[Sca-cooks] Italian Arabic recipes, was Anonymous Tuscan Cookbook

[David Walddon]

Do you want me to bring Med. Arab Cook to the war? 
Eduardo
__________________________________

David Walddon
david at vastrepast.com
www.vastrepast.net
360-402-6135 Cell

On Jun 28, 2013, at 7:06 PM, lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> Well, this little divergence has started me looking for more recipes for limonia, romania, and sumachia in Italian sources. I don't have Medieval Arab Cookery here with me, so i can't check Rodinson's article to find all he did. Still i found all three in the "Liber de coquina ubi diuersitates ciborum docentur" (14th c.), which, while in Latin, is of Italian (or perhaps southern French) origin.
> 
> Here are the original recipes from Book 2 on Thomas Gloning's invaluable website:
> http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/mul2-lib.htm
> 
> The original is followed by my rudimentary quickie translations (i don't have a medieval Latin dictionary). I've *highlighted* the passages for peeled or unpeeled almonds.
> 
> -------
> 
> 10. -- De sumachia : ad sumachiam faciendam, recipe pullos integros. Frige in lardo. Postmodum, *amigdalas mundatas* trittas cum aqua distemperata 
> et sumacum simul cum pullis coque, et sit spissum. Et da comedere.
> 
> 10. - On sumachia: To make sumachia, take fresh chickens. Fry in lard. Next, crushed blanched almonds tempered with water and sumac cook along with the chicken, until it is thick. And give to eat.
> 
> -------
> 
> 12. -- De limonia : ad limoniam faciendam, suffrigantur pulli cum lardo et cepis. Et *amigdale mundate* terantur, distemperentur cum brodio
> carnis et colentur. Que coquantur cum dictis pullis et speciebus.
> Et si non habentur amigdale, spissetur brodium cum uitellis ouorum.
> Et si fuerit prope horam scutellandi, pone ibi succum limonum uel
> limiarum uel citrangulorum.
> 
> 12. - On limonia: To make limonia, fry chicken with lard and onions. And pound blanched almonds, temper with meat broth and strain. And cook with the chickens and spices.
> And if there are no almonds, thicken the broth with egg yolk.
> And when it is almost time to serve, put therein juice of lemon or limes or bitter oranges.
> 
> -------
> 
> 14. -- De romania : de romania, suffrigantur pulli cum lardo et cepis et
> terantur *amigdale non mondate* et distemperentur cum succo granatorum 
> acrorum et dulcium. Postea, colletur et ponatur ad bulliendum cum pullis
> et cum cocleari agitetur. Et ponatur species.
> Potest tamen fieri brodium uiride cum herbis.
> 
> 14. - On romania: on romania, fry chicken with lard and onions and pounded unpeeled almonds and temper with juice of sour and sweet pomegranates. Later, strain and put to boil with the chickens and stir with a spoon. And put in spices.
> The broth can be made green with herbs.
> 
> -------
> 
> The original Arabic recipes do not fry the chickens first, may use lamb instead, and certainly would never use lard. Sorry, i don't have my Arabic cookbooks here with me to copy out the recipes. I'm sitting here with my books on Ottoman food history as i am writing up my translation and research - still a ways to go before it will be publicly available.
> 
> Ah, here's a post i made long ago with an al-Baghdadi recipe, for comparison, as translated by Charles Perry:
> 
> Summaqiyya
> 
> The way to make it is to cut up fat meat medium, then leave it in the pot. (Sc. add water) Then throw a little good salt on it. Then let it come to a boil until it is nearly done. Thoroughly take its scum away. Then throw on it boiled chard, cut in pieces a finger width long [me: the Arabs liked to use the white stem and cut the green leafy parts away], and carrots. Then take onions and Nabatean leeks [me: not sure how these differ from other leeks], peel them, wash them in  water and salt and put them on. If it is the season of eggplant, put it in with its black peel removed; boil it in a separate pot (i.e., before putting them with the meat). 
> 
> Then take sumac and put it in a separate pot, put a little salt and bread crumbs on it, boil it well and strain it [me: i suspect the bread crumbs are forced through the sieve]. 
> 
> If you want, take a scalded, jointed hen and throw it in the pot. Pound lean meat fine and (sprinkle) spices on it. Make it into medium sized meatballs and throw them in the pot also. Put spices on it, namely coriander seed, cumin, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, fine mastic and bunches of fresh mint. Then take the mentioned sumac water and put it in the pot. Pound walnuts, beat them to a liquid consistency with water and throw them in the pot. Then crumble dry mint onto its surface, and throw in whole pieces of walnuts without pounding. Pound a little garlic, mix it with a little of the broth and throw it in the pot. Some people put whole raw eggs (Sc. in the pot). Leave it on a quiet fire to grow quiet, then take it up.
> 
> A good deal more complicated than the Italian, but clearly related. The Italian recipes use chicken whereas the Arabic usually use lamb. Given all the possible Arabic recipes, i wonder why these three were so readily adopted by people on the Italian peninsula.
> 
> And there's one more Arabic recipe that seems to have been adopted in many places, ma'muniyya, which became blanc manger.
> 
> Urtatim al-Qurtubiyya
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