A 13th-century Arabic cookbook reveals the culinary life of al-Andalus | Hacker News Reader

A 13th-century Arabic cookbook reveals the culinary life of al-Andalus

atlasobscura.com

135 pointsapollinaire23 comments

Looks like the translator has a blog where he posts about particular recipes. [1] The original author, al-Tujībī, later resettled in my father's hometown [2], and lots of these are still in the food culture (particularly the desserts!).

[1] https://eatlikeasultan.com

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9ja%C3%AFa

> This is a recreation of a 13th-century Aleppine recipe for a drink made with pomegranate seeds, fresh mint leaves, sugar and a dash of rose water. For that real medieval experience you might wish to consider fumigating the goblet from which you drink with that most aromatic of spices, _ambergis_! It is best drunk chilled with some crushed ice — a delightful mocktail to suit all occasions! [1]

Yeah, I'll get my sperm whale guy right on that... Can I use agarwood instead?

[1] https://eatlikeasultan.com/medieval-syrian-pomegranate-drink...

Thanks for the goddamned image. Brain bleach please.

That site is just a big ad for the book, I was unable to find any actual recipes.

Edit: turns out this entire post is just an ad for the book.

Fellow Kabyle from Béjaïa borders here. I'll definitely try to recreate some of these recipes!!

Looks pretty well done but confused why they used art from the Safavids as the cover art. Entirely different cuisine and time period of the contents of the book. Surely they could’ve celebrated art from the region?

What I found "odd" was that an Iraqi author was the first to translate the manuscript and publish the English version - https://www.amazon.com/Delectable-Foods-Dishes-al-Andalus-al... - and yet, while they make a one line mention of this, the whole article is about a British cook and author, and his book.

Precisely how we end up with a generalization of middle-eastern culture. Pretty frustrating

I generally think history articles are promo material for books or tourist destinations.

They don't really hide that fact. There's a limit to how in depth the knowledge of any history journalist can be on their own, and experts on an issue are going to want payment for their time.

Actual payment costs money, it's much easier to pay them in publicity by discussing a topic they released a book on or area they work at.

I've heard that publishers don't give authors much say in cover art. Maybe someone at the publishing company looked up "Sultan art high res" and found this.

> I mean, it’s ridiculous the number of eggs that they used. I often joke that an Andalusian would not have been able to get through a meal without eggs.

I wonder if this is also the origin of so many egg heavy deserts in Portugal.

> I wonder if this is also the origin of so many egg heavy deserts in Portugal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventual_sweets

Egg whites were used to make communion wafers and starch habits so they had a lot of yolks going around.

Kind of like how liquid N2 is dirt cheap because people pay a lot for all the other liquified fractionations but air is mostly nitrogen, or veal is in supply because dairy cows have both male and female offspring?

(Have you heard the new rules about dating the novice nuns? They'll allow it on a casual basis — but you're not supposed to get into the habit)

Egg whites were used to starch habits and for various other tasks, but communion wafers are pressed bread, and don't have any egg in them at all. I could not find any confirmation of your statement in a reputable source, and I have never heard of such a practice. The Catholic Church has long maintained that the host should be made of wheat flour (in the past sometimes with a small addition of another flour) and water only. Egg whites were used to clarify wine for the Eucharist, which might be the source of that likely fable.

Dorothy Dunnett writes that cypriot sugar production in the early middle ages used prodigious quantities of egg white for purification of the cane juice prior or during crystallisation.

It's fiction, but she researched heavily. Given the Moorish occupation of the Iberian peninsula it's possible they used eggs heavily in sugar production there too

Eggs are easy to get - just keep a few chickens which will in turn eat your trash. So we would expect anyone allowed chickens would have them. Before 1800 95% of the world population was a farmer of some sort, so space for chickens was not hard to find - other livestock need more space, but chickens can get by on very little. (many of those farmers would have been slaves, but they may have still be allowed eggs from the farm)

Eggs very pretty expensive outside of rural areas though (and even there they seemingly wasn’t close to being as common as now).

e.g. a dozen eggs cost about the same as a chicken https://www.luminarium.org/medlit/medprice.htm

Still seemingly cheaper than pig, goose, sheep, etc (although hard to compare weight for weight).

Today, as then, be careful not to confuse a young chicken killed and sold for eating with an established reliable laying hen .. which generally won't be for sale until they stop laying.

A laying hen is valued more than a broiler chicken.

Again, most people were farmers and so lived in a rural area. Also eggs are relatively easy to raise in, small quantities, in a urban areas so even there many likely had their own source of eggs. Thus price of eggs likely reflects transport costs (eggs are fragile and unlike animals don't walk themselves to town) and that most people are not buying them. Thus while your link is likely correct, it isn't the full story and not helpful in determining how many eggs someone actually eats.

Nothing revealed about the culinary life in the article.

I wanted to know what would they eat, but got a wall of text about general things surounding the period.

Some of those dishes are still present today in the Iberian Peninsula!

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