[Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 119, Issue 5

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

Here you go!


-- Galefridus


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 From Avicenna:


Isfidaj -- White Lead

Nature: It is the ashes of lead. When lead is burnt on fire it
becomes red lead (red oxide of lead) and acquires tenuity. All kinds
of lead are used with vinegar or with salt. There are other methods
of using leads as described by some authors in their books.

Temperament: It is cold and dry in the second degree.

Actions and properties: The lead processed with vinegar becomes
highly rarefactive and it quickly reaches the deeper parts of the body.
Leads processed with other substances are not so rarefactive but are

agglutinant, especially the red lead.

Swellings and pimples: It softens cold and hard swellings.

Ulcers and wounds: Lead, especially the red one, when incorporated
in ointments, heals the wounds by promoting the growth of
(healthy) flesh and removing the decayed flesh. The red lead is more
potent in this respect.

Ocular organs: Lead is useful for pimples on inner side of eye.
Excretory organs: Lead is enumerated among drugs which are useful in 
anal rupture.

Poisons: Lead is a poisonous drug. Details are given in our
chapter on Poisons.


 From the Minerals and Chemicals glossary in al-Warraq:


isfidhaj or isbidaj: ceruse, white lead pigment obtained by exposing 
anuk (also called usrub) lead to viegar, and letting it build up on the 
metal sheets the rust accumulates on copper sheets. It is then gathered 
and mixed with a sour agent to bleach it. Women use it as a whitening 
agent for facial make up. Al-Warraq also mentions it as a food colorant 
[see p 93, end of chapter 3: Spices and Aromatics].


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> Message: 5
> Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2016 14:33:44 -0500
> From: Alec Story To: Cooks within the SCA Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] 
> barded or marble meat in the 13th century
> Message-ID:
> 	
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Do you mind including the uses of white lead?  Why would they have 
> used it
> in cooking?
>
> On Fri, Mar 4, 2016 at 2:22 PM, Galefridus Peregrinus <
> galefridus at optimum.net> wrote:
>
>> BTW, the Arabic title of the recipe doesn't translate to "Dish of 
>> Meat
>> with Cauliflower." It translates to "Dish of Meat with White Lead." 
>> The
>> last word of the recipe is ??????? (isfidaj), which Lane's Lexicon 
>> defines
>> as white lead. It is also listed as such in Avicenna, who describes 
>> its
>> uses and effects in detail.
>>
>>
>> -- Galefridus