[Sca-cooks] souring agents

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

Several of the vinegars al-Warraq discusses are intended for table use, including one that looks pretty similar to balsamic vinegar. Also, within the recipes that call for vinegar, he specifies particular kinds of vinegar. Nasrallah (the translator) also describes several different kinds of vinegar in one of her glossaries in al-Warraq. If I recall correctly, not all the vinegar is made from grape wine, although the Prophet stated somewhere that the best vinegar is made from grape wine.

The citrus fruit described in period (lemon, orange, citron, possibly lime) was sour, not sweet, so no point in making vinegar from it. But you might use citrus peel to flavor vinegar.

As for making verjuice: Just squeeze the unripe grapes through cheesecloth -- pretty easy. I used what I made immediately, so I can't speak to how well the home-made stuff keeps.

As for vinegar as condiment or ingredient, it seems pretty clear to me that it has been used as both since antiquity.

-- Galefridus

> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2014 20:28:57 -0600
> From: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
> To: SCA-Cooks maillist SCA-Cooks <SCA-Cooks at Ansteorra.org>
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] souring agents
> Message-ID: <3ACA8172-CD04-4090-A5BC-95C9C96CCE26 at austin.rr.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> 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?