[Sca-cooks] souring agents

[Stefan li Rous]

Galefridus replied to me with:
<<< Both verjuice and vinegar were common souring agents in the medieval 
Islamic kitchen. I'm at work, so I can't do the whole statistical 
analysis thing, but they loved their sweet and sour dishes, using the 
juice or pulp of lemon, bitter orange, pomegranate, citron, and several 
varieties of vinegar (al-Warraq gives a number of recipes for preparing 
different kinds of vinegar).>>>

What kinds of vinegar does al-Warraq speak of? We've discussed vinegar before, but I've not been sure which types were period vs. modern or even what can make a successful vinegar. Since the term comes from "wine", at one time I thought that wine vinegar was likely the only period vinegar. However, I suspect these others might be:
white wine vinegar
red wine vinegar
apple cider vinegar
balsamic vinegar  (post period)
rice vinegar (not period for Europe)
ale or beer vinegar? Is this the same as malt vinegar?

Can you make vinegar from orange juice? Although if you can get sour oranges, why would you?

<<< Verjuice/sour grapes are still part of 
Middle Eastern cookery -- my local Syrian market sells bottled verjuice 
at about 1/6 the cost of the fancy gourmet stuff (about $6 a quart), and 
I've bought fresh sour grapes from them (available late summer/early 
fall) and made my own. >>>

How do you make verjuice? Just squeeze out the grape juice and use that? Wait a while to age it, and use that?

Thanks,
   Stefan
PS: Maybe I should move the vinegar and verjuice files in the Florilegium FOOD section to the FOOD-CONDIMENTS section? Or are they more of an ingredient than condiment? Where would you look?

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****