[Sca-cooks] A Julab Puzzle

[Terry Decker]

It is also possible that medieval julab had precipitated sugar crystals in 
it.

It may also be that you are storing the bottle where the temperature 
differential will cause a slightly supersaturated solution of sugar to 
precipitate.  I think you will find the less pure sugar highly problematic, 
molasses is far more difficult to dissolve that highly refined crystalline 
sugar.

Bear

-----Original Message----- 

     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/