How to Milk an Almond Stuff an Egg And Armor a Turnip A ...

Note: 1 ratl=12 uqiya=1 pint;
1 Makkūk=7.5-18.8 liters dry measure.
Nigella, aka kalonji or black onion seed, can
be found in Indian grocery stores. The
following quantities are for of the above
recipe.
3 T honey ⅔ t nigela
1 T wheat starch ¼ oz carob = 1 T
⅓ t celery seed 1 ½ oz quince
1 ½ oz bread ¼ oz walnut
½ c salt in 3 T honey 1 pint water
⅔ t fennel lemon (¼ of one)
¼ t saffron ⅔ t anise
Cook the honey in a small frying pan on
medium heat, bringing it to a boil then turning
off the heat and repeating several times; it will
taste scorched. The bread is sliced white
bread, toasted in a toaster to be somewhat
blackened, then mashed in a mortar. Toast the
anise, fennel and nigela in a frying pan or
roast under a broiler, then grind in a mortar
with celery seed and walnuts. The quince is
quartered and cored. Boil all but the lemon
together for about 2 hours, then put it in a
potato ricer, squeeze out the liquid and add
lemon juice to it; this is the murri. The recipe
generates about 1 ¼ to 1 ½ c of liquid. You
can then add another ½ c of water to the
residue, simmer for half an hour to an hour
and squeeze out that liquid for the second
infusion, which yields about ⅓ c. A third
infusion using ⅓ c more water yields another
¼ c or so.
Units
Exact quantities are sometimes given in
Islamic recipes; the units are: 1 ratl = 1 lb = 1
pint; 12 uqiya = 1 ratl; 10 dirham = 1 uqiya; 6
danaq = 1 dirham (information from
Arberry’s introduction to his translation of al-
Bagdadi). So 1 dirham= ~.13 oz = ~1 ½ t of
ground spice
Units used in the Ain I Akbari are: 1 ser =
2 lb 2 oz, 1 dam = oz, 1 misqal = oz.
Units used in A Soup for the Qan:
1 chien = .011 oz, 1 liang = .11 oz, 1 chin =
16 liang = 1.8 oz.
6
10 ho = 1 sheng = 31.5 cubic inches = ~2 c;
1 tou = 10 shang = ~ 1 ¼ gallons.
All of these are modern values for the
units; the book notes that the sheng was
slightly less in the 14 th century.
Other Minor Points
We usually interpret “meat” in Islamic
recipes as lamb, either leg or chops. Other
possibilities are mutton, veal, goat, beef and
kid. Pork is forbidden by Islamic law.
The Arberry translation of al-Baghdadi
uses “hour” for an Arabic term which,
according to Charles Perry, actually means an
indefinite length of time. We therefore have
not tried to stick literally to the timing given
in al-Baghdadi.
A common technique in medieval
European recipes is to pass ingredients
through a strainer. We generally follow the
recipe the first time but thereafter, and
especially when preparing large quantities,
substitute a food processor. An alternative is
to use a potato ricer—a sort of
plunger/strainer combination.
Saffron is a common medieval ingredient.
We have found that it works better if you first
extract the color and flavor by crushing the
saffron thoroughly into a small quantity of
water, then adding the water and saffron to
your dish. Cariadoc is not fond of saffron; if
you are, you may want to increase our
quantities. The few (Islamic) recipes which
specify saffron by weight use considerably
more than they would if we had written them.
So far as we can tell, the fava or broad
bean is the only European/Mediterranean
variety of bean commonly available other
than lentils and chickpeas. It is therefore what
we use in recipes that call for beans.
In interpreting recipes that contain a
specific number of eggs, we usually assume
that the average medieval egg is somewhat
smaller than a modern large egg; we have no
evidence for whether this is correct other than
how the recipes come out. When we specify a
number of eggs in the worked out version of a
recipe, they are large eggs.
Our recipes occasionally show an