[Sca-cooks] Carrot and date khabis redux

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

Several weeks ago, I posted a message about my experiment with a carrot and date khabis (condensed milk pudding) from al-Warraq. By way of reminder, here's the original recipe:
"Take as much as you like of similar amounts of sweet and tender carrots, milk and dates. Put them in a clean soapstone pot, which you lower into a tannūr (a simple conical oven, heated with a bed of coals inside it at the base) heated with a medium fire. Close the bottom vent but leave a finger-wide opening. "Let the pot simmer until the ingredients fall apart. Take it out and add ground walnuts and 1/2 dirham (1 1/2 grams) ground spikenard and ginger. Beat the mixture very well. "If the pudding turns out to be too sweet and thin, , add breadcrumbs. If it turns out perfect -- sweet and thick enough -- add fresh sesame oil and ladle it with oil into platters. If it turns out deficient in sugar and too thin in consistency, beat the mixture and return the pot to the tannūr until it thickens. When pudding is done, drench it in sesame oil [and serve it], God willing"
For my first couple of attempts, I used ordinary grocery store whole cow's milk and modern orange carrots. At the suggestion of some fellow EK foodies, this past week I made some using whole cow's milk from a small farm and heirloom carrots that more closely resemble what would likely have been available in 10th century Baghdad. I made one batch with white carrots (stronger carrot flavor, but less sweet) and another with red carrots (nice color, sweeter).
My results:
Both were slightly sweeter and richer that the khabis made with grocery store ingredients. Based on some discussions that I had with someone in my barony who does medieval gardening, I expected that the heirloom carrots would be slightly tougher and harder to cook that the modern hybrids, but this turned out to be so only for the red cultivar. The white carrots softened up quite nicely. Also, the ginger flavor came out much more strongly with the white carrots.
For my next experiment, I'm going to try some goat milk, and I hope to get some sheep milk. I will keep you all informed of my results!
-- Galefridus