[Sca-cooks] Delights From The Garden of Eden

lilinah at earthlink.net lilinah at earthlink.net
Wed Apr 24 19:16:03 PDT 2013


David Friedman wrote:
> On the other hand... .
>
> In her translation of al-Warraq, she identifies one of the kinds of 
> beans mentioned as kidney beans, which according to other sources I have 
> seen are New World. So I am a little concerned that she may be too 
> willing to assume that knowledge of current practice can be projected 
> back to period practice.
>
> Of course, knowledge of current practice can be highly informative when 
> we don't have other sources of information, as in her comment on 
> sweating meat.

Yeah, i've been meaning to write her about that. The original Arabic says, literally, "red beans", and, IIRC, elsewhere in the book she mentions adzuki beans, which like kidney beans are red and unlike kidney beans are Old World (i don't have the book with me at the moment, so i can't find the page #), so i wonder if she may have confused them.

She has identified lisan al-'asafir, something of a mystery ingredient in atraf al-tib, as elm keys. Maxim Rodinson gave as beech nuts (which is highly improbable) and Charles Perry said common ash (but not identifying what part of the ash tree). They are identified as ash tree keys in "Practical Materia medica of the medieval eastern Mediterranean according to the Cairo Geniza" by Efraim Lev and Zohar Amar, another Brill book. I keep trying to get a hold of elm keys and ash keys so i can test them and make an authentic atraf al-tib, but i keep forgetting to write at the appropriate time of year (when is the appropriate time - fall or spring?) and who has offered to send me some (some SCA cook on the eastern side of the country).

Although there may be some problems in "Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens", it is still an amazing work of scholarship, and her glossaries are quite valuable, if not perfect.

Urtatim (that's oor-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita



More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list