[Sca-cooks] Baker's borax
David Friedman
ddfr at daviddfriedman.com
Mon Oct 28 12:36:03 PDT 2013
Some more on the borax issue ... .
The reference to natron isn't in the text itself, it's in the
translator's glossary, based on period sources but not necessarily
al-Warraq, who I think only refers to bakers' borax. She says that there
are two kinds of borax, natron and Armenian borax also known as bakers
borax, and that "due to natron's cleansing qualities, people use it to
wash their bodies and clothes. Sprinkling it on the hair helps soften
it." There are some other comments about borax that don't distinguish
the two kinds, as something that is not recommended to be taken
internally save for medical purposes.
She thinks it is sodium borate, but that doesn't explain either why
there are two kinds or why it would be used as a leavening, although it
is consistent with using it for cleaning things. Also, according to one
source online, the lethal dose of borax for adults is 15-20 grams.
Al-Warraq's recipe for Barazidhaj uses 2 ounces of bakers' borax for 7
1/2 lbs of flour, which means that someone who ate a third of a recipe
over a period of a few days, which sounds plausible enough, would be
getting a lethal dose. On the other hand, Wikipedia describes it as
sometimes used as a food additive--it doesn't say in what
quantities--and makes it sound as though it is lethal only in high
doses, but dangerous enough to be banned in many countries for food. It
also says "Its use as a cooking ingredient is to add a firm rubbery
texture to the food, or as a preservative. In oriental cooking it is
mostly used for its texturing properties." That doesn't sound like
either of the uses mentioned for bakers' borax.
Wikipedia says that borax was being first discovered in dry lake beds in
Tibet and imported via the silk road to Arabia--which would suggest
something much too expensive to be commonly used for washing with.
The modern meaning of "natron" is a mixture of sodium carbonates,
including some baking soda, which fits the facts she gives much better
than sodium borate does. According to Wikipedia, it occurs naturally in
dry lake beds in Egypt and has been used for thousands of years as a
cleaning product, which against fits much better. I'm guessing that the
bakers' borax is something similar to natron with a different mix,
possibly a larger percentage of baking soda.
--
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/
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