exported from Egypt to olive-growing Syria sand to
far-away Aden in South Arabia (n.28). Edible oil was won to a large
extent from the sesame plant, which was grown in the Nile Delta, in
particular for its northern parts, and in Palestine. "Makers of sesame
oil" as a name occupation occurs frequently in the Geniza records, while
"sesamist," dealer in the crop, in rare (n.290. The dyeing plant
safflower (the English word is derived from Arabid 'asfur, which
designates its flowers) or rather its seed (called qurtum, ef. the
scientific name carthamus) also provides an oil, used mainly for
medicinal purposes. In the Geniza, we find the see sent from a village
to the capital, while the red dye made from the flowers, which was used
widely in cosmetics, was a common article in the international trade of
coloring stuffs (n.30)"
"The noble olive tree, in the Bible (Judges 9:8) regarded as the king of
all trees, is indigenous to the Mediterranean area, but almost entirely
absent from Egypt. Olive oil, however, was a vital ingredient in the
daily food of the population and also provided the choicest lighting. No
wonder, then, that its import to Egypt was one of the largest branches
of the Mediterranean trade. Still, it was partly processed also in the
country. In a document made out in Tunisia in 1074, a woman claimed
"[olive] oil makers' equipment" in Old Cairo which belonged to her, and
in 1203, a man called baddi, operator or proprietor of an oil press,
appears as a party to a contract in the same town. (n.31). Zayyat, maker
or seller of olive oil, is one of the most common names or occupations
mentioned in our papers, and repeated reference has been made here to a
bazaar named after that profession. In an olive-growing country like
Spain, it was of course natural that the lending of an object like a
stone used in the oil press should form the object of a contract
(Lucena, before 1021) (n.32). "
S.D. Goitein. _A Mediterranean Society, Vol I_. Berkley: U. of Calif.
Press, 1967.
These statements don't disagree with Miller (whom I read as saying olive
oil was used, just not as the primary cooking fat), but I don't think it
says enough to agree either. The one paragraph almost seems to conflict
with the next, but that might be 4am talking.
Sayyeda al-Kaslaania
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