[Sca-cooks] Soaking Semolina

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

I have the original Arabic of Ibn Razin. My Arabic skills aren't that good, but I'll take a look and report on what I find. I will also mention that Manuela Marin, the person who translated Ibn Razin into Spanish, is a pretty reputable scholar. I've read some very good articles that she wrote in English, and she collaborated with David Waines on an excellent critical edition of the Kanz al-Fawaid, so I'd be quite surprised if she did something weird in her Spanish translation. Again, I'll take a look.

-- Galefridus 

> Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2016 18:57:21 -0700
> From: David Friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com>
> To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Soaking Semalina
> Message-ID: <02e9204d-c07c-39b0-48a3-5c0d5f40926e at daviddfriedman.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
> 
> Susan brought to my attention the fact that there is a bread recipe in 
> Fadalat. What I have is an English translation of a Spanish translation 
> of the Arabic original.
> 
> The recipe starts by telling you to soak semalina. Checking the Spanish, 
> the word is remoja, which translates as to soak or to steep. The 
> question is what does it mean.
> 
> I tried soaking 2c of semolina in 2c of water, with the idea of 
> straining out most of the water and then adding enough to make kneadable 
> dough. I was only able to extract about 1/2c of water, which left 
> something much too wet to knead. Possibilities:
> 
> 1. A mistranslation of the Arabic
> 
> 2. The word means to dampen. I should add less water than I would use to 
> make dough, let it sit for a while, then add the rest of the dough and 
> the sourdough.
> 
> 3. There is a better way of extracting water than putting the dough in a 
> cloth and squeezing.
> 
> 4. You are supposed to soak the semolina, then spread it out to dry, 
> then use it. But the recipe says nothing at all about drying it or 
> extracting water.
> 
> Suggestions?
> 
> -- 
> David Friedman
> www.daviddfriedman.com
> http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/