[Sca-cooks] Tail substitutes

[David Friedman]

What I did was to start with an ounce and a half of rendered lamb fat 
from the freezer. I then found several ziplock bags of lamb fat 
trimmings from past cooking, also frozen, simmered the contents in 
water, poured the liquid into a narrow necked jar (so as to make it 
easier to get at the fat that floated to the top), took off the fat, put 
it in a container in the freezer, when it was solid took it out leaving 
the remaining water behind.

The judhaba was pretty good, but there was too much fat. The recipes 
specifies one duck, half a pound each of ghee and tail, a pound of 
sugar, and an unstated quantity of ground rice. The only way of reducing 
the ratio of fat to rice would be to use more rice, which I'll probably 
do next time. My reservation is that, as it was, the four of us ate up 
almost all of the duck and only about half the rice—but I don't know 
what ratio of rice to duck would have seemed suitable to al-Warraq. Or 
how big his ducks were--ours was five pounds. A frozen hallal duck from 
Costco, and very tasty.

On 9/5/15 5:51 PM, JIMCHEVAL at aol.com wrote:
> Well, not me. But Charles Perry::
>
> "Since the tail is exposed to low  temperatures on four sides, it has a
> particularly low melting point – it’s more  like bacon fat or butter; slightly
> muttony bacon fat or butter."
>
> But the  challenge seems to have defeated even him:
>
> "I have not attempted to work  them out because you can’t get tail fat here
> in Los Angeles. Of course, you  could use clarified butter. It wouldn’t
> give the same flavor as tail fat, but at  least it wouldn’t coat the roof of
> your  mouth."
>
> http://www.anissas.com/those-fat-tails/
>
> Jennifer  McLagan seems to have had better luck:
>
> http://www.jennifermclagan.com/category/fat-tailed-lamb
>   
> This person recommends what sounds more like a full recipe:
> "Place this in a stew pot or saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat,
> adding abundant salt (1 1/2 teaspoons per pound of meat mixture) and a mixture
> of black pepper and bahārāt, about 1 tablespoon spice mix per pound of
> mixed  meat. Simmer for 6 hours, and then pour off the fat into a container
> with some  of the meat. Freeze for up to 6 months and use for the cooking fat
> in meat  recipes."
> http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/id/49/
>
> Lamb's  fat still seems like the simplest default substitute:
> "If you’re not in the  Middle East, maybe a Turkish or Lebanese butcher
> near you will spare you some  lamb’s fat. Melt a couple of 1-inch cubes down
> slowly to use as the fat in a  rice dish, fishing out the cracklings to salt
> and eat quietly as the cook’s  treat. Or chop up any quantity of raw fat, ,
> cover it with cold water, and put  on a medium heat. When the water has
> evaporated and the meat adhering to the fat  starts to pop and crackle, allow the
> liquid fat to cool down to warm. Strain it  into a jar. Let it cool, and
> store in the fridge for up to 6 months"
>   
> http://www.greenprophet.com/2011/10/sheeps-tail-fat-ancient-middle-eastern-s
> hmaltz/#sthash.YVFnTXJb.dpuf"
>
> Jim  Chevallier
> www.chezjim.com
>
> FRENCH BREAD HISTORY: Late medieval bread  outside  Paris
> http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2015/07/french-bread-history-late-medieval.html
>
>
>
>
>
> In  a message dated 9/5/2015 5:01:17 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> ddfr at daviddfriedman.com writes:
> Does anyone here have a source (unlikely) or  know enough about what tail
> ought to be like,,,?
>   
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>

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