[Sca-cooks] A Julab Puzzle

[David Friedman]

     Julab is a medieval Islamic syrup drink made of sugar, water, and 
rose water. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) gives a recipe for it which according to 
one source (Martin Levey's _Early Arabic Pharmacology_) has 1 part rose 
water to 2 parts water to 12 parts sugar by weight. Nasrallah, in her 
notes to al-Warraq, says the recipe is 16:2:1 sugar to water to rose water

With either 6:1 or 8:1, in my experience, the concentration of sugar is 
high enough so that some of the sugar crystalizes out, which seems 
pointless. One possible explanation is that both sources have 
mistranslated the units. Another is that Avicenna's sugar was much less 
pure than ours, although that doesn't strike me as very likely. I may 
try it at some point with a Mexican sugar cone, on the theory that that 
might be closer to what he was using, but I don't see why that would 
give a significantly different result.

Suggestions?

-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/