[Sca-cooks] A Julab Puzzle

[Claire Clarke]

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 12:11:42 -0700
From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] A Julab Puzzle
Message-ID: <5392126E.9050603 at daviddfriedman.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

According to some online research, a saturated sugar solution at room
temperature should be about 1:1 sugar to water, which is far below the Ibn
Sina figure. I made some up yesterday using 2c sugar, 1 c water, 1/2c rose
water, which should be slightly above that, and it hasn't started to
crystallize out yet. If it doesn't, I'll try next time with more sugar.

If the 1:1 figure is about right, that suggests several possibilities:

1: Ibn Sina is making a very super saturated solution, using it shortly
after making it. That strikes me as unlikely, since he is going to dilute it
before drinking it anyway.

2. Textual error. Is the recipe based on more than one surviving copy of the
text?

3. Error in translation.

4. Error in units.

****************************************
It's hard to tell without seeing the original (and I couldn't read the
original anyway) but it may be a confusion between volume and measure. Sugar
is less dense than water, so an equal weight of sugar and water will have a
larger volume of sugar. Sugar also becomes less dense the finer you
grate/grind it (you would think it would be the other way around because the
bits pack together more finely, but apparently not). According to the 'How
much does a cup weigh' website I commonly reference, a cup of icing
(powdered) sugar is only half the weight of a cup of water.

Angharad


---
This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active.
http://www.avast.com