[Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 125, Issue 40

[Galefridus Peregrinus]

Ok, the Arabic word translated as remoja is بل (bal), which according Lane's Lexicon means moisten. I think that's much more likely than soak. Interestingly, I've been looking at the couscous recipes in Ibn Razin, the most basic of which also says that the semolina is to be moistened. However, the Arabic words translated as "moistened" are different in the two recipes.

I think that part of what might be going on has to do with how to interpret the instructions in the recipe. I have little direct experience as a baker, but I've watched my wife make bread for decades and over the years have had a lot of conversations with her about the process. Based that experience, I would guess that a 13th century Andalusian baker reading Ibn Razin's recipe would think, "I need to add enough water to make a dough of the correct consistency."

-- Galefridus 

> Message: 2
> 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/