[Sca-cooks] Baker's borax

[David Friedman]

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/