[Sca-cooks] Ingredient Puzzles in al-Warraq

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

David Friedman / Cariadoc wrote:
> But I still don't know what samidh is. Nasrallah says it is "fine flour, 
> bran free, high in starch content, and low in gluten." Perry says it is 
> coarsely ground, which is inconsistent with only the "fine" part of 
> Nasrallah's description. So what modern flour would fit the description?
>
> One thing I find puzzling is the "low in gluten." al-Warraq uses samidh 
> for various leavened breads, and I thought the problem with low gluten 
> flours was that they didn't rise well. Am I mistaken?

I don't know how much of a rise you are expecting.

>From what i can tell, indigenous Near and Middle Eastern breads do not rise much. Modern Persian and Afghan breads are not much over 1" high, and often less. A certain bread i bought in Morocco was especially tall, maybe 2" high, made of semolina flour with orange flower water and anise, but NOT sweetened - a very dense and tough but fragrant loaf, meant, i am sure, to be soaked in the sauces of a tajin.

I typed out at least 6 of al-Warraq's recipes, and other than the "bottle" bread, they are all meant to be slapped on the sides of a tannur, so they can't be very "fluffy". They are described as khubz (flat bread) and ruqaq (very thin bread), so it seems to me they are not meant to rise much at all.

I HIGHLY recommend "Flatbreads & Flavors: A Baker's Atlas" by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. It's modern but gives a fantastic idea of breads in the Near and Middle East and Central Asia today.

Also, since i don't recall seeing a tannur at your house, how are you baking these? standing up pizza tiles in your oven and slapping the bread on them?

Urtatim (oor-tah-TEEM)