Andalusian Cookbook

Raccolta di testi
per la
Storia della Gastronomia
Digitalizzati
e restaurati
da
Edoardo Mori
2018
**
Anonymous Andalusian
Cookbook
The Book of Cooking in Maghreb and
Andalus in the era of Almohads, by an
unknown author
Kitab al tabikh fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus

fi asr al-Muwahhidin, li-mu'allif majhul.
1200 - 1400
Contributors©
Charles Perry, Candida Martinelli,
David Friedman
Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook
The Book of Cooking in Maghreb and Andalus in the era of Almohads,
by an unknown author
Kitab al tabikh fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi asr al-Muwahhidin,

li-mu'allif majhul.
The book was complied by a scribe in the 1400s, whose name

appeared on the first page of the text, but the first page has not
survived the ages. His work contains recipes copied from a number
of works from the 1200s, some surviving and some not surviving
independently to today.)
Table of Contents
PREFACE Pag. 18
CHAPTER 1: HEALTHFUL COOKING 22
According to Hippocrates
On What Foods Should be Taken Alone and Should Not be Mixed with Other
Foods
The Customs that Many People Follow in Their Countries
Breads
Hygiene
Basic Ingredients
Utensils
Of the Utensils that Those Charged with Cooking or Pharmacy Must Have
Ready
How the Service of Dishes is Ordered, and Which is Fitting to be First, and
Which Last
CHAPTER 2: DRINKS AND SYRUPS 28
The Great Drink of Roots
The Little Drink of Roots: Way of Making It
Making Raison Drink
Recipe for Honey-Water
Syrup of Aloe Wood: Way of Making It
Syrup of Citron Leaves: Way of Making It
The Great Cheering Syrup: Way of Making It
1
A Syrup of [spiced] Honey
The Recipe for Making a Syrup of Julep [rosewater syrup]
Syrup of Sandalwood: Way of Making It
Formula for Making a Syrup of Mastic [and Mint]
Syrup of Mulberries: Way of Making It
Syrup of Mint: Way of Making It
Syrup of Fresh Roses, and the Recipe for Making It
A Recipe for Making It by Repetition
Syrup of Dried Roses
Syrup of Violets
Manner of Making a Syrup of Maryut
Syrup of Hyssop
Syrup of Basil
Syrup of Simple Sikanjabm [vinegar syrup]
Syrup of Pomegranates
Syrup of Sour Grapes [verjuice]
Syrup of Flowers of Isfitan [possibly isfinar --white mustard]
Syrup of Lavender [Halhal]
Syrup of Lemon
A Syrup of Greens
A Syrup which Dries Black Bile and Phlegm
Syrup of Jujubes
Syrup of Thistle
Syrup of Tamarind
Syrup of Carrots
Syrup of Apples
CHAPTER 3: PASTES [AND JAMS, JELLIES] 37
Carrot Paste [carrot jam]
Green Walnut Paste [walnut jam]
Quince Paste [quince jam and jelly]
Paste of Honeyed Roses [rose jam]
Violet Paste [violet jam].
Mint Paste [mint jam]
Tfqantast Paste [prickly pear jam].
Qirsa'nat Paste [Thistle jam]
A Paste which Fortifies the Stomach, the Liver, and the Brain [seed paste]
Orange Paste [orange marmalade]
Caraway Paste
Recipe for Making Sinab [mustard paste]
CHAPTER 4: MEDICINAL ELECTUARIES AND POWDERS 41
Electuary of Mint
Electuary of Aloe
Electuary of Cloves
Electuary of Musk
Electuary of Ginger and Pepper.
2
Electuary of Red Sandalwood.
Electuary of White Sandalwood
Powder to Dry the Lungs
Another Delicate Medicinal Powder
Powders That Digest The Food
Spice Mixture
CHAPTER 5: LIGHT DISHES FOR A WEAK STOMACH, AND MEDICINAL DISHES 43
Information About Weak Stomachs
The Extraction of Meat Juice for Invalids [concentrated meat broth].
A Dish which Reduces Appetite and Strengthens the Stomach
A Dish of Meat Juice [against fever]
A Dish of Meat Juice Effective on the Day of Fever for Illness, after the Illness
Decreases
Recipe of a Summer Dish of Praised Nutrition with Sour Grape Juice and
Gourd
Another Like It, a Summer Dish that Cools the Body
Another Dish Which Strengthens the Stomach Before Heat
Preparation of Tuffahiyya, Apple Stew
A Dish of Safarjaliyya, Good for the Stomach
Sikbaj of Veal, Used for Young People in Summer
A Dish Suitable for Autumn
A Dish Made in Winter for Those with Cold Illnesses
A Dish of Pullets Suitable for the Aged and Those with Moistness
Recipe for the Dish Mentioned by Al-Razi
Recipe for Zfrbaja [sweet and sour soup, chicken, pigeon, dove, lamb]
Judhaba Beneficial for the Cold and It Strengthens Coitus [mincemeat
quiche]
CHAPTER 6: BREADS 48
Rafis [flat bread, loaf, also raghif]
Leavened White or Semolina Bread
Making Isfunj [leavened semolina egg bread]
Flaky Loaf [Khubza Muwarraqa]
Loaf Kneaded with Butter.
Recipe for Folded Bread from Ifriqiyya [Tunisia].
Loaf Fried in Honey and Butter [honey, saffron loaf]
A Recipe for Stuffed Sweet Breads [sugar-almond rolled loaf and fried
pastries]
Making of Elegant Isfunja [sweet, buttery bread]
Recipe for Murakkaba Kutamiyya [layered sweet buttery bread]
Recipe for Murakkaba Layered with Dates [sweet bread layered with dates]
Recipe for Shabat with Fat [fried, flaky breads]
Recipe for Mushahhada [pancakes]
Simple Isffriya [crepes]
The Making of Khabfs [starch and very thin starch crepes, warqas, phillo]
Preparation of Khubaiz [starch] that is Made in Niebla [and starch crepes]
3
Counterfeit Isffriya [crepe] of Garbanzos [chickpea flour]
Preparation of Muwarraqa Musammana [buttery, flaky, puff pastry dough]
Preparation of Sanbusak [stuffed, fried dumplings, samosas]
CHAPTER 7: THARIDAS [BREAD PUDDINGS] 56
Tharfdas
The Perfect Tharfda [The Complete Tharfda]
Vinegar Tharfda, Which is One of the Best
White Tharfda with Onion, called Kafuriyya [Camphor-White]
A Green [Tharfda ] Dish Stuffed with Almonds
Fish Tharfda [fish in a green pond]
Tharfda Mudhakkar with Vinegar and Whole Onions
Tharfda with Lamb and Spinach, Moist Cheese and Butter
Tharfda in the Style of the People of Bijaya
Tharfda that the People of Ifriqiyya [Tunisia] Call Fatfr
Tharfda Made with Fattened Chickens or with Well-Fed, Fattened Capons
Tharfda Made with Garbanzo Water, Chicken, Cheese and Olives
Recipe for a Tharfdas oaked in the Fat [and Flesh] of Ten Fattened Chickens
Tharfda of Chicken
Tharfda of Meat
Tharfda of Meat and [Stuffed] Eggplants
Tharfda of Zabarbada [onion]
Tharfda of Meat with Turnips and Walnuts
Al-Ghassani's Tharfda
Tharfda of Lamb with Garbanzos [and Cheese]
Tharfda with Heads of Swiss Chard
Preparation of a Tharfda of Two Chickens, One Stuffed With the Other
Recipe for Tharfda Shabat
Making Muhallabiyya [mincemeat, layered tharfda quiche]
Tharfda of Khabfs [wheat starch] with Two Chickens [in honey]
Recipe for the Dish Mentioned by Al-Razi [veal tharfda]
Recipe for Mu'allak [Mutton, milk and cheese]
CHAPTER 8: RICE, COUSCOUS, NOODLE... DISHES 66
Soldiers' Couscous [Kuskusu Fityani]
Couscous Made with Crumbs of the Finest White Bread [Tharfda ].
Recipe for Fidaush [fresh pasta]
Preparation of the Cooking of Itriyya [dried pasta].
Preparation of Rice Cooked Over Water [in a double boiler]
How Rice Is Cooked in the East [oven cooked rice]
Recipe for Rice Dissolved With Sugar [sweet rice pudding]
Information about Harfsa According to its Kinds [savory meat puddings]
The Method of Making It [Harfsa, savory wheat, meat mush]
Rice Harfsa [savory rice meat pudding]
Recipe for Harfsa Made with White Bread Crumbs Instead of Wheat
[Tharfda , savory bread pudding]
Royal Jashfsha Which Provides Wholesome Nutrition [savory mush]
4
Good Jashfsha: It Fattens Thin Women and Men [wheat, rice, chickpea
mush]
CHAPTER 9: NON-MEAT DISHES 70
The Making of Stuffed Eggs
Another Egg Dish [boiled eggs in a sauce]
Recipe of Fartun [scrambled eggs cooked in a form]
Stuffed Eggs
Zabarbada [Zfrbaja] of Fresh Cheese [fondue].
Recipe for Mujabbana [cheese puffs]
Recipe for Eggs Mujabbana [cheese puffs with egg pastry].
Recipe for the Three-Part Mujabbana [cheese puffs]
Recipe for a Semolina Mujabbana [cheese puffs with almonds]
Mujabbana [Cheese Pastry] of Raghffs [flat breads]
Recipe for Oven Cheese Pastry, Which We Call Toledan
Recipe for Qaijata [layered cheese pastry]
Dish of Stuffed Eggplants [fried]
A Dish of Eggplants with Saffron [fried eggplant]
A Dish of Eggplants [cassarole]
Preparation of Musa'tar [Thyme] of Eggplants [cassarole]
Preparation of Arnabi [baked eggplant with thyme and saffron]
Description ofMahshi with Eggplants [cassarole]
Preparing Mahshi with Eggplants and Cheese [cassarole]
Recipe for Sprinkled [batter-fried] Eggplants
Recipe for the Fried Version of the Same [floured-fried]
Eggplant isfiriya [crepes or pancakes].
A Vegetarian Version of the Same [eggplants] Prepared by I bn Muthanna
[whole eggplants].
Recipe for the Same Dish, Browned Version [ratatouille],
Recipe for the Boiled Version of It [eggplant halves]
Three vegetable dishes from the cookbook of Ibrahim b. al-Mahdi
Recipe for a Dish of Gourd Resembling Fish [batter fried]
A Muzawwara [Vegetable Dish] Beneficial for Tertian Fevers and Acute
Fevers
Janndniyya [the Gardener's Dish] [a vegetable omlette]
CHAPTER 10: JEWISH DISHES 78
Jewish Partridge [stuffed].
A Jewish Dish of Partridge
A Jewish Dish of Chicken
A Jewish Dish of Chicken [with stuffing]
A Stuffed, Buried Jewish Dish [cassarole]
A Jewish Dish of Eggplants Stuffed with Meat
CHAPTER 11: FISH DISHES 81
Advice on Fish Dishes in Their Varieties
Recipe for Large Fish Such as Qabtun and Fahl and Those Similar to Them
Green TafSyS [stew] of Fish
5
Basbasiyya, a Fennel Dish
White TafSyS [stew] of the Same
Recipe for Fish in the Style ofJimli
Another Version of the Same
Dish made with Sarda [Pilchard], One of the Good Classes of Fish
Recipe for MunashshS, a Dish Made with Starch
Fish Murawwaj
Mahshi of Mixed Fish
Sprinkled Fish [batter fried fish]
Meatballs and Patties [Ahrash] of Fish
BurSniyya of Fish
Preparing Fish Roe
A Pie of Sea or River Fish
A Dish of Large Fish
Making Fresh Fish with Eggs
Tortoise or Mullet Pie
CHAPTER 12: SAUSAGE, MEATBALLS, MEAT PATTIES, MEATLOAFS 86
Recipe for Mirkas [Merguez Sausage]
Mirkiis with Fresh Cheese
Recipe for an Extraordinary Sausage
Recipe for Eggplant Mirkas
The Making of Another Marrow [sausage]
Meatball Dish
Recipe for Meatballs Used in Some Dishes, such as Tafaya [stew], Jimli, and
Others
A Dish of Meatballs
Another Dish of Meatballs
A Similar Mutajjan with Meat Balls [meatball omelet]
Preparation of Meatballs from Chicken Breasts
Preparation of Meatballs from Any Meat You Wish
Recipe for Making Ahrash [Fried Flattened Meatballs]
A Type of Ahrash [small meat patty]
Recipe for Making Ahrash [small meat patty]
A Recipe of isffriya [small meat patty]
To Make isffriya [small meat patty]
isffriya [small meat patty] in the Manner of the Market Folk
Another Dish [ground meat, meatballs, sausages]
The Making of Qadus [meatloaf]
A Qadus with Meatballs [meatloaf with meatballs]
Preparing Rahibi [Meatloaf], the Monk's Dish
How to Make Rahibi [Meatloaf]
Another Rahibi [Meatloaf] Recipe
Another Rahibi [Meatloaf] Dish of the Same With [Onion] Drippings
6
Rahibi [Meatloaf] in a Tajine [round clay casserole]
CHAPTER 13: LAMB DISHES 94
Recipe for a Good Dish
Fresh [Green] Beans With Meat, Called Fustuqiyya [Pistachio]
To Make isffriya [small meat patty]
isffriya [small meat patty] in the Manner of the Market Folk
Roast Lamb
Lamb Roast Badf'i
Ram Roast with its Skin
A Dish of Auhashi of Fat Ram
Roast Lamb, which was made for the Sayyid Abu al-'Ala in Ceuta
Roast Ram Breast [flank]
Another Kind of Lamb Breast
Another Extraordinarily Good Lamb Breast
Dish of Lamb With Truffles
Stuffing Lamb with Cheese
Dish of Chestnuts with Lamb
The making of Badf'i, the Remarkable Dish
Recipe for Barmakiyya [meat pie]
Stuffed Lamb Breast in the Oven
A Dish With Prunes [ijjas]
Baqliyya Mukarrara [spinach and lamb]
A Baqliyya of Ziryab's
Safarjaliyya, a Dish Made With Quinces [lamb, veal]
Tuffahiyya, a Dish Made With Apples [lamb, veal, chicken, squab]
Preparing Tuffahiyya [Apple Stew] with Eggplants [and lamb]
A Pie [Mukhabbazah] of Lamb
Recipe for the Roast of Kings
Simple White Tafaya [stew], Called isffdhbaja
Recipe for White Tafaya [stew]
Recipe for White Tafaya [stew] with Almonds
Recipe for Fried Tafaya [stew], Which Was Known in Morocco as Tahashast
Another Kind of Tafaya [stew]: the Eastern Style
A Jewish Dish of Eggplants Stuffed with Meat [lamb].
Recipe for Ztrbaja [sweet and sour soup, chicken, pigeon, dove, lamb]
CHAPTER 14: BEEF, MUTTON, KID, RABBIT DISHES 105
Royal Sanhaji [Beef cassarole]
The Dish Misri [Egyptian Beef or Mutton oven dish]
A Dish Praised in Springtime for Those with Fullness and Those with Burning
7
Blood [chicken, partridge,
quail, veal]
The Dish Jimli [Beef or Mutton]
The Dish Mukhallal [Beef or Mutton, a vinegar dish]
How to Make Rahibi [Meatloaf, mutton, veal]
Rahibi [Meatloaf] in a Tajine [round clay casserole, mutton, veal]
Honey [Mutton] Recipe [with sweet dumplings]
Preparing Saqlabiyya [Dish of the Saqaliba] [Mutton]
Qar'iyya, a Dish of Gourd [Mutton]
The Dish Sinabi [Mustard Mutton].
Stuffed and Roast Mutton; Called "The Complete"[or"The Inclusive']
Recipe for the Dish Known as Maghmum [Veiled] [Mutton]
Recipe for Small Birds Made of Sheep's Meat [Mutton]
Complete Jimliyya [Mutton]
Making Baqliyya with Eggplants [Mutton, layered cassarole]
Mu'allak and Maqlu [Mutton]
Recipe for Maqlu [Mutton, cooked in milk]
The Preparation of Bilaja [Mutton, boil, fry and roast].
Muthallath with Heads of Lettuce [Mutton]
Preparation of Buraniyya [Mutton with Eggplant, boil, fry, bake]
Preparing The Complete Buraniyya [Mutton with lamb and eggplant]
A Dish of Eggplants Without Vinegar [Mutton and Eggplant]
Preparing Tabahaja of Buraniyya [Eggplant Mutton dish]
Dish of Eggplant [Mutton and eggplant]
quiche]
Roast in a Tajine [Kid]
Tabahaja, Which is Fried Meat [Kid]
Another Tabahajiyya [Kid]
Another Tabahajiyya [Kid with nuts and pomegranate]
Another with Pistachios and Sugar [Kid]
The Making of Qadus [meatloaf, kid]
A Dish of Hare
Recipe for Roast Hare
Stuffed Rabbit
Qanura of Rabbit in a Frying-Pan, which is Notable
An Extraordinary Stuffed Rabbit
CHAPTER 15: GENERIC MEAT DISHES 117
8
Information About Baqliyyat [Vegetable Dishes] and Mukhaddarat
[Greened Dishes]
Sweetened Mukhallal [a vinegar dish]
Note on the Kinds of Roast
Stuffed Buraniyya [eggplant]
Another Type of Mahshi [stuffed eggplant]
Another Recipe for the Same [eggplant]
A Remarkable Stuffed Mutajjan [meat omlette]
Sanhaji [stew of everything]
A Roast of Meat
Another Roast of Meat
Recipe for a Pot-Roast, Good for the Old, the Moist of Body and Moist
Stomachs
A Dish Made with Khabfs [starch]
A Dish of Sikbaj, Praised for its Nutritive Value [vinegar dish]
Recipe for Khubaiz with Meat [starch, honey-saffron]
A Sicilian Dish [onion-meat dish]
Preparation known as Hashfshiyya, a Grassy Dish [bird in dough]
Preparation of Chestnut Qaliyya
Preparing Covered Tabahajiyya [Tabahajiyya Maghmuma, meat-onion dish]
Dish of Meat With Pistachio
Preparing the Servants' Dish [baked meat omlette]
Eggplant Dish Known as the Arabic [egg and meat]
A Dish of Eggs with Meat
Another BadT'I [meat omlette]
A Remarkable Tajine [meat omlette]
Dish Prepared With Fried Eggplant
Dish with Truffles and Meat
Preparing Liftiyya [a Dish of Turnips] with Walnuts and Sugar.
Meat Soup with Cabbage
Persian Muthallath
Preparing a Dish With Cardoon [artichoke]
Preparing a Dish of Cardoons with Meat [artichokes]
Preparation of Baqliyya of Asparagus
Preparing Asparagus with Meat Coating
Making Baqliyya of Asparagus
Preparing Mallow With Jerked Meat
Preparing the Dish Dictated by Abu Ishaq
Making 'Umaniyya [or possibly Ammaniyya]
Meat Roasted Over Coals
Preparing Masluq al-Saqaliba, Boiled Dish of the Saqaliba [tripe]
Sa'tariyya, a Thyme-flavored Dish
Rashtdiyya
A Good Dish
9
A Roast of Stuffed Shimas [oven omlette]
Preparation of Plain Liftiyya Also [turnip stew].
Recipe for White Karanbiyya
Recipe for Clarified [or Repeated] Liftiyya
Basbasiyya [a dish of fennel]
Preparing Narjisiyya [Narcissus-stew] With Carrots
Tafaya [green stew]
Covered Tafaya [green stew]
Stuffed Tafaya [green stew]
Tafaya [stew] Saqlabiyya [Slav stew, white]
A Dish of Murri from Any Meat You Wish
Buraniyya [stuffed eggplant]
A Remarkable Dish in Which is Saffriyya of Eggs
A Dish With Eggplants
Jimliyya
Green Dish
Dish of Meat with Walnuts and Mastic
Dish of Meat with Cauliflower.
Safarjaliyya, a Quince Dish
Dish Known as Mulahwaj [the Hasty Dish]
Himmasiyya [a garbanzo dish, hummus with meat]
Stuffed Asparagus [meat wrapped asparagus dish]
Another Good Dish
Recipe for a Good Dish Covered With Pine-nuts
To Make the Dish Asfar [The Yellow Dish]
On the Making of Marrow.
The Making of Marrow Without Marrow, Which No One Will Suspect
The Making of a Good Marrow, Which Will Not Be Doubted
CHAPTER 16: CHICKEN DISHES 136
Making a Green Hen [cilantro chicken]
A Dish of Chicken [spicy, nut chicken]
Farruj Maghluq, a Closed Dish of Chicken
A Chicken Pie
Chicken Breasts [with almonds]
A Jointed Hen, Veiled [oven roasted] and this dish with partridge is also
extraordinary [chicken, partridge]
Another Dish Like That with Saffron [chicken, partridge]
Another Like Dish [chicken, partridge]
Spit Roasted Chicken with Stuffed Eggplants
Recipe for a Dish of Chicken or Partridge with Quince or Apple
Tajine of Birds' Giblets [giblet omelet].
A Dish of Fried Chicken [with omelet]
10
Lamtuniyya [spit roasted fowl, with garlic nut sauce]
A Coral Dish of Chicken
Recipe for "Hunchbacked" Chicken
A Pie of Pullets or Starlings
Recipe for a Dish of Pullet or Partridge
A Reddish-Brown Dish of Chicken
Palace Chicken with Mustard.
Farruj Mubarrad, Ginger and Lavender Chicken
A Dish of Chicken with Mild Wine
Recipe for a Stuffed Hen Without Bones [stuffed chicken skin]
An Extraordinary Dish of Chicken [coal roasted, with sauce, meatballs and
sausages]
Recipe for Making Judhaba [aromatic roast chicken]
Dish of Chicken When it is Roasted
Dish of Chicken or Whatever Meat You Please [sausage of chicken,
partridge]
Bedouin Chicken [simple dish]
Dish of Stuffed Chicken [or Pullet]
Recipe for Roast Chickens [and other fowl]
Hen Roasted in a Pot in the Oven [the bread oven]
Hen Roasted in a Pot at Home
Chicken Called Madhuna, Greased [roast, spicy].
Cooked Fried Chicken
The Green Dish Which Umm Hakima Taught [with cilantro]
A Dish of Pullet [with coriander]
Chicken Covered With Walnuts and Saffron
Another Dish Covered with Ground Almonds
Another Dish, Which Is Covered with Cilantro Juice
Dish with Pine Nuts
Another Dish, Covered with Pistachio
Jaldiyya of Chicken [sweet].
Chicken Dish With Wine [or honey, steeped in spiced]
Another Chicken Dish
Tharfda of Chicken [boiled chicken on bread]
Mukhallal of Chicken and So Forth [a vinegar dish]
Recipe for Kafuriyya, a dish made with Camphor and Lemons [chicken,
pidgeon, dove]
Maghmum, The Veiled [oven roasted] Dish [lemon chicken, pigeon, goose].
The Making ofMu'affara which is also Called Munashshiya [false chicken]
Recipe for Muruziyya [sweet and sour chicken]
Recipe for Ja'fariyya [gold colored dish]
Recipe for Jullabiyya, a Dish with Julep [candied chicken]
The Making of RafT, a Fine Dish [chicken and meatballs]
11
The Recipe ofibn al-Mahdi's Maghmum [roast chicken]
Abbasid Chicken [stuffed chicken]
The Preparation ofJaldiyya [Leathery fowl, raison sauce, goose, hen, capon]
Recipe for Thumiyya, a Garlicky Dish
A Chicken called Ibrahfmiyya [sweet and sour saffron chicken],
Mahshi, a Stuffed Dish [chicken, pigeon, dove, small birds, lamb],
A Chicken Dish [stuffed chicken skin and meat dish]
The Making of Stuffed Chicken [stuffed, roated chicken]
Recipe for Farruj Mubarrad, Omelet Chicken [boiled chicken with omlette]
A Stuffed Dish of Chicken [Cooked] in the Oven
Chicken In the Oven [roast chicken]
Recipe for an Extraordinary Chicken Dish [honey chicken with almond
stuffing, with meatballs and
sausages]
Tharfda of Khabts [wheat starch] with Two Chickens [in honey]
A Hen Roasted in the Oven [simple, garlic and coriander]
Egyptian Chicken
A Chicken Known as Zukaira [stuffed chicken skin and meat dish]
Recipe for the Chicken Dish known as Sabahi [of morning],
Recipe for Barmakiyya [calzone or empanada, chicken, pigeons, small birds,
lamb]
Blood [chicken, partridge,
quail, veal]
Recipe for a Dish of Goose and Stuffing [stuffed skin, chicken, goose]
A Jewish Dish of Chicken [with a stuffing]
CHAPTER 17: OTHER FOWL DISHES 161
Tajine with Cheese [small birds, pigeon]
pidgeon, dove]
Maghmum, The Veiled [oven roasted] Dish [lemon chicken, pigeon, goose]
Stuffed Monkey-Head [layered dish, pigeon]
The Making of a Dish of Small Birds [simple dish],
The Making of a Dish of Pigeons, Doves, or White Starlings [fowl in meatloaf,
pigeon, dove, starling].... 154
A Dish of Young Pigeons [sweet fowl, pigeon]
A Preparation of Remarkable Pigeons [Bujun, stuffing coverd pigeons]]
'Ujja [frittata] of Pigeons
Recipe for a Dish of Olives [partridge]
Recipe for a Dish of Partridge
Jewish Partridge [stuffed],
12
Recipe for a Dish of Partridge with Honey [with egg-white coating]
A Recipe for Roast Partridge
Partridge
Another Partridge Dish
Another Partridge Dish [roasted, with a sauce]
A Dish of Partridge
A Jointed Hen, Veiled [oven roasted] and this dish with partridge is also
extraordinary [chicken, partridge]
partridge]
Tajine of Birds' Giblets [giblet omelet],
Mahshi, a Stuffed Dish [chicken, pigeon, dove, small birds, lamb],
Blood [chicken, partridge, quail, veal]
TuffShiyya, a Dish Made With Apples [lamb, veal, chicken, squab]
The Preparation ofJaldiyya [Leathery fowl, raison sauce, goose, hen, capon]
Recipe for Making Qaliyya With a Covering [crane]
Stuffed Goose
Goose [mallard duck]
Recipe for Roasting Other Dishes of the Same [Another from Abu Salih al-
Rahbani in His Kitchen]
Widgeon, Known as the Sparrow Hawk
Jimliyya of Legs and Breast of Squab
A Dish of Whole Turtledoves
Roast Starling
A Dish With Sparrows
Recipe for Barmakiyya [calzone or empanada, chicken, pigeons, small birds,
lamb]
CHAPTER 18: PASTRIES 176
Preparation ofMuwarraqa Musammana [buttery, flaky, puff pastry dough]
Recipe of Necessity [classic or standard recipe] for Bread and Confection
Preparation of Zulabiyya [light, fried pastry, churro]
Recipe for Eggs Mujabbana [cheese puffs with egg pastry],
13
Little Sweet Cheese Breads Recipe [fried cheese rounds with honey and
nuts]
Judhaba with Qataif [layered custard, sugar/almond pastry],
Recipe for Simple Judhaba [layered custard, almond pastry]
Tharfda with Flat Breads in a Tajine [custard pie]
Stuffed Muqawwara, a Stuffed Pastry [a sweetmeat pie]
Recipe for Qursa Made with Fat [honey pastry]
Sanbusak of the Common People [somosas, savory pastries, empanada]
Recipe for Abbasid Qataif [fried, stuffed crepes]
The Preparation of Aqrun [fried pastries]
Fritters
The Making of Dafair, Braids [fried pastry log, balls and stuffed]
The Preparation of adhan [Ears] [nut stuffed fried pastry]
Stuffed Qananft, Fried Cannoli [cannoli shells and marzipan filling]
Recipe Known as the Tharfda of the Emir [little nut pies]
Recipe for Shabat with Fat [Med, flaky breads]
Simple isfiriya [crepes],
Counterfeit isfiriya [crepe] of Garbanzos [chickpea flour]
CHAPTER 19: COOKIES, BISCUITS 188
The Making of Hadfdat [Pieces of Iron] [polvorone, a Spanish cookie]
The Making ofFaludhaj [al-faludhajiyya] [saffron polvorones]
Recipe for Ka'k [Biscuits, cookies]
The Preparation of Ka’k [marzipan filled cookies],
The Making of Qahiriyat [marzipan filled ring cookies]
Preparation of Khushkalan [marzipan cookies from Bougie]
Preparation of Jauzmaq [marzipan cookies],
Ka’k of Sugar Also [marzipan cookies]
Preparation of Cairo Qahiriyya [marzipan cookies]
Oven Qahiriyya [marzipan cookies]
Sun-Dried Qahiriyya [marzipan cookies]
Ka’k Stuffed with [almonds and] Sugar [filled cookies]
Recipe for Mishash [flaky pastry cookies],
Another Mishash [flaky pastry cookies with walnuts]
Another Variety of Mishash [flaky pastry filled with almonds]
CHAPTER 20: CAKES AND SWEET BREADS 194
Preparation of Qursas [almond and pistachio layered cake, like baklava]
Elegant Qursa [filled panettone],
The Making of Ras Maimun, Monkey's Head [butter-cream filled head-
shaped cake]
The Making of Khabfs [starch and very thin starch crepes, warqas]
14
Counterfeit Isffriya [crepe] of Garbanzos [chickpea flour],
pastries],
Little Sweet Cheese Breads Recipe [fried cheese rounds with honey and
nuts]
Making Stuffed Isfunj [semolina leavened egg bread, fried as balls],
Recipe for Murakkaba Layered with Dates [sweet bread layered with dates]
CHAPTER 21: CANDIES
Fried Nougat Soaked in Honey
Recipe for Mu'aqqad of Sugar [Nougat with Pistachio and Almonds]
Mu'aqqad of Honey [almond nougat]
A Preparation Known as Sweet Cane [creamy, caramel candy]
Sukkariyya, a Sugar Dish from the Dictation of Abu 'Ali al-Bagdadi
Qahiriyya which is Called Sabuniyya [sugar coated marzipan candies],
Sanbusak [marzipan figures]
A Sweet Called Ma'quda [marzipan candies]
Fruit Made of Sugar [almond sugar figurines].
Rukhamiyya, a Marble Dish [spicy, sugar almond candy]
Preparation of Fanfd [Pulled Taffy]
Recipe of Ma'asim [Wrists] [almond and sugar stuffed taffy]
A Sweet from Syria [yellow, almond, pistachio candies]
FSIudhaj [honey-almond, chewy candies],
FSIudhaj with Sugar [chewy, almond candies],
A Sweet of Dates and Honey [date, honey-nut candy]
Preparation of Sugar Candies [spicy, chewy candies]
Sukkariyya, a Sugar Dish [nut nougat, turnon]
Preparation of Juraydat, Small Locusts [honey-spice candy balls]
Cast Figures of Sugar
Preparation of What is known as Fustuqiyya of Sugar [pistachio candy]
CHAPTER 22: PUDDINGS 208
Preparation of Kunafa [sweet crepe pudding],
A Sukkariyya from Dictation of Abu 'AH al-Bagdadi [rose pudding]
Khabfsa from Dictation of Abu 'Ali al-Bagdadi [oily egg pudding]
Khabfsa with Pomegranate [very thick pudding],
Four-Ingredient Khabfsa [plain pudding]
Recipe for Honeyed Rice [rice pudding]
Royal Raffs [bread pudding]
A Good Royal Raffs [almond bread pudding]
Recipe for Raffs with Soft Cheese [honey cheese bread pudding]
15
Raffs Cooked with Soft Cheese [honey cheese bread pudding]
Qursa with Dates [date bread pudding]
Tunisian Date Qursa According to Another Recipe [oily date pudding]
Recipe for Tarfist [saffron honey bread pudding],
The Dish GhassSni [mincemeat pudding]
Recipe for Mu'assal of Meat [mincemeat pudding]
Recipe for Mu'assal, Used Among Us as the Last Dish [almond pudding]
White Mu'assal [almond pudding]
A Mu'assal Used in Tunis at Banquets [yellow pudding]
White FSIudhaja With Milk; It is Eastern [sweet pudding]
Sukkariyya, A Sweet of Sugar [bread custard pudding]
An Eastern Sweet [sweet pudding]
Excellent FSIudhaj [sweet almond milk pudding]
Tharfda oflsfunj with Milk [bread pudding]
Tharfda Called Mukallala [Crowned] [almond pudding]
Tharfda Called Mudhahhaba [Gilded] [nut custard pudding]
Recipe for [Sheep's] Milk Tharfda
'Asfda Which Fortifies and Nourishes Much and Fattens [honey, almond
pudding]
'Asfda Made with Grits that Nourishes and Fattens [sweet grits pudding]
The Making of Qataif [wheat, honey pudding]
Making Muhallabiyya [mincemeat, layered tharfda quiche]
APPENDIX
Editor David Friedman's Notes
Weights and Measures
Murri
Sourdough Starter and Sponge, Leavening Agent
Quick Sourdough Starter
Sourdough Sponge
Decoctions
Electuary
Extracts
Fomentations
Infusions
Oils
Syrups
Teas
Tinctures
Non Alcoholic Tincture
Ointments
Poultices
Vinegars
Waters
GLOSSARY AND SOME TRANSLATOR EXPLANATIONS 225
16
Preface
This English text is a translation by Charles Perry, working from the original
Arabic, a printed copy of the Arabic and its translation into Spanish, and assisted
by an English translation by various persons translating collaboratively the text
from Spanish to English.
I have altered the English translation by:
• editing the translated text,
• reorganizing the recipes logically into cookbook chapters,
• adding extra text and explanatory text in brackets,
• repeating some recipes in more than one section for ease of use
• incorporating many of the translator(s) and editor(s) notes into the text,
and
• adding a complete Table of Contents and Appendices.
I have made this document into a PDF. The free Adobe PDF Reader allows for
simple movement between recipes and chapters, and to search easily by any
word, any ingredient. You can also easily print out the book or sections of the
book. And you can purchase a print-on-demand paperback book at cost via
Amazon.com's CreateSpace company.
This book’s original title was:
Kitab al tabij fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi 'asr al-Muwahhidin, li-mu'allif mayhul (or
majhul).
It means:
The Book of Cooking in Maghreb and Andalus in the era of Aimohads, by an
unknown author. It is commonly known in English today as:
The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook.
The book was complied by a scribe in the 1400s, whose name appeared on the
first page of the text, but the first page has not survived the ages. His work
contains recipes copied from a number of older works in the 1200s, some
surviving and some not surviving independently to today.
The major part of the English translation is by Charles Perry, a scholar, food
historian, and writer of a food column for the L.A. Times. Additional notes are by
various other writers, including myself.
Like all ancient cookbooks, this one is made up of pieces of other cookbooks.
Think of it as a recipe notebook from a busy estate kitchen. The reigning cook
added to his recipe collection by:
- combing through other cookbooks,
- learning from kitchen help who had worked for other households,
- receiving recipes collected by members of the household while abroad,
- learning from cooks who visited the estate together with their employers, and
by
- corresponding with cooks in other households.
Periodically, these cooks published their recipe collections for the honor of their
patron, or for their own honor. Then scribes would copy the books for a client, or
for the book’s owner to give to friends, or as a gift, or even just for posterity.
17
This cookbook borrows directly from several well-known cookbooks, all from
roughly the same period.
• One of these is by Muhammad bin al-Hasan bin Muhammad bin al-KarTm al-
Baghdadi, usually called al-Baghdadi [d. 1239 AD], who compiled a cookbook
called Kitab al- TabTh, or The Book of Dishes, written in 1226.
• Some recipes come from cookbooks by the gastronome Abu Ishaq Ibrahim
ibn al- Mahdi [b.779-d.839 CE], half-brother of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid.
• Some recipes come from cookbooks by authors unknown to us today.
The Andalucia, or Al-Andalus, of the 1200s was not today’s southern region of
Andalucia in Spain. It was the name used for all of the territory controlled in Spain
by Arab Muslims, originally from North Africa. The major part of Spain, excluding
only it’s Northern regions, was under Arab rule between 711 and 1492. The
Kingdom of Granada was the last area to fall to the Spanish-Catholic monarchs
Ferdinand and Isabella in what Spain calls a ‘re-conquest’ of their territory. The
defeated Muslims call it a barbarous tragedy. Some Moroccan families still retain,
in a prominent place in their Moroccan homes, the key to their ancestors’ family
home that was taken from them in Al-Andalus during that period.
Al-Andalus was renowned for its centers of learning, beautiful architecture, and
religious tolerance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI-Andalus). You’ll note several
Jewish recipes in this cookbook because there was a large Jewish population in
Al-Andalus. The severe persecution of this minority group began only under
Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic monarchs who fought for the expulsion, or
mass-conversions, or murder of those of Muslim and Jewish faiths. There are
also recipes from other regions that were under Muslim control, such as Sicily.
The oldest cuisine in the world (a cuisine being a documented cooking of a settled
people) is the Persian cuisine, which like the Persian Empire, stretches back to
nearly 1000 BC. Many elements of Persian cuisine appear throughout the Near
East and North Africa, and they appear in this cookbook as well. And many
elements of the Persian and the Al-Andalus cuisines appear in the early
European cookbooks. One of the earliest we have is from ancient Rome, by the
cook Apicius. His recipes are very similar to the recipes in this cookbook.
European cuisine only began to change when:
- new foodstuffs arrived from the New World,
- more secure trade routes were acquired to the Indies,
-the growth of the nation state led to stronger national identities and codified
cuisines,
-the advent of mass cultivation and food production made lesser used
foodstuffs, and more expensive, and all but disappear.
Today, many of the dishes reported in this 13th century Al-Andalus cookbook are
enjoyed by families in Andalucfa, Sicily, Sardinia, and all the territories that
formerly belonged to the Moorish monarchs, especially in Morocco. The recipes
for bread, actually, are common throughout Asia. The sausages and meat patties
are common throughout these areas and beyond, but in this predominantly
Muslim cookbook, none are made with pork. Pork is a common meat in today’s
non-Muslim regions. But you will find goat, lamb and mutton recipes, along with
lots of chicken, egg, eggplant and fish recipes that are very similar to recipes still
used throughout Southern Europe, as well as Italian frittatas, fresh and dried
pasta, and the calzone.
18
The most recipes in any one category are for sweets, which isn’t surprising when
you consider that 3 of the 7 prescribed courses in a meal are sweets. I have
divided the sweets recipes into sub-categories of:
- Pastries.
- Cookies,
- Candies,
. Cakes and Sweet Breads, and
- Puddings (Custards).
Many of the recipes are similar to sweets that are enjoyed today by people all
over the world, showing how far and wide the Persian and Moorish recipes have
been embraced. In the West, these dishes are usually filtered through Italian,
Spanish, Greek and French cuisines. For example, in this book with recipes from
the 1200s (and earlier), you can find recipes for:
- marzipan candies and marzipan cookies and pastries
- puff pastry delicacies,
- Spanish turron and polvorones and churros
- Italian torrone nougat and Panettone and cannoli
- custards, puddings, rice pudding, fritters, somosas, taffy and gum drops.
The recipes reported here are mainly of historical interest, but there will be some
hardy hobbyists who will try to follow them. For you, here is a tip: some of the
Moors of Al-Andalus managed to leave, most going across the straights of
Gibraltar to North Africa, to Morocco.
So, most of the dishes in this cookbook are still made today in Morocco, famous
for its very traditional cuisine. Just search for the corresponding Moroccan recipe,
and you’ll find precise measurements of modern ingredients and easy-to-follow
instructions.
A few more words of warning if you are going to attempt to cook any of these
recipes:
• The amounts given for ingredients, when amounts are given, are generally
large, since the cooks who were using these recipes were cooking for large
households, and they were working with freshly slaughtered animals.
• Often no amounts are given at all for ingredients, which means you will have
to use your best judgment, and adjust the recipe according to how the first try
comes out, so the second try will be better.
• Oil is rarely specified as being olive oil. A general rule of thumb today in the
Mediterranean is that for meat, fish and vegetables, olive oil is used. For
sweets, generally animal fat or vegetable oil is used, such as sesame oil [not
the Chinese condiment] or sunflower oil. For some sweets recipes, you might
even want to use walnut or hazelnut oil. In Andalucia, they use a very light
variety of olive oil (the very last pressing, pomace) for frying sweets and meat
pastries. And in Morocco, they use Argan oil at times, and often mix peanut
oil with olive oil if the cooking is at a very high temperature, because peanut
oil doesn't burn in the high heat.
• There is a lot of oil used in these recipes, much more than we are used to
today. With our sedentary lives, central heating, air conditioning, and the
internal combustion engine, we do not need all the calories they needed in
1200. You should consider using less oil than specified in the recipes, when
you can get away with it.
19
• Some of the herbs mentioned and condiments in the recipes are no longer
easily available, so some substitutions may be necessary. I have put a
translators' list of some terms and some ingredients in the Appendix, along
with some ideas for substitutions for the rarer ones.
• Salt is rarely mentioned in the recipes. This does not necessarily mean they
did not use salt. The murri condiment they used so often was salty. And it was
probably assumed that the dish would be further seasoned either at the table
by the people before they ate it, or by the chef just before the dish was served.
This is not unusual, especially for meat dishes, because when salt is applied
to meat before it has finished cooking, it can draw out moisture and make the
meat dry and tough. You will have to season the dishes with salt to your own
tastes.
• The recipes are often labor-intensive.
My thanks to all who worked on translating this book, and for putting it free on the
Internet. That was very generous of you. I, too, offer this PDF version of the book
that I have edited and rearranged, free to all who wish to download it, and the
print copy at cost. I hope you enjoy a taste of the Mediterranean’s past, and if you
are brave enough (or foolish enough, perhaps?) to try to cook these dishes, I
hope they come out well.
An extra note... my favorite recipe, for its sheer audacity, is the so-called lamb
dish:
Roast Lamb, which was made for the Savvid Abu al-'Ala in Ceuta
The Governor and admiral of Ceuta, son of the Almohada Caliph Yusuf I, was
treated to this calf stuffed with a lamb, stuffed with various birds, stuffed with
smaller various birds. It think of it as a Russian doll dish.
“Take a young, plump lamb, skinned and cleaned. Make a narrow opening
between the thighs and carefully take out everything inside of it of its entrails.
Then put in the interior a roasted goose and into its belly a roasted hen and in the
belly of the hen a roasted pigeon and in the belly of the pigeon a roasted starling
and in the belly of this a small bird, roasted or fried. All this is roasted and greased
with the sauce described for roasting. Sew up this opening and place the ram in
a hot tannur [clay oven] and leave it until it is done and browned.
Paint it with that sauce and then place it in the body cavity of a calf which has
been prepared clean. Sew it up and place it in the hot tannur [clay oven] and
leave it until it is done and browned.
Then take it out and present it.”
It seems that meals for the exalted in that era were never just meals; they were
entertainment, too, and very hard work for the cooking staff!
Candida Martinelli
(Revised edit from September 2012)
20
Chapter 1
Healthful Cooking
According to Hippocrates...
It is fitting to choose, among foods for the sick, that which will be the most
pleasing. Galen says in his commentary that the significance of this saying of
Hippocrates is that the most pleasing is the food that the sick man desires and to
which his spirit is inclined, and even if it is wanting in quality or by its condition
produces a harmful humor, the man, taking it gladly and with gusto, keeps it in
his stomach, his spirit accepts it and his nature is accustomed to it.
Cook it completely and it will be perfectly digested and much praised, and the
harm will be changed to profit and the bitterness to good [preceding 5 words not
in published Arabic text]. Many sick men have been seen to improve with harmful
foods, if they took them gladly.
On What Foods Should be Taken Alone and Should Not be Mixed with
Other Foods
This is a chapter of much profit for guarding the health and escaping diarrhea,
rotting of foods, and changes in their nature. Foods of slow digestion, when they
are mixed in the early morning with foods that go down rapidly and digest easily,
separate one apart from the other, and this is the cause of indigestion, diarrhea,
acid production, and formation of bad bile.
For this reason all foods that are dense and slow going down, contrary to the
digestion, heavy on the stomach and long in digestion, should be eaten alone,
not mixed with others, and not eaten except in case of intense hunger and a
strong, true desire. Such are harfsa, heads and meat of fat cattle, rice with milk,
cheese pies, fatty stuffed dishes and the like.
If these heavy dishes, slow to digest and to go down, are not eaten except alone
and unmixed, since such mixing is corrupting and harmful, when they reach the
stomach alone and the stomach turns, squeezes, and heats them, it cooks them
and the nature is strengthened for digesting them, and the resulting mix is
praiseworthy; but when the stomach finds them mixed with others, it burns,
inflames, and corrupts the light foods.
The Customs that Many People Follow in Their Countries

Many are fond and inclined toward foods that others detest, and this is why the
people of Yemen cook with dates and like nothing better; the Persians cook rice
with sumac and it agrees with them, while it disgusts others; the Syrians love and
prefer mulayyan for weddings and like nothing better; the people of Tanais in the
land of Egypt cook fresh fish as they cook their meat, such as madfra,
hadramiyya, and muruziyya dishes [sour dishes]; the people of Egypt prefer
muruziyya dishes and the people of Iraq detest them, because they consider
them like a medicine, because of the pears, jujubes, and oil in them.
The desert folk like malla [bread cooked in ashes, eaten throughout Europe, too,
by the poor], because it is their food, and the people of the cities and capitals
21
detest it. Many people eat butter, and add it to bread, while others cannot bear to
smell it, much less to eat it; and if someone disparages a dish or a food, he need
not intend to disparage everyone, since the natures, the strengths, the humors,
the aspect, the customs and the tastes are different, and if one sort of person
detests, hates, and avoids it, it may be that another may prefer, enjoy, and be
inclined toward it.
It is necessary to mention one thing and its opposite, since every person has his
own tastes, and for everything there is someone who seeks it out and desires it.
[God] inspires people to like to roast meat, and He inspires the cooking and
making of it with whatever will improve and augment its strength, flavor, and
characteristic virtue so it may be cause to improve the opposing natures of the
people, for there are people of sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholic
humor; some cook with water and salt and find it good, others cook with vinegar,
others with milk and others with sumac and murri [like soy sauce] and so on.
Breads
Many are the differences of people in their dishes and their garnishes; their
tastes, their foods, their strengths, and their benefits are opposite, and according
to what is used in the subject of cookery, so is what is fitting in the subject of
bread.
Need or urgency obliges many people to take bread and eat it hastily in the
shortest time, such as bedouins, herdsmen, messengers, members of raiding
parties and those who travel; some find bread [cooked] on the coals [ashes] very
good, and others prefer fried bread and what is made in the tajine\ add to these
the [bread] oven and the tannur [clay oven], in which many kinds of bread are
made, and put to each of these kinds the best-known names, such as isbahani,
ruqaq [crepe], labaq, mushta, mu rayyash, marduf, water bread, tabuni,
maghmum, mushawwak, and madlff.
The kings of the East have a custom and beautiful idiom: they command the
bakers to prepare a number of kinds of bread and present them on a large, broad
tray, which the bakers call the exposition tray, in the center of which they present
the bread they have made for the master of the house; when the king has seen
these breads, he eats of that which pleases and attracts him. As for the method
fitting in medicine, it is the method of cooking the different kinds and the balance
of the various flavors, because each kind is good for heat, or for cold, or for
moderation, according to its heaviness or lightness and the speed and temper of
digesting it.
Hygiene
I have thought to mention what makes food agreeable and improves the
preparation. I divide it into three parts, as the learned order them. I say that the
first, which is necessary to start in the culinary art, is the care to avoid dirt and
decay, and to clean the utensils used for cooking, in cleaning the kitchen.
Many people say that the best part of food is what the eye does not see; but this
is not so, for the best of foods is that which the palate has observed, the eye has
seen, and a person trusted to know the truth has made sure of.
He who works as a cook, after having finished his work, may neither think nor
worry about how he has done, for he thinks the end desired of him is quickness
22
in finishing and departing, but he does not see fit to remember his little care and
poor presentation and how necessary it is to be vigilant against them.
These conditions are what has led many caliphs and kings to order the cooking
done in their presence; and necessity has led some to cook what they eat for
themselves, so far as to prepare the kitchen, and to write many books on the
subject. Among these are Ahmad Ibn al- Mu'tasim, Ibrahim b. al-Mahdi, Yahya b.
Khalid, al-Mu'tamid and 'Abd Allah b. Talha, and besides these, scholars, judges,
secretaries, viziers, and notables.
Basic Ingredients
It is fitting to deal with the knowledge of those things with which the art of cooking
is complete, and by whose presence a kitchen is called a kitchen, the variety of
foods and their flavors, according to the various kinds of vinegar, syrups, murri
[like soy sauce], oil, mustard, spices, the juices of apples, pomegranates and
raisins, and all the basics for knowing the good from the bad; for if they are bad,
what is made with them will be ruined and the dishes will be the opposite of the
highly regarded foods which people find delicious, for they please souls with their
goodness and deliciousness.
Know that familiarity with the use of spices is the first basis in cooked dishes, for
it is the foundation of cooking, and on it cookery is built. In spices is what
particularly suits the various recipes, those of vinegar and foods such as the
various kinds of tafaya [stew], fried dishes and the like; in spices too is what
distinguishes the foods, gives them flavor, and improves them; in spices is benefit
and avoidance of harm.
Coriander enters into all dishes and is the specialty of tafaya [stew] and mahshi,
because it goes well with foods in the stomach, and does not pass through rapidly
before it has been digested.
Cumin appears in dishes of vinegar and in the sauces of foods fried with what
birds and other meats are fried with. And cumin, with its ability to reduce winds
and for its digestibility, goes well with foods flavored with vinegar or murri [like
soy sauce].
As for caraway, it enters into karanbiyya and baqliyya mukarrara, and when
there are cabbage and spinach in a dish or tharid, caraway is necessary, for it
improves its taste and gives it sharpness and removes the windiness from the
vegetables.
As for tafaya [stew] in its varieties and mahshi, neither cumin nor caraway enters
into them, but rather cilantro and pepper; and that which one may wish to add of
aromatic herbs, such as lavender and cinnamon, will be mentioned in its place,
God willing.
Saffron is used in mukhallals, jimlis, muthallaths, mahshis and chicken dishes
in which vinegar and murri [like soy sauce] enter. Some dissolve saffron in water
and then put it in the pot at the end of cooking, but saffron should be put in only
at the beginning with the meat, boiled with pepper and suitable spices, to regulate
its cooking and color. There are others who put in vinegar and murri [use soy
sauce] at the end, after the cooking is done; the taste of the raw vinegar stays in
the sauce, and none of its flavor enters into the meat. They think that if they put
it in at the start, its acidity will go away and diminish its taste. But it is not as they
believe; cooking rather augments and sharpens the flavor of the vinegar, for it
23
evaporates the water from the vinegar and strengthens its acidity, and hides any
greasy or heavy flavor it has, and makes that flavor vanish on serving the meat
and whatever was cooked with it, like that which is made with saffron, if it is put
in at the start.
There are those who grind salt and put it in the pot, as if it will not dissolve without
grinding, too much of which neither hurts nor helps. If grinding is necessary, do it
in a mortar of stone or wood, as we have indicated.
There are others who sprinkle ground pepper over the food when it is cut for
eating; this is a practice of the Christians and Berbers. And cinnamon and
lavender especially are sprinkled upon food on the plate before eating, but that is
in particular dishes, not in all.
Garbanzos. In their skin they have no use in the various kinds of cooking. It is
a dish of bedouins and gluttons; those who want to strengthen themselves with it
take only its juice, add it to meat, and make a dish or a tharid of it. I have seen in
The History of al-Zahra [a palace and garden complex], one of the histories of
Cordoba, that in the days of 'Abd al- Rahman al-Nasir li-Din Allah and those of
his son al-Hakam, every morning outside the gates of the castle were found five
bags of garbanzos, whose juice was taken and carried to the kitchen, the waste
thrown out, and taken to the sick and the poor. I saw also in the same History that
every day they crumbled thirty loaves of bread for the fish of the pond that was in
the palace.
Clarified Butter is not employed in dishes at all, because it is only used in the
various kinds of raffs and in some tharfds [bread puddings] and in similar foods
of women. It is needed for oil when there is too much dryness and hardness and
pungent, vinegared things in order to cut their sharpness and make them soft and
smooth, and do them great benefit. The fundamental thing, in all these dishes, is
that abundant fat predominate over its broth to the exclusion of everything else,
whether the meat be weak or fat, for oil greases foods and improves them and
makes them emit sharp odor and is good for them.
Murri is not suitable to be used unless of the infused sort, because of its benefits
and penetrating quality; following this is murri made of grape juice with spices but
without burned bread. The murri that people make with scorched honey and
bread and other things is not suitable to be used at all, for it causes black bile and
has neither benefit nor penetrating flavor. [Murri adds a fermented, flavor-
enhancing quality to food.]
With regard to vinegar, it is good for cooking and for other pharmaceutical uses,
such as sikanjabfn and vinegar of wild onions. White vinegar is made of pure,
extremely sweet grapes; vinegar is necessary for foods that form a crust and are
harmful to the stomach, for it makes them gain strength and flavor, or when it is
necessary to soften and cut up the foods without heating. When vinegar is put in
sikbaj, it is strong in sourness, very sharp; it is regulated by joining it with sweets
and plenty of fat.
Mustard; it is fitting to avoid old mustard seed, because if it is old, it acquires a
bitterness, and for this reason it should be washed first with hot water and then
made. Fresh mustard need not be washed, because it adds sharpness without
bitterness.
How It Is Made
Take fresh mustard seeds and pound them a little in a mortar of stone or wood
24
until they are crushed; wash it with hot water so the bitterness departs, and drain
out this water. Then return it to the mortar and crush it hard, sprinkling with sharp
vinegar little by little. Then squeeze it in a piece of thick cloth or a rough wool
apron; then continue to pound it until it is disintegrated, and squeeze it until it
comes out like fine talbfna [dissolved starch]. Then pound sweet, peeled almonds
very hard, until they become like dough, and macerate until dissolved so that it
moderates its bitterness, makes it white and lets it gain dregs and sweetness,
because of the coolness and sweetness of the almonds; this is the benefit of the
almonds, and their use to the mustard. When this recipe is complete, use it in
kebabs and other heavy, fatty foods, God willing.
Utensils
It is said in Anushirwan's cookbook [Kisra Anushirwan ibn-Barzajamhar] that he
who wants his health to last should not eat foods that have spent a night in a
copper container, for even very good foods, if they spend a night in a copper
container, or are prepared therein, reach a bad state and cause revulsion.
He also says that fish, if fried and then put in a copper container, or prepared in
one and left there until they are fried, are spoiled, because these foods take the
force and flavor of the copper the moment that the fish, milk, and any such food
left overnight uncovered, is disturbed.
Maggots creep out at night, seek out salt and collect it, for most insects and
maggots seek out salt wherever it is, and sometimes their spittle falls on it, and
they rub against it to loosen their skins, and this is a great harm. For this reason
one should put on foods no more salt than what is dissolved in them, or cover
them carefully.
Another thing to avoid is always cooking in a single pot, especially if it is not
enamelled; many servants don't wash the pot emptied of food and turn it over on
the ground while still warm, and that spot might be conducive to rot, and vapors
from the ground rise into the pot and poisons are composed between the two,
and everything cooked in it turns bad.
There was a person who ordered that pots be prepared according to the number
of days in the year, so that a new pot was cooked in every day, and when a pot
was emptied, a new one was taken; he who cannot do this, orders his servants
to clean the pot every night with hot water and bran, for this is what inclines the
spirit to accept food, and if this is not done the spirit has an aversion to the food,
and the food takes on a bad taste, because its remaining there long makes it
corrupt and not what it should be. It is proper to try to do this, and not to scorn it,
and thus to protect against harm as much as possible.
Of the Utensils that Those Charged with Cooking or Pharmacy Must

Have Ready
A mortar, of white marble or of a hard wood such as chestnut, terebinth, olive,
ash, boxwood, or jujube, prepared for pounding things that should by no means
be pounded in copper: salt, garlic, cilantro, onion, mustard, mint, citron [leaves]
and other plants and greens; and fruits, like apples, quince, and pomegranate,
and meat and fat, almonds, stuffings for ka’k [biscuits, cookies] and bread foods,
and anything else that is moist or fatty, above all if left in copper until it turns
green, is altered and takes on a bad state.
25
Of this hard wood are the spoons and ladles; and the board on which meat is cut,
and the board on which ka’k [biscuits, cookies] and bread foods are rolled out. It
should be smooth and extremely polished; and likewise the utensil with which
mirkas [sausage] is made should be of white glass, glassy ceramic, or hard wood,
because if it is of copper, the holes through which the ground sausage-meat
passes turn green, and that mixes with the meat and it alters, as has been
explained.
How the Service of Dishes is Ordered, and Which is Fitting to be First, and
Which Last
1. - The first dish to be presented is a feminine one, such as baqliyya mukarrara
and the various kinds of tafayas [stews]or after this the dish jimlr,
2. - then muthallath [meat cooked with vegetables, vinegar and saffron];
3. - then the dish of murri [a dish seasoned primarily with murri, a salty dish];
4. - then mukhallal [a vinegar dish];
5. - then mu'assal [a honeyed dish, a sweet];
6. - then fartun [a cake];
7. - then another mu'assal [sweet].
This is the succession of the seven dishes and the order in which they are eaten.
Many of the great figures and their companions order that the separate dishes be
placed on each table before the diners, one after another; and by my life, this is
more beautiful than putting an uneaten mound all on the table, and it is more
elegant, better-bred, and modern; this has been the practice of the people of al-
Andalus and the West, of their rulers, great figures, and men of merit from the
days of 'Umar b. 'Abd al-'Aziz [an Umayyad caliph] and the Banu Umayya to the
present.
[The practice of serving a dinner in courses, so characteristic of Al-Andalus, is
not found in Baghdad or Damascus. It was introduced to Spain by a Persian
musician and arbiter elegantiarum named Ziryab, who had been driven from
Baghdad by Ishaq al-Mausili as a dangerous rival and found a home in the
Umayyad court in the ninth century.]
26
Chapter 2
Drinks and Syrups
[Syrups [sharab] were a way of storing left over fruit for later use. The syrups
were added to water and served as drinks, as it is still done around the world
today. The syrups were also used in the making of desserts, for sweetening some
savory dishes for a sweet and sour flavor, and some were used for medicinal
purposes. See the Appendix for notes on type of drinks, syrups, powders,
electuaries, etc.]
The Great Drink of Roots

Take the skin of the stems of fennel, the skin of the stems of celery, the skin of
carrot and the stem of chicory and Mecca fig, half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] each;
three handfuls each of halhal [pos. lavender], cilantro of the spring [growing by
the water source], dawmiran, tamarisk, pennyroyal, ghafit, chicory, mint, clove
basil and citron basil; two uqiyas [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] each of the seeds of celery,
carrot and roses, fennel, and habba hulwa and nanukha [two names for, or
perhaps two varieties of, nigella seed], and half an uqiya [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of
dodder seed.
The bag [a bag of spices that is boiled in the honey and then removed]: half an
uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] each of cinnamon, flowers of cloves, ginger, Chinese
rhubarb, Indian spikenard, mastic, nutmeg and aloe stems, a mithqal [1
mithqal=5.7ghtsp] of saffron, [added to] six ratls [1 raf/=468g/1lb] of honey,
cleansed of its foam.
Cook the herbs and seeds in water that covers them until their force comes out;
then take the clean part of it [strain it] and throw it in [spiced] honey.
Put this on the fire, and put the spices in the bag [and in the honey and] after they
have become mushy, throw them into the drink and macerate them time after
time, until their force passes into the drink. Lay it [the spice bag] aside. Take it
[the honey] from the fire, let it cool, and keep until needed.
Drink one uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of water on arising, and see
that the water is hot. Benefits: fortifies the stomach and the liver, opens blockages
of the liver and spleen, cleans the stomach, and is beneficial for the rest of the
phlegmatic ailments of the body.
The Little Drink of Roots: Way of Making It

Take the skin of the stems of caper bush, the skin of the stems of celery, the skin
of fennel root and the skin of wild carrots, two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of each;
two handfuls each of halhal [pos. lavender], cilantro of the spring [growing near
the water source], dawmiran, ghafit, chicory, pennyroyal and euphorbia.
The bag [a bag of spices that is boiled in the honey and then removed]: cinnamon,
and flower of cloves and ginger, an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of each; half a
mithqal [1 mithqal= 5.7g/1tsp] of saffron. [Added to] three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb]
27
of honey, cleaned of its foam.
Cook the seeds and herbs, covered with water, until their strength comes out.
Then take the clean part [filter it], add to the honey, and take it [all] to the fire, and
put the [spice] bag in a kettle [and cook it all] until it forms a well-made syrup.
Take it from the fire and pour it into an earthenware vessel. The drink is made
with two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of syrup to three uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of
hot water. Its benefits: it benefits the liver and opens occlusions of it, it is useful
for the spleen and cleanses the stomach of its extra phlegm wherever it is found
in the body, and it is of profit in diseases of dropsy [swelling from water, edema],
God willing.
Making Raison Drink

Take sweet raisins cleaned of twigs and dirt and wash them with water until they
are clean.
If you like it infused, throw in for each measure of raisons, two parts of hot water
and put in a clay vessel until it infuses; then strain and mix in it honey.
And if you like it cooked, place one measure of raisins with three of water and
take the measure with a stick [to see the height in the pot]. Then add to the pot
as much water as you wish. Cook it until it returns to the measuring mark [the
water boils away]. Then strain it and mix in honey and leave it until it cools, and
then drink it, God willing.
And in the same manner honey is cooked for drinking.
Recipe for Honey-Water

Take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of honey and add five ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of water,
cook until the water boils away and the honey remains, and clean off the foam
little by little.
Pound half an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of pellitory and place it in a cloth [sack
tied shut], put it in the kettle and bruise it [crush it] once and again until its
substance comes out. Remove it [the sack] to an earthenware vessel, and take it
from it [the honey] at the necessary time, for it makes up for all that which detracts
from the notable quality [it cleans the honey].
Syrup of Aloe Wood: Way of Making It

Take half an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of aloe, a quarter uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp]
each of cinnamon, cloves, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], Indian lavender, nutmeg,
mastic and saffron. And a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar and the same of
rosewater.
Close the roots in a bag and place them in the sugar and rosewater. Bring all this
to the fire until it takes the consistency of syrup. Then remove it from the fire,
grind eight grams of musk, and throw it [all] in an earthenware vessel.
The drink is an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] with two of hot water. Its benefits: it
fortifies the stomach, the liver, and the other parts, cheers the heart, tempers the
constitution a bit, and helps in the beginning of dropsy [swelling from water,
edema].
Syrup of Citron Leaves: Way of Making It

Take fifty leaves and remove the dust on them with a cloth. Then cover them all
28
with water in a pot and cook it until the strength comes out. Then take the clean
part of it [filter it] and add a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar.
The bag [a sack of spices to cook in the syrup]: half an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp]
each of aloe stems, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], and cloves.
Cook all this [the sugar, lemon leaf essence, and spice bag] until it becomes good
to drink [a syrup]. Drink one uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] with three of water. Its
benefits: it cheers the heart with much gaiety, fortifies the internal organs, and
softens the bowels gently. It is extraordinary.
The Great Cheering Syrup: Way of Making It

Take half a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] each of borage, mint, and citron leaves, and cook
them in [enough] water to cover until their strength comes out. Then take the
clean part [filter it] and add it to a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar.
Then put in the [spice] bag: a spoonful each of aloe stems, Chinese rhubarb,
Chinese cinnamon [cassia], cinnamon and clove flowers. Pound all these
coarsely, place them in a cloth, tie it well, and place it in the kettle [with the sugar
and herb essence], macerate it again and again until its substance passes out,
and cook until [the liquid] takes the consistency of syrup.
Take one uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] with three of hot water. Benefits: It profits weak
stomachs, fortifies the liver and cheers the heart, digests foods, and lightens the
constitution gently, God willing.
A Syrup of [spiced] Honey

Take a quarter uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] each of cinnamon, flower of cloves and
ginger, mastic, nutmeg, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], Sindi laurel, Indian lavender,
Roman spikenard, elder twigs, elder seeds, oil of nutmeg, bitter and sweet nuts,
large and small cardamom, wild spikenard, galingale, aloe stems, saffron, and
sedge. Pound all this coarsely, tie it in a cloth, and put it in the kettle with fifteen
ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of water and five of honey, cleaned of its foam.
Cook all this until it is at the point of drinking [a syrup]. Drink an uqiya [1
uqiya=39g/7tsp] and a half, or up to two, with hot water. Its benefit is for weak
livers; it fortifies the stomach and benefits dropsy [swelling from water, edema]
among other ailments; it dissolves phlegm from all parts of the body and heats it
a great deal, gives gaiety, lightens the body, and it was used by the ancients like
wine for weariness.
The Recipe for Making a Syrup of Julep [rosewater syrup]

Take five ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of aromatic rosewater, and two and a half of
sugar, cook all this until it takes the consistency of syrup.
Drink two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of hot water. Its benefits: in
phlegmatic fever; it fortifies the stomach and the liver, profits at the onset of
dropsy [swelling from water, edema], purifies and lightens the body, and in this it
is most extraordinary, God willing.
Syrup of Sandalwood: Way of Making It

Take two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] each of red and white sandalwood, and an
uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of white manna of sugarcane [cane sap]. Then pound
the sandalwood and cook it in rosewater until its substance comes out, and let
29
there be five ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of the rosewater. Then take the clean part of
it [filter it] and add it to two ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar. Take the cane sap and
put it in a bag, and cook all this [the sap bag, sugar and sandalwood essence]
until it forms a well-made syrup.
Its benefits are to calm the heat of jaundice, to cut thirst, and to profit in the other
ailments and fevers of jaundice. It leaves the nature as it is, without causing
retention or thinness of urine. It fortifies the stomach, the liver, and the other
organs, and in this it is most extraordinary.
Formula for Making a Syrup of Mastic [and Mint]

Take three uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of mastic, powder it and put it in a bag, then
take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of mint and cook it, covered with water, until its
substance comes out. Take the clean part of it [filter it] and mix it with three ratls
[1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar and honey, and cook all this until it takes the form of a
drink [syrup].
Drink two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of hot water. Its benefits:
for the stomach and for digesting food; it cuts vomiting and binds the bowels, and
fortifies the liver: it is the utmost in this.
Syrup of Mulberries: Way of Making It

Take the fruit of mulberries and extract from them the small seeds, after removing
their cores, four ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb]. Then divide fruit and clean the dirt from
them, wash them very well in cold water until softened, and drain the water. Then
take water out of a river oriented Eastward; heat [a] polished steel [pot] and cook
in this the water until the water is reduced by half and changes color. Cook the
harir [the cleaned fruit] in this water until its substance comes out; press it [filter
it], and add to the water three ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of honey, cleaned of its foam.
The [spice] bag: half an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] each of cinnamon and cloves,
an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of ginger, an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] each of
cubebs, long pepper and galingale. Then pound roots and put them in a bag,
which is then tied with a strong thread and added to the honey and the filtered
essence. Put it on the fire and cook it until a syrup is made.
Drink two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of hot water. It profits in the
lack of urine, and increases desire well; it dissolves the fat from all parts of the
body and heats it well, God willing, by its generosity and virtue.
Syrup of Mint: Way of Making It

Take mint and basil, citron and cloves, a handful of each, and cook all this in
enough water to cover, until its substance comes out, and add the clear part of it
[filter it] to a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar.
The [spice] bag: an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of flower of cloves. And cook all this
[the essence, the sugar, and the spice bag] until a syrup is made.
Its benefits: it frees bodies that suffer from phlegm, and cuts phlegmatic urine,
fortifies the liver and the stomach and cheers it a great deal; in this it is admirable.
Syrup of Fresh Roses, and the Recipe for Making It

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of fresh roses, after removing the dirt from them,
and cover them with just boiled water for a day and a night, until the water cools
30
and the roses fall apart in the water. Filter it and take the clean part of it and add
to a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar. Cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 <vq/ya=39g/7tsp] of this with two of hot water. Its benefits are
at the onset of dropsy [swelling from water, edema], and it fortifies the stomach
and the liver and the other internal organs, and lightens the constitution; in this it
is admirable.
A Recipe for Making It by Repetition

Take the same, a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of roses or more, and place it in just boiled
water to cover it, for a day and a night. Then take out the roses that are in the
water and throw them away, and go with the same quantity of fresh roses, which
are to be covered likewise with this water, after boiling it a second time, and leave
this also a day and a night. Throw away these roses likewise, and put in others
and treat them as before, and continue doing this for ten days or more. Its benefit
and the strength of its essence are attained solely in the manner of repeating [the
process].
Then filter the water of roses and add to it an equal amount of sugar, and cook it
until it takes the form of a syrup. It is the best for thinning and moistening the
constitution, God willing.
Syrup of Dried Roses

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of dried roses, and cover with three ratls [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of just boiled water, for a night, and leave it until they fall apart in
the water. Press it and filter it, and take the clear part and add it to two ratls [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of white sugar, and cook all this until it is in the form of a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] and a half of this with three of water. Its
benefits: it binds the constitution, and benefits at the start of dropsy [swelling from
water, edema], fortifies the other internal organs, and provokes the appetite, God
willing.
Syrup of Violets
Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of fresh violet flowers, and cover them with three
ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of boiling water, and boil until their substance comes out.
Then take the clean part of it [filter it] and mix it with four ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb]
of sugar, and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] and a half of this with three of hot water. Its
benefits are in the fever of jaundice, it cuts thirst and lightens the body gently,
and benefits in dry coughs, but it weakens the stomach.
Manner of Making a Syrup of Maryut

Take Maryut, lavender, and mashfsha, two handfuls of each, and two uqiyas [1
y<7/ya=39g/7tsp] each of fennel, anise, and peeled licorice roots. Cook all this in
water to cover until its substance comes out. Then take the clean part of it [filter
it] and add to two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey, and cook all this until it takes
the form of a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 tvgr/ya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of hot water. Its benefit is in
moist coughs; it cleans the throat, dissolves the phlegm from the stomach, and
lightens the body gently.
31
Syrup of Hyssop
Take an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp\ of hyssop and two of fennel and anise, and an
uqiya [1 yg/ya=39g/7tsp] each of jujubes, watermelon seeds and cucumber
seeds, and a handful of cleaned figs, two handfuls each of lavender and cilantro
of the spring, and two uqiyas [1 yg/ya=39g/7tsp] each of the skin of fennel stalk
and the skin of celery stalk.
Cook all this in [enough] water to cover it until its substance comes out. Then take
the clean part of it [filter it] and add it to two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar. Cook
all this until it takes the consistency of syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] and a half of this in three of hot water when
fasting. It benefits in moist coughs and stops abscesses of the brain; it dissolves
phlegm from the other parts of the body and causes urine and menstrual fluid to
flow [an anti-conception and abortive agent], it fortifies the stomach, and it is
admirable.
Syrup of Basil
Take seeds of fresh green basil, pound them in a stone mortar, and press out
their water. Take these seeds and cook them in water until half of the water
remains, clarify it [filter it] and leave it to cool.
Pour in a suitable amount of sugar when it is cold, and put it on the fire until it
takes the consistency of syrup.
If seeds cannot be found, take the leaves, be they green or dried, cook them in
water to cover until their substance comes out, and then take the clean part of it
[filter it] and add the sugar. Cook it as I have indicated for the seeds, and put it in
an earthenware vessel.
Drink an uqiya [1 <vg/ya=39g/7tsp] of this in three of cold water. Its benefits are
to free the bowel with blood and for him who has a cough with diarrhea.
Syrup of Simple Sikanjabm [vinegar syrup]

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of strong vinegar and mix it with two ratls [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar, and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of hot water when fasting. It
is beneficial for fevers of jaundice, and calms jaundice and cuts the thirst
Since sikanjabm syrup is beneficial in phlegmatic fevers: make it with six uqiyas
[1 wqf/ya=39g/7tsp] of sour vinegar for a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey and it is
admirable.
Syrup of Pomegranates
Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sour pomegranates and another of sweet
pomegranates, and add their juice to two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar. Cook
all this until it takes the consistency of syrup. Keep until needed.
Its benefits: it is useful for fevers, and cuts the thirst, it benefits bilious fevers and
lightens the body gently.
Syrup of Sour Grapes [verjuice]

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of juice pressed from sour grapes [not yet ripe,
32
verjuice], and another of sugar, join them and cook until it takes the form of a
syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of this in two more of water. Its uses: for
mastering jaundice and cutting bilious vomiting; it gives appetite and cuts the
thirst, dissolves phlegm by cutting it, and stops bitterness in the mouth.
Syrup of Flowers of Isfitan [possibly isfinar-white mustard]

Take half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of flowers of isfitan, and cook them with five
ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of water until its substance comes out. Then take the clear
part of it [filter it] and mix it with two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey.
The [spice] bag: half an uqiya [1 t/g/ya=39g/7tsp] of cinnamon. Then cook all this
[essence, honey, spice bag] until it takes the form of a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] with three of hot water. Its advantages are for
melancholic fevers, and it is not used in other illnesses except at the beginning;
and with this it provokes urine and menstruation [an anti-conception and abortive
agent], and cleans the stomach of filth.
Syrup of Lavender [Halhal]

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of lavender and cook it in [enough] water to cover it
until its substance comes out. Then take the clear part of it [filter it] and add it to
a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey. Cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 wg/ya=39g/7tsp] and a half of this with three of hot water. Its
advantages are in cleaning the brain and the stomach; it lightens the body and
dries up black bile gently, but it contracts the breath, and it is fitting to regulate
the drink with a cheering drink or cheering water.
Syrup of Lemon
Take lemon, after peeling off the skin, press it [to a pulp] and take a rati [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of juice, and add as much of sugar. Cook it until it takes the form
of a syrup.
Its advantages are for the heat of bile; it cuts the thirst and binds the bowels.
A Syrup of Greens
Take juice pressed from shashtaraj [fumitory], which is known as "children's
greens," and juice pressed from endive [chicory], which is known as taifaq, and
juice pressed from borage, half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of each.
Boil it on the fire, clarify it [filter it] and add a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar. The
[spice] bag: put in a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of the skin of yellow myrobalan, cooked
until it falls apart and forced through a cloth. Cook all this until it takes the form of
a syrup.
Drink three uqiyas [1 t/g/ya=39g/7tsp] of this in half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of
fresh milk. Its benefit are against the burning of jaundice and ringworm.
A Syrup which Dries Black Bile and Phlegm

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of basbayij [Kembra fern] peeled in its upper part,
and another of sana, and half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of agaric [? ghariqun], and
two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39gl7tsp] each of fennel and ground licorice wood, and a
33
handful each of lavender mashashtir, and spring cilantro.
The [spice] bag: put an uqiya [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of cinnamon and another of
cloves, grind them coarsely and put them in the bag. Cook the roots in two ratls
[1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of water until their substance comes out, then take the clear
part of it [filter it] and add it to two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey and four more
of sugar, and cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup.
Drink three uqiyas [1 £/g/'ya=39g/7tsp] of this with half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of
hot water, after taking a few seeds of good musk. Its benefits: in all the heats of
the body, in all black ringworm infections, and in phlegm; it cleans all the residues
from the body and purges it gently for a good evacuation.
Syrup of Jujubes
Take two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of jujubes and an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] each
of purslane [rujla] and lettuce. Cook all this in five ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of water.
Then clarify it [filter it] and add it to two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar. Cook until
it takes the form of a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of it with three of cold water. It benefits in
periodical fevers, purifies thick blood, calms the cough, cuts thirst, and lightens
the constitution.
Syrup of Thistle
Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of thistle, ground coarsely, half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1
lb] of mashashtir, and an uqiya [1 yg/'ya=39g/7tsp] of bay leaves [this word can
also mean myrtle or aloes], a handful of leaves from the interior of an orange tree,
half an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] each of anise, seeds of wild carrot, and seeds
of dodder, an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] each of bitter and sweet almonds.
Pulverize all the roots and greens and cover them with three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1
lb] of water in which black garbanzos have been steeped for a night and a day.
Then put it in a new pot and cook until the water is reduced by half. Then cool it
and clarify it [filter it] and take the clear part to add to a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of
sugar and another of honey.
The [spice] bag: half an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] each of Indian spikenard,
asarun [wild spikenard], and flower of cloves, and cook all this until it takes the
form of a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] and a half of it with three uqiyas [1
uqiya=39g/7tsp] of hot water, and above all, if it is drunk in the bath, it has a
greater effect, if it please God the Most High, praise be to Him.
Syrup of Tamarind
Take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of tamarind and steep in five ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of
water.
Then throw away the dregs and add the clarified [filtered tamarind] water to a ratl
[1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar. Cook all this until it takes the form of a syrup.
Drink two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of it in three of cold water. It is beneficial in
jaundice, and takes it away easily; it cuts bilious vomit and thirst, awakens the
appetite to eat, and takes the bitterness of food out of the mouth.
Syrup of Carrots
Take four ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of carrots, after removing the fibers [lit. "nerves"]
34
that are in the centers, and cook them in water to cover until their substance
comes out. Then take the clear part of it [filter it] and add it to three ratls [1
ratl=468g/1lb] of honey, cleaned of its foam.
The [spice] bag: then put an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of cubebs, two uqiyas [1
uqiya=39g/7tsp] each of ginger and long pepper, and half an uqiya [1
uqiya=39g/7tsp] of cinnamon and flower of cloves. Cook until it takes the form of
a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of this with three of hot water: it is beneficial in
the lack of urine, increases desire [aphrodisiac], and dissolves phlegm, heats the
kidneys admirably, and likewise the other parts of the body, God willing.
Syrup of Apples
Take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sweet apples, those that the common people call
sarfj [this might mean "little lamps"]. Cook them in [enough] water to cover them
until they fall apart and their substance comes out. Then clarify it [filter it] and take
the clear [filtered] part and add it to a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar. The [spice]
bag: an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of aloe stems, pounded and put into the bag.
Cook until it takes the form of a syrup.
Drink an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] in two of hot water. Its benefits: it fortifies and
gladdens the heart.
35
Chapter 3
Pastes [and Jams, Jellies]
[Pastes were often used for medicinal needs and administered like we administer
pills, today, shaped like small nuts and eaten on a full stomach. See the Appendix
for notes on type of drinks, syrups, powders, electuaries, etc.]
Carrot Paste [carrot jam]

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of carrots, of which you have cleaned the interior
[cut out the tough, bitter core]. Cook them in a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of water,
some two boilings [mash them after the first boiling], then take it off the fire and
let it drain a little, over a sieve.
Add it to three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey, cleaned of its foam [heated and
skimmed], and cook all this until it takes the form of a paste. Then season it with
ginger, galingale, cubeb and clove, half an uqiya [1 uqiya=39gl7tsp] in all for each
rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of paste.
Eat it like a nut at meals [roll it into a small ball and eat it at the end of the meal].
Its benefits: it fortifies coitus and increases desire beautifully [aphrodisiac]; it is
admirable.
Green Walnut Paste [walnut jam]

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of green walnuts [before the walnut forms a shell]
and pierce them well with an iron skewer, then steep them in water for three days.
Take them out of the water. Cook the nuts a little, then take them from the water
and add them to honey.
For each rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of walnuts, take three of honey, cleaned of its foam
[heated and skimmed]. Cook them until they take the form of a paste. Season
with cinnamon, cloves, and ginger, three quarters of an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp]
for each rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of paste.
Eat it after meals. Its benefits: it excites the appetite and digests foods, heats the
kidneys, and increases urine.
Quince Paste [quince jam and jelly]

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of quince, cleaned of its seeds and cut into small
pieces. Pound it well until it is like brains [or grate it]. Cook it with three ratls [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey, cleaned of its foam [heated and skimmed], until it takes
the form of a paste.
It is also made by another, more amazing recipe: take it as said before, and cook
it in water alone until its essence comes out. Clean the water of its sediments,
and add it to an equal amount of sugar. Make it thin and transparent, without
redness [short cooking time] cook it until it lightens and thickens, and what you
have made will remain in this state [a jelly].
Its benefits: it lightens the belly that suffers from bile, it suppresses bitterness in
the mouth, and excites the appetite. And I say it keeps bad vapors from rising
36
from the stomach to the brain [indigestion].
Paste of Honeyed Roses [rose jam]

Take half a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of fresh roses and two ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of
honey. Take the petals from the roses and scatter them in a ceramic cooking-
pan. Boil the honey on the fire and remove its foam. Add the rose petals and boil
it until it takes the aspect of a paste.
Its benefits: for weak stomachs, for the liver, for the onset of dropsy [swelling from
water, edema] of the lower belly, and it lightens the constitution moderately, God
willing.
Violet Paste [violet jam]

Take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of the flowers and three of honey, after removing its
foam [heated and skimmed]. Cook all this until it takes the form of a paste.
Eat of it like a nut at meals [roll it into a small ball and eat it at the end of the meal].
Its advantages: it counters dry coughs, softens the belly, cuts bilious thirst and
cuts the bile that comes out, God willing.
Mint Paste [mint jam]
Take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of green mint leaves and crush them gently. Add
three ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of honey, cleaned of its foam, and cook it until it takes
the form of a paste. Then season it with an uqiya [1 uq/ya=39g/7tsp] of cloves
per ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb].
Its benefits: it eases and aids against heaviness of the body and mind, aids in
eardrum dropsy [swelling from water, edema], dissolves phlegm in the various
parts of the body, strengthens the urine, and cuts vomit. It is good with sweet
grains of anise, eaten with them or after them. It is beneficial, God willing.
Tfqantast Paste [prickly pear jam]

Take four uqiyas [1 Uqiya=39g/7tsp] of its outermost skin, after peeling it with iron
knives [of the prickles], then pound it gently and cook it in water to cover. Ten add
it to a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of honey, cleaned of its foam [heated and skimmed],
and cook it until it takes the form of a paste.
Its benefits: it dissolves phlegm in various parts of the body, awakens the appetite
to eat, makes urine flow, aids in dropsy [swelling from water, edema], and lightens
the constitution mildly. In this it is admirable, God willing.
Qirsa’nat Paste [Thistle jam]

Take a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of its skin, peeled on the outer part [of its irritants],
and pound it well. Cook it in water to cover. Then add it to three ratls [1
ratl=468g/1lb] of honey, cleaned of its foam [heated and skimmed]. Cook it until
it takes the form of a paste.
A Paste which Fortifies the Stomach, the Liver, and the Brain [seed
paste]
Take black seed [habbtus sauda], caraway [seeds], fried cumin [seeds], and
37
nigella [seeds], four uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of each. Pound all this and mix it
with three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey, cleaned of its foam [heated and
skimmed]. Cook it until it is a paste.
Its benefits: in the winds of the body, it dissolves phlegm and digests foods, clears
the head, lightens the body gently, aids in mild coughs, and dries black bile gently.
Orange Paste [orange marmalade]

Take the peel of red oranges. Steep them in water, then cut them like fingers [in
strips]. Take a weight of one rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] and add to it three ratls [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey cleaned of its foam [heated and skimmed], [Cook] until it
takes the form of a paste.
Its benefits: it digests foods, dissolves phlegm, increases the urine, and aids in
cold poisons [nose colds], in this it is admirable.
Caraway Paste
Take fried caraway [seeds], steeped in vinegar [the missing section here must
explain how the seeds are ground up and mixed with honey to make the paste,
just as sesame seed paste is made] and excites the appetite. It is beneficial, God
willing, exalted be He.
Recipe for Making Sinab [mustard paste]

Clean good mustard [seeds] and wash it with water several times. Then dry them
and pound them until they are as fine as kohl [ash]. Sift it with a sieve of hair, and
then pound shelled almonds and put them with the mustard and stir them
together. Then press out their oil [squeeze them] and knead them with
breadcrumbs little by little, not putting in the breadcrumbs all at once but only little
by little.
Then pour strong vinegar, white of color, over this dough for the dish, having
dissolved sufficient salt in the vinegar. Then mix it well to the desired point, and
strain it thoroughly with a clean cloth. And there are those who after it is strained
add a little honey to lessen its heat. Either way it is good.
[A recipe from an earlier chapter...]

Mustard; it is fitting to avoid old mustard seed, because if it is old, it acquires a
bitterness, and for this reason it should be washed first with hot water and then
made. Fresh mustard need not be washed, because it adds sharpness without
bitterness.
How It Is Made: Take fresh mustard seeds and pound them a little in a mortar of
stone or wood until they are crushed. Wash it with hot water so the bitterness
departs, and drain out this water. Then return it to the mortar and crush it hard,
sprinkling with sharp vinegar little by little. Then squeeze it in a piece of thick cloth
or a rough wool apron. Then continue to pound it until it is disintegrated, and
squeeze it until it comes out like fine talbtna [dissolved starch].
Then pound sweet, peeled almonds very hard, until they become like dough, and
macerate until dissolved so that it moderates its bitterness, make it [the mustard]
white and let it gain dregs and sweetness, because of the coolness and
38
sweetness of the almonds. This is the benefit of the almonds, and their use to the
mustard.
When this recipe is complete, use it in kebabs and other heavy, fatty foods, God
willing.
39
Chapter 4
Medicinal Electuaries and Powders
[See the Appendix for notes on type of drinks, syrups, powders, electuaries, etc.
The following seven recipes are for electuaries. An electuary (juwarish) is a drug
mixed with sugar and water or honey into a pasty mass suitable for oral
administration.]
Electuary of Mint
Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of mint, pound it and press out its juice, add a rati [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar and a quarter of an uqiya [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of mastic
and make an electuary. Its benefits: it cuts phlegmatic vomiting, excites the
appetite, heats the stomach, and if taken before eating, constipates the intestines;
it is useful.
Electuary of Aloe
Take half an uqiya [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of Aloe, and of mastic, cinnamon, Chinese
cinnamon [cassia], half an uqiya [1 ug/ya=39g/7tsp] each, two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1
lb] of sugar and two more of rosewater. Put all this on the fire until it makes an
electuary. Its benefits: it strengthens the heart and lightens the spirit, digests
foods, lightens the body gently, strengthens the liver, dissolves phlegm in various
parts of the body, and aids in dropsy [swelling from water, edema].
Electuary of Cloves
Take two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of its flowers and two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb]
of sugar dissolved in rosewater; thicken it until it takes the form of a paste and
make an electuary, in the form of fingers and tablets. Eat half an uqiya [1
uqiya=39g/7tsp] of it at meals. Its benefits: it excites the appetite, dissolves
phlegm, greatly gladdens, increases the force of coitus, and restrains the
temperament.
Electuary of Musk
Take a mithqal [1 mithqal=5.7g/1tsp] of musk, half an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of
aloe sticks ["moon wood"], and half an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] each of Chinese
laurel and Indian lavender. Pound the medicinal herbs and add them to two ratls
[1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar, dissolved in rosewater, and cook it into an electuary.
Its benefits: it lightens the spirit and improves the smell of the breath.
Electuary of Ginger and Pepper

Take a quarter of an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of ginger and pepper, a quarter of
an uqiya [1 w<7/ya=39g/7tsp] of each, of rue a quarter of an uqiya [1
t/g/ya=39g/7tspj. Pound all this and add it to two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of
honey cleaned of its foam. Eat half an uqiya [1 £/<7/ya=39g/7tsp] of it after meals;
40
it excites the meal and digests it, expels gas and dissolves phlegm, aids in dropsy
[swelling from water, edema], and provokes urine and menstruation [an anti-
conception and abortive agent].
Electuary of Red Sandalwood
Take three quarters of an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of red sandalwood, and a
quarter of an uqiya [1 Qqiya=39gl7tsp\ of tabashir [cane sap]. Pound all this and
add it to a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] and a quarter of sugar, dissolved in rosewater.
Cook all this until it takes the form of an electuary and take it off the fire.
Electuary of White Sandalwood

Take an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of white sandalwood and a quarter of an uqiya
[1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of cane sap, pound it all and sift it; add it to a rati [1 raf/=468g/1
lb] and a quarter of sugar and as much again of rosewater; cook it all until it makes
an electuary.
Powder to Dry the Lungs
Take fennel, anise, peeled licorice wood, thyme, and flowers of halhal [lavender]
and myrobalan, one uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of each, and as much sugar as of
all the rest.
Pound the medicinal herbs, sift them and add to the sugar, and drink of it at
bedtime [mixed with water]. Its advantages: for him who wants to clear his head,
and dry the lungs of the moisture of phlegm.
Another Delicate Medicinal Powder

Take fennel, habbat halawa [pos. nigella] and sugar, equal amounts, pound it all
and mix it. Administer it in a powder at bedtime, in the amount of one handful
[mixed with water]. It cleans the head and the stomach and calms mild coughs,
God willing.
Powders That Digest The Food

Take four uqiyas [1 uqiya=39gf7tsp] of mastic, pound it and add it as much sugar,
and to both add an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of anise and another of fennel. Mix
it all and administer half an uqiya [1 aq/ya=39g/7tsp] of it at bedtime [mixed with
water],
[This following recipe is for a spice mix used for cooking. Spice mixes were very
common in medieval and renaissance cooking, and are very common today in
Asian and North African and Arab cooking (Hariss, Ras el hanout, Advieh,
Baharat, Garum, Five Spice, Seven Spice). And we still use the Allspice mix.]
Spice Mixture
One part pepper, two of caraway, three parts dry coriander; pound all that and
sift and use. And those dishes in which they are used separately, throw in
separately, God willing.
41
Chapter 5
Light Dishes for a Weak Stomach, and
Medicinal Dishes
Information About Weak Stomachs
It is known that all the cooked dishes and dried dishes [mutabbakhat and
mujaffafat] that have been mentioned are good for the aged, and those with
tender [or moist] stomachs. Those dishes with murri naqV [a fermented, flavor-
enhancing seasoning] are most efficacious for drying and even more for
loosening. Chopped and eaten, they are beneficial for him who complains of a
sluggish stomach.
The Extraction of Meat Juice for Invalids [concentrated meat broth]

Pound pieces of meat well on a board and put in a pot with water and onion and
spices to a certain extent, according to the fever of the ill person, and half a
spoonful of oil if the meat is fat, and if it isn't a full spoonful. Put it on a moderate
fire and stir for some time.
When the juice comes out of it, boil water in a small new pot and pour on the
[strained] meat [juices] and cook until it comes out as if it were harira [syrup], and
until most of the water is gone. Then take it off the fire and let cool. Then stir by
hand well and strain, after it is thoroughly mixed, in a light cloth.
And if the invalid has little appetite, macerate cold breadcrumbs with the meat
[juices] until they dissolve, then strain and dissolve a moderate amount of salt in
it.
And if the invalid is aged or of a cold temperament [marked by a melancholic or
phlegmatic humor], or not suffering from one of the feverish diseases, aromatize
with Chinese cinnamon [cassia], cinnamon, clove, cardamom and galingale
[literally, "wood"], and cut with a little musk, and use, if God, may He be honored
and exalted, wills, and He is the One from Whom help is sought.
A Dish which Reduces Appetite and Strengthens the Stomach

Take sexually mature chickens, clean them and put in a pot. Put on them as much
oil as is needed, the weight of a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of salt, and onion
juice and cilantro juice two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp], and ten almonds, peeled
and ground, and a clove of garlic and enough water to cover the chickens. [Boil.]
And when it is boiling well, throw on some sharp vinegar, murri [use soy sauce]
and nabfdh raihani ["basil near-wine", a mild wine not proscribed by Islam], And
clove basil and leaves of citron and green rue, tie up a bundle of all that and put
in the pot. [Boil some more.]
When it is done, add Chinese cinnamon [cassia], pepper and ginger and serve,
God Willing.
42
A Dish of Meat Juice [against fever]
Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of meat juice and a quarter rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of
onion juice and one or two uqiyas [1 uqr/ya=39g/7tsp] each of cilantro juice and
endive juice and juice of fennel, boiled and strained, and half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1
lb] of fresh water. Put that in a pot and take a clean spoon to which is tied [a cloth
containing] cumin [set a wooden spoon over the pot and tie the spice bag to it so
the bag dangles in the broth], Chinese cinnamon [cassia], caraway and dry dill,
half a mithqal [1 mithqal = 5.7g] of each, and an uqiya [1 t/g/ya=39g/7tsp] of good
murri [use soy sauce]. Cook all that until it is reduced by half.
Then take out the cloth and crumble three uqiyas [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of bread
crumbs into it, and take on the day of fever.
A Dish of Meat Juice Effective on the Day of Fever for Illness, after the
Illness Decreases
Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of meat and clean and put in a pot, and pour on it
water to cover by four finger-widths. Light under that a fire until the meat is done.
Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of its water, two uqiyas [1 ug/'ya=39g/7tsp]of cilantro
juice, half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of onion juice and an uqiya of murri [use soy
sauce]. And take a clean cloth and put in it dry coriander and caraway, two
mithqals [1 mithqal = 5.7g] each and boil all in the pot [with the strained meat
juices] until it becomes about a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb].
Crumble as much heart of bread into it as is needed, and use in illness and after
it.
Recipe of a Summer Dish of Praised Nutrition with Sour Grape Juice

and Gourd
Take [dead] young chickens and leave hanging in their feathers by the feet for
three hours. Then scald in fresh water [and pluck] and wash exceedingly well.
Then boil lightly. Put with them enough almond oil and boil until the water
evaporates away a bit. Then pour on them enough sour grape juice to cover.
[Sour grape juice is likely a vinegar made from unripe grapes, called verjuice. It
was used in European cooking for many centuries, and is still available today.]
Take a small amount of clove and the same of galingale and spice it with them.
Take gourd cut in small pieces and throw it in, along with a little mint. [Cook.]
When it is done, cover [the contents of the pot with a mixture made of eggs beaten
with a bit of flour or breadcrumbs, then left to set] and ladle out and serve. It is
made with full-grown hens and veal the same way, God willing.
Another Like It, a Summer Dish that Cools the Body

Slit the throat of a sexually mature chicken and clean and wash them. Put them
in an earthenware pot and cover with water.
Take sour apples and peel and remove the seeds and cut in thirds and put in the
pot. Put sour grape juice in the pot. [Sour grape juice is likely a vinegar made
from unripe grapes, called verjuice. It was used in European cooking for many
centuries, and is still available today.] And some almond oil and Sulaimani sugar
in which are pieces of peeled sweet gourd. [Cook.]
43
When it is done, cover [the contents of the pot with a mixture made of eggs beaten
with a bit of flour or breadcrumbs, then left to set] and serve.
Another Dish Which Strengthens the Stomach Before Heat

Take [dead] sexually mature chickens and clean and put in a pot. Put with them
the juice of sour pomegranates [a common ingredient in North African cooking],
quinces and apples, and oil and onions and cilantro. [Cook.]
When it is about done, throw in a little mint and some Chinese cinnamon [cassia]
and dry coriander, and cover with ten peeled [and pounded] almonds and serve.
Preparation of Tuffahiyya, Apple Stew

Sour apples are cooked with meat in water until [the apples are] ragged. Then
the apples are removed and macerated and strained [to get apple juice].
Put with it [add to the meat pot] oil, salt, pepper and crushed soaked garbanzos
and boil it until the meat is cooked. Pour on the apple juice. When it boils, throw
in mint, celery leaf, rue and stalks of purslane, and thyme and boiled eggplant.
Cover [the contents of the pot with a mixture made of eggs beaten with a bit of
flour or breadcrumbs, then left to set] and ladle out.
A Dish of Safarjaliyya, Good for the Stomach

Kill young chickens and clean and put in a pot [with water]. Put with them crushed
garbanzos and cut-up onion. Put on the fire, and boil until done.
Squeeze pomegranate juice and quince juice and pour into the pot, and cover
with bread crumbs, and sprinkle tabikh raihani ["basil near-wine", a mild wine not
proscribed by Islam] on it and ladle out and serve.
Sikbaj of Veal, Used for Young People in Summer

Take the best parts of veal and its belly and legs and cook with vinegar mixed
with water, depending on how sour you want it, and put enough to cover the meat
by more than four fingers. Throw on onion pounded with cilantro and salt, as
much as is needed. And pepper, caraway, dry cilantro, peeled walnuts, citron
leaves, rue and celery leaves, putting them all in a cloth and throwing in the pot,
and galingale root.
When it is half done, put with it an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of sugar and a dirham
[1 c//r/?a/r?=3.9g/3/4tsp] of Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and the same of saffron.
And cut up boiled gourd and a clove of garlic and a little nabtdh raihani ["basil
near-wine", a mild wine not proscribed by Islam], [Cook.]
When it is done cover [the contents of the pot with a mixture made of eggs beaten
with a bit of flour or breadcrumbs, then left to set] and ladle out and serve.
A Dish Suitable for Autumn

Take the upper parts of year-old meat [salted, or dried, or preserved] and cut up
and put in an earthenware pot. And put on it Chinese cinnamon [cassia], pepper,
lavender, sweet almond oil, soaked garbanzos, some cut-up boiled Swiss chard
and pounded walnut meats. And cover everything with water and put on the fire
until nearly done.
Then throw on murri [use soy sauce] made from wheat with nigella, long pepper
44
and lavender, and finish cooking.
Cover the pot with cinnamon and ginger, and ladle out and serve, God willing.
A Dish Made in Winter for Those with Cold Illnesses

Take fat young meat and put in a pot [with water]. Put with it murri [use soy sauce],
oil, salt, pepper, galingale, cinnamon, an onion pounded with cilantro and
pounded peeled almonds, walnuts and pistachios, and cook until done.
Take the yolks of ten eggs and beat them with a like amount of honey and throw
on them lavender, cloves and saffron. Cover [the contents of the pot] with this
[and let it set], and ladle out, God willing.
A Dish of Pullets Suitable for the Aged and Those with Moistness
Clean a fat pullet and put in a pot [with water]. Put with it the white part of onions,
soaked garbanzos, pepper, cumin, caraway, anise, oil and salt. And when it boils,
throw in rue and cinnamon.
When it is done, cover with many egg yolks mixed with pounded almonds and
clove and lavender [and let it set], and ladle out and serve.
Recipe for the Dish Mentioned by Al-Razi

Gives strength to the sick and those weakened by lengthy disease, and benefits
those of a bilious disposition.
Take meat of a plump calf shoulder, chest, neck, entrails and stomach and its fat
and bone marrow, and put it in a new pot with a little salt, coriander, cumin,
pepper, saffron, cinnamon, some onion, a little rue-leaf, celery leaves, and mint
and citron and lemon leaves, and oil. Cover it with strong vinegar without water
and cook until the meat softens and falls apart.
Then moisten with its fat a tharida [bread crumbs] of the crumb of leavened bread,
which shall have been made with fine white flour. This is said to be an excellent
dish. [A savory bread pudding.]
[This may refer to one of the Razis, historians of the Umayyad caliphate in al-
Andalus, or to a doctor, a resident of Medina Sidonia, cited by al-Shaquri.
It might also be the famous Rhazes, "the Galen of the Arabs,” renowned doctor
of Iran and Baghdad, who also wrote about diet.]
It is a dish that regulates the humors. Its nutritive power is praised. It is good for
the stomach and liver. It combines the advantages of the meat and vinegar stew
sikbaja and of that of sour milk salfqa.
Among its virtues is what was told of it to the sheikhs of Baghdad by he who
followed Hanin ibn Ishaq. He said "I was accompanying Hanin one day when he
met a man of the people, to whom he said, 'Oh! You came to me and you
described the case of a sick woman in your house; then I didn't see you
[anymore]. What has been the cause of your delay, since I have not ceased to
worry about you?'
He replied, 'I came to you, my lord, and I described to you my mother's sickness.
You advised me that she should eat zfrbaja. I got it and she was cured of her
illness, and I didn't want to return and worry you. May God reward you.'
Hanin said, 'This is a neutral dish [one that does not stimulate any of the four
45
humors in particular] and it is the sikanjabfn [name of a sweet-sour drink] of
dishes.' Others say, 'It is the apple of the kitchen, there is no harm in it at all.'"
[This recipe appears in all medieval Arabic cookbooks. It is a sweet, nutritious
chicken soup.] Its Recipe
Take a young, cleaned [dead] hen and put it in a pot with [some water and] a little
salt, pepper, coriander, cinnamon, saffron and sufficient of vinegar and fresh oil
[and cook it on the stove].
And when the meat is cooked, take peeled, crushed almonds and good white
sugar, four uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7isp] of each. Dissolve them in rosewater and
pour it in the pot and let it boil. Then leave it on the embers [low heat] until the fat
rises. [The almonds and sugar thicken the liquid.]
It is the most nutritious of dishes and good for all temperaments. This dish is
made with hens or pigeons or doves, or with the meat of a young lamb.

quiche]
Take walnut kernels and hulled almonds, hazelnuts, kernels of pine nuts and
pistachios, a quarter of a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of each. Grind them in a wooden
or stone mortar until it is like fine flour.
Add two-thirds of a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of bread crumbs made from semolina
and two ratls [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of ground meat from the shoulder of a sheep,
cleaned of its tendons. Break in fifteen eggs and beat it all together. Add ginger,
galingale, pepper, cloves and Chinese cinnamon [cassia], one part of each; a
dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of mastic and of saffron, of each one half a dirham
[1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] and of oil a good half uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp].
Put it all in a new pot and throw in a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] and a half of fresh milk.
Lower it into the tannur [clay oven]. Seal the oven and leave it until it is done,
solid, and is ready. Take it out, scatter ground sugar on it and serve it.
46
Chapter 6
Breads
Rafis [flat bread, loaf, also raghif\
It is desirable that the general conditions of the raffs be known.
Its dough should be of pure semolina with moderate yeast.
And the salt should be very little, so that no flavor of salt is tasted, and the butter
should be boiled and strained, and the honey skimmed, and if it is made with oil,
this should be hot, so none of the flavor of the raw oil should remain.
It is baked in a tannur [clay oven] so the bread will be detached, porous and
spongy inside. If you make the raffs with fat, it will be tastier and sweeter and
easier to digest.
And if it is not leavened, the bread will be doughy and the raffs firm and compact,
like the raffs of the Berbers and that of the marketplace, and it will not do except
for weary laborers or for feeding chickens.
Leavened White or Semolina Bread

Take what you will of white flour or of semolina. Moisten it with hot water after
sifting, and knead well, after adding leavening, and salt. Moisten it again and
again [with warm water] until it has middling consistency. [Form into round loafs
and let rise on oiled pans. Bake in a bread oven.]
[I’ve added to this chapter this recipe piece from a sweets recipe, as it is the
recipe for a basic bread that is used for many bread puddings, and for bread
crumbs, and is called Rghaif '\r\ Morocco, with the semolina version chewier and
yellow.]
Making Isfunj [leavened semolina egg bread]

Take semolina and sift it, and take the flour and put it in a dish. Take water and
sprinkle it lightly on the semolina. Then knead it into a dough and gather it all up
and cover it with a second dish, leaving it until it sweats [this stimulates the
gluten].
Then uncover it and knead it until it becomes soft. Throw oil in it, and knead it,
and put in leavening and eggs, throw in about of five eggs and then knead the
dough with the eggs.
Then put it in a new pot, after greasing it with oil, and leave it until it rises. [Form
into loafs and let rise once more, then bake in a bread oven. Egg bread is often
braided and sprinkled with sesame seeds or sugar.]
Flaky Loaf [Khubza Muwarraqa]

Take flour and knead it [with water] until it is soft, and add oil so it will be smooth,
put in leavening. [Divide it into small balls and let them rise.]
Then take the dough [ball], roll it out, make its edges thin, and fold it. Seal [two
edges], and puff it up until the air enters the sides. Then seal both sides with your
hand and make a loaf.
47
Put it in a ceramic frying pan and pour in two spoonfuls of oil, and put your fingers
over the bread, so that it stays flattened. [Coat it in oil.]
Put the bread in the oven and when it is baked, put it in a glazed dish; get honey
and cook it with some pepper, and pour this over the bread, God willing.
[These sorts of oily breads, usually round, are available today in freezer sections
of Asian stores. Some have green onions in them. You re-cook them up in a frying
pan, and they puff up with air in the hollow inside, then deflate as they cool.
Served with honey, they are like a snack or treat. When they are served plain,
they can accompany a meal. Khobz is the Moroccan word for bread.]
Loaf Kneaded with Butter

Take three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of white flour and knead it with a rati [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of butter and when the mixing is complete, leave it to rise.
[The one part butter, to three parts flour, means this is a buttery loaf of bread. The
recipe omits the leavening agent, which would lighten the dough. Unleavened,
this is more of a buttery shortbread.]
Make bread from it.
Send it to the oven in a dish and when it has cooked, turn it on the other side in
another dish and return it to the oven. When it is thoroughly cooked, take it out of
the oven, then cover it a while and then present it.
[The Moroccan Harcha is a type of buttery shortbread that is made without
leavening, and is cooked in a pan in finger-thick rounds the width of the hand.
They are eaten with butter and jam.]
Recipe for Folded Bread from Ifriqiyya [Tunisia]

Take coarsely ground good semolina and divide it into three parts. Leave one
third aside and knead the other two well [with water].
Roll out thin bread and grease it. Sprinkle some of the remaining semolina on top
and fold over it and roll it up. Then roll it out a second time and grease it, sprinkle
some semolina on top and fold it over like muwarraqa [puff pastry]. Do this several
times until you use up the remaining third of the semolina. [This makes the bread
flaky.]
Then put it in the oven and leave it until it cooks. Remove it when tender but not
excessively so. If you want, cook the flatbreads at home in the tajine. [You would
divide the dough into balls and do the greasing/semolina/folding for each ball and
cook in a frying pan without oil, like the Moroccan Msemen.] Sprinkle it with
cinnamon and serve it.
You can then crumble it and with the crumbs make a tharida like fatir, either with
milk like tharida laban, which is eaten with butter and sugar, or with chicken or
other meat broth, upon which you put fried meat and a lot of fat.
[This sort of folded bread, heavy in butter or oil, is a common Asian bread, served
with meals. It is usually made into one-person rounds, rather than a large loaf. It
is made fresh before a meal, otherwise the bread stales very quickly.]

Sift white flour three times, take the choicest part, mingle it with butter and knead
it with egg yolk and put into the dough some saffron and salt. [Form a round loaf.]
Put clarified butter into an earthenware frying pan, boil it and take one part of
48
honey to one part dough [an equal portion of honey to the loaf] and put them into
the melted butter until it [the loaf] is cooked. Before it is fully cooked, put on
blanched almonds and pine-nuts.
[Finish cooking.]
Sprinkle it with pepper and present it.
[This unleavened dough is like the Moroccan Tride dough. That dough is divided
into little balls, and each ball is rolled into a circle and cooked in a pan like a
pancake. In this recipe, the pancake is cooked in butter and honey.]
pastries]
Knead two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of white flour well with water, oil and leaven
until it is as soft as dough or a little less.
Then make a stuffing of sugar and almonds as is made for stuffed ka’k [biscuits,
cookies],
[Then take of peeled almonds and sugar, in equal parts, and the sugar could be
more than the almonds. Pound this until it is like a dough [marzipan], and put it in
a bowl. Add spikenard and cloves in the necessary amounts, and a little mastic,
and some camphor dissolved in rosewater. Knead the filling until it is mixed.]
And roll out half the dough with half the stuffing [spread the stuffing on the dough],
and sprinkle it with oil and make a small bread loaf [khubza] from it [roll it up], and
leave it until it rises. [Then bake.] [You can slice the loaf and lay the slices flat, let
them rise, and cook them like Danish.]
Then put it in a new glazed tajine which has been greased with oil, and heat
honey and pour it on the loaf, after piercing all of it with the fingers [or a knife],
and leave until it absorbs the honey. Cut on top of it pine nuts and sprinkle with
sugar and serve.
And make from the half of the dough that remains, thin qursas [small rounds] and
stuff them with the remaining stuffing, and fry them in fresh oil and put them on a
clay plate. Fleat chopped walnuts in boiling honey and pour over the cakes and
sprinkle them with sugar, and serve. [This dough-covered sweet is like the
Moroccan Haloua pastries.]

You take clear and clean semolina and knead it with lukewarm water and yeast
and knead again. When it has risen, turn the dough, knead fine and moisten with
water, little by little, so that it becomes like tar [thick and sticky] after the second
kneading, [and leave it] until it becomes leavened or is nearly risen.
Take a small new jug, wet it in water and then in clarified butter or fresh oil until it
is soaked. Then take a fat reed. Cut off a length to reach to the bottom of the pot.
Grease the reed with oil and [put the dough around it inside the jug, then] put the
lid on the pot and seal [the lid to the pot] with clay with the reed inside, and let it
be in the middle of the bread. [The reed makes a Bundt hole in the center of the
bread.]
When the bread is cooked, know that it is ready. Take it out, remove the clay
[sealing the jug] and take out the reed.
Take fresh or clarified butter and honey. Heat them and pour them into the pot in
the place where you removed the reed and leave it until the bread soaks it up.
49
When it has absorbed it, add butter or honey until it soaks up more.
Then break the pot away from it. Put the bread on a platter and cut it as you would
cut watermelon. Chop almonds and walnuts and pine nuts and pistachios and
lump white sugar and sprinkle it over it and also sprinkle with cinnamon, Chinese
cinnamon [cassia] or the like, if God wishes.

A Dish which is Made in the Region of Constantine and is called Kutamiyya.
Knead a well- made dough from semolina like the isfunj dough with yeast. [You
take clear and clean semolina and knead it with lukewarm water and yeast and
knead again.]
And break in it as many eggs as you can, and knead the dough with them until it
is slack [like a mash].
Then set up a frying pan of clay [hantam] on a hot fire, and when it has heated,
grease it with clarified butter or oil. Put in a thin circle of the dough and when the
bread is cooked, turn over.
Take some of the dough in the hand and smear the surface of the bread with it.
Then turn the smeared surface to the pan, changing the lower part with the upper,
and smear this side with dough too. Then turn it over in the pan and smear it, and
keep smearing it with dough and turning it over in the tajine, and pile it up and
raise it until it becomes a great, tall loaf. [Each time, butter the pan.]
Then turn it by the edges a few times in the tajine until it is done on the sides, and
when it is done, as it is desired, put it in a serving dish and make large holes in it
with a stick, and pour into them melted butter and plenty of honey, so that it covers
the bread, and present it.
[A similar cake is made in Indonesia, with each layer alternating in color. It has a
spongy consistency, and is usually flavored with pistachios. Constantine is a city
in Algeria; the name "Kutamiyya" refers to the Berber tribe Kutama, centered in
the area around Sitif in Algeria, who were prominent during the ascendancy of
the Fatimid dynasty in North Africa during the 9th and 10th centuries. One notices
in the course of the recipe that the clay frying pan becomes a tajine; as a tajine
is a clay casserole, it can serve for frying.]
Recipe for Murakkaba Layered with Dates [sweet bread layered with
dates]
Take the dough described under murakkaba kutamiyya.
[Knead a well-made dough from semolina like the isfunj dough with yeast. [You
knead again.]
is slack [like a mash].]
And make of it a thin flatbread in a heated tajine, and when it is done, turn it over,
and top it with dates that have been cleaned, pounded, kneaded in the hands and
moistened with oil.
Smooth them down with the palm, then put on another flatbread and turn it over,
and then another bread, and repeat this until it is as high as desired. [Butter the
pan for each "turn".]
When it is done on all sides, put it in a dish and pour over it hot oil and honey
50
cleaned of its scum; this is how the people of Ifriqiyya [Tunisia] make it.

Make a dough of sifted semolina [and water] with a moderate amount of leaven.
Sprinkle it with melted grease [duck fat] freshened with oil. Knead it well until the
dough absorbs it and sprinkle it with it again and continue like this until it has
absorbed all it can of the grease.
Leave it for a while [to rise].
Then form it into thin flatbreads, or if you want, into muwarraqa [puff pastry,
meaning roll balls of it out, dot the dough with butter and oil, fold it up, and repeat
this several times]. Fry them in the frying pan with melted grease, until they are
done. Then take them out and eat them with honey.
[This duck fat, flaky pastry is a Moroccan staple. Shabat is Hebrew for Sabbath.]

The mushahhada [pancake] is the best of the rafis [bread] dishes, of all of them,
the lightest, the most quickly digested, and the healthiest, because yeast is in it
and it is kneaded firmly.
Take good semolina and knead it with yeast.
Moisten it with water little by little until it becomes slack and like thick hasu
[porridge], in such a manner that you throw it in the frying-pan and it spreads out
over the pan [make a batter of it]. Cover it and leave it a while. Then go back and
do the same thing again until you are done kneading [at it is a batter, you stir it
well]. It rises and you see that bubbles rise.
Then set up a ceramic [hantam] frying pan over a hot fire, or an iron frying pan
over a moderate fire, and when it has heated, rub it with a cloth soaked in fresh
clarified butter or oil [lightly oil the pan].
Take up some of the batter in a cup and pour it in the middle, to the desired size,
either great or small, and turn over it a stoneware plate until it is done [set a plate
as a lid over the frying pan]. Keep on greasing the pan and pouring batter until it
is used up [make all the pancakes].
Then melt fresh butter and clean honey, and pour them over the mushahhadas
[pancakes] in a serving dish. Leave it a while until they are dry [until it soaks up
the butter and honey], sprinkle it with ground sugar, and serve. There are those
who add eggs as necessary to the batter.
[In Morocco this is called Baghrir. It is cooked only on one side and the top side
looks like a honeycomb from the yeasty air bubbles. Immediately after cooking, it
is immersed in hot honey with melted, clarified butter, and served warm.]
Simple Isffriya [crepes]

Break however many eggs you like into a big plate and add some sourdough.
And add also pepper, coriander, saffron, cumin, and cinnamon.
Beat it all together, then put a frying pan with oil over a moderate fire and make
thin cakes out of it, as before.
[Then set up a ceramic [hantam] frying pan over a hot fire, or an iron frying pan
51
is used up [make all the pancakes].]
[With the eggs, this is comparable to a crepe and should be turned over to cook
the other side. In Morocco it is called Baghirir and it should have lots of little holes
in the crepe if it is done correctly. It is served with jam and honey.]
Take coarse wheat grits and sift away its flour and leave it [the flour] to soak
overnight, and in the morning knead it with the foot. Then press the milky liquid
out of it, and do this several times. Then leave it until all the milky liquid can be
poured off into the bottom of a container, and filter from it all the water. Do that
three or four times, until it diminishes and whitens well. [This is the process for
making wheat starch. The moisture evaporates and leaves the starch powder.]
When it whitens, add a little water to it [the starch] and beat by hand until it is at
the point of clinging to the hand. Then put the pan on the fire to warm, then take
if off the fire and spread on it a little "wheat milk" [the mushy dough], enough to
spread over the bottom of the pan and pervade it all. Let the fire be abating, and
when the leaf thickens, pluck it out and put it on a blanket [a cloth to keep it from
getting brittle]; and make another [and so on] until all the "milk" is used up.
[In Morocco, the warqa is a phillo-like pastry, paper thin, used for all sorts of pastry
dishes. This dough is a soft mash, that is dotted around the special pan until there
are no holes in the circle. It is close to the Asian spring roll wrapper, slightly see-
through. It is also called yufka, ouarqa, warka or brick pastry. It is best to brush
the cooked leaves with oil so they don't stick together.]
Set [the "leaves"] onto a blanket and put in the sun to dry, and take care that the
part that was next to the pan be on top, God willing. [Usually the warka are used
immediately to wrap both sweet and savory pastries, or as layers for pastries and
pies, and sealed with egg yolk. When
they dry, they become brittle, but you could soak them to soften them when you
wanted to use them.]
And he who wants to color it may throw ground saffron into the "milk" and fry the
same way, God willing.
And he who wants to make khabfs [starch crepes] from rice should wash it [the
rice] several times in hot water and strain the water off and sprinkle it lightly [with
fresh water], then cover it until it softens, and when it softens, stir well until it [the
rice] dissolves, then strain it into a washtub [qasriyya] and put in it what was
mentioned in the first [this recipe], [Let the liquid rise and the starch settle, then
pour off the water.]
[To make a sweet dessert with the bread:]

And the sugar is thickened with rosewater and egg whites [to put over the fried
pastry leaves], and leaves are fried in oil, and you make a sweet of it.
Preparation of Khubaiz [starch] that is Made in Niebla [and starch

crepes]
Take good wheat, put it in a washtub, and cover it with good, fresh water. Change
the water after two or three days so that the wheat softens and makes talbina
52
[releases its starch into the water], as is done for starch.
Then remove the water by pressing [the wheat bran] with the feet in the bottom
of a rush basket or sack, or by hand if there is only a little of it. And beat it [the
water] all over so that it whitens until it forms crumbs the size of grains of wheat,
or a little larger. Sieve into a bowl what [liquid] comes out of the pith. Then pour
a little fresh water over the pith to wash it. Squeeze it until none of the water
remains.
Put all this [liquid] in a bowl and leave it in the sun until it binds together. Strain
from it the flour water that is left over, time and again, until it thickens. Then pour
it in a cloth and hang it so that it drips until it dries, and expose it to the sun if you
want to make starch. Leave it on the cloth in the sun until it dries. This is the
recipe for starch. Do not let it get near dew or it will spoil.
When the khubaiz [starch] has been made, take some of it before it dries -- it will
be like yogurt -- and beat it until it is smooth. If you wish, dissolve dry starch in
fresh water so that it comes out according to this description. [You make a thin
batter.]
Then put a frying-pan over a moderate fire, and when it has heated, smear it with
a cloth soaked in oil [lightly brush with oil]. Then take some of the dissolved starch
[batter] with a spoon and pour it in the frying-pan. With your hand, move it around
the pan so that it [the batter] stretches out thin. When it has bound together and
whitened, take it to a board or a cloth [set it aside] and grease the frying pan with
oil [again, for the next one]. Pour in another large spoonful until you have a
sufficient quantity. [You are making starch crepes or thin pancakes, or wrappers.]
[Instructions from another recipe for aromatic roast chicken: Then take thin bread
[crepes] made in an Indian pan, in whole pieces, not torn. Its preparation consists
in kneading wheat dough well according to the recipe of mushahhada [pancakes,
see the Bread section for the full recipe], so that it is ghurab [runny], and doesn't
form into a ball. Dilute it with water little by little until it becomes as thin as hasu
[mush]. Heat the Indian pan on a moderate charcoal fire, and when it has heated,
take the dough with a ladle [muballila] and pour [batter] on it until it spreads out.
Return the ladle to the bowl. The dough has attached to the pan as a fine tissue.
That is a ruqaq, and it is [also] kunafa [both crepes] Shake out onto a cloth, and
it will come out round, in the shape of the pan. Then [continue] pouring out the
dough, as was done the first time, until you make the necessary amount of
crepes.]
[This wrapper is slightly thicker than the warqa wrapper and in Morocco is usually
called Tride, which can also be made from a soft dough that is divided into little
balls, which are rolled by hand very thin and cooked like crepes.]
[A honey cheese crepes recipe for these crepes:]

Have prepared filtered skimmed honey, thickened in a pot on a weak fire. Leave
it on the hearthstone so that it remains fluid.
Then put a frying pan full of fresh oil over a moderate fire. When the oil is boiling,
put in fresh cheese while the oil boils. Remove it right away in a sieve so it does
not burn and drain off the oil from the cheese.
Every time you take a khubaiz from the frying-pan [for each crepe], drain it of its
oil and throw it into the melted honey [then remove it], and spoon the [cooked]
cheese onto it, bit by bit, and stir it with [the back of] a spoon until they are mixed
53
one with the other [spread the softened cheese over the crepe slowly until it cools
and become firm], it hardens and forms one mass.
[I’ve altered the original translation slightly so that this recipe makes some sense.]
Counterfeit Isffriya [crepe] of Garbanzos [chickpea flour]

Pound some garbanzos, take out the skins and grind them into flour [chickpea
flour].
And take some of the flour and put into a bowl with a bit of sourdough and some
egg, and beat with spices until it's all mixed.
Fry it as before in thin cakes [crepes], and make a sauce for them [honey,
cheese...].
Preparation of Muwarraqa Musammana [buttery, flaky, puff pastry

dough]
Take pure semolina or wheat flour and knead a stiff dough [with water but] without
yeast. Moisten it little by little [with water] and don't stop kneading it until it relaxes
and is ready and is softened so that you can stretch a piece without tearing it.
While a [frying] pan is heating, take a piece of the dough and roll it out thin on
marble or a board. Smear it with melted clarified butter or fresh butter melted over
water. Then roll it up like a cloth until it becomes like a reed. Then twist it and
beat it down with your palm until it becomes like a round thin bread, and if you
want, fold it over again [first putting the butter on again]. Then roll it out and beat
it down with your palm a second time until it becomes round and thin. [This
process mixes the butter into the dough.]
Then put the dough round in a heated frying pan after you have greased the frying
pan with clarified butter, and whenever the clarified butter dries out, moisten [with
more butter] little by little. Turn the dough over until it cooks, and then take it away
and cook more [rounds of dough] until you finish [cooking] the amount you need.
[This makes puff pastry rounds, like flaky crackers. You can sprinkle them with
sesame seeds or poppy seeds or serve them with jam and butter. In Morocco
they are called Meloui, and when they are folded into squares and cooked in a
pan they are called Msemen.]

Take semolina [flour] and knead well with clarified butter and a little pepper. Take
an amount of the dough the size of a walnut, and roll it out as large as half a hand-
span. Take a piece of stuffing as large as a walnut and put it in the middle of the
dough, and wrap up the edges over it. Fry it in fresh oil, and dispose of it as you
wish, God willing. [These are often used in other recipes to garnish dishes.]
54
Chapter 7
Tharidas [bread puddings]
[Tharida is a dish of bread moistened with meat juices. They are not only made
with meat juices, but also with milk and syrups for sweet puddings. The sweet
bread puddings without meat in them appear in the Puddings chapter. All of these
dishes can be made with cooked couscous.]
Tharidas
Are heavy and phlegmatic. However, they moisten dry bodies and are good and
beneficial for them, very nutritious, of much chyme for him who has that
temperament. They are also good for young people, especially those that are
tempered with vinegar and meat of fat calves and what you may want of spices
and those of unleavened dough and the like, because they are heavier and slower
to digest and of more phlegm and cause constipation.
The use of rich tharidas is more beneficial in winter than in summer because of
the strength in digesting in winter, unless one tempers them with vinegar and light
meats, like lamb, kid, and chicken and with gourd and vinegar and with purslane
and saltwort, because these belong to summer and autumn on account of the
dryness that governs these two seasons, especially in the dry and warm
temperaments that are naturally fond of eating tharidas .
The Perfect Tharida [The Complete Tharida]

Take fat beef from the chest, hip, shoulder blade, waist, neck, belly and from the
fatty sites. Cut it up and put it in a big pot with salt, onion, pepper, ginger,
coriander seed, cumin and a quantity of oil. Cook it over a moderate fire until it is
ready. Take the meat out of the pot and set it to one side.
Then take meat from a fat sheep, and do the same with it. Cook it also in the pot
with the spices that go best with it and oil until it is done and leave it also.
And do the same with cooked chicken and young domestic pigeons or turtledoves
cooked separately and fried birds.
Take the broths of these specified meats and put them together in a clean pot,
after removing the bones and add to it what is needed of strong vinegar, saffron,
and pepper and what is needed of spices and prunes infused with vinegar. Cook
until it is done.
Moisten with it a tharida [bread crumbs] crumbled from white bread crumbs and
leavened semolina well kneaded and baked. When it is properly moistened, put
the meat on top. Arrange the beef in a circle on the dish, and near it the lamb,
and on top of it the chickens, and at the highest part of the platter put the pigeons
and turtledoves.
Spot on top of it fried birds, meatballs and fried sausage, meat patties, egg yolks,
olives and chopped almonds; then sprinkle it with the necessary amount of
ground pepper [the text says spikenard] and cinnamon. Cover it with a thin bread
or crepe and serve it. It is a dish of kings and viziers.
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Vinegar Tharida, Which is One of the Best
Take the fatty meat from the fattest parts. Chop it and put it in the pot with salt,
onion, pepper, saffron, cumin, garlic, strong vinegar and a quantity of oil. Put it
on a moderate fire and when the meat is done put in what you have of vegetables,
such as large tender turnips, eggplants and gourds, peeled and cooked
separately [from the meat].
As for the eggplants, make the tharida with them whole and uncut, and the turnips
likewise, and the gourds [should be] the largest possible, after pressing out their
water. And add vinegar to taste and when it is all cooked, take it off the fire.
Moisten [the liquid] with crumbled tharfda [bread crumbs] of leavened bread and
repeat the moistening until it is ready [firm, having soaked up the liquid]. Pour the
rest on it and it turns out marvelously.
White Tharida with Onion, called Kafuriyya [Camphor-White]

This tharfda is made with mutton or with chicken and much clarified butter. Take
young fat meat, cut it up and put it in a pot with salt, pepper, coriander seed, oil,
mild clarified or fresh butter. When it has fried in its fat and its spices, throw into
it some juice of pounded, squeezed onions, about a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] or more,
so that the meat is covered abundantly and finishes cooking.
When it is done, add the necessary amount of whole eggs [to boil them]. Soak
with [the liquid] the tharfda [bread crumbs] of white leavened bread or leavened
semolina, and with clarified butter mixed it like a dough, and don't mix it much.
When the tharfda absorbs and is firm and shaped, put its meat on top of it and
serve it. There are those who make it with pounded cut large onions. [Top with
the chopped eggs.]
A Green [Tharida ] Dish Stuffed with Almonds

Cut up the meat and put it in a pot with spices and flavorings and some half a rati
[1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of the juice of cilantro [to make it green] pounded with onion,
three spoonfuls of oil, and salt. [Cook it.]
When it is done, cover the contents of the pot with [mix into the filtered liquid] six
[chopped] eggs, cilantro juice, an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of ground almonds,
and [enough] breadcrumbs. Then cover this with four egg yolks [and let them set].
When this dough has cooked [absorbed the liquid], ladle the contents out and
garnish it with the egg yolks [and the meat], sprinkle it with spices and present it,
God willing.
Fish Tharida [fish in a green pond]

Pound well pieces of a big fish and add to them such as they will bear of egg
white, pepper, cinnamon, enough of all the spices and a little leavening. Beat it
until it is well mixed.
Then take a pot and put in it a spoonful of vinegar, two of cilantro juice, one and
a half of onion juice, one of murri naqf’ [use soy sauce], spices, flavorings, pine-
nuts, six spoonfuls of oil and enough salt and water. Put it over a moderate fire.
When it has boiled several times, make the pounded [fish] meat into the form of
a fish [reserving some] and insert into its interior one or two boiled [shelled] eggs.
Put it [the reconstituted fish] carefully into the sauce while it is boiling [to cook].
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Form the remainder [of the fish mixture] into good sized balls. Take boiled egg
yolks and bury them within the balls also. Throw all this in the pot and [cook].
When all is done, take the fish from the pot and the yolks cloaked with meat [the
fish-yolk balls], and fry them in a frying pan until browned.
Then cover the contents of the pot [the cooking sauce] with six eggs, pounded
almonds and breadcrumbs [beaten together], and dot the pot [with yolks], [Let it
set. Serve the fried "fish" and the balls on top of the green tharida , as if it were a
green pond.]
Tharida Mudhakkarw\tU Vinegar and Whole Onions

Take fat beef. Cut it [and put it] in the pot with salt, pepper, coriander seed,
saffron, cumin and strong vinegar. When it is almost cooked, add big whole
onions without cutting them, cooked separately, and finish cooking it all.
When it has finished cooking, take the pot from the fire and moisten [with the
liquid] the tharida [bread crumbs] crumbled from clean bread kneaded with white
flour dough. And when the tharida absorbs it and is shaped into a form [on a
platter], arrange the meat and the whole onions [over it] and serve it.
And you might moisten couscous with it [instead of or with the bread crumbs
[cooked couscous],
[This dish is called a Masculine dish, which suggests it was served as a main
dish. The whole onions are rather suggestive of masculinity.]

This used to be made in Cordoba in the spring by the doctor Abu al-Hasan al-
Bunani, God have mercy on him and pardon us and him.
Take the meat of a fat lamb, cut it and put it in the pot with salt, onion juice,
pepper, coriander seed, caraway and oil. Put it on the fire and when it has cooked,
put in it chopped and washed spinach in sufficient quantity, grated moist cheese
[a soft, fresh cheese] and butter.
When it has cooked, take the pot off the fire and add more butter. Let there be
crumbs of bread moderately leavened [add the crumbs to the liquid first, then] put
your meat on it.
And if he, God have mercy on him, lacked lamb meat, he would make a tharfda
of spinach, moist cheese, butter and the previously mentioned spices and eggs
instead of meat.

Bougie, a city in Algeria, which they call the Sha shiyya of I bn al-Wadi'.
Take the meat of fat spring lamb, from its flanks, its chest and its fat part. Cut it
up and put it in a pot with salt, onion, pepper and coriander seed. Put it on a
moderate fire and when it is almost done, add to it lettuce, spinach, fennel and
tender turnips.
When all is cooked, add peeled green fava beans and fresh cilantro.
When it is finished cooking, moisten [with the liquid] the tharfda [bread crumbs]
and arrange on it that meat, the vegetables and the beans.
Put on top of the tharfda , on the highest part, a small amount of butter that will
pour down the sides among the vegetables. For that reason it has been likened
to the shashiyya of Ibn al- Wadi [a fez with a white tassel], as if that white butter
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were the cotton [tassel] of the shashiyya, that falls all over.
Tharfda that the People of Ifriqiyya [Tunisia] Call Fatfr

It is one of the best of their dishes. Among them this fatir is made with fat chicken,
while others make it with the meat of a fat lamb. Take whatever of the two you
have on hand, clean and cut up. Put it in the pot with salt, onion, pepper, coriander
seed and oil, and cook it until it is done.
Then take out the meat from the pot and let the broth remain. And add to the meat
both clarified and fresh butter, and cook it.
Then make crumbs of fatfr [bread] that have been prepared from well-made
layered thin flatbread cooked in the tajine with sourdough. Repeatedly moisten
the dish [of bread crumbs] until it's right [takes a firm shape].
Then spread on it the meat of that chicken, after frying it in the pan with fresh oil
or butter, and dot it with [chopped] egg yolks, olives and chopped almonds;
sprinkle it with cinnamon and serve it.
Tharfda Made with Fattened Chickens or with Well-Fed, Fattened

Capons
Take what you please of them [the fattened chickens and capons]. Cut them up
and put them in the pot with salt, onion, pepper, coriander seed, cumin, saffron,
oil and strong vinegar. Put it on the fire and when it is almost done, add prunes
infused in vinegar and turnips cut into big pieces, already boiled separately. Finish
cooking.
When it has finished, take it off the fire and moisten with it [the liquid] tharfda
[bread crumbs] crumbled from leavened bread that has been properly kneaded
with good semolina. Leave it until the crumbs absorb the sauce and it is ready.
Use it and it is very good. [Form it into a ring on a platter and put the meat on
top.]
Tharfda Made with Garbanzo Water, Chicken, Cheese and Olives

It is Good for Him Who Fasts
Cover garbanzos with water and boil them vigorously until their strength enters
the water. Then strain it and remove the garbanzos. Keep the water and return it
to the pot and add three fat pigeons old enough to fly, clean and whole [and dead],
with a third of a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of oil, pepper, coriander seed and a piece
of onion, a little cumin and some salt. [Cook.]
When the pigeons are ready, [remove them and] take the pot to the hot ashes
[lower the temperature] and break in five eggs. Then crumble enough clean white
bread and moisten it with the sauce until it soaks it up.
Put the pigeons in the middle [of the ring shaped bread pudding] and around the
outside arrange [boiled] eggs, olives and fresh cheese. Serve it and it is good for
[breaking] the [Ramadan] fast.
Recipe for a Tharfdas oaked in the Fat [and Flesh] of Ten Fattened
Chickens
Put one chicken aside [dead and cleaned] and put another nine [dead, cleaned
chickens] cut up ones in a new pot. Cook them with the needed amount of oil
[and water] and spices until they are done and the flesh falls apart.
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Then take the pot off the fire and clarify the chicken juices of fat. [Remove fat
from the top of the juices], remove the meat from the pot and add [the fat] to a pot
[with] the tenth chicken that had remained aside. Add pepper, Chinese cinnamon
[cassia] and whatever you need of the rest of the spices and cook with this fat
until it is ready. Remove the pot [from the heat].
Moisten with the chicken juices tharida [bread crumbs] that have been crumbled
from white, leavened bread. Repeat sprinkling the crumbs until the round loaf is
ready [the moistened crumbs are shaped into a round loaf on a dish]. Then put
the tenth chicken on top, leave it a while [to set] and serve it.
Tharfda of Chicken
Put a [dead] chicken, after plucking it, into a pot whole. Throw on it a spoonful of
oil, the same of honey, enough of spices, a little chopped-up onion and enough
water to cover the chicken, and cook.
Then make thin flatbreads and throw onto them much oil and put them whole into
a plate. Empty the broth upon them, and the chicken, and do it well.
Tharfda of Meat
Cut up meat and put in a pot [with water and] with oil, salt, an onion pounded with
cilantro and spices. Cook until done, and [remove the meat and] throw in it
meatballs already prepared [to cook, then set aside],
[See the Chapter: Meatballs...]
Stuff guts with the [pounded] meat and put in it whole almonds and pine nuts, and
break in it eggs [to bind filling together. Then cook the sausages in hot oil.].
When the tharfda is made [by adding bread crumbs to the cooked meat liquid],
cut up the gut [sausage] and put [them] on the tharfda with [the] meatballs and
eggs [hard boiled and sliced for a garnish]. Scatter on it pepper and cinnamon. If
you boil eggs and cut them into thirds or quarters and garnish with them, it is
good, God willing.
Tharfda of Meat and [Stuffed] Eggplants

Cut up meat and put in a pot [with water], and put with it onions, spices, salt, oil
and vinegar. When it boils, pour on it water to cover, and crumble bread for it.
[Boil the meat, remove it, then add bread crumbs to the liquid.]
Take eggplants and remove their calyxes [cut off the tops] and insides and what
is appointed of their meat [hollow them out]. Take that and put it together with the
meat, and cut up with it onions, and throw on it spices and cilantro and a little salt,
and rue and murri [use soy sauce], and pound all fine, and stuff [the eggplants]
with it, and return the calyxes [tops] with thin pieces of wood [like toothpicks to
hold the tops on], and put on the fire [bake] until done.
And when it is done, garnish with [the soaked] breadcrumbs [set the baked,
stuffed eggplants on the soaked breadcrumbs]. It can be made otherwise by
sprinkling with pepper and cinnamon.
Tharfda of Zabarbada [onion]

Take a clean pot and put in it water, two spoons of oil, pepper, cilantro and a
pounded onion. Put it on the fire and when the spices have boiled, take bread
and crumble it, throw it in the pot and stir smoothly while doing so. Pour out of the
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pot onto a platter and form this into a tharfda [a round loaf] and pour clarified
butter over it, and if you do not have this, use oil.
Tharfda of Meat with Turnips and Walnuts

Cut up meat and put in a pot and put with it the white part of whole onions, spices,
salt and oil. Pound raisins and put in vinegar and pour them on it. When it is about
cooked, pour on it a little water.
Throw in big turnips, cut up, and carrots and a little saffron. And when you have
made tharfda [crumbled and sopped the bread in the broth, and shaped it into a
round loaf or a ring], arrange the meat in the center and interweave sliced boiled
eggs as apples are interwoven [overlap the slices] and arrange on the plate with
the meat on the tharfda , and serve, God willing.
Take fat meat and cut it up. Arrange it in a large pot and throw in coriander seed,
chopped onion, cilantro, caraway, pepper, soaked garbanzos, three whole eggs,
enough water to cover the meat, and salt.
When the meat is done, reduce the fire below it and throw in two dirham [1 dirham
= 3.9g/3/4tsp]s of saffron. When you see that it is colored, remove part of the
sauce, leaving enough to cover the meat. Boil the meat with the saffron and then
take off the fire.
Strain the sauce and put in a pot. Take one kail of sauce and three of honey [1 to
3 ratio of sauce to honey to make a sweet sauce]. Then take the pot to the fire
and bring it to the boil three times, the honey with the sauce.
Then take good white bread, crumble it and sieve the crumbs. Add them to the
pot and add in it fat and pepper. [Shape the resulting bread pudding on a platter
in a ring.]
Pour [the meat and garbanzo dish] onto the platter into the bread ring and serve
[with the boiled eggs chopped over the whole dish], God willing.

Cut up lamb in large pieces and put with it spices, soaked garbanzos, oil and salt.
When it has fried, pour in enough water to cover. [Boil],
And when it is about cooked, throw in orach [a flaky vegetable related to spinach].
When it is cooked, throw in fresh cheese cut up in pieces like fingertips [cubed],
and break eggs into it and crumble bread in it, and sprinkle it with pepper and
cinnamon, God willing.
Tharfda with Heads of Swiss Chard

Cut up meat in big pieces and put with it cilantro, onion, spices, oil and salt. When
it has fried, pour on it enough water to cool it off. When it comes to a boil, throw
in it heads of chard and break eggs into it and throw on it rue and garlic.
When it is done, crumble bread in it and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon, God
willing.
Preparation of a Tharfda of Two Chickens, One Stuffed With the Other

Kill two chickens and inflate one of them at the time of its death from the place of
killing [the throat], and tie the place of inflating tightly so that no air escapes, and
60
pluck carefully so that the stitches stay intact and the air remains in it while you
pluck it. When it is cleaned and its innards are removed, add them to the meat of
the second chicken and its innards also, except for the breast meat, which is
reserved and made into meatballs.
Pound all the meat until it is like brains, and pick out the tendons, and throw on
from the mortar spices, murri [use soy sauce], onion pounded with cilantro, salt,
two eggs, walnuts and almonds or pine nuts, whichever of the two you can, and
let some remain whole. Then mix everything and throw in fresh oil, after adding
to it a little water. Then stuff the chicken with it. And if there is not enough stuffing,
increase it with meat that you have on hand.
When the stuffing of the chicken is completed, put it [the stuffed chicken] in the
pot and throw on it two spoonfuls of honey and a like amount of oil, and a little
saffron and salt, and cover with water, and put on the fire until it begins to boil.
Then leave it on a charcoal fire until nearly done.
Then throw its meatballs and sanbusaks into it, and I shall describe the making
of those at the completion of the tharfda,] God willing, as I shall describe the
mixture of spices.
[Meatballs: Pound the meat until it becomes like brains, and pick out its tendons.
Throw on it murri [use soy sauce] and oil and some eggs, salt, lavender, clove,
almond and pistachio. Pound all that until mixed with much or little of the meat.
Make the meatballs round and throw in boiling water and leave until done, and
use them.]
[Sanbusaks: Take meat of the innards or any meat you wish and pound fine, and
pick out its tendons. And put cut-up fat with it, about a third the amount of the
meat. Throw upon it many spices, and increase the pepper, onion juice, cilantro,
rue and salt. Mix well. Throw in oil and a little water until it binds.
wish, God willing.]
Break eggs into the chicken broth, and when it is cooked, cover with two
[scrambled] eggs.
Make for it flatbreads [pancakes] of fine flour [and water], the finest you can get.
And do their cooking one on at a time and put on a plate, and cover them until,
when as many as are needed of them are done.
Throw the broth on them little by little, covering them even with a cloth or another
plate [as they absorb the liquid]. When you have taken enough [liquid into the
pancakes], strain off the excess broth.
Put the chicken on the tharida [soaked pancakes] and garnish with the meatballs,
sanbusaks and [boiled and chopped] eggs broken around it and on it, and sprinkle
on it pepper, Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and cinnamon, God willing.
Recipe for Tharfda Shabat

You make shabat with white flour kneaded with sourdough and you cook it over
the hot ashes at home or in the tannur [clay oven] oven over a gentle fire, without
overdoing the cooking.
Then take a fat chicken and boil it. Stuff it [first] with its innards and pounded
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meat, beaten egg, pepper, coriander, onion and oil. Add meatballs and boil until
it is done.
[Meatballs: Pound the meat until it becomes like brains, and pick out its tendons.
use them.]
Break eggs in it [the boiled chicken liquid] and estimate the amount of sauce that
the shabat will soak up. Then pour the sauce over it [the bread crumbs made
from the bread cooked earlier], [Form it into a round loaf or ring.]
Decorate it with the meatballs. Dot it with [chopped] egg yolks. Put the stuffed
chicken on top, and pour melted butter over it, removing the froth [clarified butter],
and serve it.
[Shabat is Hebrew for Sabbath.]
Making Muhallabiyya [mincemeat, layered tharida quiche]

It is reported that a cook of Persia had his residence next to that of Muhallab b.
Abi Safra and that he presented himself to prepare for him a good dish so that he
could test him. He prepared it and offered it to him. He was pleased and called it
Muhallabiyya.
Its Recipe
Take four ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of fat lamb, cut it up and put it in a pot and pour
in four uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of oil, two dirhams [1 d/r/?am=3.9g/3/4tsp] of
salt, a piece of Chinese cinnamon [cassia], galingale, chopped onion and a
sufficient amount of camphor. Cook it until it is almost done, then take from the
fire.
Take out the meat and put it in a receptacle [set aside]. Take lamb fat and cut it
with a knife as you cut vegetables. Then take a clean pot and put a layer of fat in
the bottom. Then put over it a strip of cooked meat and another of thin flatbread
cut up and made into tharida [bread crumbs] and don't stop doing this -- a layer
of meat, a layer of fat, a layer of thin flatbread crumbs -- until you are finished.
Then pour on it enough fresh milk to cover it, and add to it enough ground sugar
for its sweetness to appear in all. Then take 20 eggs and beat them until they are
mixed. Put them in the pot on top of the meat and bread and keep tipping it from
side to side and moisten it until all the milk has spread throughout the contents.
When the milk appears on top, put it in a hot clay oven [tannur] and cover it, and
leave it until it is done. Then take it out and turn it onto a pretty vessel and serve
it.
Tharfda of Khabts [wheat starch] with Two Chickens [in honey]

Slit the throat of two chickens and take out the entrails. Pound them [the entrails]
and put spices with them and season them with all the flavorings and murri naqf’
[use soy sauce]. Pound them with bread crumbs, almonds, pine-nuts, and
pistachios. Beat all this with fifteen eggs, and boiled egg yolks. [This is the
stuffing.]
Stuff a chicken with this filling [retain some of the stuffing] and sew it up and put
it in the pot with a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] and a half of water and half a rati [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of oil. Boil it over a moderate fire and when it is almost cooked,
62
throw in two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey and four dirhams [1
dirham=3.9gl3/4tsp] of saffron. When the chicken is colored [yellow], take it out.
Put khabis [wheat starch] on top of the honey mixture, and cook it until it is very
thick.
Then take the breast of the second chicken [pound it fine] and make isfiriyya
[crepes, in this case, actually omelettes] with it, with pepper, cinnamon, and two
eggs or however many are needed.
Pound the thigh meat [of the second chicken] and add to it all that is needed for
mirqas [sausage], as in a previous recipe.
[Knead it in a bowl, mixing in some oil and some murri naqf’ [use soy sauce],
pepper, coriander seed, lavender, and cinnamon. Then add three quarters as
much of fat, which should not be pounded, as it would melt while frying, but
chopped up with a knife or beaten on a cutting board. Using the instrument made
for stuffing, stuff it in the washed gut, tied with thread to make sausages, small or
large.]
Clean guts [use animal intestines as a sack] and fill them with this [mixture], and
make mirqas [sausage], [Fry them.]
Then put the khabis [and honey mixture] on a dish and set the chicken in the
middle. Garnish it with the isfiriyya [crepes omelettes] and mirqas [sausages].
Sprinkle pepper, cinnamon, and sugar over it. Place pine-nuts and pistachios on
top and present it.
Recipe for the Dish Mentioned by Al-Razi [veal tharfda]

Gives strength to the sick and those weakened by lengthy disease, and benefits
those of a bilious disposition.
Take meat of a plump calf shoulder, chest, neck, entrails and stomach and its fat
and bone marrow, and put it in a new pot with a little salt, coriander, cumin,
pepper, saffron, cinnamon, some onion, a little rue-leaf, celery leaves, and mint
and citron and lemon leaves, and oil. Cover it with strong vinegar without water
and cook until the meat softens and falls apart.
Then moisten with its fat a tharida [bread crumbs] of the crumb of leavened bread,
which shall have been made with fine white flour. This is said to be an excellent
dish. [A savory bread pudding.]
[This may refer to one of the Razis, historians of the Umayyad caliphate in al-
Andalus, or to a doctor, a resident of Medina Sidonia, cited by al-Shaquri.
It might also be the famous Rhazes, "the Galen of the Arabs," renowned doctor
of Iran and Baghdad, who also wrote about diet.]

Take fat young mutton, clean it and cut the meat into big pieces. Put it in the
earthenware pot and add pepper, onion, oil and coriander [and water]. Cook until
the meat is done. Then remove it and set it aside.
Strain the bones from the broth and return it to a low fire. When it has boiled, put
in crumbs made from thin bread which was made from wheat dough and add soft,
grated cheese, as much as the crumbs. Blend with a spoon until it makes one
mass. And when its broth has dried up, pour on fresh milk and leave it until its
foam is dispersed.
Then return the meat that was removed and when it has formed a mass [soaks
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up the liquid], take it off the fire, leave it a little and use it.
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Chapter 8
Rice, Couscous, Noodle... Dishes
Soldiers' Couscous [Kuskusu Fityani]
The usual moistened couscous is known by the whole world. The fityani is the
one where the meat is cooked with its vegetables, as is usual. Then when it is
done, take out the meat and the vegetables from the pot and put them to one
side. Strain the bones and the rest from the broth and return the pot [of broth] to
the fire.
When it has boiled, put in the couscous cooked and rubbed with fat [large grain
couscous can be precooked, fine grain couscous can be used directly, both
should be mixed with some olive oil before cooking to keep the kernels from
sticking to each other] and leave it for a little on a reduced fire or the hearthstone
until it takes in the proper amount of the sauce.
Then throw it on a platter and level it. Then put on top of it the cooked meat and
vegetables, sprinkle it with cinnamon and serve it. This is called Fityani in
Marrakesh.
Couscous Made with Crumbs of the Finest White Bread [Tharida ]

For this one you take crumbs and grate with the palm on the platter, as one rubs
a stuffing, and let the bread be neither cold nor very hot. Put it in a pierced pot [a
couscous steamer] and when it's steam has left, throw it on the platter and rub
with fat or moisten with the broth of the meat prepared for it.
I have also seen a couscous that one makes from a fat chicken or stuffed and
fattened capons and it was as if it were moistened only with fat, and in it were
turnips of Toledo and "cow's eyes" [prunes].
Recipe for Fidaush [fresh pasta]

This is made from dough and has three types: the long one shaped like wheat
grains [like a spaghetti pasta], the round one like coriander seeds that is called in
Bijaya [Bougie] and its region humais [literally, little garbanzos, meaning the
shape of the pasta ball], and the one that is made in thin sheets, as thin as paper.
It is food for women; they cook it with gourd, spices and fat; it is one of the qataif
[pancakes, crepes], Fidaush is cooked like itriyya [see next recipe],
[This isn’t actually a recipe at all, but a description of the three types of fresh
pasta: spaghetti, small soup pastas, and pasta sheets for layered dishes or sliced
up for wide, flat pastas.
Basic pasta is made from durum wheat and water. In Morocco, spaghetti pasta is
called Fdaouch.]
Preparation of the Cooking of Itriyya [dried pasta]

Take the hind ends of the meat, fat tail, chest, waist and whatever of those parts
that may be fat. Cut and put in a pot [with water and] with salt, pepper, coriander
seed and oil. Put it on a moderate fire and cook it until it is done.
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Then take it from the pot and clarify the sauce [filter it]. Return it [the fatty broth]
to the pot and add fresh or clarified butter or fresh oil. When it has boiled, put in
itriyya in a sufficient
quantity. Boil it and stir it gently and when the water dries up and it is ready, take
it off the fire and leave it for a little.
Then empty it into the platter and level it until the fat separates, then take meat
cooked as it is or fried, whichever you want, and arrange it on the platter. Put
some of it on the itriyya and sprinkle it with cinnamon and ginger and serve it.
You can make rice and fresh pasta according to this recipe.
[Itriyya, itriya, itrija, tria, trii...are various names for dried pasta found throughout
the Mediterranean since before Christ. It is usually bought from dried pasta
venders. Fidaush under its various names usually refers to fresh pasta. Chaaria,
in Morocco, is a small soup pasta.]

Take rice washed with hot water and put it in the pot and add to it fresh, pure milk
fresh from milking. Put this pot in a copper kettle that has water up to the halfway
point or a little more [in a double boiler, bain-marie]. Arrange the copper kettle on
the fire and the pot with the rice and milk well-settled in it so that it doesn't tip and
is kept from the fire. Leave it to cook without stirring.
When the milk has dried up, add more of the same kind of milk so that the rice
dissolves and is ready [add milk and cook until the rice is done]. Add to it fresh
butter and cook the rice with it.
When the rice is done and dissolved, take off the pot and stir it with a spoon until
it loosens. Then throw it on the platter and level it [forming a round loaf]. Sprinkle
it with ground sugar, cinnamon and butter and use.
With this same recipe one cooks itriyya, fidaush and tharfd al-laban [milk bread
pudding].
How Rice Is Cooked in the East [oven cooked rice]

Take rice washed with hot water and put it in a pot. Add fat mutton, from the chest,
the hind parts and from the waist, and the fat and the leg bones. Add water to
cover it plus a little more, and sufficient salt.
Put it in the bread oven overnight and take it out the next morning. When it is all
mushy, turn it onto a platter and sprinkle it with cinnamon, spikenard, ginger and
ground sugar. You can cook this at home with fresh milk and it is better and more
delicious.

Wash what you want of the rice and cook it as usual [covered with water plus
some water, or twice the rice of water]. Then take it to the hearthstone and leave
it a while [to dissolve] and when it is ready and has become mushy, mash it with
a spoon until it dissolves and not a trace of the grain remains.
Then add ground white Egyptian sugar and stir it vigorously. Add sugar bit by bit
until its sweetness dominates and it becomes like dissolved fanid [taffy, meaning
until it becomes sticky].
Then turn it onto a platter and make a hole in the center that you fill with fresh
butter, or with oil of fresh sweet almonds. If you cook this with fresh milk instead
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of water, it will be more delicious and better.
Information about Harisa According to its Kinds [savory meat
puddings]
Harisa is heating, moist, very nutritious, strengthening and fertilizing for dry, thin
bodies. It increases blood and sperm, with increased ability in coitus [fertility help],
but makes digestion and good bowel elimination difficult.
If one can digest it well, it is beneficial for the person who wishes to strengthen
and make good use of his body after illness free of fever and intestinal heaviness.
It is good for the thin and those with strong stomachs, especially if they are mild
and easy tempered and do not have severe constipation, because mildness and
compliance hasten bowel elimination and its effect on fat delays its growth. It is
indicated for emptying the stomach.
What is needed for its digestion is to take with it some murri naqV [use soy sauce]
and ground Chinese cinnamon [cassia]. If you eat it alone don't mix it with another
food, so it is more nutritious and easier to digest, and more quick in digestion.
It is the custom of the people and they have agreed on eating harisa made with
dough fried in oil. This adds to its heaviness and slowness to digest and leads to
constipation, because all the foods that one fries with dough in fat are constipating
and are harmful to the liver.
Because of this, the zula biyya, which is isfunj [fried leavened semolina egg
bread], is the worst that can be eaten and will be its equal. The slowness in
digesting it produces a sulphurousness of the kidneys and the harm that it does
is more than its benefits.
As one uses wheat and fat in raffs [bread] it is the same way with harisa. With its
meat and fat, there is no need for other wheat, but harisa eaten alone is more
beneficial and gives more rapid digestion with less harm in all situations.
Among the kinds of harfsa that there are, there is one that is made with fat veal
or with three- year-old sheep or with breasts or legs of geese and meat from
chicken breasts and legs. All these have a flavor and taste that is not like the
others and have a virtue that the others do not have.
The conditions of harfsa are that they be delicious to the palate and have little
salt, like the different kinds of raffs because no salt appears in it.
There are those who prefer the harfsa with a lot of meat and those who want a
moderate amount. The easiest to eat, the most easily evacuated from the body,
is that which has two thirds of wheat and one of meat.
The Method of Making It [Harisa, savory wheat, meat mush]

Take good wheat and soak it in water. Then pound it in a wooden or stone mortar
until it is free from husks. Then shake it [to separate it from the bran] and put the
clean wheat [its marrow] in a pot with clean red meat and cover it with a lot of
fresh water. Put it on a strong fire until it falls apart [dissolves].
Then stir it very forcefully until it becomes blended and one part blends into the
other. Then pour on enough melted fresh fat to cover it and beat it together until
it is mixed.
When it seems that the fat begins to separate and remain on top, turn it onto a
platter and cover it with salted fat. Sprinkle it with ground cinnamon and use it as
you please.
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Rice Harfsa [savory rice meat pudding]
Wash the needed amount of rice and let it sit for a day in enough water to cover
it.
Then put it in a pot and add what you want of the meat from chicken breasts or
fresh mutton; cover it in water and cook it. When it falls apart [dissolves], stir it
vigorously until it is thoroughly mixed up.
Put it on a platter and pour on melted fat from a sheep, sprinkle it with cinnamon
and use it.
You might make this harfsa in the oven. For that you cover it with a lot of water
and fit the pot with a lid and let it spend the night in the oven.
Then take it out, stir it and use it with sheep fat.
Recipe for Harfsa Made with White Bread Crumbs Instead of Wheat
[Tharida , savory bread pudding]
Take crumbs of white bread or of samid and grate them until they become grits
the size of wheat or a little larger. Spread them in the sun until they dry out and
take them up and set apart until needed.
Then take the meat from the legs or shoulder blades of a sheep, because you
don't make harfsa without sheep meat and fat. Put it in a pot with a lot of water.
Cook it until the meat falls apart and you put in a fork and it separates.
Then add the needed amount of already mentioned prepared crumbs and let it
sit a while until it becomes mushy. Stir it until it is mixed and becomes one mass.
Serve it with melted sheep fat, sprinkle it with cinnamon, as has been said.
Royal Jashfsha Which Provides Wholesome Nutrition [savory mush]

Take heavy wheat; clean it and grind it in the mill by hand so that it comes out as
grits. Then shake off the bran. Take out a quantity of wheat and put it in an
earthenware pot. Add water to cover it and cook it. When the water diminishes,
return it to the fire with fresh milk, time after time [until cooked].
When it is cooked, adjust the flavor with a little salt and pour on it cooked chicken
fat, and add more fat, and let it be delicate, of the consistency of what can be
sipped.
Then sip it and it will be good.
Good Jashfsha: It Fattens Thin Women and Men [wheat, rice, chickpea
mush]
Take crushed wheat and an equal amount of rice, and garbanzos and hulled and
washed spices, a handful of each, and put it in a pot. Cover it with water and cook
until it is completely done.
Adjust it with a little salt. And so that it is delicate like hasa1 [soup], pour on fresh
butter and melted kidney fat and the broth of young, fat meat.
Then sip it, because it increases one's strength greatly.
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Chapter 9
Non-Meat Dishes
The Making of Stuffed Eggs
Take as many eggs as you like, and boil them whole in hot water. Then put them
in cold water [peel them] and split them in half with a thread.
Take the yolks aside and pound cilantro and put in onion juice, pepper and
coriander, and beat all this together with murri [use soy sauce], oil and salt and
mix the yolks with this until it forms a dough.
Then stuff the whites with this and fasten the two halves together. Insert a small
stick into each egg [to hold them together as a whole egg], and sprinkle them with
pepper, God willing.
Another Egg Dish [boiled eggs in a sauce]

Put the pot on the fire and throw in a spoon of murri [use soy sauce], another of
vinegar and the same of oil, spices and onion pounded with cilantro and salt.
Cook till done and dot with boiled eggs and cover the contents of the pot. Dish it
up and serve it, God willing.
Recipe of Fartun [scrambled eggs cooked in a form]

Take the utensil called fartun [cone], which has the shape of a large cup with a
wide mouth and a narrow bottom. Put it on a slow fire and put in oil, and when it
is heated up, beat egg in a dish with vinegar, saffron and cinnamon, as necessary,
and add to this a bit of almonds cooked in vinegar and pour everything onto it [the
cone].
And when thick [cooked], slide a knife around between the fartun [beaker] and
the egg mixture, until it comes apart [loosen it from the edge], and remove it from
the container. [You can] pour oil in the space left by the knife, so that it will not
stick to the container. Do this gently so as to preserve the shape.
Then overturn it whole on a serving-dish and it will come out as though it were
the genuine Ras al-Maimun [Monkey's Head, a dish cooked in a vase, that is then
broken, and served upside down, and decorated to look like a head, but this dish
is like a cone of scrambled eggs].
Stuffed Eggs
Boil eggs, remove the shells and cut them in half.
Remove the yolks, put them in a platter and throw on them cilantro, onion juice,
spices and cinnamon; and it will become a paste with which you will stuff the
eggs. [Stuff the eggs and retain a bit of the filling to add to a sauce for the eggs.]
Tie the eggs together with thread and hold them together with a small stick.
Dissolve some egg white and grease the eggs with it [this will seal the eggs back
together again when they are cooked] along with a little saffron, and sprinkle with
fine flour and fry with fresh oil on an even fire.
And when finished, sprinkle with chopped rue and serve. Make a sauce with the
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filling [that was reserved] and sprinkle with spikenard and cinnamon, God willing.
Zabarbada [Zfrbaja] of Fresh Cheese [fondue]
Take fresh cheese, clean it, cut it up and crumble it. Take cilantro and onion, chop
and throw over the cheese, stir and add spices and pepper.
Prepare a pot with two spoons of oil and an equal quantity of water, and some
salt, then throw the mixture in the pot and put on the fire and cook.
When it is cooked, take the pot from the fire and cover with eggs and some flour
and serve. [The eggs are scrambled with the flour and they cook over the top of
the hot cheese dish.]

Know that mujabbana is not prepared with only one cheese, but of two; that is, of
cow's and sheep's milk cheese. Because if you make it with only sheep cheese,
it falls apart and the cheese leaves it and it runs. And if you make it with cow's
cheese, it binds, and lets the water run and becomes one solid mass. The
principle in making it is that the two cheeses bind together.
Use one-fourth part cow's milk and three-quarters of sheep's [grated]. Knead all
until some binds and becomes equal and holds together and doesn't run in the
frying pan, but without hardening or congealing. If you need to soften it, soften it
with fresh milk, recently milked from the cow. And let the cheese not be very fresh,
but strong without too dry that all the moisture has gone out of it. Thus do the
people of our land make it in the west of al-Andalus, as in Cordoba and Seville
and Jerez, and elsewhere in the land of the al-Maghrib.
Manner of Making it
Knead wheat or semolina flour with some yeast into a well-made dough and
moisten it with water little by little until it loosens [forms a dough]. If you moisten
it with fresh milk instead of water it is better, and easy, inasmuch as you make it
with your palm [rather than a kneading tool].
Roll it out [to a low loaf] and let it not have the consistency of mushahhada
[pancakes] but firmer than that, and lighter than musammana [puff pastry] dough.
When the leaven begins to enter it [when it rises], put a frying pan on the fire with
a lot of oil, so that it drenches what you fry it with [deep fat fry].
Then wet your hand in water and tear off a piece of the dough. Bury inside it the
same amount of grated cheese. But first squeeze the cheese with your hand, and
the extra liquid leaves and drains from the hand.
Put it [the cheese filled dough ball] in the frying pan while the oil boils. When it
has browned, remove it with an iron dipper and put it in a dripper similar to a sieve
held above the frying pan, until its oil drips out.
As a sweet
Then put it on a big platter and sprinkle it with a lot of sugar and ground cinnamon.
There are those who eat it with honey or rose syrup and it is the best you can eat.
Recipe for Eggs Mujabbana [cheese puffs with egg pastry]

Break eggs over the aforementioned dough [Knead wheat or semolina flour with
some yeast into a well-made dough and moisten it with water little by little until it
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loosens [forms a dough].] and knead with them [the eggs] instead of water, until
the dough becomes slack and is done, as has been said.
Then knead the previously mentioned cheese [Use one-fourth part cow's milk and
three- quarters of sheep's [grated]. Knead all until some binds and becomes equal
and holds together and doesn't run in the frying pan, but without hardening or
congealing.] and also break over it as many eggs as it will bear. Beat them with
some anise and fennel.
Flatten the dough on the platter and then wet your hand in water and take some
of the filling and make a mujabbana [ball] as was indicated in an earlier recipe
[Bury inside it the same amount of grated cheese. But first squeeze the cheese
with your hand, and the extra liquid leaves and drains from the hand.] and fry it
like the preceding recipe.
[Put a frying pan on the fire with a lot of oil, so that it drenches what you fry it with
[deep fat fry]. Put it [the cheese filled dough ball] in the frying pan while the oil
boils. When it has browned, remove it with an iron dipper and put it in a dripper
similar to a sieve held above the frying pan, until its oil drips out.]
It turns out remarkable and delicious. This is what Ibn Sa'id b. Jami [Almohad
Vizier] used to make and his companions and everyone found good. It is an
invention of Musa b. al-Hajj Ya'ish, [architect in the times of Abd al-Mu'min and
his son Yusuf I.] the muhtasib [market inspector] of Marrakesh.

Take some wheat or semolina dough, some fresh cheese and butter, one part of
each.
Grate the cheese and knead everything with fresh milk instead of water, until it is
mixed [the cheese, butter, milk and dough], no remnants of cheese remain, and
it takes the consistency of isfunj dough [a semolina leavened egg bread].
Then make with it a mujabbana [cheese ball] and fry it with fresh oil, as in the
preceding recipe, and use it as you wish.

Take semolina dough, pounded peeled almonds, butter, soft cheese and eggs,
the amount of each needed to knead it all together. Moisten it with fresh milk until
it binds together and make with it a mujabbana [cheese puffs, deep fat fry the
balls],

Knead flour with a little water, then complete the kneading with oil. Then make
little raghffs [flatbreads] from pieces of it, rolled out with a cane. Make some fifteen
raghffs [flat bread rounds] which are put in the mujabbana [cheese pastry] when
it is made. Then fold them and seal them and puff them up [sealing air inside].
Then make a second batch [of 15] and leave them open like leaves. When the
cheese is put in the dish, put a layer of it and one raghff, and then a layer and a
raghff, putting inside it about three of the raghifs [3 puffed ones in the cheese, so
the pastry is inside the pie as well as between the layers, and top and bottom].
Put two or three beaten eggs over the [last layer of] cheese. Then cover it [a top
crust of raghff] and coat it all with egg wash. Send it to the bread oven in a large
clay dish in which it is cooked. [Cook it.]
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And if you cook fresh and clarified butter and put it over it, and cover it a while
until it is absorbed, may it do you much good [you’ll like it].

Make dough as for musammana [buttery puff pastry dough, see Breads or Pastry
Section] and make a small flaky round loaf of it.
Then roll it out and put sufficient grated cheese in the middle. Fold over the ends
of the loaf and join them over the cheese on all sides [seal it]. Leave a small hole
the size of a dinar [coin] on top, so the cheese can be seen, and sprinkle it with
some anise.
Then place it in the oven on a slab [pan], and leave it until it is cooked. Take it out
and use it, as you wish.
[This dish seems best when made as small cheese pastries, rather than one big
loaf. There are in effect, cheese danish, and they make something like it in Naples
which people eat for breakfast.]

Which is Made in al-Andalus, and it is called "Seven Bellies."
Take moist, fresh cheese and knead it in the hands. Then take a deep, wide-
bellied clay tajine [tajin min bantam] and in the bottom of it put a thin flatbread,
made like kunafa [crepe, See the Chapter: Breads], Put the cheese over this, and
then another crepe, and repeat this until there remains a third to a quarter of the
pan.
Pour fresh oil over it, place it in the oven, and leave it a little; then take it out,
moisten it with a little fresh milk, and return it to the oven, and take it out and
moisten with fresh milk and return to the oven thus until the milk and the oil
disappear.
Leave it until its surface is browned to the color of musk; then take it out and pour
skimmed honey cleaned of its foam, or rose syrup, over it. There are those who
sprinkle it with ground sugar and spices, and others who leave it be.
Dish of Stuffed Eggplants [fried]

Split in half medium-sized eggplants and rub the cuts with salt to remove any
bitterness they have. Then boil them until they are cooked. Then take them out
and place them in cold water.
Then take a head of garlic, clean it and pound it in a mortar with a little salt and
cold breadcrumbs, a little sifted flour, a little murri [use soy sauce] and a little
cilantro juice. To the contents of the mortar add whole peppercorns, cinnamon
and powdered lavender.
Then squeeze the water out of the eggplants and hollow them out, removing its
flesh and its little seeds. Boil six eggs, or as many as the dish will take, and then
chop them very well [reserve a few of the yolks]. Take eggs and [add to the
stuffing mixture and] stuff the eggplants with this, but save some of the stuffing.
Then cover them [the stuffed eggplants] with flour and fry them in fresh oil until
browned.
Then arrange the eggplants on a dish spread with citron leaves, and sprinkle the
[left over] stuffing over the dish. Cut up the remaining yolks and garnish the dish
with them, and pieces of citron, mint and rue. Then sprinkle with extraordinary
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spices and present it.
A Dish of Eggplants with Saffron [fried eggplant]

Peel the eggplants and split them [in half], salt them, and leave them a little so
their moisture comes out. Then boil them in water, and when they are cooked,
place them in cold water.
Put into a pot two spoonfuls of vinegar, half a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce],
ground coriander, pepper, caraway, cumin, a whole onion, fennel stalks, a little
cleaned garlic, half a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of saffron, salt, a spoonful of
oil and a little water.
Then put the pot on the fire until everything in it is cooked, then remove to the
embers [lower the heat]. Take six eggs and cold breadcrumbs and a little sifted
flour, beat it all with a little cilantro juice, [but first] remove some of the yolks.
Cover the contents of the pot with the mixture. And cook the yolks in it [insert the
yolks in holes you make in the contents of the pot], and leave it until the yolks are
done.
Then take the boiled eggplants, cut away the seeds and complete the splitting of
them so that four pieces come from each. Sprinkle them with flour, fry them with
oil until they are browned, and place them on a dish spread with citron leaves.
Throw over this all the spices from the pot. Slice the egg yolks and garnish the
dish with them as well as with pieces of rue, mint, and citron. Sprinkle over this
what you wish of fine spices and present it.
It is made the same way with gourd, down to the letter, except that the saffron is
omitted and sticks of thyme are added, God willing.
A Dish of Eggplants [casserole]

Boil eggplants and remove the interior from the outer peel, pound it [the peel] and
put it into a pot with a spoon and a half of oil, two of murri [use soy sauce], pepper,
caraway, some well- pounded onion, and salt.
Put it on the fire and when it has boiled, throw in the pounded eggplants [interior]
and stir it little by little. And when it is done, cover the contents of the pot with
[beaten] egg yolks, and [then] cover them with egg whites, crumbs and walnuts.
[Leave the eggs to cook.]
When it is served, sprinkle it with pepper and cut rue over it.
Preparation of Musa 'tar [Thyme] of Eggplants [casserole]

Take a pot and put in it three spoons of vinegar and one of murri naqV [use soy
sauce] with two of oil, pepper, coriander seed, cumin, thyme and rue. Put on the
fire and when it has boiled, put the eggplants in it and cook [chopped up]. After
boiling the eggplant, throw in eggs and leave to cool; [Use a spoon to make a
hole in the eggplant mixture and crack the egg into it. Seal it up and the eggs will
cook in the heat remaining, or you can leave the heat on the dish for a little while.
Or beat the eggs and spread them over the top to cook over the eggplant.] serve
cold, God willing.
Preparation of Arnabi [baked eggplant with thyme and saffron]

Take sweet eggplants of great size and cut in half. Boil in water and salt, then
take out of the water and leave to drain.
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Then take a tajine and put in it sharp vinegar and a smaller quantity of murri naqV
[use soy sauce], pepper, cumin, thyme, saffron, chopped garlic and a lot of oil.
Put in it the boiled halves of eggplant and cover in this broth. Then arrange the
eggplants in the tajine and put it in the oven, where you will leave it until the sauce
is dry and [only] the oil remains.
Take out and leave it until it cools, then serve. There are those who break in eggs
and then put it in the oven.
[Arnabi means this dish resembles hare, like a dish in Syria today, called
arnabiyya, which likewise contains no hare meat.]
Description of Mahshi with Eggplants [casserole]

Take sweet eggplants, peel them and boil in salted water until done. Then remove
their seedy flesh [interior] and put aside.
Make mahmiyya [a breaded casserole] for the eggplants in a tajine: Add as much
bread crumbs, and pepper, coriander seed, cinnamon, saffron, chopped almond
and as many eggs as you need. Beat it all and cover with plenty of oil. Then put
the seedy eggplant flesh in it. Then bury in it whole egg yolks.
Put it in an oven at moderate heat and leave until it has finished cooking and
binds and is brown on top. Then take out and leave until its heat flags and serve
it.
You might pound in it whatever meats of fried fowl you have ready, and each will
result in a different dish; there are some who serve it with juices of coriander and
mint.
Preparing Mahshi with Eggplants and Cheese [casserole]

Take boiled eggplant and beat, according to what has been mentioned [the
ingredients of the previous dish can be used for the breaded casserole], in a dish
with its aforementioned flavorings and with cut-up cheese, almonds and enough
eggs [mixed into the casserole]. Put in the tajine and cover with oil, put in the
oven and leave until brown on top and take out.
Recipe for Sprinkled [batter-fried] Eggplants

Take sweet ones [eggplants] and split in strips crosswise or lengthwise and boil
gently. Then take out of the water and leave to drain and dry a little.
Then take white flour and beat with egg, pepper, coriander, saffron and a little
murri naqV [use soy sauce]. When it is like thick soup, put those eggplants in it
[to coat them] and fry [them] with oil in the hot pan. Brown them. Then immerse
them [in the batter] and do a second time [fry them] and a third [immerse and
cook].
Recipe for the Fried Version of the Same [floured-fried]

Take sweet ones [eggplants] and cut, however you wish, lengthwise or crosswise,
as mentioned before. Boil in water and salt, then take out of the water and leave
till dry and the water drains off.
Then sprinkle in white flour and fry in the pan with fresh oil until brown.
Add to them a cooked sauce of vinegar, oil, some murri naqT' and some garlic.
You can fry in the same way boiled gourd, following this recipe.
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Eggplant Isffriya [crepes or pancakes]
Cook peeled eggplants in water and salt until done.
Take out of the water and grate them to bits in a dish, with grated bread crumbs,
eggs, pepper, coriander, cinnamon, some murri naqV [use soy sauce] and oil.
Beat all until combined, then fry [the batter into] thin breads [crepes or pancakes],
following the instructions for making isffriyya [crepes, see the Breads section],
A Vegetarian Version of the Same [eggplants] Prepared by Ibn

Muthanna [whole eggplants]
Take eggplants and with a stick pierce them on all sides and boil. Then press out
the water in which you boiled them and put them in a pot.
Pour on them vinegar, murri naqV [use soy sauce], plenty of oil, pepper, saffron,
cumin, cinnamon, cloves of garlic wrapped in sprigs of thyme and two whole
onions.
Place [the pot] on a coal fire and cook. Then put a lid [heated] from the fire on the
pot and leave until brown on top [this is just a way to grill them] and the sauce is
dry. Then take out of the fire and throw out the two onions and then serve.
This dish keeps for many days without going bad and does not change, like
Arnabi.
Recipe for the Same Dish, Browned Version [ratatouille]

Take sweet eggplants and cut them in small pieces, and with them cut up two or
three times of onion [2-3 onions to 1 eggplant] and boil all. Then drain the water
from them.
Put [the onions and eggplants] in the pot with salt, pepper, coriander seed, thyme,
saffron, a little murri naqt’ [use soy sauce] and plenty of oil. Cook in the pan until
dry and only the oil remains [cook until it forms a paste]; then take it out [serve it].
Recipe for the Boiled Version of It [eggplant halves]

Take eggplants and slice in two opposing and equal pieces. Boil in water and salt
until just done. Then take out of the water [and put in a new pot].
Pour on them oil and take vinegar and a little pounded garlic. Boil until the vinegar
penetrates it and the pungency of the garlic is lessened.
You can also make this boiled dish in another way. After boiling, sprinkle with
cheese grated from a grater [iskanfaj]] add chopped garlic and plenty of oil, give
it a light boil and leave to cool; then serve.
Three vegetable dishes from the cookbook of Ibrahim b. al-Mahdi

Recipe for a Dish of Gourd Resembling Fish [batter fried]
With which you may deceive the invalid who desires fish and the like.
Peel the gourd and clean it inside, then cut lengthwise for the width of two fingers
or so [strips]; then boil.
Form [from the boiled gourd] a head and tail in the shape of a fish and leave for
the water to drain away.
Then take a large dish and throw in it what eggs you need. Add white flour,
cinnamon and coriander seed and beat with the eggs.
Then place a skillet on the fire with fresh oil. When it is boiling, take the fish-
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shaped gourd and fry. Then immerse [the fried gourd fish] in those eggs beaten
with flour and spices and return to the pan [and fry again]. Then go back and
immerse in the eggs beaten with flour [repeating the batter and frying until the
gourd fish is completely covered with the batter]. When you see that the eggs are
set, return them several times until cloaked with egg and no trace of the gourd
can be seen.
Then turn out on the platter and sprinkle with vinegar and a little murri [use soy
sauce] or juice of fresh coriander or other things.
A Muzawwara [Vegetable Dish] Beneficial for Tertian Fevers and Acute

Fevers
Take boiled peeled lentils and wash in hot water several times. Put in a pot and
add water without covering them. Cook and then throw in pieces of gourd, or the
stems of Swiss chard, or of lettuce and its tender sprigs, or the flesh of cucumber
or melon, and vinegar, coriander seed, a little cumin, Chinese cinnamon [cassia],
saffron and two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of fresh oil; season with a little salt and
cook.
Taste, and if its flavor is pleasingly balanced between sweet and sour, [good;]
and if not, reinforce until it is equalized, according to taste, and leave it to lose its
heat until it is cold and then serve.
Jannaniyya [the Gardener's Dish] [a vegetable omelette]

It was the custom among us to make this in the flower and vegetable gardens. If
you make it in summer or fall, take saltwort, Swiss chard, gourd, small eggplants,
fennel, fox-grapes, the best parts of tender gourd and flesh of ribbed cucumber
and smooth cucumber. Chop all this very small, as vegetables are chopped, and
cook with water and salt. Then drain off the water.
Take a clean pot and in it pour a little water and a lot of oil, pounded onion, garlic,
pepper, coriander seed and caraway. Put on a moderate fire and when it has
boiled, put in the boiled vegetables.
When it has finished cooking, add grated or pounded bread and dissolved [sour]
dough, and break over it as many eggs as you are able, and squeeze in the juice
of tender coriander and of mint, and leave on the hearthstone until the eggs set.
If you make it in spring, then [use] lettuce, fennel, peeled fresh fava beans,
spinach, Swiss chard, carrots, fresh cilantro and so on, cook it all and add the
spices already indicated, plenty of oil, cheese, dissolved [sour] dough and eggs.
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Chapter 10
Jewish Dishes
Jewish Partridge [stuffed]
Clean the partridge and season it with salt. Then [for the stuffing] crush its entrails
with almonds and pine-nuts and add murri naqV [use soy sauce], oil, a little
cilantro juice, pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], lavender, five eggs
and sufficient salt.
Boil two eggs, stuff the partridge with the stuffing and insert the boiled eggs
[shelled] and put some stuffing between the skin and the meat, and some of it in
the interior of the partridge.
Then take a new pot and put in four spoonfuls of oil, half a spoonful of murri naqV
[use soy sauce] and two of salt. Put the partridge in it and put it on the fire, after
attaching the cover with dough [seal it tightly], and agitate it continuously so it will
be thoroughly done. And when the sauce has dried, remove the lid and throw in
half a spoonful of vinegar, throw in citron and mint, and break two or three eggs
into it. Then put a potsherd or copper pot full of burning coals on it until it is
browned, and then turn [the contents] around so that the other side browns, and
roast it all. [After the bird has cooked, steamed, brown it.]
Then put it in a dish and put the stuffing around it, and garnish it with the egg
yolks with which you dotted the pot, or with roast pistachios, almonds and pine
nuts, and sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon after moistening with sugar, and
present it, God willing.

Clean it, joint it and put it in the pot with all the spices and flavorings and cilantro
juice, onion juice, murri [use soy sauce], half a spoonful of vinegar, three of oil,
and sufficient water, mint, citron and whole pine-nuts.
When it is cooked and the greater part of the sauce is gone, pound the giblets
and the liver well and beat them with three eggs and leaven. Cover the contents
of the pot with this and loosen it at the sides until it cooks.
Dot it with egg yolks and then ladle it out and garnish it with egg yolks and mint,
toasted pine- nuts and pistachios, sprinkle it with a little rosewater and present it,
God willing.

Clean the chicken and take out its entrails. Cut off the extremities of its thighs and
wings and the neck, and salt the chicken and leave it.
Take these extremities and the neck and the entrails, and put them in a pot with
fine spices and all the flavorings and cilantro juice, onion juice, whole pine-nuts,
a little vinegar and a little murri [use soy sauce], good oil, citron leaves, and stalks
of fennel. Put this over a moderate fire. When it is done and the greater part of
the sauce has gone, cover the contents of the pot with three eggs, grated
breadcrumbs and fine flour. Crush the liver, add it to this crust and cook carefully
77
until the liver and the crust are cooked.
Then take the chicken and roast it carefully, and baste it with two eggs, oil and
murri [use soy sauce], and do not stop greasing [basting] the chicken inside and
out with this until it is browned and roasted.
Then take a second little pot and put in two spoonfuls of oil and half a spoonful of
murri [use soy sauce], half a spoonful of vinegar and two spoons of aromatic
rosewater, onion juice, spices and flavorings. Put this on the fire so that it cooks
gently.
And when it has cooked, [cut up the roasted chicken and put it in the sauce] and
leave it until it is absorbed. Then ladle it into a dish and pour the rest of the sauce
on it, and cut up a boiled egg and sprinkle with spices, and ladle the preceding
[pine-nut and entrails dish] into another dish, and garnish it too with egg yolks;
sprinkle it with fine spices and present both dishes,
God willing.
A Jewish Dish of Chicken [with stuffing]

Clean the chicken and pound its entrails with almonds, breadcrumbs, a little flour,
salt, and cut-up fennel and cilantro. Beat it with six eggs and the amount of a
quarter rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of water. [This is the stuffing.]
Then expose the chicken over the fire a little [this could be to burn off the remains
of the feathers]. Then place it in a clean pot with five spoonfuls of fresh oil, and
do not stop turning it on the fire in the oil until it is well browned.
Then cover the contents of the pot with stuffing prepared earlier and leave it until
it is bound together and cooked.
Ladle it out and put the stuffing around it, garnish with cut rue and fennel, mint,
and toasted almonds, and present it, God willing.
A Stuffed, Buried Jewish Dish [casserole]

Pound some meat cut round, and be careful that there be no bones in it. Put it in
a pot and throw in all the spices except cumin, four spoonfuls of oil, two spoonfuls
of penetrating rosewater, a little onion juice, a little water and salt, and veil it with
a thick cloth. Put it on a moderate fire and cook it with care. Pound meat as for
meatballs, season it and make little meatballs and throw them in the pot until they
are done.
When everything is done, beat five eggs with salt, pepper, and cinnamon; make
a thin layer [a flat omelette or egg crepe; literally "a tajine"] of this in a frying pan,
and beat five more eggs with what will make another thin layer.
Then take a new pot and put in a spoonful of oil and boil it a little. Put in the bottom
one of the two layers [of eggs], pour the meat onto it, and cover with the other
[egg] layer. Then beat three eggs with a little white flour, pepper, cinnamon, and
some rosewater with the rest of the pounded meat, and put this over the top of
the pot.
Then cover it with a potsherd of fire until it is browned [brown it on top], and be
careful that it not burn. Then break the pot and put the whole mass on a dish, and
cover it with mint, pistachios and pine-nuts, and add spices. You might put on this
dish all that has been indicated, and leave out the rosewater and replace it with
a spoonful of juice of cilantro pounded with onion, and half a spoonful of murri
naqV [use soy sauce]; put in it all that was put in the first [from the previous
78
recipes], God, the Most High, willing.
[The translators suggest this is a dish that is left in the oven on Friday night, buried
in the ashes, so that the family can eat it on Saturday, the Sabbath, without the
women needing to violate the Sabbath by cooking.]
A Jewish Dish of Eggplants Stuffed with Meat

Boil the eggplants and take out their small seeds and leave [the skins] whole
[hollow out the cooked eggplants].
Take leg meat from a lamb and pound it with salt, pepper, cinnamon, Chinese
cinnamon [cassia] and spikenard. Beat it with the whites of eight eggs [cooked]
and separate the egg yolks [reserve for the garnish]. Stuff the eggplants with this
stuffing.
Then take three pots and put in one of them four spoonfuls of oil, onion juice,
spices, aromatics and two spoonfuls of fragrant rosewater, pine-nuts, a citron
[leaves], mint, and sufficient salt and water. Boil well and throw in half of the
stuffed eggplants.
In the second pot put a spoonful of vinegar, a teaspoon of murri [use soy sauce],
a grated onion, spices and aromatics, a sprig of thyme, another of rue, citron leaf,
two stalks of fennel, two spoonfuls of oil, almonds, soaked garbanzos, some half
a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of ground saffron, and three cut garlic. Add in
sufficient water until it boils several times, and throw into it the rest of the stuffed
eggplants.
And in the third pot put a spoonful and a half of oil, a spoonful of cilantro water,
half a spoon of sharp vinegar, crushed onion, almond, pine-nuts, a sprig of rue
and citron leaves. Sprinkle with rosewater and sprinkle with spices.
Decorate the second [dish] with cut-up egg yolks and cut rue and sprinkle it with
aromatic herbs. Cut a cooked egg with rue over the third pot, sprinkle it with
pepper, and present it.
[This gives you two dishes of stuffed eggplants, each with a slightly different
sauce, and one dish of a sauce that can be used over both dishes.]
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Chapter 11
Fish Dishes
Advice on Fish Dishes in Their Varieties
You should know that all the classes offish, above all those of large body, need
to be boiled lightly in boiling water, after scaling them and cutting them in pieces;
then clean them, after taking them out of the boiling water, and let the water drain
off; then cook them well in the tajine or other utensil.
From the flesh of fish is made all that is made with meat or fowl; it is made into
meatballs and ahrash [small patty]. You might have the fish covered in a pot in
the oven instead of [cooking] in the tajine, as do the people of Cordoba and
Seville, with the fish which they call shad and sturgeon.
[The Arabic word for shad is "shabal," borrowed from the Spanish sabalo.]
Recipe for Large Fish Such as Qabtun and Fahl and Those Similar to
Them
Take what is available of these [fish], scale, clean and cut up. Then boil lightly in
water and [then] put in the tajine.
Stuff the inside with a stuffing made of white breadcrumbs, pounded walnuts and
almonds and spices ground up and dissolved in rosewater.
Cover with thin bread and arrange [over] what is inside the pie on all sides. Then
pour over it a great deal of oil, to the height of the bread.
Then put in the oven and leave until the loaf is brown, and take care that it does
not burn.
Then take it out and throw away the bread on it [the bread was like a lid that
stopped the fish from burning] and leave to cool
This is one of the dishes of the Christians [literally, the Byzantines],
["Qabtun" is a word borrowed from Spanish meaning a fish with a large head; it
may well be the Spanish "capitan," grey mullet. "Fahl" means a stallion, clearly a
large fish.]
Green Tafaya [stew] of Fish

Scale large fish, cut up and boil.
Then wash and put in a tajine or a new pot and cover with juice of mint, juice of
fresh cilantro and onion juice, pepper, coriander seed, ginger and caraway. Pour
in plenty of oil, fennel chunks and meatballs made for it.
Put in the oven and leave until cooked and the sauce reduces.
Take out and leave a while then serve.
Basbasiyya, a Fennel Dish

Peel [fish] and do with it as before [boil and chop].
Put in a tajine or a pot and squeeze on it enough juice of pounded tender fennel
to cover it and onion juice, pepper, coriander seed and ginger. Pour on plenty of
oil, adjust salt and put in the oven.
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Cook until the sauce reduces a little.
White Tafaya [stew] of the Same

Take a large fish, cut up and boil a little.
Then wash with cold water and put in a clean pot and add pepper, cinnamon,
ginger, coriander seed and onion juice.
You can make meatballs made of its flesh and add peeled almonds and walnuts
with pine nuts steeped in rosewater or in fresh water.
Pour on plenty of oil.
Put in the oven and leave a while [to cook] until it dries and the sauce reduces
then take it out.
Recipe for Fish in the Style of Jimli

Take one of large size as indicated [a large fish], scaled, and keep overnight in
ground salt. Then wash in the morning and boil lightly.
Then arrange in the tajine and pour on two spoons of vinegar, one of muni naqV
[use soy sauce], three of oil and the meatballs made for it, pepper, saffron, cumin,
citron leaf, thyme, pine nuts, laurel leaf and celery seeds, garlic, cinnamon and a
little mastic. Put in the oven and leave until the top is brown.
Then take it out and turn the contents over from top to bottom, and put again in
the oven so that it browns on both sides and the sauce dries. Then take out.
Another Version of the Same

Take a fish, such as sarda [pilchard] or tardanis [red mullet] or some good fish
like them. Scale, slice and plunge in boiling water. Take out immediately and
wash with cold water.
Arrange in the tajine and throw in vinegar and a little murri naqf', pepper, saffron,
cinnamon, spikenard, galingale and a little mastic, citron leaves and pulped
prunes soaked in vinegar. Scatter over it chopped almonds and garlic cloves
wrapped in sprigs of thyme and plenty of oil.
Put in a moderate oven and leave until the sauce is dry and the top browns. Cook
a while and take out.
And you might make this dish in a pot instead of a tajine in the oven.
Dish made with Sarda [Pilchard], One of the Good Classes of Fish
Take what you have on hand of them, scale and cut up if large, or [if small] filet
them. Boil and wash.
Then fry in the pan with fresh oil until browned, and do not sprinkle with flour.
Then take out of the pan and put in a tajine. Pour on vinegar and of murri naqf’
[use soy sauce] a little, pepper, coriander seed, ginger, cinnamon, some cumin,
thyme, citron leaves, prunes soaked in vinegar and cover with plenty of oil.
Put in the oven and when the sauce has dried, take out and leave to cool and
use.
Recipe for Munashsha, a Dish Made with Starch

Take what fish you have on hand, scale and clean, and if large, cut up. Boil in
water with salt, then wash and put on a platter and remove the bones.
81
Take its flesh and pound until it is like the meat for meatballs. Then add a little
wheat flour [starch], pepper, coriander seed and cinnamon. Squeeze on mint
juice and mix it. Then [make it into the shape of a pilchard or some other type of
fish, or whatever shapes you like, and] sprinkle with flour.
Fry with fresh oil until browned and done. And when you have finished doing this,
make a sauce of vinegar, oil, garlic and cumin boiled together and pour it on.
Fish Murawwaj
Take whatever fish you like, scale, cut up, boil lightly in water with salt. Then leave
for the water to dry off.
Then take a tajine and put on a moderate fire. Pour in oil enough to cover the fish
and put a lid on it and shut it, and when the oil is boiling, put in the mentioned
pieces of boiled fish and leave to fry until browned. Then take it out of the oil and
set to one side.
Then take another tajine and put in it two parts of vinegar and less than one part
of murri naqf [use soy sauce], pepper, cumin, a little garlic and some thyme and
cinnamon. Cover with fresh oil and take it to a light fire. When it has boiled, take
the pieces of the fish and put them in it, [the fish that were] fried in oil, little by
little. Turn it over and leave it until the sauce dries and nothing remains but oil.
Take it down [from the fire] and leave until it cools.
Thus the people of Ceuta and of western al-Andalus used to do.
Mahshi of Mixed Fish

Take whatever you have of them [fish] and scale and cut in pieces. Boil with water
and salt. Remove and slice lengthwise. Take out the bones and remove the
spines.
Fry in the pan with fresh oil until browned, and, if small, like sardines, fry whole,
scaled and washed without boiling, and continue frying until they are browned
and lose their moistness and you see they are tender.
And leave [to drain], then return [with a clean tajine] and put in grated crumbs of
wheat bread or ground ka'k [biscuits, cookies], pepper, coriander seed, clove,
cinnamon, spikenard and saffron; add salt to taste, or murri naqf [use soy sauce]
in place of the salt, and sprinkle on chopped almonds and cover with plenty of oil.
Then put into it those pieces of fried fish prepared earlier and put in the oven and
leave till it sets and the top browns. Take out and leave until it cools and use.
Sprinkled Fish [batter fried fish]

Take what fish you have which are good and esteemed, scale and boil with water
and salt. Then take them out, wash and open the pieces as slabs [filets] and
remove from them whatever is there in the way of bones and spines.
Then take ground bread crumbs or wheat flour and add some egg, pepper,
coriander, cinnamon and spikenard. Beat it all together and roll the pieces of fish
in it one after the other. Then fry with fresh oil until browned and repeat several
times until browned and done [until all the fish is cooked].
Then make a sauce of oil, vinegar, a little murri [use soy sauce] and cumin. Boil
[it together] and throw it over [the fish].
There is another recipe for this also, which is: take the flesh of the fish, after
boiling and removing the bones. Pound [shred the fish] and add the said spices
82
and eggs. Beat it all together. And cover those bones which have preserved the
original shape, and make of them semblances of the fish as they were [cover the
removed fish skeleton with the fish paste to make a fish form]. Then fry until
brown. Put in the sauce you have made and the result is a different dish.

Take a large fish, like the qantun [scribal error for qabtun] and the fahl or one like
them.
Scale it and boil it in water and salt. Then take it out and remove the backbone
and the bones. Then pound it until it becomes like the meat of meatballs.
Add wheat flour or ground ka'k [biscuits, cookies] and the amount of egg needed
to bind with it and make it cohere, and pepper, coriander seed, spikenard,
cinnamon, some juice from a crushed onion, juice of mint, some juice of murri
naqf’ [use soy sauce] and oil. Beat it all together until it melts and blends.
Then you make ahrash [small patties] the width of a fist or less. Make meatballs
with it in the form of a fish. Fry all this in the frying pan with a lot of oil until it
browns.
Then boil a sauce of vinegar, oil and pounded garlic, that you pour on top.
Buraniyya of Fish
You make it with pieces of boiled fish, washed and fried, and fried eggplant, as
you make the buraniyya with lamb and fried eggplant, and the mentioned spices
likewise.
And similarly the muthallath offish is like the muthallath of meat, eggplant and
turnips, and its preparation is likewise.
[See the Chapter: Lamb and the Chapter: Generic Meats for these recipes, then
replace the meat with fish.]
Preparing Fish Roe

Take what you can of the roe of a big fish, boil it lightly and wash it.
If you want, leave it [as is] or cut it and put it in a stew pot with coriander seed,
pepper, cinnamon, ginger, some murri naqf and a quantity of oil. Break eggs into
it and mix it all,
Beat it and put it into the tannur [clay oven]. When it is cooked, take it out and let
it cool. Cut it in pieces and chop on top rue or mint. You might fry it in the frying
pan with oil; then put it in a sauce of vinegar and oil. And you might make it as a
rahibi, in the oven with onion and oil.
It is known that fish is slow to digest and not agreeable to those with phlegmatic
temperaments and moist bodies, but agreeable to those of hot and dry
temperaments. It is very quick to spoil if it is not digested much, unless you make
it, according to this mentioned recipe, with medicinal plants. It is prepared with
vinegar and murri naqV [use soy sauce] and covered with a quantity of oil after
boiling with water and salt, as indicated, until the scum [literally, phlegm] leaves
and it is easy to eat. After this you should use a little of syrups or thickened fruit
juice and so on that can mellow it, adjusting it to the temperament of the user, his
age and his custom.
A Pie of Sea or River Fish

Knead dough according to the recipe for cheese pie [See the Chapter: Breads],
83
And take fish, clean it inside and out, wash it, and drain the water.
Take onion juice and cilantro juice and mix in spices, pepper and myrobalan. Beat
it in a dish in which has been put a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce], another of
oil, and four eggs.
Put the fish in this dish, cover it with its crust [the dough] and send it into the oven.
He who wishes to make this without spices, makes a pie shell as large as the fish
and places the fish in it, throws in plenty of pepper, after greasing it with oil, covers
it, and sends it to the oven, God willing.
A Dish of Large Fish

Take pieces of a large fish, clean and put in a pot. Separate a piece from it to
make meatballs, and throw in [to the pot] a spoonful of strong vinegar, a spoonful
of bread murri [use soy sauce], a spoonful of oil, a whole onion, a head of garlic
separated [into cloves], fennel stalks, citron leaves, pepper, cinnamon, coriander,
a little cumin, caraway, a little water, and sufficient salt.
Put it in the oven until it is done.
During this time, make meatballs by the recipe witch they have been made
before, and throw them into the pot [Meatballs and Patties [Ahrash] of Fish],
Then take for [a] covering cold crumbs, some flour and eight eggs, and separate
some of their yolks to dot it with [cooked yolks for garnish later]. Beat the dough
[the crumbs and eggs] with pepper and cover the contents of the pot with this.
And when the surface of the dish is cooked, ladle it into a dish, garnish it with its
meatballs and egg yolks, sprinkle it with fine spices, and use it, God willing.
Making Fresh Fish with Eggs

Scale the fish, salt it, and arrange it in an earthen casserole [qaswila, cazuela],
having strained for it cilantro juice, and a little garlic, which you will pour on it, but
not enough to cover. Throw in oil and spices and put in the bread oven.
When it is done, break eggs in a platter, chop rue, sprinkle with a little pepper and
some spikenard minced fine and pour over the fish at the door of the oven [at a
lower heat]. And when it is done, eat with fine wheat flatbreads.
Tortoise or Mullet Pie

Simmer the tortoises [tortoise meat] lightly in water with salt, then remove from
the water.
And take a little murri [use soy sauce], pepper, cinnamon, a little oil, onion juice,
cilantro and a little saffron. Beat it all with eggs.
Arrange the tortoises or the mullets in the pie crust and throw over it the egg
filling.
The pastry for the pie should be kneaded strongly, and kneaded with some
pepper and oil, and greased [brush the top crust], when it is [nearly] done, with
the eggs and saffron [it makes it golden].
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Chapter 12
Sausage, Meatballs, Meat Patties, Meatloaf
Recipe for Mirkas [Merguez Sausage]
It is as nutritious as meatballs and since the pounding ripens it, makes it quick to
digest, and it is good nutrition. First get some meat from the leg or shoulder of a
lamb and pound it until it becomes like meatballs. Knead it in a bowl, mixing in
some oil and some murri naqV [use soy sauce], pepper, coriander seed,
lavender, and cinnamon. Then add three quarters as much of fat, which should
not be pounded, as it would melt while frying, but chopped up with a knife or
beaten on a cutting board.
Using the instrument made for stuffing, stuff it in the washed gut, tied with thread
to make sausages, small or large. Then fry them with some fresh oil, and when it
is done and browned, make a sauce of vinegar and oil and use it while hot. Some
people make the sauce with the juice of cilantro and mint and some ground onion.
Some cook it in a pot with oil and vinegar, some make it rahibi [meatloaf] with
onion and lots of oil until it is baked and browned. It is good whichever of these
methods you use.
[The Spanish albondiga, meaning "meatball," is from the Arabic al-bunduqa,
meaning "hazelnut," which suggests that the original meatballs were tiny. So you
should chop the meat finely.]
Mirkas with Fresh Cheese

Take some meat, carefully pounded as described earlier, add fresh cheese that
isn't too soft lest it fall apart, and half a piece of cut-up meat and some egg, for it
is what holds it together, and pepper, cloves, and dry coriander. Squeeze on it
some mint juice and cilantro juice [colors it green]. Beat it all and use it to stuff
the innards, which are tied with thread in the usual way. Then fry it with fresh oil,
as aforementioned, and eat it as by nibbling, without sauce, or however you like.
Recipe for an Extraordinary Sausage

Take a fat large intestine and turn it inside out. Then get eggs enough to fill it,
and break them into a large dish and add to them a bit of crushed onion, cloves,
pepper, oil, peeled almonds, both pounded and not pounded, and sugar
according to how much the diner likes sweetness. Mix all this and feed it into the
intestine with a funnel. Tie up the two ends with a thread and lower it into a slow
tannur [clay oven] and leave it until it is done and browned. Then take it out. And
you might fry it in a frying pan with fresh oil.
Recipe for Eggplant Mirkas

Peel the eggplants and boil in water and salt. Then take out of the water, squeeze
and pound with a spoon or in a wooden or stone mortar. Put in a dish and add
some murri naqV [use soy sauce], pepper, cinnamon, spikenard, onion juice,
coriander seed and a little egg, enough to bind it, and beat it all with enough
85
chopped fresh fat, as usual in other sausages; then fill with this the small intestine.
Cook it in a pan with fresh oil and eat hot, if you wish, with broth or without.

Take lamb's brains and clean them of their veins. Then take tender meat, such
as lamb's shoulder, and pound it fine in the stone [mortar]. Mix it with the cleaned
brains, insert into intestines [make a sausage of it] and cook them. Then take
them out and sprinkle them with powdered sugar, and if you add almonds or
crushed nuts at the beginning, it is better.

Take lamb's brains and add to them fresh clarified butter, eggs and fresh milk
with some sugar. Stuff them in intestines [make sausages] and hang them up.
For some rulers there have been prepared glass vessels that seem from their
shape to be tibias or other bones, and when [the stuffing] has just been mixed,
insert it into these receptacles.
Put it in a pot with water and salt and all that is necessary for the dish made with
it. Cook it until you know that the marrow has been done and thickened inside its
container, this can be seen from outside the glass.
Take it out and remove the dough from the tops of the containers. Empty what is
in them and serve it.
Meatball Dish
This dish is delicious and nutritious, and similar to the previous recipe. Take red,
tender meat [lamb], free of tendons, and pound it as in what preceded about
meatballs. Put the pounded meat on a platter and add a bit of the juice of a
pounded onion, some oil, murri naqV [use soy sauce], pepper, coriander, cumin,
and saffron. Add enough egg to bind the mixture, and knead until it is mixed, and
make large meatballs like pieces of meat, then set them aside.
Take a clean pot and put in it some oil, vinegar, a little bit of murri [use soy sauce],
garlic, and whatever quantity of spices is necessary to taste, and put it on the fire.
When it boils brown the meatballs in it, then let them cook for a while [covered],
and when it has finished cooking, set the container aside on the hearthstone and
cover the contents with some beaten egg, saffron, and pepper and let it congeal.
You might dye the dish as any variety of tafaya [stew], or any dish you want.
[Cilantro juice or mint juice was used make dishes green, saffron to make dishes
yellow, almonds to make dishes white.]
Recipe for Meatballs Used in Some Dishes, such as Tafaya [stew], Jimli,
and Others
And a notable dish might result from it, God willing. It is very nutritious, quick to
digest, fortifying, good for the scrawny and for the sick, the aged, and for weak
stomachs.
Take meat from the shoulder and the leg of a ram, without tendons or veins, and
pound it very hard. Add a little oil, pepper, cinnamon or lavender, a little onion
juice, a little salt, another little bit of egg and a little fine flour. [Knead until mixed.
Form into balls and fry in oil in a hot pan.]
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[Meatballs are used to garnish many dishes, even fish dishes.]
A Dish of Meatballs
Make meatballs, as told before, and put a pot on the fire. Put in it a spoon of
vinegar and another of murri [use soy sauce], spices, an onion pounded with
cilantro and salt, a little thyme, a clove of garlic and enough rue and fresh water
as needed until it is nearly done. Throw in the meatballs and dot with egg yolks.
Cover the contents of the pot with the whites mixed with whole pine nuts and
almonds. Ladle out and sprinkle with pepper, cinnamon and rue.
Another Dish of Meatballs

Make the meatballs, as told before, and they should be like tiny balls. Grill on the
spit with an even fire of hot coals until browned; then put them in the platter and
hew them into pieces and add seasoned murri [use soy sauce] and if you wish,
add much. If you wish to fry them, it is good, God willing.
A Similar Mutajjan with Meat Balls [meatball omelet]

Make meatballs, as told previously, and fry in fresh oil until brown. Then beat
eggs and throw them in and leave them until they set. Sprinkle with rue, then
throw in a spoon of vinegar and another of murri [use soy sauce] and the same
of water, all that having been boiled in the frying pan. And if the tajine is made
separately, arrange the meatballs with the broth on the platter and pour over them
the contents of the tajine, and it is good, and sprinkle it with rue, God willing.

Pound the [chicken] meat until it becomes like brains, and pick out its tendons.
use them.
Preparation of Meatballs from Any Meat You Wish

Take meat cleaned of tendons and add to it some fat and pound all until it
becomes like brains, and pick out its tendons. And throw on it murri [use soy
sauce], oil, spices and onions pounded with cilantro and salt, or the juices of this,
and some fine flour, a little water and eggs. Pound all until mixed. Put a pot of
broth on the fire, and when it boils, throw into it meatballs and cook until done.
Take out and serve, God willing. And if it is fried in a pan with oil, it is also good,
God willing.
Recipe for Making Ahrash [Fried Flattened Meatballs]

This is similar in nutrition to mirkas [sausages] and meatballs. Take a piece of
tender meat [lamb or calf], free of tendons, and pound it fine, as previously
described for mirkas [sausages]. Knead it with some murri [use soy sauce] and a
mixture of oil, pepper, cinnamon, and coriander seed. The secret of this recipe
lies in adding some fine white flour, which holds the mixture together so that it
becomes a flat loaf [raghtf\.
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Then put frying pan with oil over a moderate fire and form the loaf into meatballs
[using a spoon], and arrange them in the pan [flatten them slightly with the back
of the spoon] so that the ahrash all touch, leaving them until done, and turn them
so that they brown all over. Then make a sauce with vinegar, oil, garlic, a little
murri naqV [use soy sauce], and whoever wants to may add sinab [a sauce of
mustard sweetened with raisins or honey],
A Type of Ahrash [small meat patty]

This is the recipe used by Sayyid Abu al-Hasan and others in Morocco, and they
called it isfiriya [small meat patty]. Take red lamb, pound it vigorously and season
it with some murri naqV [use soy sauce], vinegar, oil, pounded garlic, pepper,
saffron, cumin, coriander, lavender, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, chopped lard, and
meat with all the gristle removed and pounded and divided, and enough egg to
combine the whole.
Make small round patties out of them about the size of a palm or smaller, and fry
them in a pan with a lot of oil until they are browned. Then make for them a sauce
of vinegar, oil, and garlic, and leave some of it without any sauce; it is very good.
Recipe for Making Ahrash [small meat patty]

Pound well meat from the two legs, the shoulder and the like. Throw in some
sifted flour, a head of garlic peeled and pounded with salt, pepper, cumin,
coriander and caraway, and let the pepper predominate, and some good murri
[use soy sauce], and beat all this well with five eggs or as many as it will bear [to
bind it].
Then take coarse fat, as much of this as of the pounded meat or more, and cut
up fine and mix with the pounded meat. And if rue is cut into it, good. Then make
it into meatballs and fry it [flattening it with a spoon]; and the same recipe can be
made for the meat of mirkas [sausage], except that the egg is left out from it, God
willing.

Take a large fish, like the qantun [scribal error for qabtun] and the fahl or one like
them, scale it and boil it in water and salt, then take it out and remove the
backbone and the bones, then pound it until it becomes like the meat of meatballs.
Add wheat flour or ground ka'k [biscuits, cookies] and the amount of egg needed
to bind with it and make it cohere, and pepper, coriander seed, spikenard,
cinnamon, some juice from a crushed onion, juice of mint, some juice of murri
naqV [use soy sauce] and oil, beat it all together until it melts and blends.
Then you make ahrash [small patties] the size of a fist or less; make meatballs
with it in the form of a fish, fry all this in the frying pan with a lot of oil until it
browns, then boil a sauce of vinegar, oil and pounded garlic, that you pour on top.
A Recipe of Isfiriya [small meat patty]

Take some red meat and pound as before. Put it in some water and add some
sour dough dissolved with as much egg as the meat will take, and salt, pepper,
saffron, cumin, and coriander seed, and knead it all together. Then put a pan with
fresh oil on the fire, and when the oil has boiled, add a spoon of isfiriya [batter]
and pour it in the frying pan carefully so that it forms thin cakes. Then make a
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sauce for it.
To Make Isfiriya [small meat patty]

Pound the flesh of a leg [of lamb] until it is like brains. Remove the sinews and
throw in pepper, half a spoon of honey, a little oil, as much as is needed, and a
little water.
Mix all smoothly with flour and do not neglect to pound it, and do not slacken in
this, because it will cool and be ruined.
Grease a pan with oil or fat. Make the pounded meat into small patties and fry in
the pan. If there be with the meat almonds or walnuts or apples, it will be superb,
God willing.
Isfiriya [small meat patty] in the Manner of the Market Folk

Pound the meat of a leg [of lamb] when it is flayed, before it cools and after cutting
it into strips, when it stops steaming. Remove its sinews, until nothing remains in
it. Throw in, while pounding, a little salt.
When it is done, take what you need of sifted flour, mix with water and knead with
the hand until it is mixed. Throw in oil and also a little honey and break into it
eggs. Stir it smooth and throw it with the meat in the brass mortar and stir in the
mortar very vigorously. Add water little by little until it becomes light, and work it
so that it does not cool and spoil.
Then clean a frying pan and smear with oil. Then take the meat out of the mortar
and put small round cakes of it in the pan and arrange the pan on the fire. And
when you think it is going strongly, throw in a little oil and turn the pan so that the
oil goes between and under the meat-cakes. And check that you stir it by the
sides with a skewer so that it does not burn. Then turn until done and brown it, if
you want it brown. Or do it in another manner as most people do: dash cold water
on to the pan, then spread with oil, as you did the first time and use it as you
please.
Make sausage in the same way as you make isfiriya [small meat patty]. Reduce
the amount of water and increase the amount of eggs. Remove the meat to the
platter and leave it till it sets. And add fat to the weight of a third of the meat and
throw in pepper and chopped rue and be at it all [knead it] until it mixes.
Clean the gut [the sausage skins] and fill with the meat and fat mixture, and tie in
the lengths you wish [sausages]. Throw into boiling water until hard [cooked].
Take them out and put in cold water so that it does not turn black. Fry the sausage
after this, God willing.

Take a leg of lamb, cut it small and put in the pot. Throw in a spoon of murri [use
soy sauce], finely chopped onion, coriander and cilantro, pepper and a spoon of
oil. Put on the fire.
Take some lamb meat and chop finely and throw in pepper, coriander and
cilantro, caraway and onion, all of this pounded, and throw into the pounded meat
half a spoon of murri [use soy sauce] and half of oil. Make meatballs from this
[retain some for the sausages], and put them in the pot and throw in three
chopped eggs.
Take what is left of the ground meat and take gut [sausage skins] of lamb and put
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the filling in it and make of this large sausages. [Put in the pot.]
Pound cilantro well and break over it two eggs, and cover the pot with this
[mixture] and put it on the hearthstone [to cook at a lower heat].
When it is done, dish it up and serve it, God willing.
The Making of Qadus [meatloaf]

Take the meat of a goat kid, from its side and its stomach, a piece from the navel,
from the liver, and from the tender parts of the meat in the amount of a quarter
rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb]. Cut it in small pieces and put them in a pot in which you
have thrown everything that is in jimliyya, to the letter, and let there not be much
sauce. Cook it until the meat is done.
When it is done, take it to a cutting-board and cut it up fine as for sanbusak and
finer. Put it in a dish and ladle some of the fat in which you cooked it before, and
throw it on top. Then season it with spices, such as pepper, Chinese cinnamon
[cassia], galingale, lavender and the like. Break three eggs over it, beat it well,
and salt to taste.
Then take the qadus [a special cooking pot] and throw in oil, and turn it until it
coats all. Get all the yolk of a raw egg and put it in the bottom of the qadus. Take
the stuffing, as it is, and put it into the qadus over the egg yolk, gently so as not
to break the yolk. Then [cover it and] boil it [set it in a pot of boiling water] until
you think the stuffing has bound and browned well on all sides; and keep taking
care that it not burn and ruin its flavor and become hard to separate from the
qadus.
Then take off the lid and pour over the qadus the amount of one spoonful of strong
vinegar, and boil it little by little until its boiling settles down.
Then put it in water until it cools. And turn it over onto a clay dish on its mouth,
and shake it until it comes away from the qadus and remains stiff in the middle of
the lid, with the yolk on top of it, and present it, God willing.
A Qadus with Meatballs [meatloaf with meatballs]

Make meatballs, in the way that they are made, with onion juice, a little cilantro
juice, murri [use soy sauce] and spices. Beat them with egg white and make
meatballs of the minced meat.
Then take a small, new pot, put in crushed onion with cilantro, salt, two spoonfuls
of vinegar and one of the best murri [use soy sauce], pine-nuts, a dirham [1
dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of Chinese cinnamon [cassia], pepper, cinnamon, spices
and a little water. Take this to the fire until it boils gently.
Then throw the meatballs into the pot and boil them until most of the water is
gone. Then cover the contents of the pot with two eggs mixed with breadcrumbs
and put on the egg yolk and cook until the mixture thickens.
Then take the qadus [a special cooking pot] and put oil on it. Pound some meat
well, as prescribed for the meatballs, with cilantro juice, and beat it with water,
two or three eggs and a little white flour. Put a little of this in the qadus and take
out the meatballs from the pot and put them in the qadus over the ground meat
and put on top of the rest of the ground meat.
Cover it with a lid and watch the cooking carefully. When it is browned, put the
qadus in cold water until it has cooled. Then empty it into a dish and throw the
sauce and the remaining stuffing over and around it, and cut rue-leaves over it,
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sprinkle with pepper, cinnamon, and Chinese cinnamon [cassia], and serve it.

This dish [meatloaf] is made in various ways and it is necessary that its taste be
improved with the smell of onions, which is sweetened with a syrup of sugared
roses. Also it is made with syrups of fruits such as pomegranates, apples or
grapes, and at times it is moistened with vinegar and preserved prunes. And there
are some who are accustomed to make it with the flesh of animals very fat and
the same as in the murri dish. The cooking of these two dishes is not good and
not tasty unless cooked in the bread oven. These recipes mentioned have
sweetness and acidity. They make fragrant scents and give color and make
saffron unnecessary.
How to Make Rahibi [Meatloaf]

Take very fat young meat from the good, fat parts and from the neck of its paunch
[of a sheep or calf] and put, cleaned and cut up, in the pot with salt, pepper,
coriander seed and a lot of oil. Put on a moderate fire, and when it is nearly done,
take it off and leave it.
Then cut up as much onion as you need and put in another pot with water to
cover and cook till done. Then remove its water and put it on a platter and rub
with a spoon or pound in a wooden or stone mortar until disintegrated.
Then add it to the meat in its pot. Add what you need of oil and more, pepper,
ginger, saffron, spikenard, cinnamon and rose preserve or some of the syrups.
Cook with a lid on and put in the bread oven and leave a while until the sauce
dries, it is brown on top and most of the grease rises.
Take it out and leave a while to cool and use.

Take fat meat, as told earlier, and prepare as before. And when the meat is done,
squeeze over it the juice of a grated onion and add the aforementioned
concentrate of pomegranates, rose preserve and put in the bread oven, with
admirable results.

Take the meat as I have indicated, and when it is almost done, take a cut up
onion and put in a pierced couscous pot [the colander that forms the upper part
of a couscousiere]. Put the meat in a pot and cover it with the onion in the
colander covered with a lid. Leave this while the juice from the onion drips into
the pan of meat.
When the liquid is all gone and it is dry, throw [out] the remains [of the onion] and
finish cooking, either in the house or in the [community] bread oven, after adding
the things [syrups and spices] we have mentioned.
Rahibi [Meatloaf] in a Tajine [round clay casserole]

Take the fattest parts of sheep or calf, as I have told you [cleaned and cut up],
and put in the pot with salt, spices and oil. Cook until almost done and take down
[from the fire]. Then take an onion of great size and cook it alone [in water] and
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whole in its own pot, without cutting it. And when it is done, pour off the water it
was cooked in, pierce the sides of the onion and put it with the cooked meat in
the tajine. Add what has been mentioned of spices and pomegranate
concentrate. Cover it with a lot of oil and put in the bread oven, and leave it there
until it is done. Then leave it until dry and brown on its upper part and take it out.
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Chapter 13
Lamb Dishes
Recipe for a Good Dish
Joint a lamb and after washing it put it in a clean pot and throw in coriander seed,
caraway, two spoons of oil and three of perfumed wine and enough water and
salt, sprigs of fennel and citron leaves. Cut up five onions and also peel five cloves
of garlic and throw all of this over the meat with some garbanzos.
Put the pot to a moderate fire until it is done. Then put on the embers [move to a
lower heat to keep warm].
With a spoon mash vigorously the onions and garlic until they have the
consistency of brains. Then cover [the dish] with a little flour and four or five eggs
and cook the yolks in it [do not beat the eggs]. Grind some cumin and pepper,
and throw in the pot with some seasoned murri [use soy sauce] and leave a little
until its face shows [until the egg cooks].
Then dish up and sprinkle with spices, decorate with the [cooked] egg yolks and
serve.
Fresh [Green] Beans With Meat, Called Fustuqiyya [Pistachio]

Take the flesh of a young sheep or lamb, preferably from the forelegs, the durra,
the jaus and the 'anqara [parts of a sheep] and after washing put in the pot with
two spoons of fresh oil and water to cover the meat. Put on the fire.
Then take a handful of fresh beans which have been shelled from their pods and
throw over the meat. When it is cooked, take out the meat.
Then mash the beans vigorously with a spoon until none of them is left whole.
Then pour in the pot a spoon of vinegar, another of fish murri [use soy sauce or
fermented fish sauce] and some salt, however much is enough [to taste]. Then
throw the meat in the pot and cook a little [to absorb the flavors of the been
sauce].
Then take it to the embers [lower the heat] until its face appears [until cooks], dish
up and use.
To Make Isfiriya [small meat patty]

Pound the flesh of a leg [of lamb] until it is like brains. Remove the sinews and
throw in pepper, half a spoon of honey, a little oil, as much as is needed, and a
little water.
Mix all smoothly with flour and do not neglect to pound it, and do not slacken in
this, because it will cool and be ruined.
Grease a pan with oil or fat. Make the pounded meat into small patties and fry in
the pan. If there be with the meat almonds or walnuts or apples, it will be superb,
God willing.
Isfiriya [small meat patty] in the Manner of the Market Folk

Pound the meat of a leg [of lamb] when it is flayed, before it cools and after cutting
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it into strips, when it stops steaming. Remove its sinews, until nothing remains in
it. Throw in, while pounding, a little salt.
When it is done, take what you need of sifted flour, mix with water and knead with
the hand until it is mixed. Throw in oil and also a little honey and break into it
eggs. Stir it smooth and throw it with the meat in the brass mortar and stir in the
mortar very vigorously. Add water little by little until it becomes light, and work it
so that it does not cool and spoil.
Then clean a frying pan and smear with oil. Then take the meat out of the mortar
and put small round cakes of it in the pan and arrange the pan on the fire. And
when you think it is going strongly, throw in a little oil and turn the pan so that the
oil goes between and under the meat-cakes. And check that you stir it by the
sides with a skewer so that it does not burn. Then turn until done and brown it, if
you want it brown. Or do it in another manner as most people do: dash cold water
on to the pan, then spread with oil, as you did the first time and use it as you
please.
Make sausage in the same way as you make isfiriya [small meat patty]. Reduce
the amount of water and increase the amount of eggs. Remove the meat to the
platter and leave it till it sets. And add fat to the weight of a third of the meat and
throw in pepper and chopped rue and be at it all [knead it] until it mixes.
Clean the gut [the sausage skins] and fill with the meat and fat mixture, and tie in
the lengths you wish [sausages]. Throw into boiling water until hard [cooked].
Take them out and put in cold water so that it does not turn black. Fry the sausage
after this, God willing.

Take a leg of lamb, cut it small and put in the pot. Throw in a spoon of murri [use
soy sauce], finely chopped onion, coriander and cilantro, pepper and a spoon of
oil. Put on the fire.
Take some lamb meat and chop finely and throw in pepper, coriander and
cilantro, caraway and onion, all of this pounded, and throw into the pounded meat
half a spoon of murri [use soy sauce] and half of oil. Make meatballs from this
[retain some for the sausages], and put them in the pot and throw in three
chopped eggs.
Take what is left of the ground meat and take gut [sausage skins] of lamb and put
the filling in it and make of this large sausages. [Put in the pot.]
Pound cilantro well and break over it two eggs, and cover the pot with this
[mixture] and put it on the hearthstone [to cook at a lower heat].
When it is done, dish it up and serve it, God willing.
Roast Lamb
Take a skinned lamb, clean the inside.
Gather the innards, after cleaning, mix them with grease and wrap up in fine gut
[make sausages], [Cook separately.]
Then stuff the inside of the lamb with small birds and starlings, fried and stuffed
as was explained before. [See the Chapter: Other Fowl Dishes.]
Sew it up, put in a tajine large enough to hold it and pour on it the sauce, according
to the preceding, with cilantro juice and oil.
Put it in the oven and leave it until it is done, take it out and present it.
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Lamb Roast Badf'i
Take a plump, cleaned lamb, whose opening is narrow.
Then take the meat of another lamb and cut it in small pieces and put it in a pot
with salt, pepper, coriander, saffron, cinnamon, lavender and oil. Put it over a
moderate fire until it is done.
Then add the tender [cooked] meat, eggs [raw], grated crumbs and whatever
spices are wanting and fill inside of the lamb with all this. [Sew it closed.] Place it
in a heated tannur [clay oven], as in the preceding.
When it is done, take it out. If the lamb is very small, put it in a tajine, as has been
explained before.
Ram Roast with Its Skin

Take a plump ram and take out what is in it [gut it], as it is, in its skin, through a
narrow cut. The put it in a tub or kettle, pour boiling water on it, and pluck the wool
so that none of it remains in the skin.
Then get what was taken from inside it, clean it and make of it a stuffing and cook
with spices, oil and a bit of murri naqV [use soy sauce] and return it into the inside
of the ram, after mixing it with egg and spices and whatever you wish. Sew up
the belly and the neck and any other openings so that no place remains for the
fat to run out. Place it in the tannur [clay oven] and leave it until it is done [cooked].
Then take it out and cut it in pieces with a sharp knife and sprinkle it with ground
salt, pepper, and cinnamon.
A Dish of Auhashi of Fat Ram

Cut the meat up small. Put [into a pot] a spoonful of vinegar, two spoonfuls of
murri [use soy sauce], a spoonful of oil, an onion pounded with cilantro, salt,
spices, pepper, a little cinnamon and the same of whole fennel [raziyanaj], rue
leaves and three heads of garlic, and cook it all until done.
Take out as much meat as you want and pound with bread crumbs and two
[boiled, chopped] eggs, and cover the pot with it [this makes a crust on top]. And
sprinkle with lavender, Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and pepper, and serve.
Roast Lamb, which was made for the Sayyid Abu al-'Ala in Ceuta
[Governor and admiral of Ceuta, son of the Almohada Caliph Yusuf I. This dish
is more than roast lamb! It is a calf stuffed with a lamb stuffed with various birds
stuffed with smaller various birds. It is a Russian doll dish!]
Take a young, plump lamb, skinned and cleaned. Make a narrow opening
between the thighs and carefully take out everything inside of it of its entrails.
Then put in the interior a roasted goose and into its belly a roasted hen and in the
belly of the hen a roasted pigeon and in the belly of the pigeon a roasted starling
and in the belly of this a small bird, roasted or fried. All this is roasted and greased
with the sauce described for
roasting. Sew up this opening and place the ram in a hot tannur [clay oven] and
Paint it with that sauce and then place it in the body cavity of a calf which has
been prepared clean. Sew it up and place it in the hot tannur [clay oven] and
Then take it out and present it.
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Roast Ram Breast [flank]
Pound a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of meat in a stone mortar and add the same amount
of cut-up fat, a little onion and both cilantro and coriander and cheese [soft, fresh
cheese] and almonds, a large handful of shelled and pounded walnuts, and some
murri naqf’ [use soy sauce] to moderate its taste. Add to it Chinese cinnamon
[cassia], pepper, ginger. Pound all this with the meat until it is mixed, and knead
it until uniform.
Then take a breast of plump ram and cleave it between the ribs and the meat,
and fill it with the stuffing. Then sew it up with gut or palm leaves and smear the
breast with oil and sprinkle it with ground starch. Hang it in a tannur [clay oven]
and shut it [shut the oven to roast the meat].
When it is ready, take it out and present it. It is a good roast.
Another Kind of Lamb Breast

Get the breast of a plump lamb. Pierce it between the meat and the ribs, so that
the hand and fingers can fit in.
Then get a large handful each of peeled almonds and hazelnuts, and a dirham [1
dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] each of Chinese cinnamon [cassia], lavender, cloves,
saffron and pepper, and a little salt. Pound all this and mix it with breadcrumbs
and knead it with oil, and knead until it thickens and can be used as a stuffing.
[Put the stuffing between the meat and the ribs.] When it is stuffed, sew up the
breast with clean gut and hang it in a tannur [clay oven]. Set under it an earthen
pot into which what melts from the breast can drip.
When it is done take it out.
Another Extraordinarily Good Lamb Breast

Take the breast of a plump lamb and cook it in vinegar until it is done. Then take
it out and leave it to dry.
Then take a wide frying pan and pour in fresh oil, juice of cilantro, mint, thyme
and a whole, cleaned onion. When its flavor is discernible [a sauce is made], take
it [the whole onion] out of the oil and put in the lamb. Fry [the meat] until the sides
are browned.
Then sprinkle with murri naqf’ [use soy sauce], sprinkle with cinnamon and cut it
up. You might do it in the oven [instead, a roast in the sauce].
Dish of Lamb With Truffles

Cut the meat small and boil with onion juice, pepper and salt. When the water
[moisture] and the salt [chunks] have disappeared [dissolved], throw in the pot
washed, chopped truffles.
When the truffles are cooked, sprinkle the pot with a little murri [use soy sauce].
After breaking into it what eggs you want [chopped hard boiled eggs]; dish it up
and sprinkle with cinnamon and chopped rue.
Stuffing Lamb with Cheese

Empty its interior of everything in it, and clean it, and cut off its extremities and
put them aside. Then take its small intestine and make small clean 'usbas
[sausage sacks] of it. Turn the large intestine inside out and clean it and cut it
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small.
Then take enough cheese for the lamb, and crumble some of it and prepare as
for a mujabbana [cheese pastry, meaning knead it]. Flavor the cheese with much
pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], cilantro juice, onion juice, bits of
mint and as many eggs as it will take, and beat gently. [This is a stuffing.]
And cut its pieces of meat [from the extremities] like small cubes or bigger. Insert
the stuffing into the lamb [retain some] with the tendons and cut-up gut.
Puncture the meat and peel its skin back and insert pieces of cheese under it.
And put stuffing around them [the pieces of cheese] as well. Beat the remaining
stuffing with eggs and add flavorings with cilantro juice and throw it over the lamb
in a big tajine.
Heat the tannur [clay oven], and when it's hot, remove the coals and put them
down on the hearthstone. Sprinkle with a little water, then put the vessel in the
tannur [clay oven], put the tajine in it. Seal the tannur [clay oven] with clay.
Open its lower aperture to check the meat, and when it is browned and done,
remove and put in a big bowl and serve. And if it is cooked in the bread oven, it
also comes out good.
Dish of Chestnuts with Lamb

Take meat of a lamb or tough meat and cut a piece of the leg in small chunks.
Add to it the same amount of chestnuts [meats] and put it in the pot. Throw in salt
and put it over the coals [to cook].
And when it [is ready, let it rest on the platter a moment] when it is on the platter,
and then serve, God willing.
The making of Badf'i, the Remarkable Dish

Take the meat of a very plump lamb and cut it in small pieces and put them in a
pot with a little salt, a piece of onion, coriander, lavender, saffron and oil, and
cook it halfway.
Then take fresh cheese, not too soft in order that it will not fall apart, cut it with a
knife into slices approximately the size of the palm, and place them in a dish.
Color them [yellow] with saffron, sprinkle them with lavender and turn them until
they are colored on all sides.
Place them with the cooked meat in the pot or in a tajine and add eggs beaten
with saffron, lavender and cinnamon, as necessary, and bury in it whole egg yolks
and cover with plenty of oil and with the fat of the cooked meat.
Place it in the oven and leave it until the sauce is dry and the meat is completely
cooked and the upper part makes a crust.
Take it out, leave it a while until its heat passes and it is cool, and then use it.
Recipe for Barmakiyya [meat pie]

It is made with a hen, pigeons, doves, small birds or lamb.
Take what you have of them, after cleaning, and cut up and put in a pot with salt,
an onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or cinnamon, some murri naqV [use
soy sauce], and oil. Put it on a gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce is
dried. Take it out and fry it in fresh oil without overdoing it, and leave it aside.
Then take fine flour and semolina. Make a well-made dough with leaven, and if it
has some oil it will be more flavorful.
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Then roll out from it a flatbread and put inside it the fried and cooked meat of
these birds, cover it with another flatbread and seal the ends together. Put it in
the oven, and when the bread is done, take it out.
It is very good on journeys. You might make it with fish and that can be used for
journeying too.
Stuffed Lamb Breast in the Oven

Place the stuffed breast in a big pot and cover it with water with one spoonful of
vinegar, half a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce], one of oil, a whole onion, fennel
stalks, citron leaves, pepper, cinnamon, caraway, a little cumin and coriander, all
this being ground.
Cook all this until it is completely cooked, and take it down to the euphorbia
embers [lower heat]. Cover it with cold breadcrumbs and five eggs, and dot the
pot with some of the yolks.
And when this is cooked, take it to a dish and arrange egg yolks on it, sprinkle
with spices and present it, God the Most High willing.
A Dish With Prunes [Ijjas]

Take fat young lamb, cut it up and put it in a pot with salt, pepper, coriander, a
little cumin, saffron, and sufficient vinegar and oil. Put it on the fire.
When it is almost done, throw in "cow's eyes" [prunes] candied and steeped in
vinegar. Cook it in the pot.
Then cover the contents of the pot and leave it until its surface is cold and
clarified. Then serve it into a dish, break egg yolks and garnish the dish with them
and with meatballs, sprinkle with fine spices and present it.
If you wish to put in place of mint juice the juice of rue, celery or clove basil, from
each of these will come another dish.
Baqliyya Mukarrara [spinach and lamb]

Cut up young fat lamb meat and put in the pot with salt, onion, pepper, coriander
seed, caraway and oil. Put on a moderate fire.
When the meat is ready, take spinach, wash and chop finely, soak in water and
wash until its greenness and blackness come out. Set it aside until it falls apart
[dries a bit] then drain the water out of it and place it with the meat and squeeze
in the juice of moist coriander.
When it has finished cooking, take to the hearthstone for a while [lower the heat]
and then
serve.
You might add cooked meatballs, and if you have no spinach, make it with
saltwort [yarbuz], qataf [greens], Swiss chard leaves, lettuce or chicory from the
garden.
A Baqliyya of Ziryab's
[Ziryab was a famous arbiter of elegance during the caliphate of 'Abd al-Rahman
II, in Cordoba. 'Abd al-Rahman II became Caliph in 822.]
Take the flesh of a young fat lamb, put in the pot with salt, onion, coriander seed,
pepper, caraway, two spoons of oil and one of murri naqV [use soy sauce]. Put
on a moderate fire/
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Then take cabbage, its tender parts. Take off the leaves and chop small with the
heads, wash. When the meat is almost done, add the cabbage.
Then pound red meat from its tender parts and beat in the bowl with eggs and
the crumb [that is, everything but the crust] of bread, almonds, pepper, coriander
and caraway.
Cover the pot with this little by little and leave on the coals until the sauce dries
and the grease comes to the top [the meat topping cooks and juice from below
seeps up]. Serve.

This is a good food for the feverish. It excites the appetite, strengthens the
stomach and prevents stomach vapors from rising to the head [indigestion].
Take the flesh of a young fat lamb or calf and cut in small pieces. Put it in a pot
with salt, pepper, coriander seed, saffron, oil and a little water. Put it on a low fire
until the meat is done.
Then take as much as you need of cleaned peeled quince, cut in fourths, and
sharp vinegar, juice of unripe grapes [verjuice] or of pressed quince and cook this
with the meat for a while and use.
If you wish, cover with eggs [beaten eggs cooked to set over the top of the dish]
and it comes out like muthallath.

Take meat as mentioned in the recipe for safarjaliyya and prepare the same way.
[Take the flesh of a young fat lamb or calf and cut in small pieces. Put it in a pot
until the meat is done.]
Then add tart apples, peeled and cleaned, as many as needed, cut in fourths.
Cook this with the meat. And when you take it to the hearthstone [when it is done],
put in a little sugar, and cut with musk and camphor dissolved in good rose water.
The acidity is most efficacious in lightening and strengthening the heart and it can
be made with the flesh of birds, such as fat hens or young squabs of the domestic
dove or stock-dove and then it will be finer and better.
Preparing Tuffahiyya [Apple Stew] with Eggplants [and lamb]

Take three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of lamb, cut up and put in the pot with onion,
salt, coriander, pepper, ginger, cinnamon and four uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of
oil. Let it evaporate in the pot on the fire, until it gives up its water. Then cover
with juice pressed from apples and cook [some more].
When the meat is done, put in eggplants peeled and boiled separately, and whole
peeled apples without cutting them up, and prepared meatballs.
Then add some of the meat, pounded and mixed with some eggs and cover the
dish with it, and leave it to rest on the hearthstone [a lower heat], [The topping
cooks, as described above. Then serve.]
A Pie [Mukhabbazah] of Lamb

Make meatballs of lamb with all the spices and flavorings, beat them with egg
white, and put into the pot a spoonful of oil, cilantro juice, a spoonful of onion juice
and half a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce], and pepper, cinnamon, Chinese
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cinnamon [cassia], a handful of pine- nuts, coriander, a little caraway and a
spoonful of water.
Cook until the meatballs stiffen, and cook the sauce and boil two eggs in it, then
cover [the contents of the pot with eggs and breadcrumbs] and take it out to the
hearthstone [a lower heat] until [the egg layer] wrinkles.
Knead a dough with white flour, water and oil. Prepare a crust dough of this [line
a pan], and put in the meatballs and the boiled eggs, after splitting, and put all the
filling inside this. Then cover it with a sheet of dough made in the same manner.
Fasten it closed and send it to the oven until it is done
Then present it, God willing.
Recipe for the Roast of Kings

Take half a lamb with its breast, sprinkle it with three dirham [1
cf/r/7a/77=3.9g/3/4tsp] of pepper and as much of caraway, three spoonfuls of
water and a stalk of fennel, two spoonfuls of oil and as much of murri [use soy
sauce], some Chinese cinnamon [cassia], some thyme, four beaten eggs and
sufficient salt. [Put it in a roasting pan.] Put the lid on the pan and send it to the
oven.
When it is done and browned, present it and it has an extremely good aroma.
Simple White Tafaya [stew], Called Isfidhbaja

This is a dish of moderate nutrition, suitable for weak stomachs, much praised for
increasing the blood, good for the healthy and the scrawny; it is material and
substance for all kinds of dishes.
Take the meat of a young, plump lamb. Cut it in little pieces and put it in a clean
pot with salt, pepper, coriander, a little juice of pounded onion, a spoonful of fresh
oil and a sufficient amount of water. Put it over a gentle fire and be careful to stir
it; put in meatballs and some peeled, split almonds. When the meat is done and
has finished cooking, set the pot on the ashes until it is cooled.
He who wants this tafaya [stew] green can give it this color with cilantro juice
alone or with a little mint juice.
Recipe for White Tafaya [stew]

Take the meat of a young, tender lamb, cut it in little pieces and put it in the pot
with salt, coriander, pepper, a little onion juice, and what oil is necessary. Put it
on a gentle fire and fry it with its oil and spices; then add enough water.
Remove the fat [lower] intestine and offal from the intestines [to make a sausage
skin], tie their lower part and put a peeled, boiled egg in the tied intestine, and put
over this balls of ground meat, improved with spices. Then put on top of this
another egg, and a morsel of the meat, until it is full to the top. Tie the mouth and
put it in the pot, and finish cooking the tafaya.
When it is done, take out the intestine and brown it in a frying pan with fresh oil.
Then ladle out the tafaya [stew], if you like it covered with beaten eggs or plain,
and cut up the offal [the egg-stuffed sausage] with a sharp knife and dot the tafaya
[stew] with the pieces. It must have meatballs and split almonds added.
Sprinkle it with cinnamon and lavender and present it. And if you wish, make it
green with cilantro juice alone or with a bit of mint juice.
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Recipe for White Tafaya [stew] with Almonds
Cook a white tafaya [stew] with the meat of a fat lamb, as above, and when the
meat is done, take peeled, pounded almonds and put them with rosewater, to
thicken the cooked tafaya [stew] with this and to make it whiter. It is necessary to
have meatballs [served with this], and this is a magnificent and regal dish.
Recipe for Fried Tafaya [stew], Which Was Known in Morocco as

Tahashast
Get young, fat meat and cut it in little pieces. Fry it in a clean pot with salt, pepper,
coriander, a little onion, a spoonful of oil and a little water. Stir it until the water is
gone, the oil hot, the meat done and browned. This is similar to the preceding.
Another Kind of Tafaya [stew]: the Eastern Style

Take the belly, small intestine, peritoneum, the meat of the chest and the tail and
the fatty parts [of a lamb], cut it into the pot and add salt, onion, pepper, coriander,
onion, and rue. Put it on the fire. Cut up some belly with meat, and make it into
small, well-formed sausages and add it to the rest and cook it.
When it is finished cooking, present it, God willing. If this dish is made with
vinegar, the result is admirable and is a different dish.

Take lamb's brains and clean them of their veins. Then take tender meat, such
as lamb's shoulder, and pound it fine in the stone [mortar]. Mix it with the cleaned
brains, insert into intestines [make a sausage of it] and cook them. Then take
them out and sprinkle them with powdered sugar, and if you add almonds or
crushed nuts at the beginning, it is better.

Take lamb's brains and add to them fresh clarified butter, eggs and fresh milk
with some sugar. Stuff them in intestines [make sausages] and hang them up.
For some rulers there have been prepared glass vessels that seem from their
shape to be tibias or other bones, and when [the stuffing] has just been mixed,
insert it into these receptacles.
Put it in a pot with water and salt and all that is necessary for the dish made with
it. Cook it until you know that the marrow has been done and thickened inside its
container, this can be seen from outside the glass.
Take it out and remove the dough from the tops of the containers. Empty what is
in them and serve it.

This used to be made in Cordoba in the spring by the doctor Abu al-Hasan al-
Bunani, God have mercy on him and pardon us and him.
Take the meat of a fat lamb, cut it and put it in the pot with salt, onion juice,
pepper, coriander seed, caraway and oil. Put it on the fire and when it has cooked,
put in it chopped and washed spinach in sufficient quantity, grated moist cheese
[a soft, fresh cheese] and butter.
When it has cooked, take the pot off the fire and add more butter. Let there be
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crumbs of bread moderately leavened [add the crumbs to the liquid first, then] put
your meat on it.
And if he, God have mercy on him, lacked lamb meat, he would make a tharfda
of spinach, moist cheese, butter and the previously mentioned spices and eggs
instead of meat.

Bougie, a city in Algeria, which they call the Sha shiyya of I bn al-Wadi'.
Take the meat of fat spring lamb, from its flanks, its chest and its fat part. Cut it
up and put it in a pot with salt, onion, pepper and coriander seed. Put it on a
moderate fire and when it is almost done, add to it lettuce, spinach, fennel and
tender turnips.
When all is cooked, add peeled green fava beans and fresh cilantro.
When it is finished cooking, moisten [with the liquid] the tharida [bread crumbs]
and arrange on it that meat, the vegetables and the beans.
Put on top of the tharida , on the highest part, a small amount of butter that will
pour down the sides among the vegetables. For that reason it has been likened
to the shashiyya of Ibn al- Wadi [a fez with a white tassel], as if that white butter
were the cotton [tassel] of the shashiyya, that falls all over.
Tharida of Lamb with Garbanzos [and Cheese]

Cut up lamb in large pieces and put with it spices, soaked garbanzos, oil and salt.
When it has fried, pour in enough water to cover. [Boil],
And when it is about cooked, throw in orach [a flaky vegetable related to spinach].
When it is cooked, throw in fresh cheese cut up in pieces like fingertips [cubed],
and break eggs into it and crumble bread in it, and sprinkle it with pepper and
cinnamon, God willing.
A Jewish Dish of Eggplants Stuffed with Meat [lamb]

Boil the eggplants and take out their small seeds and leave [the skins] whole
[hollow out the cooked eggplants].
Take leg meat from a lamb and pound it with salt, pepper, cinnamon, Chinese
cinnamon [cassia] and spikenard. Beat it with the whites of eight eggs [cooked]
and separate the egg yolks [reserve for the garnish]. Stuff the eggplants with this
stuffing.
Then take three pots and put in one of them four spoonfuls of oil, onion juice,
spices, aromatics and two spoonfuls of fragrant rosewater, pine-nuts, a citron
[leaves], mint, and sufficient salt and water. Boil well and throw in half of the
stuffed eggplants.
In the second pot put a spoonful of vinegar, a teaspoon of murri [use soy sauce],
a grated onion, spices and aromatics, a sprig of thyme, another of rue, citron leaf,
two stalks of fennel, two spoonfuls of oil, almonds, soaked garbanzos, some half
a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of ground saffron, and three cut garlic. Add in
sufficient water until it boils several times, and throw into it the rest of the stuffed
eggplants.
And in the third pot put a spoonful and a half of oil, a spoonful of cilantro water,
half a spoon of sharp vinegar, crushed onion, almond, pine-nuts, a sprig of rue
and citron leaves. Sprinkle with rosewater and sprinkle with spices.
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Decorate the second [dish] with cut-up egg yolks and cut rue and sprinkle it with
aromatic herbs. Cut a cooked egg with rue over the third pot, sprinkle it with
pepper, and present it.
[This gives you two dishes of stuffed eggplants, each with a slightly different
sauce, and one dish of a sauce that can be used over both dishes.]
worry about you?'
humors in particular] and it is the sikanjabm [name of a sweet-sour drink] of
sugar, four uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of each. Dissolve them in rosewater and
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Chapter 14
Beef, Mutton, Kid, Rabbit Dishes
Royal Sanhaji [Beef casserole]
Take a large, deep tajine [clay casserole with a lid] and put some red beef in it,
cut up without fat, from the leg, the shoulder, and the hip of the cow. Add a very
large quantity of oil, vinegar, a little murri naqV [use soy sauce], pepper, saffron,
cumin, and garlic.
Cook it until it's half done, and then add some red sheep's meat and cook.
Then add to this cleaned chickens, cut into pieces; partridges, young pigeons or
wild doves, and other small birds, mirkas [sausages] and meatballs.
Sprinkle it with split almonds, and salt it to taste. Cover it with a lot of oil, put it in
the oven, and leave in until it is done, and take it out.
This is a simple sanhaji [casserole], used by the renowned; as for the common
people, their sanhaji [casserole] will be dealt with in its own proper time, God
willing.
[The name of these type of dishes comes from the name of a famous Berber
confederation, the Sanhaja, which included the Tuareg and played an important
part in the Almoravid Empire, that included Al-Andalus.]
The Dish Misri [Egyptian Beef or Mutton oven dish]

Take fat meat from the fatty parts of it [calf or sheep], cut it up and put it in a pot
with pepper, coriander, saffron, a little thyme, two or three citron leaves and a few
chunks of fennel with its flowers, garlic, plenty of oil, and sufficient of murri naqV
[use soy sauce].
Put it in the oven until it is cooked and the broth evaporates, and take it out.
A Dish Praised in Springtime for Those with Fullness and Those with
Burning Blood [chicken, partridge, quail, veal]
Take a chicken or taihuj partridge or quail or black partridge or rump of veal,
whichever of these is possible, and joint [quarter it]. Put in a pot and put with it
cilantro juice, cover it with concentrated vinegar, and put in sour apples, peeled
and seeded, their seeds moderately cut up [the seeds release pectin, a thickening
agent], and some Chinese cinnamon [cassia], cloves, ginger, and white pepper.
[Cook it.]
Then take as much as you like of egg yolk, and beat enough to coat the cooked
chicken, and cover the contents of the pot with it [let the topping set]. Ladle it out.
Sprinkle it with some spices and present it, God willing.

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The Dish Jimli [Beef or Mutton]

Take the meat of a plump calf, or a sheep, and cut it in small bits. Put it in a pot
and add to it pepper, coriander and a little cumin, saffron and whatever oil is
necessary, strong vinegar and murri naqV [use soy sauce], less of the murri than
of the vinegar, and meatballs already made [See the Chapter: Meatballs...], citron
leaves and peeled and split almonds.
Put this on a moderate fire, and when the meat is cooked, cover it with two eggs,
a little beaten with cinnamon and saffron, and leave it on the hearthstone [a lower
heat] until it binds and the fat rises and the broth evaporates.
The Dish Mukhallal [Beef or Mutton, a vinegar dish]

Take the meat of a plump cow or sheep, cut it small, and put it in a new pot with
salt, pepper, coriander, cumin, plenty of saffron, garlic peeled and diced, almonds
peeled and split, and plenty of oil. Cover it with strong, very pure vinegar, without
the slightest bit of water. Put it on a moderate charcoal fire and stir it, then boil it.
When it cooks and the meat softens and it reduces, then put it on the hearthstone
[remove from heat] and coat it with much egg [beaten with] cinnamon and
lavender. Color it with plenty of saffron, as desired, and put in it whole egg yolks
and leave it on the hearthstone until it thickens and the broth evaporates and the
fat appears.
This dish lasts many days without changing or spoiling. It is called "wedding food"
in the West [the Algarve], and it is one of the seven dishes cited as used among
us at banquets in Cordoba and Seville.

This dish [meatloaf] is made in various ways and it is necessary that its taste be
improved with the smell of onions, which is sweetened with a syrup of sugared
roses. Also it is made with syrups of fruits such as pomegranates, apples or
grapes, and at times it is moistened with vinegar and preserved prunes. And there
105
are some who are accustomed to make it with the flesh of animals very fat and
the same as in the murri dish. The cooking of these two dishes is not good and
not tasty unless cooked in the bread oven. These recipes mentioned have
sweetness and acidity. They make fragrant scents and give color and make
saffron unnecessary [for coloring it yellow].
How to Make Rahibi [Meatloaf, mutton, veal]

Take very fat young meat from the good, fat parts and from the neck of its paunch
[of a sheep or calf] and put, cleaned and cut up, in the pot with salt, pepper,
coriander seed and a lot of oil. Put on a moderate fire, and when it is nearly done,
take it off and leave it.
Then cut up as much onion as you need and put in another pot with water to
cover and cook till done. Then remove its water [strain it] and put it on a platter
and rub with a spoon or pound in a wooden or stone mortar until disintegrated.
Then add it to the meat in its pot. Add what you need of oil and more, pepper,
ginger, saffron, spikenard, cinnamon and rose preserve or some of the syrups.
Cook with a lid on and put in the bread oven and leave a while until the sauce
dries, it is brown on top and most of the grease rises.
Take it out and leave a while to cool and use.

Take fat meat, as told earlier, and prepare as in the previous recipe. And when
the meat is done, squeeze over it the juice of a grated onion and add the
aforementioned concentrate of pomegranates, rose preserve and put in the bread
oven, with admirable results.

Take the meat as I have indicated [in the previous two recipes], and when it is
almost done, take a cut up onion and put in a pierced couscous pot [the colander
that forms the upper part of a couscousiere]. Put the meat in a pot and put over
it the onion in the colander, covered with a lid. Leave this while the juice from the
onion drips into the pan of meat.
When the liquid is all gone and it is dry [the onion], throw [out] the remains [of the
onion] and finish cooking [the meat], either in the house or in the [community]
bread oven, after adding the things [syrups and spices] we have mentioned.
Rahibi [Meatloaf] in a Tajine [round clay casserole, mutton, veal]

Take the fattest parts of sheep or calf, as I have told you [cleaned and cut up, see
previous recipe], and put in the pot with salt, spices and oil. Cook until almost
done and take down [from the fire]. Then take an onion of great size and cook it
alone [in water] and whole in its own pot, without cutting it. And when it is done,
pour off the water it was cooked in, pierce the sides of the onion and put it with
the cooked meat in the tajine. Add what has been mentioned of spices and
pomegranate concentrate. Cover it with a lot of oil and put in the bread oven, and
leave it there until it is done [cook until the liquid is gone and it browns].
Then leave it until dry and brown on its upper part and take it out.
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Honey [Mutton] Recipe [with sweet dumplings]
Take flesh from [a sheep's] tail, rump, belly and brisket or a fattened hen,
whichever you have, after washing it, and put it in a new pot. Cover with water
and throw in a sufficient quantity of salt, a spoon of oil and another of honey,
cleaned and split almonds and sufficient saffron, some two dirham [1
dirham=3.9g/3/4tsps] or thereabouts. Then put the pot on a coal fire [and cook].
When it is done, take out the meat and strain the broth. Then take six ratls [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of white honey, skimmed, and pour it on the sauce. Put it on the
fire and do not stop stirring for any reason [as it cooks].
And when the honey is cooked, take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of starch less a fourth
-- this is for six ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] [of honey]; and if it is less or more, use
equivalent amounts. Add water [to the starch in a bowl. Take [the honey] off the
fire and leave for its heat to break [to cool]. Then throw in [diluted] starch and stir
well until it is all mixed. Then pour over all this four ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of fresh
oil and put on a very low fire. Do not stop stirring it with the greatest care, as this
will make it good or bad [the starch thickens the dish]. And when it reaches the
state of faludhaj [when it thickens like a pudding] take the pot off this fire to the
hot embers [lower the heat]. Pour in the rest of the oil and return the meat to it.
Take white flour and make it into a dough [with water] and from this make very
small sanbusak [palm-sized skins]. Stuff them with sugar and pounded almonds,
spiced with cinnamon, spikenard, Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and pepper, and
knead all this with rosewater [for the filling of the half-moon dumplings]. Fry in the
skillet.
Then ladle the dish of honey [and meat] in an earthenware dish and put these
sanbusak on it and add some shelled pine nuts, then sprinkle with ground sugar
and cinnamon, God willing.
Preparing Saqlabiyya [Dish of the Saqaliba] [Mutton]

Take mutton, preferably from the front legs, feet and chest, wash and put in the
pot with two spoons of oil and one of murri [use soy sauce], good bread [crumbs],
coriander seed, caraway, ground pepper, sprigs of thyme, citron leaves, two
heads of garlic, whole, and about enough water to cover the meat, with sufficient
salt. Then take ten onions, chop them finely, wash and throw in the pot. [Cook.]
Make meatballs, like those for tafaya [stew] [See Chapter: Meatballs...], stuff with
this meat the lower intestine [sausage] and sprinkle [the meat] with [chopped]
boiled egg. Cook all [the sausages and meatballs] with the meat and when it is
all done, take it to the embers [lower the heat].
To decorate it, take the meatballs and egg yolks. [Dish up the mutton.] Cut the
sausages with the egg which is inside, and arrange between the meatballs and
sprinkle with fine spices and serve, God willing.
Qar'iyya, a Dish of Gourd [Mutton]

Know that a condition of the dish known as qar'iyya is that for meat it should have
fresh, fat, tender mutton, newly killed. Immediately after slaughter, while still
twitching, cut it into pieces and put it in the pot with salt, a little onion juice, pepper,
coriander seed, thyme and a lot of oil. Put it on a moderate fire.
When the meat is done, put in a sufficient amount of young, tender gourd, cut into
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big pieces. When it is done and has finished cooking, throw in cilantro juice. Put
it on the hearthstone a little while and use it.
This gourd dish is a feminine one according to cooks' doctrine.
The Dish Sinabi [Mustard Mutton]

Take the meat of a plump sheep and cut it up small. Put it in a clean pot with salt,
onion juice, pepper, coriander, a little rue-leaf, oil and a spoonful of strong
vinegar. Put it on a moderate fire and cook until it is done.
Then get a little grated heart of leavened white bread, and mix with two eggs and
two spoonfuls of well-made prepared mustard [sinab]. Cover the contents of the
pot with it [the bread-mustard-egg mixture] and put it on the hearthstone [lower
the heat], leaving it until it thickens and the fat rises.
It might be covered with blanched, pounded almonds, in place of breadcrumbs.
Stuffed and Roast Mutton; Called "The Complete" [or "The Inclusive"]
Take a plump skinned ram. Make a narrow opening in the belly between the
thighs and take out what is inside it and clean.
Then take as many plump chickens, pigeons, doves and small birds as you can.
Take out their entrails and clean them. Split the breasts and cook them [boil],
each part by itself. Then fry them with plenty of oil and set them aside.
Then take what remains of their broth and add grated wheat breadcrumbs and
break over them sufficient of eggs, pepper, ginger, split and pounded almonds
and plenty of oil. Beat all this and stuff it inside the fried birds. Put them inside the
ram, one after another. Add to it the rest of the stuffing and cooked meatballs,
fried mirkas [sausages] [See Chapter: Meatballs...] and whole egg yolks.
When it is stuffed, sew up the cut place and sprinkle the ram inside and out with
a sauce made of murri naqV [use soy sauce], oil and thyme. Put it, as it is, in a
heated tannur [clay oven] and leave it a while [to cook].
Then take it out and sprinkle again with the sauce, return to the oven and leave
it until it is completely done and browned. Then take it out and present it.
Recipe for the Dish Known as Maghmum [Veiled] [Mutton]

Take shoulder of a sheep, or the base of the neck, or the membrane of its kidney,
and if shoulder or membrane, cut it in pieces not too large. Wash them and put
them in a pot and throw in a spoonful of good murri [use soy sauce] and two of
fresh oil, stalks of fennel and citron leaves. Take five onions, cut them and put
them in the pot with some salt and a little water. Carry it to the fire [and cook it].
And when it is done, break four eggs or more over it [beaten], and throw in pepper
[and cook this on a low heat]. If you send it to the bread oven and do not cook it
at home, fine. But if you cook it at home, after it has finished cooking well, fill a
potsherd with live coals and put it on the mouth of the pot so that they brown what
is in the pot. [Brown the top.]
When what has been described has been finished, put it on a platter, sprinkle it
with fine spices, and serve it, if God wills.
Recipe for Small Birds Made of Sheep's Meat [Mutton]

Cut up a piece of meat in small bits in the shape of small birds, and place them
on a skewer, roast them or fry them with plenty of oil until they are done, and
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leave them aside.
Then take a pot and put in three spoonfuls of vinegar and one spoonful of murri
naqt' [use soy sauce], two spoonfuls of fresh oil, pepper, cumin and some saffron.
Put the pot on the fire. When it boils, put in it those mentioned fried small birds,
and leave a while until it boils.
Then take it out [from the fire] and present it [serve it].
These imitation birds may also made with pounded meat after adding spices to
it, and you shape them like small birds, starlings and other kinds of birds, and fry
as has been said.
Complete Jimliyya [Mutton]

Take meat of a sheep and its liver, heart and kidneys. Cut in round pieces and
wash. Put in the pot with a spoon of vinegar and another of good murri [use soy
sauce], fresh oil, coriander seed, caraway and pepper. Cook adding some water
until done. Serve.
Making Baqliyya with Eggplants [Mutton, layered casserole]

Take the breast of a sheep and its ribs. Cut small, to the size of three fingers. Cut
onion in round slices and then take cilantro and pound coriander seed, caraway,
and Chinese cinnamon [cassia]. Cut up eggplants in round pieces and the same
with gourds.
Then take a pot and put a little oil in its bottom then arrange a layer of meat and
eggplant and a layer of gourd and put some spices between each layer and the
next. Then put the pot on the fire, after putting in it an adequate quantity of meat.
Do not add water. Cook until done God willing.
Mu'allak and Maqlu [Mutton]
The shepherds in the Cordoba area used to prepare these two dishes. They are
strong and heavy dishes, slow to digest and very nutritious.

Take fat young mutton, clean it and cut the meat into big pieces. Put it in the
earthenware pot and add pepper, onion, oil and coriander [and water]. Cook until
the meat is done. Then remove it and set it aside.
Strain the bones from the broth and return it to a low fire. When it has boiled, put
in crumbs made from thin bread which was made from wheat dough and add soft,
grated cheese, as much as the crumbs. Blend with a spoon until it makes one
mass. And when its broth has dried up, pour on fresh milk and leave it until its
foam is dispersed.
Then return the meat that was removed and when it has formed a mass [soaks
up the liquid], take it off the fire, leave it a little and use it.
Recipe for Maqlu [Mutton, cooked in milk]

Take fat, tender mutton, cut it and put it in an earthenware pot. Cook it a little and
then pour in fresh milk and leave it until it is done. Then put with it mild cow's or
sheep's milk cheese and a lot of butter. Cook it until it sticks together and fry it
until its fat spreads.
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The Preparation of Bilaja [Mutton, boil, fry and roast]
Take the meat of young, plump sheep, without bones or tendons - rather, pieces
of its meat and its fat, waist, intestines, liver, heart and belly. Cut all this in very
small pieces and put them in a pot with salt, a piece of onion, coriander, oil and
a little murri naqV [use soy sauce]. Put it on a moderate fire and cook it until it is
done.
Remove it from the fire, strain off the sauce, and fry [the meat] in a tajine with
plenty of oil until it is browned.
Then put it in another pan and pour over it as much as necessary of the fat and
broth in which it cooked. Break over it enough eggs [beaten] and add pepper,
coriander, and lavender, and sprinkle it with peeled, split almonds, color it with
saffron to taste, and beat it until it is mixed. Pour on plenty of oil and bury inside
it as many egg yolks as possible.
Put it in the oven and leave it there until the broth is dried and the top is browned,
and take it out. This recipe for bilaja is the one that used to be made in the West,
such as Cordoba and Marrakesh and the lands between them.
Muthallath with Heads of Lettuce [Mutton]

Take meat from a young, fat sheep and cut it in small pieces and put it in a pot
with salt, a piece of onion, pepper, coriander seed, clove, saffron and oil.
Put it on a moderate fire and when it is almost done, take heads of lettuce and
their shoots without leaves, peel and cut up and add to the meat in the pot.
When the lettuce is done, add good vinegar and finish cooking it. Cover it with
beaten egg, saffron and spikenard and take it to the hearthstone [to keep it warm].
Preparation of Buraniyya [Mutton with Eggplant, boil, fry, bake]

Attributed to Buran, daughter of al-Hassan b. Sahl [wife of the Abbasid Caliph, al-
Ma'mun] who they say first invented the dish.
Take fat sheep flesh [diced] and put in a pot with salt, onion, pepper, coriander
seed, a little cumin, saffron and oil. Put on a moderate fire and add a spoon of
murri naqV [use soy sauce] and two spoons of vinegar.
Cook until half done, then take it off [the fire] and add fried eggplants, which will
be described later [See the Chapter: Non-Meat Dishes], Put on a layer of meat
and another of fried eggplants [and continue the layers] until used up.
Add prepared meatballs and the chopped almonds and color with a lot of saffron.
Then cover with eggs beaten with spikenard or cinnamon and saffron and crown
with egg yolks.
Then put in the bread oven and leave until the sauce is dry and it holds together
and the grease remains. Take it to the hearthstone [lower the heat] and leave for
a while, then serve.
Preparing The Complete Buraniyya [Mutton with lamb and eggplant]

Take the red meat of sheep, wash and pound as though making meatballs, mix
with pounded boiled eggplants and beat until mixed with whatever you need of
the said spices, such as pepper, coriander, spikenard, some murri naqV [use soy
sauce], cumin, cinnamon and chopped almond.
Make with this patties the width of your fist and throw in the pan with fresh oil.
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[Cook then] set to one side. Then throw in eggplants prepared as is customary
[sliced, and fried, then] set aside
Then take the flesh of fat lambs and cut up and cook with pepper, coriander,
saffron, cinnamon, cumin, spikenard, murri naqt’ [use soy sauce], vinegar and a
little garlic, until it is nearly ready.
Then throw in the pot a layer of the partly-cooked meat, one of the fried eggplants
and another of the patties prepared with the pounded meat and eggplants, and a
layer of the cooked meat, and so on till finished. And add to it meatballs [See
Chapter: Meatballs...], chopped almonds, egg yolks and cover with a lot of oil.
Put in the oven and leave until firm, dried and browned on top. Cover with a little
[chopped] egg, as mentioned before.
A Dish of Eggplants Without Vinegar [Mutton and Eggplant]

Take fat young flesh of sheep, cut up and put in the pot with salt, a little onion,
pepper, coriander seed and a lot of oil. Put on a moderate coal fire.
When the meat is done, put in it some eggplants cut in halves or quarters, after
boiling and pouring off the water.
Then throw in with the meat and squeeze over it the juice of tender coriander in
great quantity and less than this of ground squeezed mint.
Finish cooking and then take it to the hearthstone for a while and use.
Preparing Tabahaja of Buraniyya [Eggplant Mutton dish]

Take fifteen small eggplants, and boil them gently with the skin on, whole, without
peeling or splitting. Then take them out of the pot and put in another pot. Throw
in as much salt and oil as are needed and cook on a slow fire until it is entirely
done [soft mush].
Take a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of mutton and slice it up, as told earlier [diced]. Put
it in a pot with one quarter rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of oil and some water, boil until
the water disappears and then fry in the oil until the meat is browned and is done.
Put in this the fried eggplants and throw in one quarter rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of
good vinegar and fry, until the vinegar is done. Then throw over it a third of a rati
[1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of murri [use soy sauce] and improve it with three dirhams [1
c//T/?a/r?=3.9g/3/4tsp] weight of caraway, the same amount of coriander seed
and a dirham and a half of pepper.
Then fry until done and leave it to rest for a while, dish up and serve.
Dish of Eggplant [Mutton and eggplant]

Cut up mutton and put in the pot with salt, pepper, coriander, cumin, thyme, two
spoons of murri naqV [use soy sauce] and three of oil. Take to the fire and cook.
When the meat is done, add eggplants cut in quarters and boiled separately.
When it has boiled, grind up white bread crumbs, beaten with the right quantity
of eggs in coriander juice.
Cover the pot with this and then take it to the hearthstone [lower the heat],

quiche]
Take walnut kernels and hulled almonds, hazelnuts, kernels of pine nuts and
pistachios, a quarter of a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of each. Grind them in a wooden
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or stone mortar until it is like fine flour.
Add two-thirds of a rati [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of bread crumbs made from semolina
and two ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of ground meat from the shoulder of a sheep,
cleaned of its tendons. Break in fifteen eggs and beat it all together. Add ginger,
galingale, pepper, cloves and Chinese cinnamon [cassia], one part of each; a
dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of mastic and of saffron, of each one half a dirham
[1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] and of oil a good half uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp].
Put it all in a new pot and throw in a rati [1 ratl=468g/1lb] and a half of fresh milk.
Lower it into the tannur [clay oven]. Seal the oven and leave it until it is done,
solid, and is ready. Take it out, scatter ground sugar on it and serve it.
Roast in a Tajine [Kid]

Take an entire side of a young, plump kid and place it in a large tajine big enough
to hold it. Put it in the oven and leave it there until the top is browned.
Then take it out, turn it and put it in the oven a second time until it is done and
browned on both sides.
Then take it out and sprinkle it with salt ground with pepper and cinnamon.
This is extremely good and is the most notable roast that exists, because the fat
and moisture stay in the bottom of the pan and nothing is lost in the fire, as in the
roast on a spit and the roast in a tannur [clay oven].
Tabahaja, Which is Fried Meat [Kid]

Take three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of strips of meat taken from kid and put it in a
pot. And put with it five uqiyas [1 uqiya=39gf7tsp] of fresh oil, a quarter of a rati
[1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of water and enough salt. Put on the fire and leave it there until
the heat has dried the water.
Then pour in a third of a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of water and sprinkle with ginger
and pepper, a mithqal's-worth [1 mithqal=5.7g/Msp] of each. Take out about a
third of it. And indeed a notable tabahaja is eaten of it.
Pour this third in the pot after ladling an uqiya [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of vinegar and
leave it until what you have added has been evaporated. Then separate half of
what is left in the pan and sprinkle with chopped rue, in order to present an
extraordinary dish of the best sort.
And sprinkle what is in the pan with some asafoetida and break over it five beaten
eggs.
Then dish this up and serve it, a very fine anjudhaniyya [a dish flavored with
asafoetida],
[Tabahajiya is the Persian name. Al-Bagdadi also gives this recipe. You divide
the dish at each phase ending up with three unique dishes.]

Slice the meat and sprinkle over it salt and pepper. Fry with fresh oil until it is
browned and its juices have dried into the oil. [Remove the meat.]
Take a handful of almonds, which have been well ground and moistened with
vinegar and cook in the pan [with the oil and juices] and sprinkle minced celery
leaf on it and cinnamon. [Arrange the meat on top.]
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Cut the meat up small and fry in oil and salt. Throw in some pepper, cumin, salt
and a little vinegar and leave for a while then add fresh oil [and cook] until
browned.
Take an egg [raw] and throw over it a spoon of vinegar and another of murri [use
soy sauce] and the same of cilantro. Stir it all and throw over the meat in the pan,
leave until it is good and serve it sprinkled with pepper, rue and cinnamon.
Another Tabahajiyya [Kid with nuts and pomegranate]

Cut the meat up small and fry with oil and salt. And when it is brown, cook it until
done with vinegar.
Pound a handful of almonds or walnuts and throw them on and boil a while. Add
pomegranate juice and dissolve in it a lump of sugar, to get rid of its tartness, and
sprinkle with cinnamon.
Another with Pistachios and Sugar [Kid]

Slice the meat, fry it, and cook with cilantro juice. Pound pistachios moistened
with some water, murri [use soy sauce] and sugar. Pour this over the meat in the
pan and sprinkle with cinnamon and rue and serve it.
The Making of Qadus [meatloaf, kid]

Take the meat of a goat kid, from its side and its stomach, a piece from the navel,
from the liver, and from the tender parts of the meat in the amount of a quarter
rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb]. Cut it in small pieces and put them in a pot in which you
have thrown everything that is in jimliyya, to the letter [salt, cut-up onions, a little
vinegar and good murri [use soy sauce], pepper, lavender, cinnamon, almonds
and oil], and let there not be much sauce. Cook it until the meat is done.
When it is done, take it to a cutting-board and cut it up fine as for sanbusak and
finer. Put it in a dish and ladle some of the fat in which you cooked it before, and
throw it on top. Then season it with spices, such as pepper, Chinese cinnamon
[cassia], galingale, lavender and the like. Break three eggs over it, beat it well,
and salt to taste.
Then take the qadus [a special cooking pot] and throw in oil, and turn it until it
coats all. Get all the yolk [whole] of a raw egg and put it in the bottom of the qadus.
Take the stuffing, as it is, and put it into the qadus over the egg yolk, gently so as
not to break the yolk. Then [cover it and] cook it until you think the stuffing has
bound and browned well on all sides; and keep taking care that it not burn and
ruin its flavor and become hard to separate from the qadus.
Then take off the lid and pour over the qadus the amount of one spoonful of strong
vinegar, and boil it little by little until its boiling settles down.
Then put it in water [the pot] until it cools. And turn it over onto a clay dish on its
mouth, and shake it until it comes away from the qadus and remains stiff in the
middle of the dish, with the yolk on top of it [the yolk is a decorative "nipple"], and
present it, God willing
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A Dish of Hare
Cut up the hare into small pieces and wash them with boiling water. Put them in
a pot and add salt, pepper, cilantro, plenty of cumin, three spoonfuls of oil and
the same amount of strong vinegar, and one spoonful of murri naqV [use soy
sauce].
Then take three or four onions and pound them well in a wooden mortar, extract
their juice and place it in the pot with the rest.
Put it on the fire and when the meat is cooked and falling apart, take it out to the
hearthstone [lower the heat] and cover it with four or five [beaten] eggs. When it
is set, take it out and leave it a little to cool and serve it.
Recipe for Roast Hare

Take a skinned, cleaned hare. Boil it lightly with water and salt. Drain off the water
and thread it on a skewer. Turn it over a moderate charcoal fire. Grease it with
fresh butter once.
And when the meat is done, remove from its joints and cut it up in a serving dish.
Pour on it a sauce of vinegar and a little murri naqV [use soy sauce], ginger,
thyme, cumin, oil and a little pounded garlic. Boil all this and pour it on it.
Greasing it with fresh butter at the time of roasting is to moderated the dryness
of its nature.
If coated with oil of sweet almonds it is very good, too.
Stuffed Rabbit
Wash the rabbit well. Take the meat of another rabbit, pound it with water, onion,
a little cilantro juice, murri [use soy sauce], spices and flavorings, and beat it with
three eggs with a suitable amount of salt. Stuff the inside of the rabbit with this
[retain some]. Sew it up and roast it on a spit, for those who wish it roasted.
Or cook it in a pot without roasting, that is, put into a pot two spoonfuls of vinegar,
the same of oil, one spoon of bread murri [use soy sauce], another of fish murri
[Asian fermented fish concentrate liquid], a whole onion, a clove of garlic, whole
almonds, pine-nuts, citron leaves, stalks of fennel, and a spoonful of stuffing
meat.
Make meatballs with the rest of the meat. If you roast the rabbit, roast the
meatballs. And if you do not roast the rabbit, but rather boil it in the sauce, fry it
after it is done, and fry the meatballs, and return all this to the pot.
Then pound almonds and walnuts and add sour leaven, three eggs, and cut rue.
Stir this with a little of the sauce from the pot, and cover the contents of the pot
with this, and put it down on the euphorbia embers until it is done and its surface
shows [until the bread sets and the oil rises].
Then take it out and put it in a dish and untie the sewing that you did, and dot with
the eggs you prepared, and with the meatballs, and sprinkle it with spices.
Qanura of Rabbit in a Frying-Pan, which is Notable

Cut the rabbit in small pieces and boil them in water and salt, then fry them in oil.
Pound walnuts and garlic well. Dissolve them with vinegar and water, and pour
them over the rabbit with water. Cook until it is ready and serve it.
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An Extraordinary Stuffed Rabbit
Separate it at the joints, then take the meat from its legs and back, called the
lunbal [loin], and add the meat of another rabbit and pound it well in a mortar. Add
to this onion juice, murri [use soy sauce], clove, spices, and all that is put in
meatballs [See Chapter: Meatballs...].
Take the bones and other parts and put them in a pot. Pour over them two
spoonfuls of vinegar, the same of oil, one spoon of murri [use soy sauce], peeled
almonds, pine-nuts, citron leaves, fennel stalks, an onion, a clove of peeled garlic,
sprigs of thyme, rue, and a dirham's weight [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of saffron.
Cook it with sufficient water until it is done, and then take out everything from the
pot.
Take the bones [retain some] of the thighs and the lunbal, cover them with the
ground meat, and make meatballs. Throw all this carefully into the pot. Take two
egg yolks, after boiling, and cover them with the meat mixture as well [retain
some], and throw them into the pot.
When all is done and the greater part of the broth has evaporated, crumble cold
bread and a little flour of fine wheat. Mix that with one spoonful of the rest of the
stuffing together with eight or ten eggs, and sprinkle on it sufficient salt and
spices.
Fry the parts [the covered bones] removed from the pot until they are browned.
Then return them to the pot. And fry the meatballs and the eggs covered with
meat likewise.
Then cover all the contents of the pot with [the mixture of] eggs and throw in the
rest of the oil that was in the frying pan. Rebuild a moderate fire, and stir from the
sides of the pot carefully until the stuffing is done and the liquid evaporates.
Then take all the bits and arrange them on a dish in which citron leaves have
been arranged, and sprinkle the topping over it. Then put the rest of the bits in
the dish with the rest of the topping. Then garnish the dish with the fried meatballs,
and split the meat-clad yolks and put them among the meatballs and sprinkle the
rest with almonds, pine-nuts, and minced cloves of garlic. Cut rue over it, sprinkle
it with fine spices, and present it.
If you omit the saffron and garlic, add a spoonful of cilantro juice and increase the
murri [use soy sauce] a little, another dish will result.
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Chapter 15
Generic Meat Dishes
Information About Baqliyyat [Vegetable Dishes] and Mukhaddarat
[Greened Dishes]
All dishes which one cooks with meat, saffron, vinegar, garden produce, such as
turnips, eggplants, gourds, carrots, or heads of lettuce without their leaves, are
called muthallath.
How You Make It
Take tender meat and cut it in small pieces. Put it in a pot with salt, pepper,
coriander seed, cumin, saffron, garlic and oil. Cook it until the meat is done.
Then cut up whatever of those vegetables mentioned that you have on hand and
boil them and cook them separately in a pot. Throw away their water.
Then put them with the meat in the pot and when it comes to a boil, add strong
vinegar in enough quantity to note its taste.
When everything has finished cooking, put it on the hearthstone [lower the heat]
until the fat rises and serve it.
Some prepare this with eggplant and gourd together. This is the real muthallath.
According to this recipe, muthallath is also made with carrot and turnip, and with
turnip alone, and thus with the remaining vegetables mentioned.
Sweetened Mukhallal [a vinegar dish]

Take two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] or more of good meat without bones, and cut it
up small. Put it in a clean pot with salt, onion, pepper and a little cumin, cinnamon
and saffron. Choose as much strong vinegar as is necessary and enough good
oil to cover it.
Put it on a moderate fire and then add to it a spoonful of peeled, split almonds
and a little peeled, split garlic and two or three citron leaves.
Cook it and stir it, and when the meat is dry [the liquid evaporates], then add to it
strong vinegar, instead of water, and two uqiyas [1 t/q/ya=39g/7tsp] or more of
rose petal jam.
When the meat is done, take ten eggs, broken into a dish, and add to them
pepper, cinnamon, lavender, cloves, and plenty of saffron, until it has the desired
color. Beat them with a spoon. Cover the contents of the pot with this and add to
it whole egg yolks and leave it over the hearthstone [lower the heat] until it sets,
and serve, God willing.
Note on the Kinds of Roast

Although roasts are easy dishes, it is fitting that what has already been explained
be followed, except that concerning the "covering" [sauce, marinade].
Take meat of a young, plump animal and cut it with a knife in thin fillets, so that
the meat is mixed with fat, without bones, from the tender parts, meat from the
shoulder or hip or similar things.
Place it in a dish and pour on it whatever is needed of murri naqf [use soy sauce],
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vinegar, thyme, pepper, pounded garlic and a little oil. Beat everything and coat
the fillets with this [marinade].
Then order them on a spit, so they do not touch, so that the fire reaches them,
and turn them on the spit over a charcoal fire, turning continuously, until they are
cooked and browned.
Baste with the sauce, being careful until done. Then sprinkle with the sauce [cook
the remaining sauce first] or mustard, already prepared, and serve.
This [dish] strengthens and increases the blood, but is difficult to digest and slow
to go down.
Stuffed Buraniyya [eggplant]

Take meat and chop it small. Put, after washing, in a closed or sealed pot [a pot
with a lid] and cover with water, throw in enough oil, vinegar, murri naqf [use soy
sauce], salt, fennel sprigs, citron leaves, a head of garlic and a whole onion. Then
put on a moderate fire.
Take the flesh of a leg, pound it very well and clean it with great care. Throw in
some white flour, cinnamon and what spices you can, egg white and enough of
the meat. Beat very well and make meatballs of the right size [retain some]. Throw
in the pot to cook and when it is done, take them out and fry them. And also boil
an egg, take off its shell and roll it up in some of this meat [mixture, retain some]
in the mortar and fry it also until it is browned.
Then take a handful of eggplants, which have been washed and boiled and take
out what they have inside, beat in the mortar with the rest of the meat from the
meatballs and stuff the eggplants with this. Cloak them also on the outsides [with
the meat mixture] and fry in the skillet until brown.
Then, when you have fried that, throw it all in the pot after throwing in the first
meat, and pour in the pot the rest of the oil in which the things were fried. And
when that is done, take the pot to the embers [lower the heat] until its surface
cools and cover with crumbs of cold bread mixed with the whites of four eggs and
cook the yolks in the pot. [Let the mixture set.]
Then spoon [it] out on a platter and garnish with its meatballs. Slice those eggs
wrapped with meat into quarters and garnish the platter with them along with the
yolks which remained in that [crumb-and-egg white] covering.
Also cook an egg, peel it and chop it very small with some tender rue leaves and
sprinkle [it together] with fine spices [over the dish]. If you wish to serve this dish
with saffron, do so,
God willing.
Another Type of Mahshi [stuffed eggplant]

Take nicely-shaped sweet eggplants and take out their seedy flesh carefully so
that they keep their shape. [Hollow them out, reserving the tops for later.]
Then boil what you took out from inside in salted water until it is done. Drain the
water and mash it [the boiled flesh] to pieces, as mentioned earlier. Combine with
white bread crumbs, egg and cooked pounded meat.
Fill the empty skins with this [retaining some] and replace the seedy flesh as it
was. Throw them into and arrange them in the tajine and pour in the rest of the
stuffing and some oil.
Put in the oven and leave until thickened and completely done. Take out the
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eggplants and put them as they are on a platter, whole, as if nothing had been
done to them [stuff the eggplants, replacing the tips].
Another Recipe for the Same [eggplant]

Take large [eggplants] and cut in half without peeling them. Boil them in a pot
with water and salt. Then take them out of the water and empty each half
separately [of the insides] and let the half [skin] remain, conserving its shape.
Then take its insides and squish to bits in a platter with cooked pounded meat,
as told earlier. Beat with eggs and spices, as told for Mahsh [previous recipe],
and fill the empty halves with this.
Sprinkle [the eggplants] with white flour and fry in a pan with oil until they are until
brown.
Take out and use with sauce or without it.
Can be made also in a tajine with a coating [of oil, or] in the oven like Buraniyya
[casserole],
A Remarkable Stuffed Mutajjan [meat omelette]

Cut the meat up small and place in [a] pot, and throw in spices and a little cumin,
onion pounded with cilantro, salt, a spoon of vinegar and a little murri [use soy
sauce]. Cook until done.
Then remove the meat from the sauce and fry it in the pan with oil until it is brown.
Then take the necessary quantity of eggs, throw them in on it, after beating them
very well in a platter, and leave them until they set and thicken. Then add the
sauce to the pan and lift the egg and meat with a knife around all its edges so
that the sauce runs underneath and all is absorbed, and simmer until it thickens
and stays rather smooth.
Turn it onto the platter and sprinkle with rue and present it, if God wills. And if you
make it with meatballs, it is good.
Sanhaji [stew of everything]

Take a large deep tinjir [a deep pot for boiling this large stew], put in three parts
sharp vinegar and one part murri naqi’ [use soy sauce] and the required amounts
of pepper, caraway, cumin and saffron.
Put it on a moderate coal fire and have prepared beforehand what is needed,
such as beef cut in small pieces. [Add the beef.] When it has boiled one or two
times, put in the same amount of ewe meat.
Then some cut up hens, cut up partridges and domestic squabs and stock doves
cut up in the same way and whatever birds you can get.
And add some soaked peeled garbanzos, peeled chopped almonds and
chestnuts peeled of their skins, garlic and citron leaves.
Cover with a lot of oil and when it is almost done, add whatever you have of
vegetables cooked separately and finish cooking them, such as turnips, carrots,
eggplants, gourds, cabbage without their leaves and heads of lettuce without the
outer leaves. Use whatever vegetables are available, according to the season
and the present time. Cook in a separate pot with salt, their spices and onion until
done. Pour off the water and then add to the aforementioned meats in the said
tajine.
You need to have meatballs and mirkas [sausages] made only from these
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ingredients, because if not, they will be an excessive and disapproved [of]
mixture. [See Chapter: Meatballs...]
It is the property of this dish to be good for all states and temperaments, for it
unites all the meats and the classes of vegetable and because you put in it
vinegar and murri naqf, spices and so on.
A Roast of Meat
Chop meat of a young animal small [chunks] and throw in enough salt, spices, a
little cumin and the same amount of thyme, chopped garlic and vinegar.
Leave a little while [marinate], then roast [on a spit], basting with oil and murri
[use soy sauce], and eat.
And if you wish to sprinkle it with chopped rue, it will be good, God willing.
Another Roast of Meat

Roast salted, well-marbled meat [cut up] like fingertips. [Set aside.]
Put in a pot [with water] spices, onion, salt, oil and soaked garbanzos. Cook until
done. Then add the roast meat.
Cover the contents of the pot with cilantro and sprinkle with pepper and
cinnamon. And if you add whole pine nuts or walnuts in place of garbanzos, it will
be good.
Recipe for a Pot-Roast, Good for the Old, the Moist of Body and Moist
Stomachs
Take young, fat meat, cut it small in a clean pot with a little salt, pepper, thyme,
a little murri naqf’ [use soy sauce], two cloves of garlic, and enough oil. Place it
on a moderate fire and keep stirring it until it is done, and serve it.
A Dish Made with Khabts [starch]

Take good, fat meat and put it in a pot with a whole onion and pepper. Dissolve
some honey in water and cover the meat with it until it is excessively cooked.
Break the khabts and throw it in the pot [can use corn starch] and throw it in with
some saffron.
When it is done, carry the pot from the fire and leave it until the fat departs
[separates], and do not make a dough [a covering] for it.
A Dish of Sikbaj, Praised for its Nutritive Value [vinegar dish]

Take meat of a young animal, cut it and put it in a pot and put in enough vinegar
to cover it. Put in raisins depending on how sour you want it to be and boil it with
them. Then throw in the necessary amount of pepper and coriander, an onion
pounded with cilantro, salt, and a clove of garlic. Cook this until it is done.
Then take boiled egg yolks and grind them with the heart of clean, soaked bread,
and cover the contents of the pot with this, leave it until it is set, empty it out [dish
it up] and present it [serve it].
Recipe for Khubaiz with Meat [starch, honey-saffron]

Cut meat from the chest, the kidneys, the ribs, and the like, Put it, after washing
it, into a pot and cover it with water. Throw in two spoonfuls of oil and a rati [1
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raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey. Then put it on the fire and grind a dirham [1
dirham=3.9gl3l4tsp] of saffron and mix it in.
When the meat is done, take it out to the euphorbia embers [lower the heat], then
take starch, pound it and put it in the pot. Stir it little by little and when the starch
is done [has thickened it], take it down to a clay dish [a serving dish], sprinkle it
with fine spices, and present it, God willing.
A Sicilian Dish [onion-meat dish]

Take fat meat from the chest, the shoulder, the ribs, and the other parts, in the
amount of a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] and a half. Put it in a pot with a little water and
salt and some three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of onions.
Then put it on a moderate fire, and when the onion is done and the meat has
"returned" [is partly cooked], throw in four spoonfuls of oil, pepper, cinnamon,
Chinese cinnamon [cassia], spikenard, and meatballs. Finish cooking it.
When the meat is done, cover it with eggs beaten with saffron, or you might leave
it without a covering, as you wish, [and cook it either] in the [public bread] oven
or at home.
Preparation known as Hashfshiyya, a Grassy Dish [bird in dough]

Take some dough [see the Chapter: Breads for a recipe] and put it in the lowest
part of the pot, and put a small bird [dead and cleaned] in it and put the rest of
the dough on it, and let it rise a while, and send it to the oven.
And when it is cooked, break the pot, after shaking it several times so that the
dough is freed from the pot, and put it in a plate, whole, as it is.
And boil clarified butter and honey and pour it on it, and decorate with toasted
pine nuts and sprinkle with sugar and present, God willing.
And It Might Be Made Another Way

Which is that the small bird is disjointed [dead and cleaned first] and put in a pot
with salt and grated onion and oil, and cooked until done.
Then take it out and put it in a frying pan with juice of cilantro pounded with a
piece of onion and spices and pepper, cinnamon, lavender, Chinese cinnamon
[cassia], cloves and galingale and a little musk and rosewater. Pound [the bird]
with eight eggs and boil until thickened and browned. Put in best murri [use soy
sauce], then take from the fire.
Take peeled almonds, pistachios and sugar and pound, and spice it, and mix with
rosewater and musk.
Put some of [the dough] in the bottom of a pot and put in it half the first stuffing
[the bird stuffing], then put on it a little dough, then put the sugar and almond
stuffing, and put a little of the dough on it too. Put on it the rest of the first stuffing
and fill the pot with the rest of the dough.
Preparation of Chestnut Qaliyya

Take a piece of meat and cut it. Put it in the pot and add in salt, pepper, coriander
seed, pounded onion and clarified butter. Fry it gently and put in the same amount
each of vinegar and murri [use soy sauce] and some pepper and saffron.
Take chestnuts and clean them, pound them well and stir them with water. Put
enough of the broth of it to cover the meat.
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When it has cooked, beat for it three eggs with pepper and chopped cilantro [to
cook over the dish as a covering]. Put it on the coals and when it has settled
[when the eggs are cooked], pour it out, present it and eat it, if God wills.
Preparing Covered Tabahajiyya [Tabahajiyya Maghmuma, meat-onion

dish]
Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] and a half of meat and cut in slices as told earlier.
Pound a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of onion and take for this three dirham [1
dirham=3.9gl3l4tsp] weight of caraway and one of pepper.
Put in the pot a layer of meat and another of onion [and alternate] until it is all
used up and sprinkle flavorings between all the layers. Then pour on a third of a
rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of vinegar and a quarter rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of oil. Put a
lid on the pot and seal its top with paste [dough] and cook over a slow fire until
done.
Then take from the fire and leave for a while, skim off the fat and serve.
Dish of Meat With Pistachio

Cut the meat up very small and put in a pot with spices. Cut up onion, salt, oil and
cilantro juice [add this to the meat]. Boil and cover with water. [Cook.]
When it is done, cover with pistachio paste and spikenard similarly prepared, God
willing.
Preparing the Servants' Dish [baked meat omelette]

Cut up the liver, kidneys, heart and spleen in small pieces. Chop two onions very
finely, after boiling them. Cut up a lot of fat and a lot of onion, up to a third of the
whole. Put in all the spices and add pepper. Put in the best murri [use soy sauce],
pine nuts and thyme with your hand. Beat about five or six eggs and mix it all with
a little water and good oil. Put it all in a pan and set in the oven until it is cooked
and rippled, and serve, God willing.
Eggplant Dish Known as the Arabic [egg and meat]

Take pieces of meat and cut up, and put them in the pot. Throw in it three spoons
of vinegar, a spoon of murri [use soy sauce] and two spoons of oil, pepper, cumin
and coriander seed, two dirhams [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4isp] of each one, cilantro, rue
and almond kernels. Throw in water to cover by two fingers, and take the pot to
the fire.
When it is done, remove it from the coals and cover the contents of the pot with
much cilantro. Beat into it three eggs and some white flour. Then throw in the pot
a peeled, boiled eggplant, chopped up, which completes it.
A Dish of Eggs with Meat

[Chop meat and put in pot.] Take a quarter rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of vinegar and
the same amount of murh [use soy sauce] and of water, and put all together in
the tajine. Grind an onion and throw in thyme leaves and enough salt. Put on the
fire until it is done.
Then break ten eggs [beat and pour over the dish to cook] or as many as you
want, season with a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] and a half of pepper, God
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willing, may He be exalted.
Another Badf'l [meat omelette]

[Cook the meat as in the previous recipe.] Grate cheese in a dish, with the hand
or in the palm, until it is like crumbs, and beat it with eggs, saffron and the
aforementioned spices, sauce and grease from cooked meat.
Then put it in a pot or a tajine and add [the] cooked meat and drown it with oil and
milk and put it in the oven, and leave it until it is dry and browned on top, and take
it out and leave it a while [before serving],
A Remarkable Tajine [meat omelette]

Beat eggs with the [cooked, finely chopped] meat, coriander, dried pepper,
caraway, coriander juice and onion juice.
Pour into a pan and fry until browned and sprinkle with pepper and rue, God
willing.
Dish Prepared With Fried Eggplant

Take meat and cut it up small, then put it in the pot and throw in half a spoon of
vinegar, one of murri [use soy sauce] and another of fresh oil, and pepper,
coriander and cilantro, both pounded fine, and salt. Bring the pot to a full boil until
the meat and the spices are cooked, and don't throw in water [let the meat brown
as the liquid dries].
When the meat has browned and is done, remove it, stir it and throw in enough
water, but do not let it cover the meat, and boil again.
Then boil eggplant separately, after salting it and removing its water [salt the
eggplant slices and let sit a while to remove excess water from them, which is
better when frying them], and then cut in thirds and quarters and remove the peel.
Sprinkle with good white flour and fry in the pan with some fresh oil.
Then throw it [the meat] in the pot and cover the contents of the pot with two eggs
and [mixed with the] crumbs of leavened bread and grease. Cook moderately,
take off the fire for a while and serve.
Dish with Truffles and Meat

Cut the meat in small pieces and put in the pot. Throw in water and salt, a spoon
of murri [use soy sauce] and another of oil, pepper, coriander seed and caraway.
Put on the fire and cook with all this. Peel the truffles, then cut them up and throw
in the pan with salt.
When they are done, cover the contents of the pot with egg whites and [mixed
with] bread crumbs and throw in the yolks. [Cook as an egg covering for the dish.]
And when you put it on the platter, sprinkle with pepper and chopped rue, God
willing, may He be praised, there is no Lord but He.
Preparing Liftiyya [a Dish of Turnips] with Walnuts and Sugar

Take fat meat and cut it middling size. Wash and put it in a pot. Pour in oil, salt,
and enough water to cover the meat and put on the fire until the water is
absorbed.
When it has been absorbed, throw [it] in the pot three spoons of vinegar, two of
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murri [use soy sauce], pepper, coriander seed and some sugar, and take walnuts,
peel and chop and throw in the pot.
Boil until cooked, and when it is cooked, pound pepper and shelled walnuts and
throw in, and take off the fire and serve.
Meat Soup with Cabbage

Take meat and cut up as fine as possible, and take old cheese, the best you can
obtain, and cut it up, and throw on it an onion pounded with cilantro.
Take tender pieces of cabbage, and boil. And pound with all of this [everything
mentioned earlier] in a wooden mortar, and then throw in a pot. Boil once or twice.
Add some murri [use soy sauce], a little vinegar and some pepper and caraway,
and cover the contents of the pot with dough and brush with eggs.
Persian Muthallath
Take meat remainders and cut them up and throw in a pot. Pour over it four
spoons of vinegar and some pepper, caraway and coriander seed, to the weight
of one dirham [1 cf/'r/?a/77=3.9g/3/4tsp] of each, and two spoons of fresh oil,
some rue, almonds and enough water to cover the meat. Throw in the pot six
cloves of garlic and then put the pot on the fire.
When the meat is well cooked, cover the contents of the pot with four [beaten]
eggs and throw in [with the eggs] sourdough and cut-up rue with some flour.
And use as a substitute for the dough, after throwing it [the egg] in, two branches
of citron and some mint. Then take an eggplant which has been peeled and
boiled, throw in cold water and sprinkle with vinegar, and put this eggplant in the
pot with its coating [cover the pot] and leave for a while on the coals, until the
grease comes out [rises], God willing.
Preparing a Dish With Cardoon [artichoke]

Take meat and cut it up. Wash and put in the pot and pour over enough water to
cover. Put in the pot one spoon of oil, two of murri [use soy sauce] and one of
clarified butter, and soaked garbanzos, chopped onion and coriander seed. [Put
on the fire.]
Peel the cardoons, boil [with the rest] and [then] cut up. Throw pepper in the pot
with them.
When they are cooked, take two eggs and bread crumbs [beat together and]
cover the contents of the pot well [with the egg mixture] and leave over the coals
until the grease comes out [until the eggs set and the grease rises], God willing.
Preparing a Dish of Cardoons with Meat [artichokes]

Take meat and cut it up. Put [it] in a pot with water, salt, two spoons of murri [use
soy sauce], one of vinegar and another of oil, pepper, caraway and coriander
seed. Put on the fire.
When it is cooked, wash the cardoons, boil, cut up small and throw [them] over
the meat. Boil a little, and cover the contents of the pot with two [raw] eggs and
bread crumbs [mixed together and cooked until set], and sprinkle pepper on it in
the platter, God willing.
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Preparation of Baqliyya of Asparagus
Take meat and cut it to the width of three fingers. Wash it and put it in a pot. Add
one spoon of oil, a spoon and a half of murri [use soy sauce], coriander seed, a
fistful of soaked garbanzos and a chopped onion. Put it on the fire.
Take the asparagus and cut in small pieces. Boil them and throw them in the pot
with the meat. When the meat with the asparagus is done, take bread crumbs,
two eggs [beaten] and pepper and cover the contents of the pot with it. Leave it
on the embers a while [lower the heat to cook the egg topping], if God wills.
Preparing Asparagus with Meat Coating

Take asparagus, the largest you have, clean and boil it. Take tender meat and
pound fine. Throw in pepper, caraway, coriander seed, cilantro juice, some oil
and egg white.
Take the boiled asparagus, one after another, and dress with this ground meat
[shape the meat around the asparagus like a wrapper], and do so carefully.
[Retain some of the meat to make meatballs.]
Put an earthenware pot on the fire, and put in it water, salt, a spoon of murri [use
soy sauce] and another of oil, cilantro juice, pepper, caraway and coriander seed.
Little by little, while the pot boils, throw in it the asparagus wrapped in meat. Boil
it in the pot and throw in it meatballs of this ground meat.
And when it is all evenly cooked, [put on a platter and] cover with egg [chopped,
boiled eggs], breadcrumbs and some of the stuffed meat already mentioned
[made into meatballs and cooked] and decorate with egg, God willing.
Making Baqliyya of Asparagus

Cut the meat in round pieces and throw in a pot with a large onion and water,
pepper, salt, coriander seed, caraway, two spoons of murri [use soy sauce] and
the same amount of fresh oil. Put on the fire.
When the meat is done, cut the asparagus fine, after boiling, and throw [the
pieces] over the meat. Cover with chopped, boiled eggs.
Preparing Mallow With Jerked Meat

Take jerked [dried] meat, and let it be tender [soak it first]. Then cut it up, wash it,
put it on the spit and roast it. Then put it in a pot and cover it with water. Throw in
soaked garbanzos, a chopped onion, coriander seed, pepper, a spoon of oil and
salt. Put the pot on the fire.
When it is cooked, take mallow leaf. Wash and shake the soil off and chop it
finely. Then throw on some salt and mix with the hand. Then put it in a sieve of
esparto grass and pour water through until no dirt or anything else remains. Then
throw it in the pot with the meat.
When the garbanzos are cooked, take the pot from the fire. Take some flour and
mix with two eggs and put over the dish. Let it cook on a low fire until the grease
bubbles out, God willing.
Preparing the Dish Dictated by Abu Ishaq

Take meat and pound smooth until it is like marrow.
Put it in a pot and pour over it oil and salt. Clean onions and chop them. Then boil
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and stir and then throw them in the pot with some coriander seed and pepper in
the amount needed, soaked garbanzos and a handful of peeled almonds
pounded like salt.
When it is cooked, pour over it egg white and leave until the grease runs out [the
whites form a top on the dish and it is ready when the oil from the dish rises
through it], God willing.
Making 'Umaniyya [or possibly 1Ammaniyya]

Cut up the meat and throw it in a pot with pepper, cinnamon, spikenard, four and
a half dirhams [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of each, and one thumn [a portion] of
honey, one fourth of a thumn [a portion] of saffron, half a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of
walnuts and three spoons of oil.
When it is cooked, take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1lb] of white flour, dissolve it in a dish
with water, throw it in the pot and boil with everything [to thicken it into a sauce].
Take care to stir it [continually]. Put it on a platter and sprinkle with sugar, God
willing.
Meat Roasted Over Coals

Cut the meat however you wish and throw on a spoon of oil and another of murri
[use soy sauce], salt, coriander seed, pepper and thyme. Leave it for a while until
it has absorbed the spices [marinate]. Prepare it without smoke and roast on a
spit watching it closely.
Preparing Masluq al-Saqaliba, Boiled Dish of the Saqaliba [tripe]

Take meat and cut it up, wash and put in a pot. Add fat intestines and clean tripe
cut in round slices. Throw in the pot a whole onion, fennel, a handful of rue, citron
leaf, some pounded dried coriander, salt and a spoon of good oil. Then pour
enough water into the pot to cover the meat. Put on the fire and cook until the
meat falls apart. Take a head of garlic and peel it and throw it whole into the pot.
Add pepper and boil. Then take it to the embers for an hour [lower the heat], God
willing.
Al-Ghassani's Tharida
Take fat meat and cut it up. Arrange it in a large pot and throw in coriander seed,
chopped onion, cilantro, caraway, pepper, soaked garbanzos, three whole eggs,
enough water to cover the meat, and salt.
When the meat is done, reduce the fire below it and throw in two dirhams [1
dirham = 3.9g/3/4tsp] of saffron. When you see that it is colored, remove part of
the sauce, leaving enough to cover the meat. Boil the meat with the saffron and
then take off the fire.
Strain the sauce and put in a pot. Take one kail of sauce and three of honey [1 to
3 ratio of sauce to honey to make a sweet sauce]. Then take the pot to the fire
and bring it to the boil three times, the honey with the sauce.
Then take good white bread, crumble it and sieve the crumbs. Add them to the
pot and add in it fat and pepper. [Shape the resulting bread pudding on a platter
in a ring.]
Pour [the meat and garbanzo dish] onto the platter over [the] bread ring and serve
[with the boiled eggs chopped over the whole dish], God willing.
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Sa'tariyya, a Thyme-flavored Dish
Cut meat small and put it in a pot with three whole onions, a spoonful of murri
[use soy sauce], a dirham [1 c//r/?a/r?=3.9g/3/4tsp] and a half of pepper, and
some juice from fennel- stalks, and almonds, peeled pine-nuts, sprigs of thyme
Put it on a moderate fire and when you see that the pot has become dry [the liquid
has cooked away], throw in a spoonful of vinegar and dot it with four egg yolks.
When it is done cooking, ladle it out and cut tender rue over it very finely, and
sprinkle it with half a dirham [1 dirham=3.9gl3l4tsp\ of cloves ground with pepper,
and present it.
Rashfdiyya
Take pieces of meat without bones and cut them as for shishkebab [in cubes].
Put them in a pot and mix with them a spoonful of good vinegar, another of murri
[use soy sauce], a handful of pine-nuts and all the usual spices and flavorings
[and some water].
When it has cooked, take out the meat and fry it in a frying pan until it is browned.
Then return it to the pot.
Cut some rue very finely and cover the contents of the pot with this and add four
eggs [whole eggs to boil them]. Make small sanbusak [samosas] and very small
meatballs for this dish, and fry them also. [See the Chapter: Meatballs...]
Ladle out the dish and garnish it with the sanbusak, the meatballs, and the cooked
eggs cut it up small and scatter fine spices over the dish and present it, God
willing.
[This dish seems to be named for Harun al-RashTd, the famous Caliph who
appears in some of the stories of The Thousand and One Nights.]
A Good Dish
Divide meat into medium-sized morsels, like mouthfuls, and put them in a pot with
salt, crushed onion, coriander, two dirhams [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of pepper and
as much of cinnamon, a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of Chinese cinnamon
[cassia], two spoonfuls of fresh oil, one of good murri [use soy sauce] and two of
fragrant rose water, a spoonful and a half of strong vinegar, a handful of blanched
pine-nuts and almonds and enough water. Put the pot on a moderate fire.
Make meatballs and sanbusak [somosas] and cooked eggs. [See the Chapter:
Meatballs...]
When the meat is cooked, fry the meat and the meatballs. Then return them to
the pot and empty into it the rest of the oil. Put it on the euphorbia embers [lower
the heat] and cover the contents with four eggs beaten with a little white flour and
grated breadcrumbs [to make a topping, and let it cook until] the coating wrinkles.
Then grind half a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of galingale and a little musk.
Ladle out the dish and garnish it with sanbusak [somosas], and split the cooked
eggs and put them over the dish, sprinkle the galingale and musk on it and
A Roast of Stuffed Shimas [oven omelette]

Cut fat meat and put it in a pot with whole, small onions, some eight or ten. Throw
in four spoonfuls of oil and two of murri [use soy sauce], cilantro juice, and some
eight beaten eggs. Stir it gently to evenly mix the stuffing [omelette] in the pot,
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and season it. Send it to the oven until it is cooked and lightly browned.
Pound more meat and make good meatballs from it with pepper and cinnamon.
[See the Chapter: Meatballs...] Decorate it with these meatballs. Sprinkle it with
pepper and cinnamon and garnish it with mint and present it, God willing.
Preparation of Plain Liftiyya Also [turnip stew]

Take tender, fat meat and cut it. Put it in a pot with salt, onion, pepper, coriander
seed and a little cumin. Cook it.
When it is almost done, take a turnip and peel it and cut it into big pieces. If you
boil it by itself, it will be better and the same for the other vegetables. Add them
to the meat and leave them until they finish cooking.
Then put it on the hearthstone [lower the heat] and if you squeeze over it cilantro
juice, it will be much better.
Recipe for White Karanbiyya

Take young, fat meat and cut it into a pot with salt, onion, pepper, coriander seed,
caraway and oil. Put it on a moderate fire.
When it is nearly done, take a cauliflower and throw away the outside leaves and
take the heart and surrounding parts, and clean it of its leaves. Cut between the
flowers and throw away the leaves until it remains white like the turnip. Cut it in
regular pieces and throw them into the pot, after pre-boiling them.
When it is done, put it on the hearthstone [lower the heat] and squeeze over it
some coriander juice. He who wants this dish as a muthallath, let him add vinegar
and saffron.
Recipe for Clarified [or Repeated] Liftiyya

Take fat meat and put in what was said in the previous recipe [salt, onion, pepper,
coriander seed, caraway and oil, and put it on a moderate fire].
When it is nearly done, take a closed head of cauliflower. Throw away the outside
leaves, break apart its sections and cut them and boil them. Take the tender
leaves near the stalks and cut them very small and soak them in a dish with water
and salt. Press and cook [boil] separately and when done, take out of the water
and pound in a wooden or stone mortar and throw over the meat [with the cooked
cauliflower]. Then squeeze some cilantro juice and when it is done, take it to the
hearthstone [lower the heat] and serve it.
You can make it according to another recipe, taking the previously mentioned
leaves and pounding them instead of cutting them, with some cilantro. Squeeze
the juice over the stalks [and meat]. It is very acceptable in all of its kinds.
Basbasiyya [a dish of fennel]

Take young fat meat and cut up. Place in a pot with salt, onion, pepper, coriander
seed and oil. Cook.
When the meat is done, take tender stalks of fennel and chop finely. Macerate
with the hand and then throw on the meat. And squeeze juice of tender coriander
over it. Finish cooking and then take it to the hearthstone [lower the heat] a while
and use.
There are those who chop their tender sprigs and squeeze over them water from
pounded roses with some coriander juice. And there are those who cook the meat
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as tafaya [stew] meatballs and squeeze over them the juice of crushed fennel,
squeezing only the juice, mixed with coriander juice and some mint [not
spikenard] juice, as if they were making fennel tafaya [stew]. And you might make
a covering layer [yukhammar, of beaten eggs cooked to set over the top of the
dish],

T
uffahiyya, a Dish Made With Apples [lamb, veal, chicken, squab]
Preparing Narjisiyya [Narcissus-stew] With Carrots

Take tender fat meat and cut into the pot with salt, pepper, coriander seed and
oil. Cook till half done and then cut several peeled carrots into stalks smaller than
a finger, and throw in with the meat with a little water and a little vinegar and
saffron. Then sprinkle with a little washed rice. [Cook all.]
When it is all done, pour in enough eggs beaten with saffron to bind [like an
omelet]. Take down [from the fire] and when it has cooled, cut with a knife, as if
it were a narcissus flower.
[It will be the color of a daffodil so you cut it in the shape of one for effect.]

Take meat of the innards or any meat you wish and pound fine, and pick out its
tendons. And put cut-up fat with it, about a third the amount of the meat. Throw
upon it many spices, and increase the pepper, onion juice, cilantro, rue and salt.
Mix well. Mix in oil and a little water until it binds.
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wish, God willing.
[These are often used in other recipes to garnish dishes.]
Tafaya [green stew]

Put meat in a pot and put with it spices, cut-up onion, oil and fennel stalks. Cover
it with water and cook half way.
Pound a big handful of cilantro and squeeze out its juice and throw it into the pot.
Stir continuously, and do not neglect the stirring lest it be interrupted.
When nearly done, throw in the usual meatballs and sanbusak [samosas]. [See
Chapter: Meatballs...] Ladle it out and sprinkle on it pepper, God willing.
Covered Tafaya [green stew]

Put meat in a pot and put with it spices and onions pounded and oil and fennel
stalks and enough cilantro juice to cover the meat. Cook until it is half done.
Throw in meatballs and break into it eggs and cover with their whites along with
cilantro juice, and leave on the hearthstone [a lower heat] until it is cooked. [See
Chapter: Meatballs...]
Make stuffed gut [sausages] from the meatball forcemeat and put in them whole
almonds, and pine nuts. [Fry it and] cut it up and garnish the tafaya [stew] with it
along with the usual meatballs. Ladle it out and sprinkle with pepper and
cinnamon.
Stuffed Tafaya [green stew]

Peel meat from its bones and make with it meatball meat. [See Chapter:
Meatballs...]
Put the bones in a pot with some meat, pounded onions, fennel stalks and enough
cilantro juice to cover the bones, and cook until done.
Then take the bones out and dress them with the meatball meat [cover the bones
with the meat], and throw them into the pot, and boil carefully, and leave until it
stiffens.
Dot eggs over the meat dish. And put with it meatballs, made as before with
almonds and pine nuts. [Crack eggs over it and let them set with the meatballs
and nuts in it.]
Ladle it out and garnish with stuffed gut [sausages] and farthalat [the dressed
bones] and [chopped] eggs, and sprinkle with pepper, cinnamon and lavender.
Tafaya [stew] Saqlabiyya [Slav stew, white]

Take fat meat, soft small intestine and breast [and put it in a pot]. For every rati
[1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of meat, eight [boiled] eggs which have been cleaned and split
into quarters. Cover with water and cook. Skim [off scum] until it is clear.
When it is clear, throw on it an onion, pepper and dry coriander, and put it on a
charcoal fire and stir continuously until the onion and meat are done.
When done, pound four garlic cloves and throw them in the pot with a sprig of
rue. Ladle out and sprinkle with pepper, cinnamon and lavender.
A Dish of Murri from Any Meat You Wish

Put meat in a pot and throw on it spices, an onion pounded with cilantro and salt,
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and throw on it three spoonfuls of murri [use soy sauce] and one spoonful of
vinegar, and the same of oil. Fry and then cover with oil and cook until done and
browned.
Ladle out and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon.
If you omit the vinegar, it is good, and if you throw in soaked garbanzos and a
little rue, it is good, God willing.
Buraniyya [stuffed eggplant]

Cut up meat and put in a pot. Pound [together] and put with it a spoonful of vinegar
and the like of oil, and rue leaves. Fry and then cover with water and boil.
When it is nearly done, throw in meatballs, and complete its cooking. [See
Then take boiled eggplants and remove their interior [the seeds], and add to the
seeds the same amount of the usual meatball forcemeat, and pound it with an
egg. Stuff the eggplants with it [the stuffing].
Sprinkle [the stuffed eggplants] with flour and fry them until brown. Turn in the pot
until you know that the forcemeat has bound, and ladle it out and sprinkle with
pepper. [And serve it with the meat and meatball stew.]
A Remarkable Dish in Which is Safiriyya of Eggs

Cut up any kind of meat you wish and put in a pot, and throw on it three spoonfuls
of vinegar, one spoonful of murri [use soy sauce], as much spice as you need,
two onions pounded with salt, the juice of a large handful of cilantro, what
pounded meat you want, and likewise pounded walnuts, and a handful of whole
pine nuts and water to cover all until it cooks.
Cover [the contents of the pot] with eggs: peel however many [hardboiled] eggs
you want and brown them well in a fine tajine, turning them into the frying pan
until they brown on all sides, cut up like isfiriyya [chopped very fine].
Ladle it out [the meat dish covered in eggs] and sprinkle with pepper and cut up
rue, and serve, God willing. And if the meat is coarse, fry in oil and throw [it] after
that into the pot.
A Dish With Eggplants

Cut up meat small and throw into a pot, and put with it half a spoonful of vinegar,
a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce], a like amount of fresh oil, spices and an onion
pounded with cilantro and fry. Then cover with oil and cook until done. Then boil
the eggplants separately, and cut up into thirds and quarters and sprinkle with
flour and fry in oil. Throw them in the pot, and cover [its contents with an egg and
breadcrumb mixture and leave it to set] and ladle out and sprinkle with cinnamon,
lavender and pepper, and serve.
Jimliyya
Cut up meat from the innards or elsewhere small. Put in a pot and put with it salt,
cut-up onions, a little vinegar and good murri [use soy sauce], pepper, lavender,
cinnamon, almonds and oil, and cook until done. Break eggs into it and cover it
[to let the eggs set], and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon, and serve.
Green Dish
Cut the meat up small, put it in a pot with two spoons of vinegar, one of oil and
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one and a half spoons of murri [use soy sauce], salt, spices and chopped onion.
Fry it.
Then cover it with the juice of cilantro and cook until nearly done and put in it
meatballs. [See Chapter: Meatballs...]
Cover the contents of the pan with ground meat mixed with bread-crumbs, a little
rue, two eggs. [Let this form a crust.]
Then boil an egg, cut it into four pieces and add it, God willing.
Dish of Meat with Walnuts and Mastic

Cut up the meat, after boiling it, and put with it [in a pot] half a dirham [1
dirham=3.9gl3/4tsp] of mastic, pepper, cinnamon, lavender, garlic, rue, a little
vinegar, oil, salt, whole onions, onion stalks and a little water. [Put it on the fire.]
When you have done this, pound walnuts smoothly and pulverize them until they
are white and thickened and throw into the pot. Stir until they give out their oil.
Cover the contents of the pot with an egg [and let it cook]. Then pour it out,
sprinkle with pepper and spices and serve it, God willing.
Dish of Meat with Cauliflower

Cut up well marbled meat and put with it the white part of scallions, salt and oil.
Fry it. Then pour over it a little water [and boil]. Then throw in it cauliflower cut to
the size of fingertips, after they have been par-boiled [and cook].
Then break eggs in it and cook it until done[, after mixing them] with vinegar and
murri [use soy sauce] to cover the contents of the pot. [Let it cook.] Sprinkle
chopped cilantro on it, God
willing.
Safarjaliyya, a Quince Dish

Take meat and cut it in pieces which you then throw in a pot. Put on it two spoons
of vinegar and oil, a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] and a half of pepper, caraway,
coriander seed and pounded onion. Cover it with water and put it on the fire.
Clean three or four or five quinces and chop them up with a knife, as small as you
can. Cook them in water. When they are cooked, take them out of the water.
When the meat is done throw in it this boiled quince and bring it to the boil two or
three times.
Then cover the contents of the pot with two or three [beaten] eggs and take it off
the fire, leave it for a little while [so the eggs set]. When you put it on the platter,
sprinkle it with some pepper, throw on a little saffron and serve it.
Dish Known as Mulahwaj [the Hasty Dish]

Cut young meat in round pieces and place in a pot.
Take four or five onions per rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of meat and roast them in
quarters, then throw in the pot. Peel eggplants and cut each in eight pieces, boil
lightly and wash with fresh water, then throw in the pot. Add pepper, coriander
seed, cumin, caraway, two stalks of fennel and citron leaves, a clove of garlic,
four spoons of vinegar, three of oil, two of murri [use soy sauce] and enough
water and salt.
Boil until the meat is nearly ready. Then take half a dirham [1 dirham=3.9gl3!4tsp]
of saffron, grind and pound in the brass mortar with some water until it is liquefied,
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then throw it in the pot. Finish cooking, and see to it that the sauce is of a small
quantity [that it reduces].
Then take four eggs and break on the edge of the pot, and pour them over the
meat and stir with the spoon until it mixes. Leave it until it thickens [the eggs
thicken the sauce] and take from the fire. It is a good dish.
Himmasiyya [a garbanzo dish, hummus with meat]

Cut the meat in proportionate pieces [dice] and put in the pot, with water to cover
and enough oil. Do not throw in salt at first, for that would spoil it. Put in all the
spices. And let the amount of water in this dish be small as you will substitute
vinegar [later]. Then put the pot on the fire.
Then grind the garbanzos, sieve them, clean them and throw them on the meat.
When it is all done [cooked], grind up a head of garlic and mix with good vinegar
and put in the pot. Then put in the salt and stir so that all parts are mixed together.
And when the pot is done [cooking], take it off the fire and leave it to cool and
settle. Then sprinkle with fine spices and serve.
It is best, when preparing the garbanzos for this dish, to begin by soaking them
in fresh water overnight. Then peel them and throw them in the pot. When they
have cooked, take them out of the pot and grind them in the mortar. Then return
them to the pot and finish cooking, God willing.
[This recipe is noted as being from Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, brother of Harun al-
Rashid, the anticaliphate. Ibrahim was a famous poet and singer and a renowned
gourmand. It may be that other recipes in this collection are from Ibrahim too, but
it is not certain. Many, however, are certainly from Al-Baghdadi’s famous
cookbook.
Stuffed Asparagus [meat wrapped asparagus dish]

Boil the eggs and shell them. Cook large asparagus and chop tender meat fine
and add in [the chopped eggs and] whatever you add to the meat of meatballs
[See Chapter: Meatballs...], and cloak the asparagus, one after the other, with the
meat, and go with care until they cling together. {Reserve some of the meat mix.]
Put a large clay pot on the fire, in which you have put water, salt, a spoon of murri
[use soy sauce] and another of oil, cilantro juice, onion juice, pepper, caraway
and coriander seed. Cook gently, then put in the asparagus and handle them
carefully. Cook until done.
Throw in meatballs of that meat, and when it is all cooked, cover the contents of
the pot with [beaten] eggs and bread crumbs and some ground meat and
decorate with egg yolks, God willing.
Another Good Dish

Cut the meat small and place in a pot and add two spoonfuls of oil and two more
of murri [use soy sauce], some coriander seed, thyme, pepper and onion chopped
with cilantro. Boil the pot and continue stirring until there is only oil in it [the liquid
has evaporated]. Then pour in water to cover the meat and finish cooking.
Take ground meat and [mix with] crumbs of grated bread, pepper and [raw] egg.
Mix this together and cover the contents of the pot with it and set aside [on a
lower heat] until its grease is properly cooked. [The meat crust cooks.] Ladle it
out, if God wills, may He be glorified and exalted.
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Recipe for a Good Dish Covered With Pine-nuts
Cut the meat in proportionate pieces [dice] and place in a pot [on a low fire]. Stir
with a spoon with a continuous movement without water or oil and do not stop
stirring until the meat is delicately browned.
Then put in grated onion and the necessary amount of salt, three spoons of
vinegar and two of murri [use soy sauce], one of coriander juice, citron leaves,
stalks of fennel and all the spices, pepper, cinnamon, coriander seed and cumin,
which will be the least of all, some caraway and sprigs of rue, peeled almonds,
pine-nuts and enough water. Cook until it is ready.
Make meatballs for this dish and fry until brown. [Reserve some of the meatball
mixture.]
[See Chapter: Meatballs...] Dot egg yolks on the contents of the pot [4] and chop
half a handful of pine-nuts. Then take some of the meat of the meatballs and beat
with some cilantro juice and grated bread-crumbs and the whites of four eggs.
Beat all this together and cover the contents of the pot with it. Take it to the
embers [lower the heat] until the grease comes forth [until the topping sets and
the grease rises around it], pour it out and serve, God willing.
To Make the Dish Asfar [The Yellow Dish]

Cut the meat in the estimated quantity [,put in a pot] and throw on top of it half an
onion pounded with salt, a spoon of vinegar, half a spoon of murri [use soy sauce]
and the same amount of cilantro juice. And there is no need to increase the murri
[use soy sauce] nor the coriander juice, because you are not making broth. And
add two spoons of fresh oil and all the previous spices, and go easy on the cumin,
and enough water, but not too much.
Then take about fifteen walnuts per rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of meat, shell them and
cut in halves and quarters. Boil them and peel them and put in the pot about two
thirds and reserve a third to cover the pot, and also throw in peeled almonds and
pine-nuts.
You may make small meatballs and not fry them, but if you prefer them fried, do
it. [See Chapter: Meatballs...] Take saffron according to the quantity of meat, a
dirham [1 c//r/?a/77=3.9g/3/4tsp] and a half [per rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of meat],
grind half with water in the brass mortar until it is finely ground, and pour it into
the pot as you begin to cook it. When the meat is done, cover [with] four egg
yolks.
Take the [4] whites and beat with some white flour. Pound the rest of the walnuts
until smooth and dissolve in the rest of the saffron. Mix it all together [with the
whites] and cover the contents of the pot with it. Agitate carefully by the sides [of
the pot] until the crust is cooked. Take it for a while to the embers until it settles
and the grease comes out. [Lower the heat until the topping sets.]
Ladle it out and garnish the platter with the walnuts, the meatballs and the yolks,
and serve it. And if you make for this dish some very small sanbusak [stuffed
dumplings, See Chapter: Meatballs...] and garnish the platter with it, it will be
good, God willing.
On the Making of Marrow

What is wanted in this recipe is to make that of which the taste and flavor
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resemble the taste of marrow, because many kings and rulers like to eat it and
consider it of very good nutrition.
If a man limits himself to gathering what marrow he has in his kitchen, he will not
lose what he has gained by it, since he attains what he desires and satisfies the
appetite.
Marrow is a much desired food, and the correct way to eat them is that he who
comes first and takes them out to the table should not try them until the lord of
the table begins to taste them, and should not try any until he gives it to the taste
of his friend and him who eats at his side.
I have heard that a king gave one of his retinue an important duty and that this
man came in to take leave of the king and [share a meal with him before he had
to] go away. The table was dressed and prepared and when the first course was
done, another course was presented in which there was a portion of marrow; that
man seized it and took it. The king was amazed at his conduct and did not doubt
that it would be offered to him [the king], but when he [the man] took it, he put it
on a bite of bread, sprinkled it with salt and ate it himself.
The king kept the matter to himself and when the table was taken away and the
king washed his hands, the man rose to take his leave of the king and go away,
but the king said to him: "There is between us something I need to tell you
afterward." The man went home and did not go out to his job. The king was
informed of this and said: "Isn't it enough for him, on a job at five thousand
dirhams a year, to eat marrows?"
The Making of Marrow Without Marrow, Which No One Will Suspect

Take fresh kidney meat and remove its veins, and peel off the spleen, its under-
skin. Take one part of the spleen, and five parts of clean kidney fat and pound all
this until it is like brains. Stuff this into tripe or large intestines or cane tubes or
the like, and boil it in a pot of tafaya [broth]. Take it out and empty it into a serving
dish and serve it hot.
The Making of a Good Marrow, Which Will Not Be Doubted

Take three uqiyas [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of new walnuts, clean of their shells, and
boil them in hot water. Then take the fine skin from them [peel them] and pound
them very hard. Then take a quarter rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of pounded fat and as
much again of spleen and combine everything.
Pour first into the glass marrow container the oil of fresh almonds, or chicken fat,
or fresh butter. Then fill it with the stuffing and cover its top with dough and boil it
[set the marrow dish in the water] in water and salt, until it is done. Then coat it
with butter and present it.
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Chapter 16
Chicken Dishes
Making a Green Hen [cilantro chicken]
Cut up the [dead] hen, joint by joint, clean it and put in a pot. Throw in two spoons
of vinegar and the same amount of cilantro juice, three spoons of oil, cilantro
pounded with half an onion, coriander seed, cumin, pepper, cinnamon, stalks of
fennel, citron leaves, almonds, shelled pine-nuts and enough water. Cook over
moderate coals.
Take lamb's meat, pound this and place in it everything that goes into meatballs.
[See Chapter: Meatballs...] Make with this mixture little meatballs [reserve some
of the mixture] and cook them with the hen. Reserve some of this meat to cover
the contents of the pot with. And if you wish to fry some meatballs, fry them.
Then break as many eggs as you like [put the yolks in the pot first] and beat them
with the meat from the meatballs, which you reserved, and with a little white flour,
a spoon of cilantro juice and some pepper. Cover the contents of the pot with it.
[Cook it.]
Then arrange the hen with almonds in a platter with the meatballs and egg yolks
and serve, God willing.
A Dish of Chicken [spicy, nut chicken]

Clean a plump, tender [dead] hen. Divide it and put it in a pot with two spoonfuls
of oil, the same of vinegar and as much of murri [use soy sauce], a handful of
almonds and pine-nuts and all the spices and flavorings, three spoonfuls of
cilantro juice, pepper and vinegar in the amount of two spoonfuls, and two
spoonfuls of fresh oil, a handful of cleaned almonds and sufficient water and salt.
[Cook it, reducing the broth.]
When it is done, cover it with breadcrumbs mixed with a little flour and three or
four eggs.
[Let this topping cook.]
Then ladle it out, sprinkle it with pepper, cinnamon, and lavender, and present it,
God willing. Farruj Maghluq, a Closed Dish of Chicken
Joint the chicken, after cleaning it, and put it in a pot with salt pounded with
cilantro and all the spices except cumin, and two spoonfuls of murri [use soy
sauce] and another two of oil. When it is done [browned], cut in rue and add
"eyes" of thyme, and let its broth be made in advance [add some chicken broth
and cook]. When this is done, cover the contents with a layer of crumbs of cold
bread and four eggs and put the yolks on top. [Let the topping cook.] Then ladle
it out and present it; garnish it with egg yolks and cut in some rue and a boiled
egg and sprinkle it with fine spices and present it.
A Chicken Pie
Clean and joint a chicken and put it in a pot with pepper, Chinese cinnamon
[cassia], lavender, coriander, onion juice and cilantro juice, a spoonful, and a half
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a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce], and sufficient water and salt. Cook it until it
is done.
Then throw in peeled almonds and pine-nuts. Then pound its innards and add
white flour and crumbs of risen bread, and four onions if there are two chickens,
or two if there is one. Beat all this and cover the contents of the pot with it. Boil
eggs and split them in halves and quarters [and decorate the top with them].
Chicken Breasts [with almonds]

Slice the breast of the [dead and plucked] chicken, after cleaning it [like a flat
filet], and fry in the frying pan with fresh oil until it browns. Then place it in an
earthenware pot with salt and onion juice, a spoon of murri [use soy sauce], two
of oil and four of water, pepper, rue, thyme, chopped cilantro, pine-nuts and cut
almonds. Boil this on the fire.
Make meatballs with lamb meat, and cook [them] with it too. [See the Chapter:
Meatballs...] [Retain some of the meatball mixture.] Cover the contents of the pot
with some of the meatball mixture mixed with eggs [and let it cook.]. Then boil
eggs separately and cut in quarters. Arrange the chicken with almonds on a
platter [and with the eggs and the meatballs] and sprinkle a little chopped rue on
top and serve, God willing.
A Jointed Hen, Veiled [oven roasted] and this dish with partridge is
also extraordinary [chicken, partridge]
Cut up the [dead and cleaned] chicken and place in a pot, throw in a lot of onions,
some five or six, cut in quarters, and all the spices, murri [use soy sauce], good
oil, stalks of fennel, citron leaves, some rosewater, sprigs of thyme, pine-nuts,
skinned garlic and almond. [Cook it.]
Beat eggs either alone or with the seasonings of the pot. Spread it over the
chicken and put egg-yolks in. Put a lid on the pot and seal the lid with dough
[make a tight seal] and place it in the bread oven until done. Then serve it, God
willing.

Clean a [dead] pullet [or partridge] and put it in a pot, removing the breasts, and
throw in two spoonfuls of strong vinegar, and two of fresh oil and a quarter
spoonful of good murri [use soy sauce], half a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of
saffron, cleaned almonds and a whole onion, salt as may be needed, and water
to cover the meat, with leaves of citron and fennel stalks. Then put it on a
moderate charcoal fire until it is nearly cooked.
Then put in meatballs made from the breast meat [See the Chapter: Meatballs...],
finish their cooking and take it down to the euphorbia embers [lower the heat].
And you put in its covering layer as before, letter for letter. [Beat eggs either alone
or with the seasonings of the pot. Spread it over the chicken and put egg-yolks
in. Put a lid on the pot and seal the lid with dough [make a tight seal] and place it
in the bread oven until done. Then serve it, God willing.]

Clean a chicken or a partridge and put in all that spoken of above, except the
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saffron is omitted.
[Two spoonfuls of strong vinegar, and two of fresh oil and a quarter spoonful of
good murri [use soy sauce], half a dirham [1 c//r/?a/r?=3.9g/3/4tsp], cleaned
almonds and a whole onion, salt as may be needed, and water to cover the meat,
with leaves of citron and fennel stalks.]
Put garbanzos [soaked overnight] and a head of garlic into the pot. Boil meatballs
with the meat [See the Chapter: Meatballs...] and cover the contents of the pot in
the previous manner.
[Beat eggs either alone or with the seasonings of the pot. Spread it over the
willing.]
Spit Roasted Chicken with Stuffed Eggplants

Boil eggplants and take out the insides. Mix [the insides] with eggs, ground meat
and all the flavorings, murri [use soy sauce], onion juice, salt and chopped rue.
Stuff the eggplants with this and fry them in fresh oil until brown and the stuffing
is cooked.
Roast a chicken on a spit and baste it constantly with oil and murri [use soy sauce]
mixed together until it is brown and take care that is does not touch the fire and
burn.
Then place it on a platter and put around it citron leaves and the stuffed eggplants
and decorate with sliced eggs, and chop some rue and serve.

Leave overnight whichever of the two [birds] you have, its throat slit, in its
feathers.
Then clean it [of feathers and guts] and put it into a pot and throw in two spoonfuls
of rosewater and half a spoonful of good murri [use soy sauce], two spoonfuls of
oil, salt, a fennel stalk, a whole onion, and a quarter dirham [1
dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of saffron, and water to cover the meat.
Then take quince or apple, skin the outside and clean the inside and cut it up in
appropriatesized pieces [quartered], and throw them into the pot. Put it on a
moderate fire [and cook it].
When it is done, take it away with a lid over it. Cover it with breadcrumbs mixed
with a little sifted flour and five eggs, after removing some of the yolks. Cook it in
the pot [over the chicken].
When the coating has cooked, sprinkle it with rosewater and leave it until the
surface is clear and stands out apart. Ladle it out, sprinkle it with fine spices and
present it.
Tajine of Birds' Giblets [giblet omelet]

Clean the giblets and stew them with oil and water and two cloves of garlic
crushed with a little cilantro.
When the giblets are cooked, crush them with a little of the heart of an onion, and
season with fine spices and flavorings, a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce], a little
white flour, and cut-up rue. Break six eggs over it and beat this all with the rest of
the sauce from the pot.
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Fry it in a frying pan with oil until it takes the consistency of a tajine, and present
it. Cut rue over it, sprinkle with a little murri [use soy sauce] and garnish it with
mint.
A Dish of Fried Chicken [with omelet]

Leave a plump hen overnight in its feathers [dead]. Then clean it well [of feathers
and guts], put it in a pot and pour in a good deal of both water and salt, two
spoonfuls of oil, half a spoonful of vinegar, a whole onion, fennel stalks, citron
leaves, cleaned almonds, pepper, cinnamon, a little cumin, caraway, and
coriander, well ground. Then put it on a moderate fire [and cook it].
When the hen is cooked, take it out and fry it with fresh oil until it is browned.
Then take it out of the frying pan.
Take the sauce in which the hen boiled and beat it well in a dish with six or eight
eggs, [reserving] four whole egg yolks, and pour all this into a frying pan [and
cook] until it is rippled and well browned.
Then put the chicken on a dish covered with citron leaves and put this omelet
around it and over it. Garnish it with the egg yolks after they too are fried and
sprinkled with spices.

It is made in the country of Al-Andalus and in the Maghrib. It is made with all kinds
of birds, such as chickens, geese and capons, that are fattened, as well as young
pigeons and so on.
Take what you have on hand of them, cleaned and with the breast split [so it
cooks evenly], and partly cook them as white tafaya [stew] [par-boil them before
roasting in almond milk].
Then take to the oven and raise on the spit and baste with a sauce for roasts [oil
and murri (soya sauce)]. Turn the spit over a moderate charcoal fire, little by little,
carefully, until it is done and browned. Then set it aside.
There are some who make it fried and cover it after frying in a coating of garlic
pounded with almonds and walnuts. [This is how you make the sauce.]
Make well-made thin breads of white flour. [See the Chapter: Breads] When done,
break them into crumbs the size of a dinar [a coin]. Strain [the bones] from a
chicken broth and return [the broth in] the pot to a moderate fire and add a
quantity of oil, pepper and cumin. When the pot boils, take it off and put in garlic
pounded with walnuts, almonds and grated cheese. Add the crumbs.
Then take the roasted chicken and put it on top of the platter after rubbing and
rolling it in the coating. Top it with [chopped boiled] eggs, olives and split almonds.
Sprinkle it with grated cheese and cinnamon and cover it with a sheet of isffriyya
[crepe] made with egg [a thin omelet],
[The Lamtuna were the main Almoravid tribe. More exactly, they were the
dominant tribe of the Sanhaja confederacy, the nomadic Berbers of southern
Morocco who were the basis of the Almoravid power, and constituted the
aristocracy of the Almoravid state in Al-Andalus.]
A Coral Dish of Chicken

Roast the chicken, according to the recipe for roasting in the recipe previous to
this one.
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[Take what you have on hand of them, cleaned and with the breast split [so it
and murri (soya sauce)]. Turn the spit over a moderate charcoal fire, little by little,
carefully, until it is done and browned. Then set it aside.]
Take a new pan and place in it two spoons of vinegar, one of murri [use soy
sauce], three of water and two of fresh oil, citron leaves, two fennel stalks, an
onion pounded with salt, cilantro, a sprig of rue, another of thyme and skinned
almonds and put the pot on a low fire.
If you make lamb meatballs and fry and put in it [the sauce], it is good. [See the
When the onion is done and the pot has boiled several times, dot with the yolks
of eight eggs, cover the contents of the pot with the whites mixed together with
some white flour and pepper. Put the roast chicken in it until the chicken absorbs
the sauce and sprinkle with some murri [use soy sauce]. Put on a platter and pour
the sauce over, chop rue over it and serve, God willing.
Recipe for "Hunchbacked" Chicken

Take a big, plump hen, the biggest and plumpest there is, [kill and then] clean it
well, and break it in the middle of its back until a hump protrudes.
Then peel three heads of garlic and pound them well with salt, and throw on
pepper, cinnamon, lavender, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], and some murri [use
soy sauce]. Break over that four eggs and beat well with it.
Loosen the skin of the chicken. Clean a head of garlic, peel it and put part of the
egg mixture and part of the garlic on the chicken's back between the skin and the
meat, and do this carefully so as not to break the skin. Then finish the egg mixture
and garlic [repeating the filling process] and enlarge the chicken's hump. Then
sew up any place where the filling tries to escape.
Then put the chicken in a pot of its own size and put on it a little water, two
spoonfuls of oil, one of murri [use soy sauce], and a little hand-shredded thyme.
Break two eggs over the pot and send it to the oven.
When it is cooked and browned, spread a dish with citron leaves and put the
chicken on top of the leaves after removing the stitching, and its back appears on
top so that the hunchback is evident. Garnish it with cut-up egg yolks, cut rue
over it, sprinkle it with fine spices, and use it.

Knead dough on the pattern of the cheese pie dough. If you want it flaky
[muwarraqa],
[good,] and if you want it "abridged" [mukhtasara], [good]. Make a loaf as we have
described for the cheesecake. [See the Chapter: Breads]
Take chicken or whatever you want [starlings], clean it and cook it in a pot with
water and salt, and do not overcook it.
Pound an onion with cilantro and coriander and pepper. Put all this in a ceramic
frying pan on the fire with some oil, a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce] and stir
until it is well done. Take two eggs and crack them into the frying pan on the fire
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and stir it until the seasoning is cooked.
Then take it from the fire, and when it is cool, take the pullets and cut in half. Put
them in the crust already made. Take egg yolks and put them in, cover it with [the
seasoning mixture, and then] a top crust made for it. Brush it with egg yolks, and
put it in the oven on a pan [to cook], God willing.

Clean whichever you have of them [pullet or partridge], after letting it hang [dead]
overnight in its feathers. [Remove one breast.] Put it in a pot with [water,] dried,
ground coriander, caraway, pounded onion, sufficient salt for the pot and two
spoonfuls of fresh oil. [Cook it.]
Take the breast of whichever fowl, before it touches the water, pound it and make
wellshaped meatballs, and throw them in the pot.
When it is almost done and it is just ready, take it to the coals [lower the heat].
Take some mint juice and beat it with cold breadcrumbs and some flour with five
or six eggs, after taking out some yolks. [Spread this as a crust over the bird,
inserting the reserved egg yolks under the crust along the center line. Let it set,
and the egg yolks cook, from the reserve heat of the bird.]
When the crust has congealed, make a tharfda [a savory bread pudding] out of
thin flatbreads of fine flour [usually shredded first] and moisten it with the sauce
until it is soaked evenly [then shape it into a firm layer on the serving dish and
allow it to set].
Put the bird on top [of the tharfda ], after first cutting it down the middle so that
the eggs are sliced which you inserted in the center of it, the interior of it [under
the crust]. Pile it up with the meatballs and garnish the tharfda with them and with
almonds and pine-nuts, and present it, God willing.
A Reddish-Brown Dish of Chicken

Sacrifice a fat hen and leave it overnight in its feathers. Then pluck it [and clean
and gut it] and boil lightly whole. Then roast it moderately over coals.
Cut up its gizzards and liver before boiling the hen. Cut in very small pieces [and
put it] with some salt, a whole onion, a sprig of thyme, four stalks of fennel, four
citron leaves, a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb/ and a half of scented sweet syrup, two
uqiyas [1 ug/'ya=39g/7tsp] of murri [use soy sauce], two more of fresh oil, a
dirham [1 dirham=3.9gl3/4tsp] of Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and another of
cinnamon, four dirhams [1 dirham=3.9gl3l4tsp\ of pepper and a head of garlic for
those who like it.
When you have cooked this sauce, cut up the chicken and put it in the pot and
cover the contents of the pot with the cooked yolks of four eggs [and the whites]
beaten with some sauce from the pot. Then serve it, after letting it sit for a while
[to let the topping cook], God willing.
Palace Chicken with Mustard

Cut up a chicken and place it in a pot with [some water and] salt and onion
pounded with cilantro, oil, coriander seed, pepper and caraway. Put it on the fire
until it boils, and when it has boiled gently, add cilantro juice, vinegar, and murri
[use soy sauce], and let the vinegar be more than the murri [use soy sauce].
When it has cooked, pound peeled almonds fine and stir with egg and some green
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pepper and dried ground coriander and a spoon of prepared mustard. Pour all
this into the pan and add three cracked eggs and take it to the hearthstone to rest
for a while [to let the topping cook and the sauce thicken], and serve, God willing.
Farruj Mubarrad, Ginger and Lavender Chicken

Wash a [dead and plucked] chicken, clean it [of the guts, and quarter it] and
season it with salt and pepper and put it in a pot. Pound a handful of almonds
and throw it on. Break over it six eggs, whole pine-nuts, pepper, cinnamon,
Chinese cinnamon [cassia], ginger, lavender, and a spoonful of murri [use soy
sauce]. Stir all this with three spoonfuls of fresh oil and a little water. Put the pot
on a moderately hot hearthstone and stir it carefully.
When it has cooked, put it in a dish and sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon, cut
rue over it, garnish it with egg yolks, and present it.
A Dish of Chicken with Mild Wine

Clean the chicken and put it in a pot [quartered]. Throw in two spoonfuls of oil
and onion juice, one spoonful of cilantro juice, ten peeled and pounded almonds,
a clove of garlic and sufficient salt and water. [Put it on the fire.]
When it boils gently, throw in strong vinegar, murri [use soy sauce] and basil
nabidh [a low- alcohol wine licit for Muslims], a spoonful of each. Put in citron leaf,
a whole clove [habaq qaranfuli], bee balm and a bunch of green rue. Place it in
the pot [and cook it].
When it is done, take a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] each of Chinese cinnamon
[cassia], pepper, and cinnamon, and another dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of
cloves and lavender. Pulverize these and beat with eggs and cover the contents
of the pot with them and dot with egg yolks. [Let the topping cook.] Ladle it out
and serve it, God willing.
Recipe for a Stuffed Hen Without Bones [stuffed chicken skin]

Slit the throat of a hen, as large and plump as possible, and inflate it well while
still warm after tying up the neck. Then pluck it gently so as not to burst it. As
soon as you are done plucking it, separate it along the back from neck to tail, and
skin it little by little with all possible care until it is all skinned except the tips of the
wings, for these are left with their skin.
Then take all the meat from the breast and pound it strongly in a mortar. Then
pound it with peeled almond, nuts, and cold breadcrumbs steeped in cilantro
juice.
Then take what is inside it [liver and giblets] and boil it with water and salt until it
is cooked. Cut it in small pieces on a wooden board, and add this to the pounded
meat.
Put all this to fry and add cilantro juice and murri [use soy sauce] in the necessary
amounts, with whole peppercorns, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon [cassia],
lavender, and galingale.
Cook eggs, shell them, and keep the yolk aside. Cut the white finely and add it to
the stuffing.
Break over this eight or ten eggs. Put it on a moderate fire and stir with a spoon
until cooked. Then knead the stuffing in such manner that it will not fall apart.
Then stuff the skin that was peeled off with this stuffing, after sewing it up on all
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sides, but leave a hole where the stuffing can go in. Place cooked egg yolks under
the wings, thighs, and legs until it takes the form that the hen had before. Then
sew up the hole where the stuffing was put in.
Let there be as much water as necessary to cover it [in a pot, to boil it].
And when the stuffing [the stuffed skin] is on the point of being done, take it out
of the water and put it in a pot or a tajine and sprinkle it with murri [use soy sauce]
and oil. Clean the mortar in which the meat of the chicken was pounded, put a
little thyme with it, and rub it [the chicken] with the thyme, and send [the chicken]
to the bread oven until the sides are browned, and watch that it does not burn.
Then spread a dish with citron leaves. Take the chicken out and split the chicken
in half from above to below and leave it as you prepare some clove, pepper,
Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and cinnamon. Sprinkle them over it and over both
pieces, garnish it with toasted almonds, and present it.
An Extraordinary Dish of Chicken [coal roasted, with sauce, meatballs

and sausages]
Clean a [dead] young, plump hen and roast it over coals, and watch that it not
burn. Baste it with oil and murri [use soy sauce] continuously until it is browned.
Then take its innards, cut fine and put them in an earthenware pot, and throw in
two spoonfuls of oil, two of vinegar, one of murri [use soy sauce], and thyme, rue,
four cloves of garlic, pine- nuts, almond, coriander, a little cumin, pepper,
cinnamon and Chinese cinnamon [cassia], lavender, onion ground with salt and
some cilantro. Boil all this over a moderate fire.
Make meatballs of mutton [See the Chapter: Meatballs...] and throw them in the
sauce until they are cooked. Then take them out and roast them until they are
browned.
Cut sausages made for this purpose, cut into rounds in the form of earrings, and
throw them in the pot and let it boil. [Put the hen in the sauce and leave it] until
the hen absorbs the sauce.
Put the hen in a dish and garnish it with its meatballs and its [sausage slices and
some] egg yolks, and scatter fine spices over it and present it, God willing.
Recipe for Making Judhaba [aromatic roast chicken]

Called Umm Al-Faraj: It is an Eastern Dish [Mother of Joy]
Get kidney fat from a sheep or a fat goat and clean it of its membranes and veins.
Pound it in a stone or wood mortar until it takes the consistency of brains. Then
take a new pot; knead the fat with your hand and smear it over the whole inside
of the pot, from the bottom up the sides so that it has the thickness of a finger.
Then take thin bread [crepes] made in an Indian pan, in whole pieces, not torn.
Its preparation consists in kneading wheat dough well according to the recipe of
mushahhada [pancakes, see the Bread section for the full recipe], so that it is
ghurab [runny], and doesn't form into a ball. Dilute it with water little by little until
it becomes as thin as hasu [mush]. Heat the Indian pan on a moderate charcoal
fire, and when it has heated, take the dough with a ladle [muballila] and pour
[batter] on it until it spreads out. Return the ladle to the bowl. The dough has
attached to the pan as a fine tissue. That is a ruqaq, and it is [also] kunafa [both
crepes] Shake out onto a cloth, and it will come out round, in the shape of the
pan. Then [continue] pouring out the dough, as was done the first time, until you
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make the necessary amount of crepes.
Then take fat, tender chickens, [kill and] clean them, cut their breasts [a slice to
help them cook evenly] and put them into the pot, whole, as they are; add salt,
oil, pepper, cinnamon and spikenard. Put it on the fire and cook it until done.
When the juice has dried up, take two ruqaqs [crepes] and put them in the bottom
of the earthenware pot which has been prepared and smeared with grease. Stick
them to the sides and sprinkle the thin bread with crushed sugar, peeled almonds,
spikenard, Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and cloves, a handful [in all]. Dribble on a
good amount of fresh oil and sprinkle it all with rose water in which some musk
and camphor have been dissolved, enough to dampen the sugar. Then lay over
this two thin breads and sprinkle them, as was done earlier, with sugar, almonds,
spices and oil. Sprinkle with rose water. Then lay on another thin bread and do
the same with it until you reach the middle of the pot.
Then take those cooked and prepared chickens, which have been rubbed with
saffron dissolved in rose water, and lay them in the center of the pot over the
bread. Then cover with a thin bread also, and sprinkle with sugar, almonds and
flavorings as was done before. Don't stop doing this until the pot is full and the
chicken remains buried in the middle. When you have finished, sprinkle it with a
lot of sugar, throw on oil and rose water and cover with the bread fastened to the
sides. Cover the pot with a fitted lid, sealed with dough. Then put it in the oven at
moderate heat and leave it there as long as you would leave a pot with meat [viz.
a stew].
Then take it out and break the seal. It gives off a perfumed odor. Remove the thin
bread that covered it, if the fire has gotten it [if it is burned], and also that which
has been stuck to the sides of the pot. Then invert it, such as it is, on a big platter
and serve it. It is extremely good tasting with a penetrating aroma. It is an
extraordinary dish, superior in its preparation to the royal victuals, praised for its
nutrition and beautiful composition.
Dish of Chicken When it is Roasted

Roast a fat [dead and cleaned] hen and anoint it with salt, oil and thyme until it is
browned and done.
Then cut it up and put in a pot and throw in two spoons of murri [use soy sauce]
and the same of vinegar, a spoon of oil, onion chopped with cilantro, salt, spices,
leaves of thyme and chopped rue. Put it all on the fire until it comes to a full boil
and cook with the flavorings.
Then grind up walnuts, almonds and pine nuts, leaving to the side some whole
ones and beat [with] three eggs. Cover the contents of the pot with them, and dot
with egg yolks and leave over the coals until they bind together and are good.
Sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon, God willing.

partridge]
If it is tender, take the flesh of the breast of the hen or partridge or the flesh of the
thighs and pound very vigorously, and remove the tendons. And pound with the
meat almonds, walnuts and pine nuts until completely mixed. Throw in pepper,
caraway, cinnamon, spikenard, in the required quantity, and a little honey and
eggs. Beat all together until it becomes one substance.
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Then make with this what looks like the dish made of lamb innards [sausage],
and put it in a lamb skin [intestine] or sheep skin [intestine]. Put it on a heated
skewer and cook slowly over a fire of hot coals until it is browned.
Then remove it and eat it, if you wish with murri [use soy sauce] and if you wish
with mustard, God willing.
Chicken [simple dish]

Cook a chicken [quartered,] with water and salt, pepper, chopped onion and lots
of oil. Cover the contents of the pot with eggs, sprinkle [with spices] and serve,
God willing. If you add a little vinegar, it is good, and the same with cilantro.
Dish of Stuffed Chicken [or Pullet]

Take two [dead and cleaned] chickens and make with one of them the stuffing for
the other, according to the earlier directions on making stuffing.
[From the recipe: Stuffed Hen Without Bones. Then take all the meat from the
breast and pound it strongly in a mortar. Then pound it with peeled almond, nuts,
and cold breadcrumbs steeped in cilantro juice.
meat.
the stuffing.
until cooked. Then knead the stuffing in such manner that it will not fall apart.]
When you have finished making it [and stuffing the chicken with it], put [the
chicken] in a pot or an earthenware pot and throw in a spoon of oil and another
of murri [use soy sauce], and onion chopped with cilantro and salt. Put on the fire
until brown, then moisten with water [add water] and finish cooking. [Brown the
chicken, then steam or boil it.]
Make meatballs of lamb flesh with enough water to bind it. [See the Chapter:
Meatballs]
Then put [the meatballs] on the spit and cook. Baste them with egg-yolk, with a
sprig of thyme, little by little, until they yellow and glow.
Then put them in the pan with the chicken and cover the contents of the pot with
four eggs, [beaten with] bread crumbs and a little rose-water. Top with egg yolks.
[Let the topping cook.] Take it out and sprinkle with spikenard, cinnamon and
pepper, God willing.

Take young, fat [dead] chickens, clean and boil in a pot with water, salt and
spices, as is done with tafaya [stew].
Then take it out of the pot and pour the broth with the fat in a dish and [then] add
to it [the chicken] what has been said for the roast over coals [salt, oil, thyme].
Rub this into the boiled hen and then arrange it on a spit and turn it over a
moderate fire with a continuous movement and baste it constantly, until it is ready
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and browned.
Then sprinkle it with what remains of the sauce and use. Its nutrition is nicer than
that of livestock meat, and more uniform. In this way one also roasts the other
birds.
Hen Roasted in a Pot in the Oven [the bread oven]

Take a young, plump, [dead and] cleaned hen, and put it on a wooden spit like a
lance. Place it in a new pot of its size, not touching the sides or the bottom, and
seal on it with dough a lid pierced in the middle, so that the end of the lance sticks
out through the hole, so that it stays upright. [An upside-down, "T" shaped,
wooden spike.] The lid is made to seal with the dough.
Put the pot in a moderate oven and leave it until it is ready. Then take it out and
prepare for it salt ground with pepper and cinnamon, and sprinkle salt over it [the
chicken] upon opening the pot. Then cover it a little, after rubbing it until the salt
penetrates it.
Hen Roasted in a Pot at Home

Take a young, plump, [dead and] cleaned hen. Slice it on all sides [to help it cook
evenly] and then make for it a sauce of oil, murri naqV [use soy sauce], a little
vinegar, crushed garlic, pepper and a little thyme. Grease all parts of the hen with
this, inside and out. Then put it in a pot and pour over it whatever remains of the
sauce, and cook it [over a low fire]. Then remove the fire from beneath it and
return the cover to it and leave it until it smells good and is done [it steams a bit].
Then take it out and use it.
Chicken Called Madhuna, Greased [roast, spicy]

Take a cleaned [dead] hen, still whole. Slice the breast and pierce with wood
[skewers] on all sides [to aide cooking and absorption of the seasonings], grease
with oil, murri naqV [use soy sauce], pepper, saffron, cinnamon, cloves, lavender,
and ginger. Grease inside and out with this. Then put it in a pot and pour on what
remains of the oil and murri [use soy sauce].
Cover the pot with a sealed lid and place it in the oven, leaving it there until the
hen is done. Take it out and use. It is extraordinarily good.
Cooked Fried Chicken

Cut up a [dead, cleaned] chicken, making two pieces from each side [quarter it].
Fry it with plenty of fresh oil. Then take a pot and throw in four spoonfuls of vinegar
and two of murri naqf’ [use soy sauce] and the same amount of oil, pepper,
cilantro, cumin, a little garlic and saffron. Put the pot on the fire and when it has
boiled, put in the fried chicken spoken of before [and cook]. And when it is done,
then empty it out and present it.
The Green Dish Which Umm Hakima Taught [with cilantro]

Boil a tender [dead and cleaned] hen. Then cut it up and fry in fresh oil until it is
browned and crisp. Leave in the skillet.
Then take a bowl and put in it cilantro chopped with onion and rue cut in small
pieces, a spoon of murri [use soy sauce], pepper, caraway and two spoonfuls of
145
cilantro juice, cloves of peeled garlic and thyme crushed in the hand and four
spoons of water. Mix it all and pour over the hen and do not stop stirring
continuously until the dressing is ready and cooked.
Then take four eggs and break them over the dish and stir it all until the egg is
cooked and the greater part of the sauce is evaporated. Then serve it, God willing.
A Dish of Pullet [with coriander]

Cut a [dead] chicken, after cleaning it, into three pieces and place in a clean pot.
Add a proportionate amount of salt, pepper, a good quantity of coriander seed, a
spoon of murri [use soy sauce] and another of oil. Put it on the fire until it boils
once, and prepare onion juice for it and put on enough to cover, and boil until
done.
Boil eggs, clean them and pound with them a proportionate amount of cilantro
and break upon them fresh eggs, and beat with them, and cover the contents of
the pot with them, and taste [and adjust the ingredients] until the proportions are
good and equal. [Let the egg mixture cook, then serve.]
Chicken Covered With Walnuts and Saffron

Cut a [dead and cleaned] chicken in two and put in a pot. Throw in onion pounded
with cilantro, salt, spices, a spoon of vinegar and half a spoon of murri [use soy
sauce]. Fry it until it smells good. Then cover it with water and cook it till almost
done.
Make meatballs from a chicken breast [See the Chapter: Meatballs...], and throw
them in the pot. Dot with egg yolks and cover with the whites mixed with pounded
walnuts and saffron. [Cook this topping.]
Then ladle out and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon and serve, God willing.
Another Dish Covered with Ground Almonds

Joint a [dead and cleaned] hen and put in a pot. Throw in with it a pounded onion,
cilantro, salt, spices, a spoon of oil, whole almonds, spikenard, Chinese cinnamon
[cassia], cinnamon, a spoon of vinegar and half a spoon of murri [use soy sauce].
Boil submerged in water and cook until it is about done.
Throw in the meatballs [made from a chicken breast, see Chapter: Meatballs...,]
but do not dot with egg yolks. Cover with eggs beaten with pounded almonds and
sprinkle with spices. [Let the topping cook.]
Another Dish, Which Is Covered with Cilantro Juice

Put chicken meat in a pot [a quartered chicken] with chopped onions, cilantro and
salt, a spoon of oil and a fourth of a spoon of murri [use soy sauce], the same
amount of vinegar, and spices. Cook until done. Then throw in meatballs [made
from a chicken breast, see Chapter: Meatballs...,] and cover with cilantro juice
and eggs [beaten and cook on the top] and sprinkle with spices.
Dish with Pine Nuts

Put the chicken meat [a quartered chicken] in a pan and throw in with it the same
as before, meatballs, spices and so on. Cover it with ground pine nuts and
[beaten] eggs. Put in whole pine nuts and sprinkle with spices and pepper.
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Another Dish, Covered with Pistachio
Put the chicken meat [a quartered chicken] in a pot and put with it all you did
before, spices, meatballs, and eggs. Cover with rosewater, Chinese cinnamon
[cassia] [cassis], spikenard and ground pistachio, egg beaten with fine
breadcrumbs. [Cook the topping.] Then dish up and serve.
Jaldiyya of Chicken [sweet]

Take a fat [dead and cleaned] hen and remove its wings and the ends of its thighs.
Wash the chicken and put it in a new pot with a third of a thumn [a portion] of
honey, salt, four dirhams [1 dirham = 3.9g/3/4tsp] of pepper and the same of
cinnamon, a dirham [1 dirham = 3.9g/3/4tsp] of spikenard, a dirham [1 dirham =
3.9g/3/4tsp] of galingale and three of saffron, half a rati [1 rati = 468g/1 lb] of
almond and a fourth of a rati [1 rati = 468g/1 lb] of pine nuts. Take the pot to a
gentle fire and let it come to a boil four times and it is done.
Leave it over the coals [lower the heat] and take three cooked eggs and dot it
with the yolks in the pot and cover with the whites [diced], throw in the pot a round
sponge [cake or bread crumbs], beaten with honey [and let it cook]. Dish up and
sprinkle with spices and sugar.
Chicken Dish With Wine [or honey, steeped in spiced]

Take a fat [dead] hen and clean it, put in a pot and along with it ten [hardboiled]
eggs, which have been sliced like eggplants [halved], a rati [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of
wine or in its place a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of honey, which is better and sweeter,
a fourth of a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of murri [use soy sauce], the same of vinegar
and of oil, two dirhams [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of pepper, one of cumin, several
sprigs of thyme and enough salt. Break into it many eggs. Put a lid on the pot and
seal the edges with dough, leaving an air-hole, and cook until done on a slow
coal fire.
Dish up and sprinkle with pepper and serve. And he who covers it with egg white
mixed with flour [a meringue], it is very good.
Another Chicken Dish

Joint a [dead and cleaned] chicken and put in a pot with two spoons of oil, one of
vinegar, another of fresh water, spices and juice of pounded onion. Fry [to brown]
and then cover with cilantro juice and cook till done.
Cover with a spoon of white flour two eggs cut in half, chessboard-fashion [cut in
the middle], after garnishing them with saffron [to make them yellow].
Ladle out the dish and garnish with the cut-up eggs, and pepper and spices.
Tharida of Chicken [boiled chicken on bread]

Put a [dead] chicken, after plucking it, into a pot, whole. Throw on it a spoonful of
oil, the same of honey, enough of spices, a little chopped-up onion and enough
water to cover the chicken, and cook.
Then make thin flatbreads and throw onto them much oil and put them whole into
a dish. Empty the broth upon them, and the chicken, and do it well. [The bread
absorbs the liquid.]
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Mukhallal of Chicken and So Forth [a vinegar dish]
Put [chicken] meat in a pot and throw on it spices, onions pounded with cilantro,
salt, a spoonful of oil, three spoonfuls of vinegar, a little murri [use soy sauce] and
two heads of garlic. Throw on it water to cover and cook until done.
Cover [the contents of the pot with eggs beaten with breadcrumbs] and sprinkle
with pepper and cinnamon and [let it cook, then] serve.
And if you leave out the murri [use soy sauce], it is also good. And when it is
made as a mukhallal of fat meat, throw in it boiled eggplants.

Pound the [chicken] meat until it becomes like brains, and pick out its tendons.
use them.
Recipe for Zirbaja [sweet and sour soup, chicken, pigeon, dove, lamb]
worry about you?'
humors in particular] and it is the sikanjabm [name of a sweet-sour drink] of
sugar, four uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of each. Dissolve them in rosewater and
pigeon, dove]
Get a young hen or young pigeons or doves. [Kill and] clean as many of these as
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you have. Split their breasts [slice them so them cook evenly] and put them in a
pot with salt, a little onion, pepper, coriander and fresh oil. Cook until it is
seasoned and then thicken it [so it is] like dough, with almonds, peeled and
ground, dissolved in rosewater.
Then leave it over the hearthstone [a lower heat] and squeeze into it the juice of
two or three lemons, depending on the degree of acidity desired, and dissolve
with it some camphor dissolved in rosewater. Do not squeeze the lemons at
cooking-time, for this will make it bitter, but rather after putting it on the
hearthstone. And leave it a while.
Maghmum, The Veiled [oven roasted] Dish [lemon chicken, pigeon,

goose]
Make it with a chicken or meat of a goose or young pigeons. Take what you have
of this, cleaned, and place it whole in a pot, as it is, the breast split [slice so the
cook evenly], with [water and] salt, oil, a little onion, pepper and coriander. Cook
it halfway, take it out.
Put it in another pot and pour into it the clear part of the broth [strain it], murri
naqt’ [use soy sauce], saffron, lavender, some citron leaves and thyme. Put inside
the fowl two or three peeled lemons and sprinkle them [the fowl] with peeled, split
almonds. Cover the mouth of the pot with dough [seal it with a lid] and place it in
the oven.
Leave until it is ready, and serve it. It is very nutritious and proper for moist
stomachs.
The Making of Mu'affara which is also Called Munashshiya [false

chicken]
Take a [dead and] cleaned, cut-up hen and put it in a pot with [some water and]
salt, a little onion, pepper and coriander and cook it halfway.
Then take it out and remove the meat of the breast and the thighs and pound it
gently, like for meatballs. Add to it lavender, Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and
pepper. Beat it with some egg and cover the breast and legs [the bones] with this,
and cover with it all the parts of the chicken.
Then fry it in a frying pan with fresh oil until it is browned.
Then return it to the pot and add vinegar, oil, and a very little bit of murri [use soy
sauce], saffron, pepper and lavender, and sprinkle it with split almonds. [Cook it.]
Then cover the pot with plenty of beaten egg, as much as is proper. Put on it
whole egg yolks and take it down to the hearthstone [lower the heat to let the
topping cook], leave it there a while, and use it. It is also made in a frying pan,
and it comes out supremely excellent.
Recipe for Muruziyya [sweet and sour chicken]

It is one of the dishes of Africa and the country of Egypt.
Take a cleaned [dead] hen, cut it up with what is mentioned for zfrabaja, [some
water, a little salt, pepper, coriander, cinnamon, saffron and sufficient of vinegar
and fresh oil.]
And when it is done, add "cow's eyes" [prunes] infused in vinegar and oil, and
also jujubes and split almonds, and you might make it thickened with peeled,
pounded almonds.
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[In al-Andalus it is called "al-'asami," the color of dark amber. In Marrakesh it is
the dish for 'Id al-kabir.]
Recipe for Ja'fariyya [gold colored dish]

Take a fat, cleaned [dead] hen. Cut it up and put it in a pot with [some water and]
salt, an onion, dry coriander, pepper, saffron, vinegar and some murri naqV [use
soy sauce] and split peeled almonds. Cook it until it is done.
Then cover it with beaten egg mixed with much saffron, lavender and Chinese
cinnamon [cassia]. Then remove the fire from under it and put on the pot lid and
build a fire [there] until its upper part browns, and keep the bottom from the heat.
[You brown the top.]
It is called ja'fariyya because of the quantity of saffron it has. It looks like ja'fari
gold [the purest grade of gold]. It is also said that a certain Ja'far invented it and
called it by his name.
Recipe for Jullabiyya, a Dish with Julep [candied chicken]

Take a cleaned [dead] chicken and remove the neck [gut it], leaving it whole and
not cutting it up. Cook it in white tafaya [almond milk] and when it is done, take it
out of the pot and leave it aside until it is dry.
Then take three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of white sugar and dissolve it in rosewater
and cook syrup of julep [sharab al-jullab] in it, in a kettle, and perfume it with
lavender, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], cloves, and ginger. When it is thick, cut it
with some musk and camphor dissolved in good rosewater.
Then put in the chicken already spoken of and cover it so the julep fills it and
thickens on it. Then remove the kettle [from the heat] and leave it until the syrup
of julep thickens on the sides of the chicken and becomes thoroughly cooked, as
if it were a [candied] citron.
When it is completed in this way, put it on a damascene dish and present it with
a complete range of garnishes.
The Making of Raff', a Fine Dish [chicken and meatballs]

Take a very plump [dead and cleaned] hen and put it in a pot with [some water
and] pepper, coriander, cinnamon, lavender, vinegar, a little murri naqV [use soy
sauce], plenty of oil, and five spoonfuls of rose syrup. Put it on a moderate
charcoal fire and cook it until the chicken is done and its broth comes out; then
remove it and set it aside.
Then take tender, pounded meat, pounded peeled almonds, ten eggs, cilantro
juice, juice of a pounded onion, lavender, ginger, cinnamon, saffron, oil, rose petal
jam and split almonds.
Mix this all together and make some meatballs with it [retaining some of the meat
mixture], add to the pot, and cover the pot with what remains [of the mixture].
Dot this with ten or more whole egg yolks and then put the pot in the oven and
leave it until it is cooked. Take it out and let it cool a little and use it. And if you
wish you may make it in a tajine [on the stovetop].
The Recipe of ibn al-Mahdi's Maghmum [roast chicken]

Take a plump [dead and cleaned] hen, dismember it [quarter it] and put it in a pot.
Add coriander of one dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] weight, half a dirham [1
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d/r/?am=3.9g/3/4tsp] of pepper and the same of cinnamon, and of ginger,
galingale, lavender and cloves a quarter dirham each, three uqiyas [1
uq/'ya=39g/7tsp] of vinegar, two uqiyas of pressed onion juice, an uqiya of cilantro
juice, an uqiya of murri naqV [use soy sauce], and four uqiyas of fresh oil.
Mix all this in a pot with some rosewater, cover it with a flatbread [to protect the
top from burning] and put a carefully made lid over the mouth of the pot [they use
dough to seal the top of the pot]. Place this in the oven of a moderate fire and
leave it until it is cooked.
Then take it out and leave it a little. Let it cool and invert it onto a clean dish and
present it. It is remarkable.
[Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, an Abbasid prince, who was anti-Caliph for some months,
and whose hospitality and culinary expertise made him famous. Al-Bagdadi gives
his name to this dish and calls it Ibrahimiya.]
Abbasid Chicken [stuffed chicken]

Take a clean [dead] hen and stuff it between the skin and the meat and the in
interior. Then roast it on a spit until it is browned on all sides.
[From the recipe: Stuffed Hen Without Bones. Then take all the meat from the
breast and pound it strongly in a mortar. Then pound it with peeled almond, nuts,
and cold breadcrumbs steeped in cilantro juice.
meat.
the stuffing.
until cooked. Then knead the stuffing in such manner that it will not fall apart.]
Then take a pot in which are placed [some water and] three spoonfuls of vinegar,
one of murri naqV [use soy sauce], two of oil, and pepper, coriander, saffron,
cinnamon, thyme, rue, ginger, four cloves of garlic, almonds and walnuts. Put the
pot on the fire and when the broth boils, add the chicken so the fat of the broth
enters it.
And when it is done cooking, dot it with five eggs and take it out to the hearthstone
until it cools [and the eggs cook]. Then empty it out and serve it. This can also be
made in a tajine with this sauce in the oven, and either way it is notable.
The Preparation of Jaldiyya [Leathery fowl, raison sauce, goose, hen,

capon]
Make this dish with a goose, hen or capon. Take what you have of it, clean it and
put it in a pot. Then take two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of raisins and pound them
fine and steep them in water until their sweetness comes out. Strain them and
put the strained part in the pot. Add three spoonfuls of strong vinegar and two of
oil, as well as pepper, coriander and half a chopped onion. Balance it with salt.
Cook it [the fowl] until it is done and the sauce thickens.
Then take peeled, pounded almonds, the same of walnuts, and grated
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breadcrumbs, pepper and six eggs [mix this together] and cover the contents of
the pot with them after cooking [when cooked]. And dot it with egg yolks and leave
it on the hearthstone until its fat rises [the topping sets, the grease rises].
Recipe for Thumiyya, a Garlicky Dish

Take a plump [dead and cleaned] hen and take out what is inside it, clean that
and leave aside. Then take four uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of peeled garlic and
pound them until they are like brains. Then mix it with what came out of the interior
of the chicken. Fry it in enough oil to cover, until the smell of garlic comes out.
Add this to the chicken in a clean pot with salt, pepper, cinnamon, lavender,
ginger, cloves, saffron, peeled whole almonds, both pounded and whole, and a
little murri naqV [use soy sauce]. Seal the pot with dough, place it in the oven and
leave it until it is done.
Then take it out and open the pot. Pour its contents in a clean dish and an
aromatic scent will come forth from it and perfume the area. This chicken was
made for the Sayyid Abu al- Hasan [an Almohad prince, nephew of 'Abd al-
Mu'min and governor of Marrakesh] and much appreciated.
[Four ounces of garlic [1/3 of a pound, of course, since there were 12 ounces to
a pound] works out pretty close to the 40 cloves called for in a famous classical
Provencal dish. Leave out the spices and the almonds, and you'd about have
poulet a 40 gousses d'ail.]
A Chicken called Ibrahfmiyya [sweet and sour saffron chicken]

Take a cleaned [dead] hen and make two pieces from each limb [quarter it]. Place
it in a pot with salt, onion, pepper, cilantro, saffron and split almonds. Pour over
it two spoonfuls of oil and two more of vinegar and five of sugared rose syrup, put
it over a moderate fire and leave it until it is cooked.
Then take four eggs and beat them with some fine flour in rosewater, saffron,
lavender and cloves, cut them with some camphor and cover the contents of the
pot with it. Leave it on the hearthstone a while [until the topping sets] and use it.
[A recipe from Ibrahim b. al-Mahdi.]
Mahshi, a Stuffed Dish [chicken, pigeon, dove, small birds, lamb]

It is made with a roast hen, or with young pigeons or doves, or small birds, or with
the meat of a young lamb. Take what you have of this, clean it, cut it up and put
it in a pot with salt, a piece of onion, pepper, coriander, cinnamon, saffron, some
murri naqV [use soy sauce] and plenty of oil. Put this on the fire.
When it is done and the broth has formed, take out the meat from the pot and
leave it aside. Take as much as necessary of grated white breadcrumbs and stir
them in a tajine with the remaining chicken fat and sauce. Tint it with plenty of
saffron and add lavender, pepper and cinnamon. When the breadcrumbs have
mixed in, break over it enough eggs to cover it.
Then sprinkle it with peeled, split almonds. Beat all this until it is mixed, then bury
the pieces of chicken in this so that the chicken is hidden in the stuffing and add
whole egg yolks, and cover this all with plenty of oil.
Then place in the oven and leave it until it is dry, thickened and browned and the
top of the tajine is firm. Then take it out and leave it until its heat passes and it
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cools, and use it.
A Chicken Dish [stuffed chicken skin and meat dish]

Slit a chicken's throat, and skin it after inflating, as described earlier.
[From the recipe for Stuffed Chicken without Bones: Slit the throat of a hen, as
large and plump as possible, and inflate it well while still warm after tying up the
neck. Then pluck it gently so as not to burst it. As soon as you are done plucking
it, separate it along the back from neck to tail, and skin it little by little with all
possible care until it is all skinned except the tips of the wings, for these are left
with their skin.]
Then take its breast and entrails and pound them with a quarter pound of
almonds, spice it and put in almonds, pine-nuts, pistachios, not pounded, and two
spoonfuls of rosewater, and twenty eggs, two spoonfuls of oil, one of murri [use
soy sauce] and cilantro juice. Beat all this. [This is the stuffing.]
Fill the skin with the stuffing [retain some] and insert among the filling boiled egg
yolks. Sew it up and put it in a pot with seven spoonfuls of oil [to brown it]. Then
throw it in the oven, after sealing it with dough [this makes a roasting pan of
dough].
When the top [of the chicken dough] is browned, take the rest of the meat and
put it in a pot with half a spoonful of vinegar, as much of murri naqi', a third of a
spoonful of oil, pepper, cinnamon, lavender, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], cilantro
juice, onion juice, citron [leaves], fennel stalks, and sufficient salt and water. Put
it on the fire until it is cooked.
When it is done, cover the contents with an uqiya [1 t/g/ya=39g/7tsp] of pounded
almonds mixed with breadcrumbs, flour and four eggs. Make a covering in it, and
dot with two egg yolks.
When this covering has wrinkled [cooked], ladle the dish onto a serving plate and
garnish it with cut-up egg yolks, and sprinkle it with spices and rue.
Put the stuffed skin on another dish and garnish it after cutting it in half with [sliced
sausages or meatballs] and sprinkle with the spices and sprinkle it with rosewater
and present it.
The stuffing can be made in another manner, that is, pound the breast meat and
the stuffing and season it as before, and throw on twenty eggs, without their
whites. Take a small pot and put cilantro juice in it, boil and remove the foam, and
throw the stuffing on it and mix with it. Stuff the skin with this, sew it up, and
arrange its cooking. The second dish of meat is as done earlier, to the letter.
The Making of Stuffed Chicken [stuffed, roasted chicken]

Clean a [dead] chicken, take out its entrails, and put them in a pot with two
spoonfuls of oil, two of water, and the juice of one onion ground with coriander,
green [cilantro], and spices and flavorings, and a little murri [use soy sauce],
[Cook them.] Then pound the entrails with almonds, breadcrumbs and flour. Beat
in four eggs. [This is the stuffing mixture.]
Stuff the chicken with two hard boiled eggs: insert one in its body interior and the
other in its neck. [Then stuff the chicken with the entrails stuffing mixture. Sew
the bird up.] Then put [it in] a pot on a moderate fire. [Cook in the oven.]
When it is dried and cooked, put the chicken in a dish. Boil two eggs and cut them
over it with rue. Pour out the remains in the pot over it [the grease], sprinkle it with
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fine spices, and present it, God willing.
Recipe for Farruj Mubarrad, Omelet Chicken [boiled chicken with

omelette]
Clean a [dead] chicken and put it in a pot [and retain the entrails]. Throw on top
spices, pepper, cinnamon, and all the flavorings, two spoonfuls of oil, water and
salt and cook it carefully.
Wash two eggs and put them in the pot [to boil]. When all is done, take the giblets
and the liver, shell the eggs and cut everything with a knife on a board into very
small pieces. Fry it in a frying pan. Beat two eggs and throw in murri naqf’ [use
soy sauce], and turn it over in the frying pan until it is browned [omelet].
Then put the chicken in a dish, put the omelet on it [cut up] and around it and
moisten it with the rest of the grease remaining in the pot.
Cut up a boiled egg with rue and sprinkle it on the surface of the dish and sprinkle
fine spices over all this and present it.
A Stuffed Dish of Chicken [Cooked] in the Oven

Clean a [dead and plucked] plump chicken and pound its giblets, its liver, and its
heart well. Add to these ten eggs and spice it and adjust the salt. Stuff the chicken
with this [minus 1 spoonful] and sew it up. Put it in a pot and throw on top spices,
pepper, salt, and three spoonfuls of oil.
Take one spoonful from the stuffing with which you filled the chicken and beat it
with three eggs and cover the pot with it. Dot it with egg yolks and send it to the
oven until it is browned and the stuffing is wrinkled [cooked].
Take out the chicken onto a dish and put around it the stuffing. Garnish it with
egg yolks, cut rue over it, sprinkle it with fine spices and present it, God willing,
praise be to Him, there is no Lord but He.
Chicken In the Oven [roast chicken]

Take a cleaned, plump chicken and put it in a pot. Throw in a spoonful of fresh
oil and half [a spoonful] of murri naqV [use soy sauce], pepper, a piece of Chinese
cinnamon [cassia] [cassis], and egg yolks, whole, as if they had been found in the
chicken. Then you put the lid on the pot and place it in the oven. When it is known
to be cooked and done, take off the lid and empty it out for serving.
Recipe for an Extraordinary Chicken Dish [honey chicken with

almond stuffing, with meatballs and sausages]
Slit the throat of a plump chicken, clean it and take out the entrails.
Separate the guts and pound the liver and giblets, not too hard. Put in a quarter
rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of almonds and pine-nuts, cilantro juice, a little murri [use
soy sauce], spices, flavorings and pistachio juice and mix with six eggs. [This is
the stuffing mixture.] Boil four eggs.
Stuff the chicken with [the stuffing mixture] and insert the boiled eggs in it and
sew it up. Put water, and a spoonful of oil into a pot, and place the chicken in and
cook it, without overdoing the cooking.
Then put into another pot six spoonfuls of oil, half a spoon of vinegar, half a rati
[1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of water, and a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] and a half of honey. When
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it boils, place the chicken in it [to cook in the sauce]. When it is done cooking,
cover it with five uqiyas [1 uq/ya=39g/7tsp] of starch, the weight of two dirhams
[1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of 'akar [lees, vinegar sediment] and rosewater. Stir this
carefully until it is thick. Then take it off the fire.
Take the intestines, turn them inside out and clean them. Pound a piece of breast
meat and beat it with two eggs. Make an isfiriya [small meat patty, and cook it].
And pound a piece of lamb and put in all that you would put into a mirqas
[sausage, see the Chapter: Meatballs...], as well as a clove of garlic, a little murri
[use soy sauce] and cilantro, and an egg. Beat this and stuff the gut with it and a
stalk of fennel and make of it mirqas [sausages], and cook them.
Then ladle out the almond stuffing and garnish the chicken with the isfiriya [small
meat patty] and the mirqas [sausages], pine-nuts and pistachios, and present it,
God willing.
Tharida of KhabTs [wheat starch] with Two Chickens [in honey]

Slit the throat of two chickens and take out the entrails. Pound them [the entrails]
and put spices with them and season them with all the flavorings and murri naqV
[use soy sauce]. Pound them with bread crumbs, almonds, pine-nuts, and
pistachios. Beat all this with fifteen eggs, and boiled egg yolks. [This is the
stuffing.]
Stuff a chicken with this filling [retain some of the stuffing] and sew it up and put
it in the pot with a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] and a half of water and half a rati [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] of oil. Boil it over a moderate fire and when it is almost cooked,
throw in two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey and four dirhams [1
dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of saffron. When the chicken is colored [yellow], take it out.
Put khabis [wheat starch] on top of the honey mixture, and cook it until it is very
thick.
Then take the breast of the second chicken [pound it fine] and make isftriyya
[crepes, in this case, actually omelettes] with it, with pepper, cinnamon, and two
eggs or however many are needed.
Pound the thigh meat [of the second chicken] and add to it all that is needed for
mirqas [sausage], as in a previous recipe.
[Knead it in a bowl, mixing in some oil and some murri naqV [use soy sauce],
pepper, coriander seed, lavender, and cinnamon. Then add three quarters as
much of fat, which should not be pounded, as it would melt while frying, but
chopped up with a knife or beaten on a cutting board. Using the instrument made
for stuffing, stuff it in the washed gut, tied with thread to make sausages, small or
large.]
Clean guts [use animal intestines as a sack] and fill them with this [mixture], and
make mirqas [sausage], [Fry them.]
Then put the khabis [and honey mixture] on a dish and set the chicken in the
middle. Garnish it with the isfiriyya [crepes omelettes] and mirqas [sausages].
Sprinkle pepper, cinnamon, and sugar over it. Place pine-nuts and pistachios on
top and present it.
A Hen Roasted in the Oven [simple, garlic and coriander]

Clean a plump, young, tender [dead] hen, salt it with salt and thyme, peel four or
five cloves of garlic and place them between the thighs and in the interior. Pound
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pepper and coriander, sprinkle them over the hen, rub with murri [use soy sauce]
and oil and a little water, and send it to the oven, God willing.
Egyptian Chicken
Clean a [dead] chicken, joint it [quarter it] and put it in a pot. Throw in spices,
pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], lavender, three spoonfuls of oil
and half a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce], one of vinegar, some juice of both
cilantro and onion, three spoonfuls of water and pine-nuts and almonds. Put it on
the fire until it is done. [The chicken cooks in the sauce.]
Then fry it [the chicken pieces] in a frying pan until it is lightly browned.
Place it [the chicken] on a dish and pour on the sauce, and cut egg yolks and rue
over it, sprinkle it with spices, and present it, God willing.
A Chicken Known as Zukaira [stuffed chicken skin and meat dish]

Slit the throat of a chicken and skin it, as before, gently.
[From the recipe for Stuffed Chicken without Bones: Slit the throat of a hen, as
large and plump as possible, and inflate it well while still warm after tying up the
neck. Then pluck it gently so as not to burst it. As soon as you are done plucking
it, separate it along the back from neck to tail, and skin it little by little with all
possible care until it is all skinned except the tips of the wings, for these are left
with their skin.]
Pound its breast and entrails with cold breadcrumbs, almonds and walnuts, break
fifteen eggs over this and throw on top a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce],
another of cilantro juice, all the spices and sufficient salt.
Stuff the chicken skin with this [mixture and retain some], and place it [the
chicken] in hot water [and cook] until it becomes solid.
Take the rest of the meat [mixture] and put it in a pot with three spoonfuls of oil,
five of water, half a spoon of murri [use soy sauce], one of vinegar, two of
rosewater, and one of cilantro water. Cook this until it is ready, and cover the
contents of the pot with four eggs, breadcrumbs and ground almonds. When it
has thickened, take it out.
Heat the spit red-hot, and insert the [boiled] chicken onto it to roast over a
moderate fire until
browned.
Then put it [the chicken] on a dish, empty the almonds [the meat and almond
dish] over it, garnish it with egg yolks and toasted pine-nuts, sprinkle it with spices
and present it.
Recipe for the Chicken Dish known as Sabahi [of morning]

[Pluck, clean and] Wash a [dead] hen after keeping it overnight in its feathers.
Then place it whole in a pot and throw in four spoons of strong vinegar and one
of seasoned murri [use soy sauce], and if you do not have any seasoned, two
spoons and the same amount of water as vinegar, [and add] a spoon of oil and
an adequate amount of salt, fennel stalk, citron leaf and whole peppercorns. Put
it on the fire until done and leave on the coals. [The water evaporates and makes
a sauce.]
Take out the hen and cut the breast through its two sides and break its back.
Then fry it in the pan with fresh oil. And fry excessively so that it browns. It is best
156
not to put it in the pan until the oil is good and hot.
When the chicken has browned, return it to the pot [with the sauce] and pour in
the rest of the oil [in] which you have fried [it]. Then put it [all] in a dish and sprinkle
it with fine spices.
Recipe for Barmakiyya [calzone or empanada, chicken, pigeons, small

birds, lamb]
It is made with a hen, pigeons, doves, small birds or lamb. Take what you have
of them, after cleaning, and cut up and put in a pot with [some water and] salt, an
onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or cinnamon, some murri naqV [use soy
sauce], and oil. Put it on a gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce is dried.
Take it out and fry it in fresh oil without overdoing it, and set it aside.
Then take fine flour and semolina, make a well-made dough with leaven, and if it
Then roll out from the dough [two flatbreads. Take one] flatbread and put on it the
fried and cooked meat of these birds. Cover it with another flatbread and seal the
edges together. Put it in the oven.
When the bread [calzone, empanada] is done, take it out. It is very good on
journeys. You might make it with fish and that can be used for journeying too.
[The Barmakis [Barmecides] were a family of Persian viziers who served some
of the early Umayyad Caliphs, in particular Haroun al-Rashid, and were famed
for their generosity.]
[Cook it.]

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Slit the throat of a goose and inflate it. Then pluck it carefully and skin it, as has
been explained earlier for chicken.
[Slit the throat of a hen, as large and plump as possible, and inflate it well while
wings, for these are left with their skin.]
Take its entrails and intestines, after cleaning them well and pounding them well
and add spices and all the fine flavorings, murri naqf' [use soy sauce], cilantro
juice, crushed almonds, onion juice, and 25 eggs, whole pine-nuts, enough salt,
pounded mint, cut-up fennel, pistachios, and two spoonfuls of oil. Mix all this and
stuff the goose's skin with it.
Take the meat of the breast, pound it to make a coating [for the breast bone] and
[mix with] the whites of five eggs, pepper, cinnamon, and salt.
Mix all this and cloak the breast bone with it. Then throw it in boiling water until it
stiffens [cooks]. Then return it to its place in the skin, in the middle of the stuffing,
and sew up all parts in the skin after inserting boiled egg yolks in the middle of
the stuffing.
Put it in a large tajine or a pot, and put on it half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of oil, a
little water and murri [use soy sauce], and send it to the oven. Watch its cooking
until it is browned.
Then take the rest of the meat of the goose and put it in a pot and top it with
spices and all the flavorings, two spoonfuls of vinegar and four of oil, two of
cilantro juice, one of murri [use soy sauce], branches of rue and onion juice. Cook
it until it is done.
When it is cooked, pound lamb meat, spice it and add egg whites. Make suitable
meatballs of this. Throw them in the pot.
When all the goose meat is cooked, beat four eggs, grated breadcrumbs, and
fine flour.
Cover the contents of the pot with this and take it down to the hearthstone
[remove it from the heat] until the dough wrinkles well [until it cooks, sets].
Ladle it into a dish and dot it with cut-up egg yolks, and sprinkle it with fine spices.
Put the stuffed goose on a second dish and garnish it with toasted almonds and
pine-nuts. Cut it in half, sprinkle it with fine spices, sprinkle it with rosewater, and
present it.
Thus it is made with chicken except in the part which is made with entrails and
intestines. For this, upon cooking it, take the amount of half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1
lb] of cilantro juice, boil it in a little pot. Clean off its foam, and dissolve in it the
yolks of five eggs. Beat it with grated breadcrumbs and a little vinegar and cover
the contents of the pot with this. Leave it until it wrinkles, and ladle it out, as
before, over the chicken, God willing.

Clean the chicken and take out its entrails. Cut off the extremities of its thighs and
wings and the neck, and salt the chicken and leave it.
Take these extremities and the neck and the entrails, and put them in a pot with
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fine spices and all the flavorings and cilantro juice, onion juice, whole pine-nuts,
a little vinegar and a little murri [use soy sauce], good oil, citron leaves, and stalks
of fennel. Put this over a moderate fire. When it is done and the greater part of
the sauce has gone, cover the contents of the pot with three eggs, grated
breadcrumbs and fine flour. Crush the liver, add it to this crust and cook carefully
until the liver and the crust are cooked.
Then take the chicken and roast it carefully, and baste it with two eggs, oil and
murri [use soy sauce], and do not stop greasing [basting] the chicken inside and
out with this until it is browned and roasted.
Then take a second little pot and put in two spoonfuls of oil and half a spoonful of
murri [use soy sauce], half a spoonful of vinegar and two spoons of aromatic
rosewater, onion juice, spices and flavorings. Put this on the fire so that it cooks
gently.
And when it has cooked, [cut up the roasted chicken and put it in the sauce] and
leave it until it is absorbed. Then ladle it into a dish and pour the rest of the sauce
on it, and cut up a boiled egg and sprinkle with spices, and ladle the preceding
[pine-nut and entrails dish] into another dish, and garnish it too with egg yolks;
sprinkle it with fine spices and present both dishes,
God willing.
A Jewish Dish of Chicken [with a stuffing]

Clean the chicken and pound its entrails with almonds, breadcrumbs, a little flour,
salt, and cut-up fennel and cilantro. Beat it with six eggs and the amount of a
quarter ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of water. [This is the stuffing.]
Then expose the chicken over the fire a little [this could be to burn off the remains
of the feathers]. Then place it in a clean pot with five spoonfuls of fresh oil, and
do not stop turning it on the fire in the oil until it is well browned.
Then cover the contents of the pot with stuffing prepared earlier and leave it until
it is bound together and cooked.
Ladle it out and put the stuffing around it, garnish with cut rue and fennel, mint,
and toasted almonds, and present it, God willing.
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Chapter 17
Other Fowl Dishes
Tajine with Cheese [small birds, pigeon]
Take soft cheese, not fresh that day but that has passed three or four days, and
shred it in the hand. To two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of this add two uqiyas [1
uqiya=39g/7tsp] of white flour. Put it in fresh milk and break in ten eggs and
sprinkle with pepper, saffron, cinnamon, lavender, and coriander. Mix all this
together in a tajine and when it is thick, moisten it with fresh milk and cover it all
with plenty of oil.
Bury in it fried small birds or cut-up pigeons [dead and cleaned], egg yolks, and
split almonds.
Put in a moderately hot oven and leave until it is dry and thickened and browned
on top.
Take it out so it can cool, and use it.
This dish may be made green with water of coriander seed and of cilantro and
mint water in place of saffron [makes it yellow], and another dish will result.
And he who wishes to make this tajine with cheese alone, without fowl or meat,
shall do so in the same way, and in each of these ways it is good.
pigeon, dove]
Get a young hen or young pigeons or doves. [Kill and] clean as many of these as
you have. Split their breasts [slice them so them cook evenly] and put them in a
pot with salt, a little onion, pepper, coriander and fresh oil. Cook until it is
seasoned and then thicken it [so it is] like dough, with almonds, peeled and
ground, dissolved in rosewater.
Then leave it over the hearthstone [a lower heat] and squeeze into it the juice of
two or three lemons, depending on the degree of acidity desired, and dissolve
with it some camphor dissolved in rosewater. Do not squeeze the lemons at
cooking-time, for this will make it bitter, but rather after putting it on the
hearthstone. And leave it a while.
Maghmum, The Veiled [oven roasted] Dish [lemon chicken, pigeon,

goose]
Make it with a chicken or meat of a goose or young pigeons. Take what you have
of this, cleaned, and place it whole in a pot, as it is, the breast split [slice so the
cook evenly], with [water and] salt, oil, a little onion, pepper and coriander. Cook
it halfway, take it out.
Put it in another pot and pour into it the clear part of the broth [strain it], murri
naqV [use soy sauce], saffron, lavender, some citron leaves and thyme. Put
inside the fowl two or three peeled lemons and sprinkle them [the fowl] with
peeled, split almonds. Cover the mouth of the pot with dough [seal it with a lid]
and place it in the oven.
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Leave until it is ready, and serve it. It is very nutritious and proper for moist
stomachs.
Stuffed Monkey-Head [layered dish, pigeon]

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of wheat flour and knead it until it is a little soft [with
some water]. Then mash it with half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of clarified butter,
[some] water and ten eggs, and beat all this together gently until it softens [makes
a dough], [Make two dish-sized, round flatbreads of this dough, raghffa.]
Then take a young pigeon and [kill and] clean it. Take its innards and pound with
a little onion, breadcrumbs and peeled almonds. Beat together five eggs, pepper,
cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], lavender, and some cilantro juice.
Fill the young bird with this. Insert a boiled egg in the stuffing and sew it up. Put
it in a pot with water, salt and oil [and cook].
And when it is cooked, take a second pot and put oil and rosewater in it. Make
meatballs of mutton or of chicken breast and cook with the necessary salt, water,
crushed onion, citron leaves, and fennel stalks. [See the Chapter: Meatballs...]
[Boil them in the oil and rosewater.]
When it is done, cover the contents of the pot with six eggs beaten with cold
breadcrumbs and wheat flour. Make four stuffed eggs [and put in the topping] and
dot yolks over it.
When the cooking is done and the covering is wrinkled [cooked], take a frying
pan to a weak fire with some oil. Beat an egg with some pepper and salt, and
spread it over the frying pan, which should be low of heat, until it fries and
becomes very thin [a thin egg pancake]. Loosen it and put it in the bottom of a
dish and make another egg according to the same recipe [and put it in the dish].
Then scoop out the almond stuffing [and the pigeon meat and put some of it on
the omelette] and put a raghffa [into the dish] and garnish with the meatballs and
stuffed eggs, after cutting the latter in fourths. Put the stuffing between these and
cover with another raghffa so that none of the almond [stuffing or meat] shows,
and plant [a sprig of] mint in it, and [cover with] toasted almonds and pistachios,
and present it, God willing.
The Making of a Dish of Small Birds [simple dish]

Take as many plump small birds as you will. [Kill and] clean them, sprinkle them
with ground salt, and fry them in a frying pan with fresh oil until they are browned.
Then put them in a pot with pepper, cumin, vinegar, and some murri naqf’ [use
soy sauce] and cilantro juice [and cook] until they are done.
Then cover them with egg beaten with saffron and cinnamon [and leave to set].
The Making of a Dish of Pigeons, Doves, or White Starlings [fowl in

meatloaf, pigeon, dove, starling]
Take what you have of these [pigeons, doves, white starlings] and [kill, clean
then] fry them in a frying pan with plenty of oil until they are browned.
Then pound tender meat and peeled almonds very well and put them in a dish.
Add coriander, pepper, cinnamon, lavender and sufficient oil and egg. Mix all this
until the meat and almonds blend, and moisten it with a spoonful of cilantro juice
and a little mint juice.
Put all this in a pot and place the fried pigeons into it. Put the lid on the pot and
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place it in the oven. When it is thickened and has reached readiness, take it out
and present it.
He who wants this dish mudhakkar [vinegary] may add vinegar and murri [use
soy sauce], as may be, and cumin, garlic, and saffron, and another dish will result.
A Dish of Young Pigeons [sweet fowl, pigeon]

Take plump, active pigeons, [kill and] clean them and put them in a pot. Add a
little salt, pepper, coriander, and oil. Fry a little and then pour over it water to
cover, throw in a quarter rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar and finish cooking it until
it is done.
Then cover the contents of the pot with four eggs beaten with saffron and
cinnamon. Dot it with egg yolk and leave it on the hearthstone a while [to set the
eggs]
Then empty it into a plate and sprinkle it with sugar, lavender and cinnamon and
use it.
sikbaja and of that of sour milk saliqa.
worry about you?'
You advised me that she should eat ztrbaja. I got it and she was cured of her
Hanin said, This is a neutral dish [one that does not stimulate any of the four
humors in particular] and it is the sikanjabtn [name of a sweet-sour drink] of
sugar, four uqiyas [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of each. Dissolve them in rosewater and
A Preparation of Remarkable Pigeons [Bujun, stuffing covered

pigeons]]
Take plump pigeons fattened indoors. [Kill,] clean and grease with murri naqV
[use soy sauce], thyme and plenty of oil. Place them in the oven in a hantam
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[earthenware pot].
Then cut up the entrails, pound them and put them in a pot. Add walnuts and
almonds, both pounded and whole, and a quarter uqiya [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of [a
mix of] pepper, thyme, cumin, cloves, lavender, saffron, and coriander. Pour two
spoonfuls of oil, as much strong vinegar, and one spoonful of murri naqV [use
soy sauce] over this all, and put it over a moderate fire.
When this stuffing is cooked, dot it with ten egg yolks [and let the yolks set]. Then
pour the stuffing over the pigeons in their tajine, when it comes from the oven and
is done cooking. Then leave it a little until it is cool, and serve it.
[In Spanish, buchones, a type of pigeon or dove well known in the Levant. The
word used in the Arabic text is taken from medieval Spanish: bujun.]
'Ujja [frittata] of Pigeons

Take two [dead and] clean, active [fat] pigeons, and fry them in a pan with fresh
oil. Then place them in a pot and add to them some murri naqi' [use soy sauce],
vinegar, oil, cilantro, Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and thyme. [Cook it.] When it is
cooked, break eight [beaten] eggs with it [let them set] and pour out [serve it up].
It is finished.
Recipe for a Dish of Olives [partridge]

[Kill and] clean a partridge and put it in a pot with salt, coriander, pepper, [pre-
soaked] garbanzos, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], and all the spices, two spoonfuls
of oil, a little water, citron leaves and fennel stalks [and cook].
Make small meatballs from its breast and cook them in the pot ["pound the breast
meat and beat it with egg and a bit of powdered white flour and suitable spices".]
When it has boiled some three times, take it out to the hearthstone [remove it
from the heat].
Take stalks of Swiss chard, or French spinach and cut them in quarters. Make a
bundle of them, tie them with a string, and place them in the pot with ten olives
[and let them cook in the still hot pot].
Skin cheese, cut it in small pieces and boil it in oil until it is browned, and throw it
in the pot [too].
Take out two or three meatballs and pound them in a mortar, and break three
eggs [whites only] over them [separated]. Cook their yolks in the pot, and beat
the egg whites with a little white flour [and the three meatballs]. Cover the
contents of the pot with this and stir it at the sides until the topping is cooked and
the surface of the pot stands out [the grease rises].
Then put it in a dish, garnish it with its meatballs, egg yolks, pieces of cheese and
olives, sprinkle it with fine spices, and present it, God willing.
Recipe for a Dish of Partridge

Cut up the [dead] partridges, after skinning and cleaning, into a pot with salt,
[some water,] onion juice, pepper, cilantro, vinegar, oil, a little murri naqV [use
soy sauce], cumin, and meatballs made from the breast of the partridges ["pound
the breast meat and beat it with egg and a bit of powdered white flour and suitable
spices"] Put over a moderate fire [and cook].
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When it is cooked, cover it with [beaten] egg, [let it set and cook, and then] empty
it out.
Know that the breast of the partridge is only good for meatballs, for the meat is
dry and not delicious. And if you pound the breast meat and beat it with egg and
a bit of powdered white flour and suitable spices and make meatballs or ahrash
[small meat patties], it will come to be mild and agreeable.
Jewish Partridge [stuffed]

Clean the partridge and season it with salt. Then [for the stuffing] crush its entrails
with almonds and pine-nuts and add murri naqf’ [use soy sauce], oil, a little
cilantro juice, pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], lavender, five eggs
Boil two eggs, stuff the partridge with the stuffing and insert the boiled eggs
[shelled] and put some stuffing between the skin and the meat, and some of it in
the interior of the partridge.
Then take a new pot and put in four spoonfuls of oil, half a spoonful of murri naqf
[use soy sauce] and two of salt. Put the partridge in it and put it on the fire, after
attaching the cover with dough [seal it tightly], and agitate it continuously so it will
be thoroughly done. And when the sauce has dried, remove the lid and throw in
half a spoonful of vinegar, throw in citron and mint, and break two or three eggs
into it. Then put a potsherd or copper pot full of burning coals on it until it is
browned, and then turn [the contents] around so that the other side browns, and
roast it all. [After the bird has cooked, steamed, brown it.]
Then put it in a dish and put the stuffing around it, and garnish it with the egg
yolks with which you dotted the pot, or with roast pistachios, almonds and pine
nuts, and sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon after moistening with sugar, and

Clean it, joint it and put it in the pot with all the spices and flavorings and cilantro
juice, onion juice, murri [use soy sauce], half a spoonful of vinegar, three of oil,
and sufficient water, mint, citron and whole pine-nuts.
When it is cooked and the greater part of the sauce is gone, pound the giblets
and the liver well and beat them with three eggs and leaven. Cover the contents
of the pot with this and loosen it at the sides until it cooks.
Dot it with egg yolks and then ladle it out and garnish it with egg yolks and mint,
toasted pine- nuts and pistachios, sprinkle it with a little rosewater and present it,
God willing.
Recipe for a Dish of Partridge with Honey [with egg-white coating]

Let it [the partridge] hang overnight in its feathers after cutting its throat. Clean it
in the morning and put it in a pot with half a spoonful of vinegar and three uqiyas
[1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of good honey, peeled almonds and sufficient water [to cover]
and salt, three spoonfuls of oil, and half a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of
saffron. Put it on the fire.
When it is all done, take it down [from the fire] and arrange the bird on a large
clay dish. Then cover it with cold breadcrumbs mixed with two egg whites without
flour. Throw the two yolks in the pot to cook. Then leave the bird until the surface
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[the egg white coating] is clear and shiny.
Chop up the two egg yolks and garnish the dish with them. Then sprinkle it with
fine spices and present it.

Clean whichever you have of them [pullet or partridge], after letting it hang [dead]
overnight in its feathers. [Remove one breast.] Put it in a pot with [water,] dried,
ground coriander, caraway, pounded onion, sufficient salt for the pot and two
spoonfuls of fresh oil. [Cook it.]
Take the breast of whichever fowl, before it touches the water, pound it and make
wellshaped meatballs, and throw them in the pot.
When it is almost done and it is just ready, take it to the coals [lower the heat].
Take some mint juice and beat it with cold breadcrumbs and some flour with five
or six eggs, after taking out some yolks. [Spread this as a crust over the bird,
inserting the reserved egg yolks under the crust along the center line. Let it set,
and the egg yolks cook, from the reserve heat of the bird.]
When the crust has congealed, make a tharfda [a savory bread pudding] out of
thin flatbreads of fine flour [usually shredded first] and moisten it with the sauce
until it is soaked evenly [then shape it into a firm layer on the serving dish and
allow it to set].
Put the bird on top [of the tharfda ], after first cutting it down the middle so that
the eggs are sliced which you inserted in the center of it, the interior of it [under
the crust]. Pile it up with the meatballs and garnish the tharfda with them and with
almonds and pine-nuts, and present it, God willing.
A Recipe for Roast Partridge

Clean it [a dead, cleaned partridge] and place it on a spit.
Pound its entrails and beat them with two eggs, pepper, cinnamon, Chinese
cinnamon [cassia], lavender, two spoonfuls of oil and one of murri [use soy
sauce], [This is the filling.]
Roast it [the partridge] over a moderate fire. Baste the inside and outside with the
filling continuously until it absorbs it and is lightly browned [until it is done].
Put it [the cooked partridge] in a dish and cut rue over it and sprinkle it with pepper
and cinnamon and present it, God willing.
Partridge
Cut the [dead and plucked] partridge through all its joints [quarter it], clean it and
place in an earthenware pot. Throw in salt, chopped onion, a spoon of murri [use
soy sauce] and two of oil, chopped cilantro, pepper, some caraway and enough
water. Cook it till done.
Then take a handful of coriander seed, ground as fine as kohl [ash], break over it
four eggs [mix this] and cover the contents of the pot with it [and let it set] and
then throw some whole pine-nuts on it and serve, God willing.
Another Partridge Dish

Cut up the [dead and plucked] partridge, clean it and put it in the pot. Pour in fresh
water, fresh oil, vinegar, murri [use soy sauce], a spoon of each. Throw in rue,
thyme leaves and an onion chopped finely, two heads of garlic pounded with
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walnuts and a dirham [1 cf/r/ia/77=3.9g/3/4tsp] and a half of pepper. Cook it until
done.
Break eggs [beat them] and cover the contents of the pot with them [and let them
set, then serve], God willing.
Another Partridge Dish [roasted, with a sauce]

Put an earthen pan [gasw/'/a/cazuela] on the fire and put in it a spoon of murri
[use soy sauce], another of oil and another of vinegar, spices, a whole onion cut
in halves, sprigs of thyme and two eggs in their shells after being washed. Cook
it all until done. [This is the sauce.]
Roast a [dead and cleaned] partridge [on a spit], cut it up and put it in the sauce,
after dissolving in the sauce the yolks of the two eggs.
Then cut up the whites and sprinkle over the meat in the platter with pepper and
cinnamon and serve, God willing.
A Dish of Partridge
Joint the [dead] partridge after cleaning it, and put it in a pot [of water]. Throw in
half a spoonful of vinegar, a spoon of oil, an eighth of a dirham [1
dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] [each] of saffron, pine-nuts, crushed onion, spices, pepper
and a dirham of Chinese cinnamon [cassia].
Cook meatballs made from another partridge in sufficient salt and water, ["pound
the breast meat and beat it with egg and a bit of powdered white flour and suitable
spices"]
Put the partridge pot on a moderate fire [and cook]. And when it is done, cover
the contents of the pot with four eggs [mixed with] a little white flour [and let it set],
and take it out to the hearthstone [remove from the heat] so that the dough
wrinkles [the topping sets]. Hard-boil two eggs.
Ladle it out, and garnish it with the meatballs and [the two] yolks. Cut up two eggs
[the whites] fine and sprinkle them on the surface of the dish. Sprinkle it with fine
spices and present it, God willing.
A Jointed Hen, Veiled [oven roasted] and this dish with partridge is
also extraordinary [chicken, partridge]
Cut up the [dead and cleaned] chicken and place in a pot, throw in a lot of onions,
some five or six, cut in quarters, and all the spices, murri [use soy sauce], good
oil, stalks of fennel, citron leaves, some rosewater, sprigs of thyme, pine-nuts,
skinned garlic and almond. [Cook it.]
Beat eggs either alone or with the seasonings of the pot. Spread it over the
willing.

Clean a [dead] pullet [or partridge] and put it in a pot, removing the breasts, and
throw in two spoonfuls of strong vinegar, and two of fresh oil and a quarter
spoonful of good murri [use soy sauce], half a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of
saffron, cleaned almonds and a whole onion, salt as may be needed, and water
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to cover the meat, with leaves of citron and fennel stalks. Then put it on a
moderate charcoal fire until it is nearly cooked.
Then put in meatballs made from the breast meat [See the Chapter: Meatballs...],
finish their cooking and take it down to the euphorbia embers [lower the heat].
And you put in its covering layer as before, letter for letter. [Beat eggs either alone
or with the seasonings of the pot. Spread it over the chicken and put egg-yolks
in. Put a lid on the pot and seal the lid with dough [make a tight seal] and place it
in the bread oven until done. Then serve it, God willing.]

Clean a chicken or a partridge and put in all that spoken of above, except the
saffron is omitted.
[Two spoonfuls of strong vinegar, and two of fresh oil and a quarter spoonful of
good murri [use soy sauce], half a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp\, cleaned
almonds and a whole onion, salt as may be needed, and water to cover the meat,
with leaves of citron and fennel stalks.]
Put garbanzos [soaked overnight] and a head of garlic into the pot. Boil meatballs
with the meat [See the Chapter: Meatballs...] and cover the contents of the pot in
the previous manner.
[Beat eggs either alone or with the seasonings of the pot. Spread it over the
willing.]

Leave overnight whichever of the two [birds] you have, its throat slit, in its
feathers.
Then clean it [of feathers and guts] and put it into a pot and throw in two spoonfuls
of rosewater and half a spoonful of good murri [use soy sauce], two spoonfuls of
oil, salt, a fennel stalk, a whole onion, and a quarter dirham [1
c//r/?a/r?=3.9g/3/4tsp] of saffron, and water to cover the meat.
Then take quince or apple, skin the outside and clean the inside and cut it up in
appropriatesized pieces [quartered], and throw them into the pot. Put it on a
moderate fire [and cook it].
When it is done, take it away with a lid over it. Cover it with breadcrumbs mixed
with a little sifted flour and five eggs, after removing some of the yolks. Cook it in
the pot [over the chicken].
When the coating has cooked, sprinkle it with rosewater and leave it until the
surface is clear and stands out apart. Ladle it out, sprinkle it with fine spices and
present it.

partridge]
If it is tender, take the flesh of the breast of the hen or partridge or the flesh of the
thighs and pound very vigorously, and remove the tendons. And pound with the
meat almonds, walnuts and pine nuts until completely mixed. Throw in pepper,
caraway, cinnamon, spikenard, in the required quantity, and a little honey and
eggs. Beat all together until it becomes one substance.
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Then make with this what looks like the dish made of lamb innards [sausage],
and put it in a lamb skin [intestine] or sheep skin [intestine]. Put it on a heated
skewer and cook slowly over a fire of hot coals until it is browned.
Then remove it and eat it, if you wish with murri [use soy sauce] and if you wish
with mustard, God willing.

Take young, fat [dead] chickens, clean and boil in a pot with water, salt and
spices, as is done with tafaya [stew].
Then take it out of the pot and pour the broth with the fat in a dish and [then] add
to it [the chicken] what has been said for the roast over coals [salt, oil, thyme].
Rub this into the boiled hen and then arrange it on a spit and turn it over a
moderate fire with a continuous movement and baste it constantly, until it is ready
and browned.
Then sprinkle it with what remains of the sauce and use. Its nutrition is nicer than
that of livestock meat, and more uniform. In this way one also roasts the other
birds.
Tajine of Birds' Giblets [giblet omelet]

Clean the giblets and stew them with oil and water and two cloves of garlic
crushed with a little cilantro.
When the giblets are cooked, crush them with a little of the heart of an onion, and
season with fine spices and flavorings, a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce], a little
white flour, and cut-up rue. Break six eggs over it and beat this all with the rest of
the sauce from the pot.
Fry it in a frying pan with oil until it takes the consistency of a tajine, and present
it. Cut rue over it, sprinkle with a little murri [use soy sauce] and garnish it with
mint.
Mahshi, a Stuffed Dish [chicken, pigeon, dove, small birds, lamb]

It is made with a roast hen, or with young pigeons or doves, or small birds, or with
the meat of a young lamb. Take what you have of this, clean it, cut it up and put
it in a pot with salt, a piece of onion, pepper, coriander, cinnamon, saffron, some
murri naqV [use soy sauce] and plenty of oil. Put this on the fire.
When it is done and the broth has formed, take out the meat from the pot and
leave it aside. Take as much as necessary of grated white breadcrumbs and stir
them in a tajine with the remaining chicken fat and sauce. Tint it with plenty of
saffron and add lavender, pepper and cinnamon. When the breadcrumbs have
mixed in, break over it enough eggs to cover it.
Then sprinkle it with peeled, split almonds. Beat all this until it is mixed, then bury
the pieces of chicken in this so that the chicken is hidden in the stuffing and add
whole egg yolks, and cover this all with plenty of oil.
Then place in the oven and leave it until it is dry, thickened and browned and the
top of the tajine is firm. Then take it out and leave it until its heat passes and it
cools, and use it.

It is made in the country of Al-Andalus and in the Maghrib. It is made with all kinds
168
of birds, such as chickens, geese and capons, that are fattened, as well as young
pigeons and so on.
Take what you have on hand of them, cleaned and with the breast split [so it
and murri (soy sauce)]. Turn the spit over a moderate charcoal fire, little by little,
carefully, until it is done and browned. Then set it aside.
There are some who make it fried and cover it after frying in a coating of garlic
pounded with almonds and walnuts. [This is how you make the sauce.]
Make well-made thin breads of white flour. [See the Chapter: Breads] When done,
break them into crumbs the size of a dinar [a coin]. Strain [the bones] from a
chicken broth and return [the broth in] the pot to a moderate fire and add a
quantity of oil, pepper and cumin. When the pot boils, take it off and put in garlic
pounded with walnuts, almonds and grated cheese. Add the crumbs.
Then take the roasted chicken and put it on top of the platter after rubbing and
rolling it in the coating. Top it with [chopped boiled] eggs, olives and split almonds.
Sprinkle it with grated cheese and cinnamon and cover it with a sheet of isfiriyya
[crepe] made with egg [a thin omelet],
[The Lamtuna were the main Almoravid tribe. More exactly, they were the
dominant tribe of the Sanhaja confederacy, the nomadic Berbers of southern
Morocco who were the basis of the Almoravid power, and constituted the
aristocracy of the Almoravid state in Al-Andalus.]
[Cook it.]

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The Preparation of Jaldiyya [Leathery fowl, raison sauce, goose, hen,
capon]
Make this dish with a goose, hen or capon. Take what you have of it, clean it and
put it in a pot. Then take two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of raisins and pound them
fine and steep them in water until their sweetness comes out. Strain them and
put the strained part in the pot. Add three spoonfuls of strong vinegar and two of
oil, as well as pepper, coriander and half a chopped onion. Balance it with salt.
Cook it [the fowl] until it is done and the sauce thickens.
Then take peeled, pounded almonds, the same of walnuts, and grated
breadcrumbs, pepper and six eggs [mix this together] and cover the contents of
the pot with them after cooking [when cooked]. And dot it with egg yolks and leave
it on the hearthstone until its fat rises [the topping sets, the grease rises].
Recipe for Making Qaliyya With a Covering [crane]

Cut up an adult crane [dead and cleaned], [put in a pot] and throw in spices,
pepper, cinnamon, onion scraped with salt, citron leaves, stalks of fennel, vinegar
according to its strength, and likewise murri [use soy sauce] according to the
degree of its blackness, enough oil and water, and thyme and sprigs of rue. Cook
until done.
Take out the meat and fry it in oil until it is browned, then return it to a pot and
cook it until the water disappears.
Then cover the contents of the pot with white flour mixed with grated breadcrumbs
and eggs. Dot it with egg yolks [and let it all set].
And when you ladle it out, cut rue over it, boil egg yolks, garnish it, and present
it, God willing.
Slit the throat of a goose and inflate it. Then pluck it carefully and skin it, as has
been explained earlier for chicken.
[Slit the throat of a hen, as large and plump as possible, and inflate it well while
wings, for these are left with their skin.]
Take its entrails and intestines, after cleaning them well and pounding them well
and add spices and all the fine flavorings, murri naqf' [use soy sauce], cilantro
juice, crushed almonds, onion juice, and 25 eggs, whole pine-nuts, enough salt,
pounded mint, cut-up fennel, pistachios, and two spoonfuls of oil. Mix all this and
stuff the goose's skin with it.
Take the meat of the breast, pound it to make a coating [for the breast bone] and
[mix with] the whites of five eggs, pepper, cinnamon, and salt.
Mix all this and cloak the breast bone with it. Then throw it in boiling water until it
stiffens [cooks]. Then return it to its place in the skin, in the middle of the stuffing,
and sew up all parts in the skin after inserting boiled egg yolks in the middle of
the stuffing.
Put it in a large tajine or a pot, and put on it half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of oil, a
little water and murri [use soy sauce], and send it to the oven. Watch its cooking
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until it is browned.
Then take the rest of the meat of the goose and put it in a pot and top it with
spices and all the flavorings, two spoonfuls of vinegar and four of oil, two of
cilantro juice, one of murri [use soy sauce], branches of rue and onion juice. Cook
it until it is done.
When it is cooked, pound lamb meat, spice it and add egg whites. Make suitable
meatballs of this. Throw them in the pot.
When all the goose meat is cooked, beat four eggs, grated breadcrumbs, and
fine flour.
Cover the contents of the pot with this and take it down to the hearthstone
[remove it from the heat] until the dough wrinkles well [until it cooks, sets].
Ladle it into a dish and dot it with cut-up egg yolks, and sprinkle it with fine spices.
Put the stuffed goose on a second dish and garnish it with toasted almonds and
pine-nuts. Cut it in half, sprinkle it with fine spices, sprinkle it with rosewater, and
present it.
Thus it is made with chicken except in the part which is made with entrails and
intestines. For this, upon cooking it, take the amount of half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1
lb] of cilantro juice, boil it in a little pot. Clean off its foam, and dissolve in it the
yolks of five eggs. Beat it with grated breadcrumbs and a little vinegar and cover
the contents of the pot with this. Leave it until it wrinkles, and ladle it out, as
before, over the chicken, God willing.
Stuffed Goose
Clean a [dead, plucked,] tender goose and do not cut it up.
Boil its gizzard and chop as small as possible, with its liver and chicken livers and
gizzards also. Mix with pepper, cinnamon, coriander and cilantro, ground thyme,
a little vinegar, murri [use soy sauce], eggs, salt and chopped onion. Cook some
of it and taste it [adjust the seasoning accordingly]. Then stuff the goose with it,
sew it up and put it [the goose] in a clean pot.
Add a little water, oil, and murri [use soy sauce] and place it in the oven. When
the top is browned, turn it over to brown the other side and let it finish cooking.
Then take it out of the pan [and onto a platter] and put around it tender citron
leaves and cut them [the goose], pour its grease on top and serve it, God willing.
Goose [mallard duck]

The best of the aquatic birds is that called the qutr goose. It is a waterfowl with a
large bill, blackish in color, that fattens very quickly and is only good roasted [a
mallard duck, most likely].
Recipe for Roasting It
After killing it [the duck], hang the fowl overnight by the feet. On the following
morning clean it and leave it aside. Get salt pounded with thyme, pepper, oil and
coriander until like thin honey, and with this coat its body, inside and out. Place it
in the earthen oven [and cook it]. And when you take it out, improve it with sauce,
if desired.
Recipe for Roasting Other Dishes of the Same [Another from Abu
Salih al- Rahbani in His Kitchen]
Extract juice of pressed onions and juice of tender garlic and cilantro juice and
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murri naqV [use soy sauce], one uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of each; half a rati [1
ratl=468g/1 lb] of strong vinegar and sufficient oil, coriander, Chinese cinnamon
[cassia], ginger, thyme and cumin, three dirhams [1 dirham=3.9gl3/4tsp] of each.
Grind all this and dissolve it in the liquids with vinegar.
Then get the aforementioned bird, called the qutr-goose, which is the duck. Scald
this fowl [in boiling water] and take out what entrails there are and hang them up.
Then perforate its body with the point of a knife and place in each hole peeled
garlic and a bit of almond paste, and in some holes a piece of peeled walnut meat,
and in other holes a piece of ginger. Then leave it overnight in the aforementioned
liquids with vinegar. [Marinate it.]
On the following morning take it out and roast it in the tannur [clay oven]. When
it is ready, take it out, cut it up, and present it in its juice.
Know that every roast is slow to digest, but it is very nutritious, restores the
strength, is not chilling to the chyme, if well-digested; it is one of the simples [a
medicinal dish, but not a compound].
Widgeon, Known as the Sparrow Hawk

Cut the [dead and cleaned] widgeon through all its joints into two pieces and put
it in a pot.
Take gizzards of chicken and widgeon and clean them and cut them as fine as
you can.
Throw them in a second pot with a spoon of murri [use soy sauce], a head of
garlic and two spoons of fresh oil, a stalk of rue, another of thyme, pepper,
caraway, coriander both green and dried, a little onion and the whites of four
eggs. Beat well and throw a spoon of it in the first pot. Then with the rest make
meatballs but reserve some of it for the covering [of the pot]. Cook the meatballs
in the first pot [and cook the egg yolks too, then remove them and set them aside
for a later garnish] and stir the pot on all sides until the grease is properly cooked.
Then take the whites of four eggs and beat them with the rest of the filling [the bit
you reserved], a bit of sifted flour and some pepper and cover the contents of the
[first] pot with it. [Let it cook.] You will have cooked the yolks of the eggs before
this.
Then arrange it [the cooked widgeon and topping] on the platter, decorate with
the meatballs and the yolks, and serve it, God willing.
Jimliyya of Legs and Breast of Squab
Take the legs of squab [dead, plucked, cleaned] and the breast, and place them
in a pot and add two spoons of oil, another of best murri [use soy sauce] and an
adequate amount of vinegar, onion pounded with salt, coriander seed, caraway,
pepper, sprigs of thyme and enough water. Cook it until the sauce equals its
grease and the meat is cooked.
Dot with four egg yolks and cover the contents of the pot with two beaten eggs
[let them set].
Put it in a platter and sprinkle with pepper, decorate with the yolks and serve it.
A Dish of Whole Turtledoves

Open up their bellies, [turtledoves, dead, plucked, and] clean and arrange in a
pan. Add salt, half a spoon of vinegar, one of murri [use soy sauce] and three of
oil, a little chopped cilantro, pepper, coriander seed, caraway and a suitable
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amount of water. Cook until done.
Then pound a piece of meat [chicken breast] finely with two or three walnuts and
cover the contents of the pot with them mixed with egg white [and let it set] and
serve it, God willing.
Roast Starling
Wash the [dead and plucked] starlings. Sprinkle with some white flour. Roast over
a gentle fire on a spit and baste continually with a sprig of thyme dipped in some
oil and good murri [use soy sauce]. When you have finished roasting them, throw
on it some good murri [use soy sauce],

Knead dough on the pattern of the cheese pie dough. If you want it flaky
[muwarraqa],
[good,] and if you want it "abridged" [mukhtasara], [good]. Make a loaf as we have
described for the cheesecake. [See the Chapter: Breads]
Take chicken or whatever you want [starlings], clean it and cook it in a pot with
water and salt, and do not overcook it.
Pound an onion with cilantro and coriander and pepper. Put all this in a ceramic
frying pan on the fire with some oil, a spoonful of murri [use soy sauce] and stir
until it is well done. Take two eggs and crack them into the frying pan on the fire
and stir it until the seasoning is cooked.
Then take it from the fire, and when it is cool, take the pullets and cut in half. Put
them in the crust already made. Take egg yolks and put them in, cover it with [the
seasoning mixture, and then] a top crust made for it. Brush it with egg yolks, and
put it in the oven on a pan [to cook], God willing.
A Dish With Sparrows

Take clean walnuts [or almonds], boil in water until overdone and strain the water
from them. [Remove the nuts. Retain the liquid in the pot.] Clean sparrows [small
birds] and put them in a pot with the nut water, and throw on them oil, honey,
onion juice, pepper and salt. Cook until done. Season with ground ginger and
galingale, and cut with musk, and use, God willing.
Recipe for Barmakiyya [calzone or empanada, chicken, pigeons, small

birds, lamb]
It is made with a hen, pigeons, doves, small birds or lamb. Take what you have
of them, after cleaning, and cut up and put in a pot with [some water and] salt, an
onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or cinnamon, some murri naqf’ [use soy
sauce], and oil. Put it on a gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce is dried.
Take it out and fry it in fresh oil without overdoing it, and set it aside.
Then take fine flour and semolina, make a well-made dough with leaven, and if it
Then roll out from the dough [two flatbreads. Take one] flatbread and put on it the
fried and cooked meat of these birds. Cover it with another flatbread and seal the
edges together. Put it in the oven.
When the bread [calzone, empanada] is done, take it out. It is very good on
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journeys. You might make it with fish and that can be used for journeying too.
[The Barmakis [Barmecides] were a family of Persian viziers who served some
of the early Umayyad Caliphs, in particular Haroun al-Rashid, and were famed
for their generosity.]
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Chapter 18
Pastries
Preparation of Muwarraqa Musammana [buttery, flaky, puff pastry
dough]
Take pure semolina or wheat flour and knead a stiff dough [with water but] without
yeast. Moisten it little by little [with water] and don't stop kneading it until it relaxes
and is ready and is softened so that you can stretch a piece without tearing it.
While a [frying] pan is heating, take a piece of the dough and roll it out thin on
marble or a board. Smear it with melted clarified butter or fresh butter melted over
water. Then roll it up like a cloth until it becomes like a reed. Then twist it and
beat it down with your palm until it becomes like a round thin bread, and if you
want, fold it over again [first putting the butter on again]. Then roll it out and beat
it down with your palm a second time until it becomes round and thin. [This
process mixes the butter into the dough.]
Then put the dough round in a heated frying pan after you have greased the frying
pan with clarified butter, and whenever the clarified butter dries out, moisten [with
more butter] little by little. Turn the dough over until it cooks, and then take it away
and cook more [rounds of dough] until you finish [cooking] the amount you need.
[This makes puff pastry rounds, like flaky crackers. You can sprinkle them with
sesame seeds or poppy seeds or serve them with jam and butter. In Morocco
they are called Meloui, and when they are folded into squares and cooked in a
pan they are called Msemen.]
Recipe of Necessity [classic or standard recipe] for Bread and

Confection
Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of wheat flour and knead it with twenty egg yolks, a
little water and oil. Then make small, very thin round flatbreads of it, and as soon
as they are made, fry them in plenty of oil until they are close to browning. Put
them in a dish [to drain on paper, then on a serving dish].
Then boil honey a little and clean it of its foam. Cut almonds and walnuts into the
honey.
Pour this onto the dish [with the pastries], sprinkle with sugar, set whole pine-nuts
about, and present it.
Preparation of Zulabiyya [light, fried pastry, churro]

Knead fine flour and add water little by little until the dough is slack. Let it be
lighter than the dough for musahhada [pancakes, which means it should be like
a crepe batter]. Leave it in a pot near the fire until it rises. You will know it is done
when you tap on the side of the pot with your finger. If you hear a thick, dense
sound, it has risen.
And he who wishes it tinted and colored may add to some of the batter the juice
of brazilwood or gum-lac [red], or juice of madder or saffron [yellow], or juice of
tender green fennel [green], or juice of fox grape [a wild grape berry, purple].
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Then put a frying-pan on the fire with plenty of oil, and when the oil boils, take this
runny batter and put it in a vessel with a pierced bottom [a funnel]. Put your finger
over the hole; then raise your hand and the vessel over the frying pan and quickly
remove your finger. The batter will run out through the hole into the frying-pan
while you are turning your hand in circles, forming rings, lattices and so on,
according to the custom of making it. [A churro is a stick as long as a hand.
Lattices and rings are beautiful, but are more difficult to make.] Be careful that the
oil is not too little or too cool, or the batter will stick to the pan, but let it be
abundant and boiling.
When it is done, take it out carefully and throw it in skimmed spiced honey [heat
the honey and remove the scum to skim it, spice it with cinnamon and rose water,
for example]. When the honey has covered it, remove the pastry to a platter to
drain [10 seconds or so in the honey is enough to coat the pastry]. And serve up
the zulabiyya [churro], [Today, the churro is usually served plain, or with sugar,
or cinnamon sugar, or dipped in chocolate.]

Know that mujabbana is not prepared with only one cheese, but of two; that is, of
cow's and sheep's milk cheese. Because if you make it with only sheep cheese,
it falls apart and the cheese leaves it and it runs. And if you make it with cow's
cheese, it binds, and lets the water run and becomes one solid mass. The
principle in making it is that the two cheeses bind together.
Use one-fourth part cow's milk and three-quarters of sheep's [grated]. Knead all
until some binds and becomes equal and holds together and doesn't run in the
frying pan, but without hardening or congealing. If you need to soften it, soften it
with fresh milk, recently milked from the cow. And let the cheese not be very fresh,
but strong without too dry that all the moisture has gone out of it. Thus do the
people of our land make it in the west of al-Andalus, as in Cordoba and Seville
and Jerez, and elsewhere in the land of the al-Maghrib.
Manner of Making it
Knead wheat or semolina flour with some yeast into a well-made dough and
moisten it with water little by little until it loosens [forms a dough]. If you moisten
it with fresh milk instead of water it is better, and easy, inasmuch as you make it
with your palm [rather than a kneading tool].
Roll it out [to a low loaf] and let it not have the consistency of mushahhada
[pancakes] but firmer than that, and lighter than musammana [puff pastry] dough.
When the leaven begins to enter it [when it rises], put a frying pan on the fire with
a lot of oil, so that it drenches what you fry it with [deep fat fry].
Then wet your hand in water and tear off a piece of the dough. Bury inside it the
same amount of grated cheese. But first squeeze the cheese with your hand, and
the extra liquid leaves and drains from the hand.
Put it [the cheese filled dough ball] in the frying pan while the oil boils. When it
has browned, remove it with an iron dipper and put it in a dripper similar to a sieve
held above the frying pan, until its oil drips out.
As a sweet
Then put it on a big platter and sprinkle it with a lot of sugar and ground cinnamon.
176
There are those who eat it with honey or rose syrup and it is the best you can eat.
Recipe for Eggs Mujabbana [cheese puffs with egg pastry]

Break eggs over the aforementioned dough [Knead wheat or semolina flour with
some yeast into a well-made dough and moisten it with water little by little until it
loosens [forms a dough].] and knead with them [the eggs] instead of water, until
the dough becomes slack and is done, as has been said.
Then knead the previously mentioned cheese [Use one-fourth part cow's milk and
three- quarters of sheep's [grated]. Knead all until some binds and becomes equal
and holds together and doesn't run in the frying pan, but without hardening or
congealing.] and also break over it as many eggs as it will bear. Beat them with
some anise and fennel.
Flatten the dough on the platter and then wet your hand in water and take some
of the filling and make a mujabbana [ball] as was indicated in an earlier recipe
[Bury inside it the same amount of grated cheese. But first squeeze the cheese
with your hand, and the extra liquid leaves and drains from the hand.] and fry it
like the preceding recipe.
[Put a frying pan on the fire with a lot of oil, so that it drenches what you fry it with
[deep fat fry]. Put it [the cheese filled dough ball] in the frying pan while the oil
boils. When it has browned, remove it with an iron dipper and put it in a dripper
similar to a sieve held above the frying pan, until its oil drips out.]
It turns out remarkable and delicious. This is what Ibn Sa'id b. Jami [Almohad
Vizier] used to make and his companions and everyone found good. It is an
invention of Musa b. al-Hajj Ya'ish, [architect in the times of Abd al-Mu'min and
his son Yusuf I.] the muhtasib [market inspector] of Marrakesh.

Take some wheat or semolina dough, some fresh cheese and butter, one part of
each.
Grate the cheese and knead everything with fresh milk instead of water, until it is
mixed [the cheese, butter, milk and dough], no remnants of cheese remain, and
it takes the consistency of isfunj dough [a semolina leavened egg bread].
Then make with it a mujabbana [cheese ball] and fry it with fresh oil, as in the
preceding recipe, and use it as you wish.

Take semolina dough, pounded peeled almonds, butter, soft cheese and eggs,
the amount of each needed to knead it all together. Moisten it with fresh milk until
it binds together and make with it a mujabbana [cheese puffs, deep fat fry the
balls],

Knead flour with a little water, then complete the kneading with oil. Then make
little raghffs [flatbreads] from pieces of it, rolled out with a cane. Make some fifteen
raghffs [flat bread rounds] which are put in the mujabbana [cheese pastry] when
it is made. Then fold them and seal them and puff them up [sealing air inside].
Then make a second batch [of 15] and leave them open like leaves. When the
cheese is put in the dish, put a layer of it and one raghff, and then a layer and a
177
raghff, putting inside it about three of the raghifs [3 puffed ones in the cheese, so
the pastry is inside the pie as well as between the layers, and top and bottom].
Put two or three beaten eggs over the [last layer of] cheese. Then cover it [a top
crust of raghff] and coat it all with egg wash. Send it to the bread oven in a large
clay dish in which it is cooked. [Cook it.]
And if you cook fresh and clarified butter and put it over it, and cover it a while
until it is absorbed, may it do you much good [you’ll like it].

Make dough as for musammana [buttery puff pastry dough, see Breads or Pastry
Section] and make a small flaky round loaf of it.
Then roll it out and put sufficient grated cheese in the middle. Fold over the ends
of the loaf and join them over the cheese on all sides [seal it]. Leave a small hole
the size of a dinar [coin] on top, so the cheese can be seen, and sprinkle it with
some anise.
Then place it in the oven on a slab [pan], and leave it until it is cooked. Take it out
and use it, as you wish.
[This dish seems best when made as small cheese pastries, rather than one big
loaf. There are in effect, cheese danish, and they make something like it in Naples
which people eat for breakfast.]

Which is Made in al-Andalus, and it is called "Seven Bellies."
Take moist, fresh cheese and knead it in the hands. Then take a deep, wide-
bellied clay tajine [tajin min bantam] and in the bottom of it put a thin flatbread,
made like kunafa [crepe, See the Chapter: Breads], Put the cheese over this, and
then another crepe, and repeat this until there remains a third to a quarter of the
pan.
Pour fresh oil over it, place it in the oven, and leave it a little; then take it out,
moisten it with a little fresh milk, and return it to the oven, and take it out and
moisten with fresh milk and return to the oven thus until the milk and the oil
disappear.
Leave it until its surface is browned to the color of musk; then take it out and pour
skimmed honey cleaned of its foam, or rose syrup, over it. There are those who
sprinkle it with ground sugar and spices, and others who leave it be.
Little Sweet Cheese Breads Recipe [fried cheese rounds with honey
and nuts]
Take white flour and five egg yolks and half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of fresh bread,
and take some cheese, and mix everything until the cheese is not visible in it
[mixed in completely].
Then knead the dough with the whites of the eggs and a little water and make
good thin qursas [flat, round cakes] and fry in much oil so that they come out
white.
Then boil pounded walnuts in honey, and pour it with pistachios and pine nuts on
the cakes and sprinkle with sugar and serve.
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Judhaba with Qataif [layered custard, sugar/almond pastry]
Take a new qaswila [a cazuela or earthenware casserole] and wash it and pour
in it fresh oil. Then put a qataif [pancake] or a ruqaq [crepe, See the Chapter:
Breads], according to the size of the mold [the earthenware casserole] into the
dish.
Then put over it four beaten eggs with a handful of ground sugar or honey, then
add another qatifa [pancake], or two ruqaqs [crepes] and put over them four
beaten eggs and a handful of sugar, and do all this the same as you would
chicken [meaning you make layers of the bread, eggs and sugar like for a meat
casserole].
Then proceed to cover it all up with fresh milk and a little fresh oil.
Arrange it in the tannur [clay oven] or in the bread oven and put on it a chicken
or a fat rib or whatever fat meat you wish and leave it until it is done [the fat from
the meat seeps into the layered food below, when it is done, you remove the
meat].
Then arrange it on the dish, sprinkle with sugar and serve, God willing.
And if you want to use sugar or almonds in place of eggs, it is very excellent.
Recipe for Simple Judhaba [layered custard, almond pastry]

Take equal parts of almonds and sugar. Chop them and add spikenard,
cinnamon, cloves, galingale, and some saffron, all ground. [This is the filling for
the pastry.]
Then take a new pot and smear the bottom and sides with fresh, melted grease.
Then lay in the bottom of the pot some kunafa [crepes, See the Chapter: Breads]
and make them go up the sides of the pot. Then sprinkle it with a spoon of the
filling. Sprinkle it with some rose water in which some camphor has been
dissolved. [Put some beaten eggs.] Then put another crepe on top of it and
sprinkle it with another spoonful of filling [and some more beaten eggs], then a
crepe and a spoonful of filling [and eggs] and so on, until a quarter or less of the
pot remains. Break over it each time enough eggs. Then cover with oil until it rises
above the top layer. Then cover it with another crepe.
Put it in the oven at moderate heat, leaving it until it is finished.
Turn it over onto a big platter and serve it. When it is on the platter, sprinkle with
some rose and julep syrup. In any case, it will be good and delicious.
Tharfda with Flat Breads in a Tajine [custard pie]

Knead two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of white flour [with water] and make very thin
flatbreads, then cook in the bread oven a little.
Take a qadah [~1 lit.] and a half of milk and stir in it eight beaten eggs and some
flour, and cook on the fire [makes a thin egg custard].
Take a new tajine and a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of fresh butter and put some of it
[the butter] in the bottom of the tajine, and some of the milk [custard], and put on
it a flatbread made according to this recipe, until the flatbreads and the butter are
used up [this means you continue the layers of butter, bread and custard,
reserving some of the custard]. Then put in the top of the tajine a thick flatbread
to cover everything [to protect the top from burning].
Then send it to the bread oven.
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And when it is partly cooked, send for it [retrieve it] and moisten with the rest of
the milk [custard], so that it is used up and all of it is absorbed. Then return it to
the oven until completely cooked.
Then send for it and put it on a plate, and break the tajine carefully so that it
comes out whole. [You must remove the bread “lid”, and you can then try to invert
it, rather than breaking your pot. Be careful. This is a delicate custard pie.] Then
split with a knife into two separate pieces, and sprinkle with sugar, and present,
God willing.
Stuffed Muqawwara, a Stuffed Pastry [a sweetmeat pie]

Sift a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] and a half of wheat flour well, knead it with the yolks
of fifteen eggs and as much fresh milk as they will bear. Put in a little leavening
and let the dough be stiff, make a qursa [small round] like a raghff [thin bread] of
this, and leave it to rise.
Then fill a frying pan with fresh oil and put it on the fire, and when it has heated,
put in the raghff [loaf], turn it little by little, and watch that it not break apart. Then
turn it over and when it has browned a little, take it out and put it in a dish and
hollow it out as a muqawwara [this means amphitheatre, which means you should
cut out the top of the loaf so that you can later put it back, and remove the bread
inside, very carefully].
Take out all the crumbs that are in it and crumble it by hand until they are pounded
fine. Then take sufficient peeled walnuts and almonds and sugar, pound them
well and put a layer in the loaf, then a layer of crumbs, until it is full; and sprinkle
sugar between every two layers and sprinkle during that with rosewater. Then
boil fresh clarified butter and good honey, pour it on the loaf and when it makes
a boiling sound [the air bubbles out, it is saturated], put the lid [the removed crust]
back on top and seal it, and pour the rest of the honey and butter over the top,
sprinkle with sugar, and present it.
[The butter in the filling hardens as it cools, and keeps the filling together so it can
be sliced like a pie. The French have a peasant-loaf that is made in a similar way
in a baguette loaf, and filled with meats and cheese and butter. It is then sliced.]
Recipe for Qursa Made with Fat [honey pastry]

Make a semolina dough as for musammana [see first recipe in this section] and
take a piece of it, and roll it out on a board or a marble slab, layering it with melted
fat, and let there be leavening in the dough.
Fold over the ends [and roll it out, repeating the process], as in the previous recipe
dealing with musammana, and put it on the bottom of a tajine. Put on top of it a
flaky [muwarraq] flatbread, and over this throw a bit of fat so the bread bakes with
it and does not dry out.
Place it in the oven and leave it until its upper part is browned; then take it out,
[remove the top bread,] pierce it, pour skimmed honey on it and present it.
Sanbusak of the Common People [somosas, savory pastries,

empanada]
It is made in three ways.
One in which a thin bread dough is filled with crushed garlic and spices. It is folded
into a triangle and fried in oil.
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Another is made with dough filled with pounded meat, spices and eggs
[mincemeat].
Another is made from dough in the form of objects, fried and presented.
Another is made with dough kneaded with clarified butter or melted fat. With it
you make objects, and you don't fry it but leave it raw. And this is good to throw
in isfidhbajat [stews] and stuffed things.
[In Morocco all hot pastries filled with meat and nuts are called sanbusak.]
Recipe for Abbasid Qataif [fried, stuffed crepes]

It is made from the musahhada [pancakes, see the Chapter: Breads],
Take peeled almonds, pound them and let them dry until they are like semolina
[flour]. Add an equal amount of sugar, [and some] spikenard, cloves, and Chinese
cinnamon [cassia].
Then take a musahhada [pancake] free of burns, and sprinkle it with lots of the
almonds and ground sugar. Sprinkle it with rosewater in which some camphor is
dissolved, and fold it until it is a half circle [you can also put one pancake over
another, making a circle]. Seal the edges by wetting the dough with rosewater.
Put it in a frying-pan full of fresh oil. Boil it [deep fat fry it], and then take it out and
set it so it drains of the oil.
Let it soak in a syrup of roses or julep or skimmed honey.
[This pastry would work best if made from small crepes, rather than pan-sized
ones.
Although, the pastry is usually folded over many times, forming a small triangle
pastry. In Moroccan cooking, a kataif is a sweet stuffed pancake.]
The Preparation of Aqrun [fried pastries]

Knead white flour with a little oil and roll it out with a cane, and proceed as gently
as possible.
Make a small round and fold it over as for sanbusak [somosas, like ravioli] and
let care be taken that it be even [that the edges meet, fill it with air].
Then fry carefully in much oil so that it doesn't open, and when done frying put in
a plate, Prepare some of [the dough] in square form, too, [fold and fry it] and
continue thus until [the dough is] used up and the plate is full [of the fried pastries].
Beat honey as for white mu'aqqad [and put the honey on the pastries] and throw
sugar on it and sprinkle it all on the pastries when you are arranging them, and
serve, God willing.
Fritters
Take pure semolina, clean it and throw in enough water to saturate it and knead
dough. Add oil and knead smoothly until it is light, adding eggs, enough water,
and leaven. If you wish to add chopped almonds and pine nuts or pistachios, it
will be better. Put the dough in a pot or on a platter until it rises.
Then fill a pan with oil [heat it] and throw in morsels of the dough. When they are
cooked, take them out and throw in more until you have cooked all you need, God
willing.
The Making of Dafair, Braids [fried pastry log, balls and stuffed]
Take what you will of white flour or of semolina, which is better in these things.
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Moisten it with hot water after sifting, and knead well, after adding some fine flour,
leavening, and salt. Moisten it again and again until it has middling consistency.
Then break into it, for each rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of semolina, five eggs and a
dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of saffron, and beat all this very well, and put the
dough in a dish, cover it and leave it to rise, and the way to tell when this is done
is what was mentioned before [it holds an indentation].
When it has risen, clean a frying pan and fill it with fresh oil, then put it on the fire.
When it starts to boil, make braids of the leavened dough like hair-braids, of a
hand-span or less in size. Coat them with oil and throw them in the oil and fry
them until they brown.
When their cooking is done, arrange them on an earthenware plate and pour over
them skimmed honey spiced with pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon [cassia],
and lavender. Sprinkle it with ground sugar and present it, God willing.
This same way you make isfunj [balls] except that the dough for the isfunj [balls]
will be rather light. Leave out the saffron, make it into balls and fry them in that
shape, God willing.
And if you wish stuffed dafair [braids] or isfunj [balls] stuff them with a filling of
almonds and sugar, as indicated for making qahiriyat [marzipan].
The Preparation of adhan [Ears] [nut stuffed fried pastry]

Knead white flour with water and oil without leaven, then roll out little thin rounds,
like the rounds of aqrun, and let them be as big as the palm of a hand or bigger.
Fold in two, and match edge with edge, and open the mouth, and fry, after
inserting thin sticks into them so that the open end does not seal. [You fry them
so they remain open like little containers for the filling.]
And when they are fried, make a filling of pistachios or almonds and sugar and
knead with rosewater, and stuff the "ears" with them. Whoever wishes to
aromatize the stuffing [with spices] may.
Then set on a plate and sprinkle with rosewater and then moisten with stiffly
thickened rosewater syrup. And sprinkle with sugar, galingale, clove and ground
cinnamon and serve.
Stuffed Qananit, Fried Cannoli [cannoli shells and marzipan filling]

Pound almond and walnut, pine nuts and pistachio very small. Pound [sugar] fine
and mix with the almond, the walnut and the rest. Add to the paste pepper,
cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and spikenard. Knead with the necessary
amount of skimmed honey [to bind it together] and put in the dough whole pine
nuts, cut pistachio and almond. Mix it all and then stuff the qananit [the shells]
that you have made of clean wheat flour.
Its Preparation [of the shells]. Knead fine white flour with oil and make thin breads
with it and fry them in oil. [Or in more detail] Knead the dough well with oil and a
little saffron and roll it into thin flatbreads. Stretch them over the tubes [qananit]
of cane [cannoli tubes], and you cut them [the cane sections] how you want them,
little or big. And throw them [into a frying pan full of [hot] oil], after wrapping them
around the reed. [When cooked and cooled] Take them out from around the reed.
Stuff them [the shells] with the [nut and honey] stuffing and put in their ends whole
pistachios and pine nuts, one at each end, and lay it aside. He who wants his
stuffing with sugar or chopped almond, it will be better, if God wishes.
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[The name comes from the plural of "qanut" which means canes or cylinders.
These cannoli are thinner than many of today’s massive cannoli. These are more
bite-sized bits, probably no thicker than a finger.]
Recipe Known as the Tharfda of the Emir [little nut pies]

Knead white flour well with water, a little oil and leavening, make four thin raghffs
[loaves or patties, reserve some of the dough] and fry them in a frying pan with
much fresh oil, until they brown a little, and take them out of the oil and pound
them well [break them up fine].
From the rest of the dough make little hollow things [bottom crusts] on the pattern
of mujabbana [cheese pie], and make top crusts for them. Fry them in fresh oil,
watch them and take care that they be white and not turn brown, and fry the top
crusts also.
Then take peeled pistachios, almonds, and pine-nuts, and sufficient sugar; pound
them coarsely, spice them and knead them with sharp rosewater and mix with
the ground raghif and stir until completely mixed.
Fill the hollow shells prepared earlier with this [filling, reserving some], and put on
their covers, and proceed confident that they will not be overdone. Arrange them
on a dish and put between them the rest of the filling and then sprinkle them with
sharp rosewater until the dish is full. Sprinkle with plenty of ground sugar and
present it. And if some syrup of thickened, honeyed rosewater syrup is dripped
on it, it will be good, God willing.

Make a dough of sifted semolina [and water] with a moderate amount of leaven.
Sprinkle it with melted grease [duck fat] freshened with oil. Knead it well until the
dough absorbs it and sprinkle it with it again and continue like this until it has
absorbed all it can of the grease.
Leave it for a while [to rise].
Then form it into thin flatbreads, or if you want, into muwarraqa [puff pastry,
meaning roll balls of it out, dot the dough with butter and oil, fold it up, and repeat
this several times]. Fry them in the frying pan with melted grease, until they are
done. Then take them out and eat them with honey.
[This duck fat, flaky pastry is a Moroccan staple. Shabat is Hebrew for Sabbath.]

The mushahhada [pancake] is the best of the rafis [bread] dishes, of all of them,
the lightest, the most quickly digested, and the healthiest, because yeast is in it
and it is kneaded firmly.
Take good semolina and knead it with yeast.
Moisten it with water little by little until it becomes slack and like thick hasu
[porridge], in such a manner that you throw it in the frying-pan and it spreads out
over the pan [make a batter of it]. Cover it and leave it a while. Then go back and
do the same thing again until you are done kneading [at it is a batter, you stir it
well]. It rises and you see that bubbles rise.
Then set up a ceramic [hantam] frying pan over a hot fire, or an iron frying pan
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is used up [make all the pancakes].
Then melt fresh butter and clean honey, and pour them over the mushahhadas
[pancakes] in a serving dish. Leave it a while until they are dry [until it soaks up
the butter and honey], sprinkle it with ground sugar, and serve. There are those
who add eggs as necessary to the batter.
[In Morocco this is called Baghrir. It is cooked only on one side and the top side
looks like a honeycomb from the yeasty air bubbles. Immediately after cooking, it
is immersed in hot honey with melted, clarified butter, and served warm.]
Simple Isfiriya [crepes]

Break however many eggs you like into a big plate and add some sourdough.
And add also pepper, coriander, saffron, cumin, and cinnamon.
Beat it all together, then put a frying pan with oil over a moderate fire and make
thin cakes out of it, as before.
[Then set up a ceramic [hantam] frying pan over a hot fire, or an iron frying pan
is used up [make all the pancakes].]
[With the eggs, this is comparable to a crepe and should be turned over to cook
the other side. In Morocco it is called Baghirir and it should have lots of little holes
in the crepe if it is done correctly. It is served with jam and honey.]
The Making of Khabis [starch and very thin starch crepes, warqas, phillo]
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pies, and sealed with egg yolk. When they dry, they become brittle, but you could
soak them to soften them when you wanted to use them.]

crepes]
remains.
When the khubaiz [starch] has been made, take some of it before it dries -- it will
be like yogurt - and beat it until it is smooth. If you wish, dissolve dry starch in
batter.]
[Instructions from another recipe for aromatic roast chicken: Then take thin bread
[crepes] made in an Indian pan, in whole pieces, not torn. Its preparation consists
in kneading wheat dough well according to the recipe of mushahhada [pancakes,
see the Bread section for the full recipe], so that it is ghurab [runny], and doesn't
form into a ball. Dilute it with water little by little until it becomes as thin as hasu
[mush]. Heat the Indian pan on a moderate charcoal fire, and when it has heated,
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take the dough with a ladle [muballila] and pour [batter] on it until it spreads out.
Return the ladle to the bowl. The dough has attached to the pan as a fine tissue.
That is a ruqaq, and it is [also] kunafa [both crepes] Shake out onto a cloth, and
it will come out round, in the shape of the pan. Then [continue] pouring out the
dough, as was done the first time, until you make the necessary amount of
crepes.]
called Tride, which can also be made from a soft dough that is divided into little
Counterfeit Isfiriya [crepe] of Garbanzos [chickpea flour]

flour].
cheese...].
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Chapter 19
Cookies, Biscuits
The Making of Hadtdat [Pieces of Iron] [polvorone, a Spanish cookie]
Choose good wheat and toast it until moderately browned, then grind like white
flour and sift. Then skim honey [heat it over a fire and remove the scum that rises]
and thicken it strongly [reduce it down], so that it’s thickening almost solid and be
on guard against burning.
Add fresh oil to it and let it cool a little, then throw the toasted flour on it and stir
until it cools well. Then put a hand into it and knead again until it emits the oil,
and let its consistency be somewhat stiff. [This is actually the instruction for
forming the cookie. You grab a piece of the dough and squeeze and knead it in
your hand until it stiffens. The cookie is just a soft mash of powdery ingredients,
giving it the Spanish name of polvorones from polvo meaning sprinkle. The name
‘pieces of iron’ must be a joke.]
[Before shaping it into cookies] Mix in it as much pepper alone as it will bear;
whoever wishes to aromatize it also with sweet-smelling spices may, and he will
be like most ordinary men. [Spanish polverones are usually flavored with
cinnamon or anise, or chocolate which came from the new world. They are baked,
and today are made with pork lard, not oil.] And put it up in a clean place, and
use, God willing.
[This is the basis of holiday cookies that are served around the world, including
the later incarnation of the baked sugar cookie. The Spanish cookie mantecado
is the same as a polvorone. In fact, today, polvorones are considered just a type
of mantecado that is of a slightly different shape, and covered with powdered
sugar.]
The Making of Faludhaj [al-faludhajiyya] [saffron polvorones]

Heat 1 portion of honey on a temperate fire until it is melted and dissolved. Then
strain it with a woolen cloth [to remove the scum], return it to the fire, and put with
it 1 portion of oil.
And if the honey is from the comb, bind with a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of starch, and
if not from the comb, use a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] and a quarter. Stir this until it is
thickened with six dirhams [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of ground saffron.
When it is thickened, throw in half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of [ground] almonds
and take it out onto a marble [slab] until it is lukewarm. Then knead it by hand
until the oil starts to come out, and shape it with the hands into thin loaves [cookie
logs] and serve it, God willing.
Recipe for Ka'k [Biscuits, cookies]

Take a mudd [4 liters] by Abu Hafs's measure, of fine white wheat flour or of good
semolina, and mix it with half a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of oil. It travels well, and
does not crumble, and he who wishes may eat it immediately.
Or put a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of oil or more for the mentioned mudd, and in that
187
manner the baked taste is like that of walnut marzipan [jauzinaq, walnut turron,
almond marzipan is lauzinaq] and so forth.
[There must be something missing from this recipe, as flour and oil is very
crumbly, and would not travel well. If you add water, like in the next recipe, and
knead the dough until it is firm, like a firm pie crust, then it would be a bit stronger,
but not by much. The only flavor is coming from the oil, so perhaps a walnut oil
or sesame oil would be best.]
The Preparation of Ka’k [marzipan filled cookies]

Moisten fine white flour or semolina, according to the aforementioned rule [4 litres
of flour to half a pound of oil], with oil or clarified butter, and it is more delicious
and keeps better with oil, because clarified butter, when kept long, smells and
becomes bitter [becomes rancid].
Pour in hot water little by little, and knead it until it is dry, and continue kneading
it until it is supple and ripe, so that when a piece of it is taken and stretched [rolled]
out, the stretching does not break it; and he who wishes may put in a bit of yeast,
or leave it out. [At this point, the dough is like a pastry dough, or with the yeast it
is more like an oily pizza dough.]
Then take of peeled almonds and sugar, in equal parts, and the sugar could be
and some camphor dissolved in rosewater. Knead the filling until it is mixed.
Then grease a stone work surface [marble] with oil, and make cookies on it with
the dough, and bury the filling inside it, in equal amounts [fill balls of dough with
the filling]. Make various shapes from the dough, like what is called khushkalan
in Bougie. The khushkalan is another kind of cookie, which will be mentioned after
this. Make filled rounds, small and large, and forms of birds, gazelles and the like.
[Khushkalan is called "khushkanan" in the Syrian and Iraqi cookbooks, a form
closer to the original Farsi "khoshknan," literally "dry bread.]
Then clear a place in the oven, far from the fire, and place the ka’k [biscuits,
cookies] in it on a clean slab, and leave it until they are cooked and ready. Take
them out.
The Making of Qahiriyat [marzipan filled ring cookies]

Take sugar and pound sweet almonds well; take equal parts of each in a mortar
and mix them and knead them with fragrant rosewater, and perfume them with
fine spices, like cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon [cassia], lavender, pepper,
galingale, and nutmeg. Add these in proportion to what the sugar and almonds
can bear. Beat all this well and then kneading will make it stronger. Then make
small rings of this the size of cookies.
Then take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] or half a rati of fine flour or as much as the
sugar and crushed almonds can bear [this is to make a coating for the cookies],
knead it with starch and salt and leave it until it rises.
Then take some [of the] starch [dough] and put into that starch water [to make a
thin batter]. Then take a frying pan and clean it well and put in some fresh oil, and
if it is oil of sweet almonds, it is better. Put this on the fire and when the oil boils,
take the rings made before, one after another, and dip them in that batter and
throw them in the boiling oil, so that they cook before they are taken out, and they
188
have begun to brown a very little. [Drain them on paper.]
Arrange and order them on a dish in an attractive manner. Then pour over them
skimmed honey from the comb, or well-thickened julep syrup [rose-flavored sugar
syrup], and sprinkle with ground sugar and present it, God willing.
Preparation of Khushkalan [marzipan cookies from Bougie]

Take coarse semolina and knead it with plenty of clarified butter and fresh oil.
Add in a little water, and do not handle it too much, lest the dough be dry [a melt-
in-your-mouth cookie].
Then make rounds filled with the filling described for ka’k [biscuits, cookies], and
diverse shapes. [Then take of peeled almonds and sugar, in equal parts, and the
sugar could be more than the almonds. Pound this until it is like a dough
[marzipan], and put it in a bowl.
Add spikenard and cloves in the necessary amounts, and a little mastic, and
some camphor dissolved in rosewater. Knead the filling until it is mixed.] Use a
knife [or cookie cutters], and shape the cookies into rings and semicircles, small
balls and small and large rounds. This is the true khushkalan.
Then fry them in fresh oil, take them out, [drain them] and sprinkle them with
spikenard and ground sugar.
Preparation of Jauzinaq [marzipan cookies]

Take some of this dough described for ka’k [biscuits, cookies] and of the
mentioned filling. [Moisten fine white flour or semolina, according to the
aforementioned rule [4 litres of flour to half a pound of oil], with oil or clarified
butter, and it is more delicious and keeps better with oil, because clarified butter,
when kept long, smells and becomes bitter [rancid].
Pour in hot water little by little, and knead it until it is dry, and continue kneading
it until it is supple and ripe, so that when a piece of it is taken and stretched [rolled]
out, the stretching does not break it; and he who wishes may put in a bit of yeast,
or leave it out. [At this point, the dough is like a pastry dough, or with the yeast it
is more like an oily pizza dough.]
Shape the filling like hazelnuts, little walnuts, little rounds, a necklace, roses,
flowers, rings, and so on. This is what is called "the Qadi's ears." All being thus
filled, cover the figures with dough and prick it finely.
Then fry them in a clean frying-pan with fresh oil, and take them out immediately.
Place them in a strainer to drain the oil. Then dip them in skimmed honey [heated
and the scum removed], or in julep syrup or mastic syrup, then remove.
Ka’k of Sugar Also [marzipan cookies]

Take two parts sugar and another two of peeled almonds. Pound [the almonds]
very well and smoothly and sieve the sugar over them. Add enough water to
knead it and of fragrant spices whatever you may want, such as clove, musk or
nutmeg.
Make ka’ks [biscuits, cookies] with this paste. Dilute starch in water in a thin
189
solution, without salt, and leave it to leaven until it rises [or sours], [The starch in
water will take a very long time to leaven.] Then pour in honey and beat it
smoothly.
Then dip the ka’ks [biscuits, cookies] in it, one after the other. You will have
prepared hot oil or almond oil in the frying pan. Turn them into it to fry lightly and
take them out hot.
You will put it in syrup of julep or of honey [dip them in the syrup to coat them].
Then you roll them, after removing [them from the syrup], in minced sugar, if God
wishes.
Preparation of Cairo Qahiriyya [marzipan cookies]

Take a rati [1 ratl=468g/1lb] and a half of white sugar, dissolve it in a little water,
put it over a gentle fire, skim off the scum. Then throw in peeled, pounded
almonds in the amount of two ratls [1 ratl=468g/1lb], and stir all this until it forms
a single body and its is softened. Then take it out and leave it a while. Then add
spikenard, cloves pounded in rosewater, and a little camphor. Knead all this until
it dries [marzipan].
Give it the shape of large or small ka’ks [biscuits, cookies], and leave them until
they dry a little. Then place in starch that has been dissolved in a dish [with water]
and a bit thickened, and leave it [the coated cookie] until it dries. [Make sure the
figures are well covered.]
Then cook them in a frying-pan with fresh [hot] oil and fry them, leave them a little
[too cook] and take them out so they will not dry out or spoil.
Then place them in a syrup of roses, or julep, or clarified honey. [Dip the cookies
10 seconds or so in the syrup just to coat them in sugar.]
Oven Qahiriyya [marzipan cookies]

Take the filling described for making ka’ks [biscuits, cookies]. [Take of peeled
almonds and sugar, in equal parts, and the sugar could be more than the
almonds. Pound this until it is like a dough [marzipan], and put it in a bowl. Add
spikenard and cloves in the necessary amounts, and a little mastic, and some
camphor dissolved in rosewater. Knead the filling until it is mixed.] Stiffen the
filling with fine flour or starch. Knead it with spices and a little camphor dissolved
in rosewater, and make as many ka’ks [biscuits, cookies] as desired from it.
Line them up on a slab [a tray] and place it into the oven, and leave them a little
until they cook, and take them out. This is the tastiest there is among these sorts
of dishes.
Sun-Dried Qahiriyya [marzipan cookies]

Take one part of finely pounded almonds and one of white sugar. Pound all this
in a stone or wooden mortar until they are mixed, and add cloves, ground
spikenard dissolved in rosewater, and some camphor, according to the usual
quantities for ka’k [biscuits, cookies] and as may be desired[marzipan],
[Make figures/cookies with the marzipan.] Then immerse them in starch dissolved
[in water] so that it is runny. Then put them on a board or large tray and leave
them in the sun until the starch dries up.
190
Ka’k Stuffed with [almonds and] Sugar [filled cookies]
Knead the amount that you want of fine flour and knead a long time [adding water
and leaven]. Leave it until it rises.
And then pound almonds very fine until they are like brains. Grind with an equal
amount of white sugar and knead the two parts together with some rosewater
and perfume it with fine spices [cinnamon, clove...].
Roll the dough out thin and put on the filling and cover with dough [roll out a
walnut sized piece of the dough into a circle, place some stuffing in the middle,
and close the dough around it forming a ball]. Make it round and make ka’ks
[biscuits, cookies] with it. [Do this with all the dough.]
Send it to the oven or, if you want, fry it in the frying pan with oil. Scatter sugar on
top. He who wants it simple, let him omit the spices.
Recipe for Mishash [flaky pastry cookies]

Soak semolina or fine flour with fat or oil, knead it exceedingly well with some
leavening and add water little by little. The dough should be dry. Knead
exceedingly until it is slack, and stretch [roll out] a piece of it over a salaya [stone
work surface, marble] greased with oil. [Separate into three pieces.]
With your hand spread on it fresh fat from a sheep or a goat, cleaned of its
membranes and dissolved in some oil until it becomes like brains or butter.
Spread it thin until it covers the surface of the rolled-out piece [of dough]. Then
cover with another [sheet of dough], roll it out, smear it with fat like the first one,
and spread the fat out. [Cover this with one more sheet of dough.]
Then cut it into triangles or circles and squares. Put a frying-pan over a moderate
fire with enough oil to fry in. Fry [the pastries in hot oil] until done. Drain them of
oil [on paper] and then dip them in rose syrup or clean honey [heated and scum
removed]. [Soak them in a casserole dish until the sugars are absorbed. These
are like the butterfly pastries of flaky pastry dough soaked in syrup. You can also
just dip them in the syrup for a thin sugar coating.]
Another Mishash [flaky pastry cookies with walnuts]

Take clean semolina, or fine flour, which is better, and mix it with plenty of fat, in
the amount of one ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] to each small mudd [~1 lit.]. Knead it like
ka’k [biscuits, cookies] dough and roll out and cut small cookies of it [not too thin,
so you get the flaky layers]. [Fry in hot oil.] Don't overdo the frying. [It should be
a bit soft, and it can burn easily.]
Place it [the cooked and drained cookies] in hot, clean honey [heated and cleaned
of its scum], in which shelled walnuts and sugar, both pounded coarsely, have
been put, and leave it there until the honey enters with the sugar and the nuts in
their foliation. [A casserole pan is best, like used for baklava, which this closely
resembles.]
Remove from the pan when the honey is all absorbed. The walnuts and coarse
sugar will remain [attached to the pastry]. It is a type of mishash and there should
be no spices in it.
Another Variety of Mishash [flaky pastry filled with almonds]

Make a filling of almonds and coarse sugar, without putting in any spices or roots
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but only rosewater and camphor so that it remains white. [Knead it into a paste.]
Then make little rounds of the described dough. [Take clean semolina, or fine
flour, which is better, and mix it with plenty of fat, in the amount of one rati [1
ratl=468g/1 lb] to each small mudd [~1 lit.]. Knead it like ka’k [biscuits, cookies]
dough and roll out.] Put on this [a spoonful of the] filling [and then] another little
round [of dough]. Fold over the edges and pinch with a ka’k [biscuits, cookies]
press so that it sticks. [The press is used in Italy to make ravioli, which these
pastries resemble. The press makes a ridged edge.]
Then fry it gently in oil, [drain in on paper] and place it in rose syrup. [Leave it
until it absorbs all the rose syrup in the dish, or gently dip it for 10 seconds in the
syrup just to coat it, as it is done today in Morocco.]
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Chapter 20
Cakes and Sweet Breads
Preparation of Qursas [almond and pistachio layered cake, like

baklava]
Take very white flour and knead it with milk, salt and yeast. And when you have
kneaded it considerably, leave it until it rises.
Then take one egg or several, according to the quantity of the dough. Break them
in a bowl and beat them. Moisten the dough with them little by little and knead it
until it slackens.
Take a new pan and grease it with clarified butter or fresh oil. Take a handful of
the dough and spread it in the pan [roll out a round]. Put over it a layer of almonds
and pistachios, or whichever one you have. When the almonds cover the dough,
put another dough on the almonds, and so on, layer on layer. In this way you fill
the pan up to two fingers [thick].
Put the pan in the bread oven and [cook it]. When it is done, [remove it]. Prick it
with a knife as it is [still in the pan]. Heat honey and clarified butter and pour over.
[Let it soak in.] When it has soaked them up, turn it onto a platter and sprinkle
over it Chinese cinnamon [cassia] and cinnamon and serve it, if God wishes.
[This dish must come from a Syrian or Iraqi book, because it's about the only
place in the book where he calls white flour "huwwari" rather than "darmak." It's
also one of the few recipes where the verbs are in the active imperative mood, as
is usual in English cookbooks, rather than in the passive indicative.]
Elegant Qursa [filled panettone]

Take semolina and fine flour, in the same manner as ka’k [biscuits, cookies] [4
liters of flour to a half pound of oil], with clarified butter or with oil, and let its weight
be about a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb]. Take ten eggs and beat them in a bowl and add
them to the dough little by little. Knead it with them until it becomes like tar [thick
but runny], [Add leavening.]
Lay hold of an earthenware stew-pan [cazuela, qaswila] the same size above as
below [this means it is a tall pan so the shape of the cake will be like today’s tall
panettone]. Let clarified butter and fresh oil run over it [grease the pan] and empty
the dough into it. Leave it until it rises and put it in the oven.
When it is done, cause there to be in its highest part tubes like embattlements
[stick toothpicks along the edge of the cake]. Cut to just below those tubes with a
little of its body [the top layer of the cake] and let it be like a pot lid. [These
instructions suggest the sticks help remove a top piece of the cake to allow a
filling to be inserted.]
Then make a large cut in the cake with a knife [hallow out a hole in the cake
interior]. Heat honey with butter and scatter in it spikenard, cinnamon, Chinese
cinnamon [cassia], chopped almonds, walnuts and pine nuts and pistachios, or
one of the two, however much you want of them for the filling. Let the cake absorb
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that [let the filling firm up], then put the lid back on [and remove the toothpicks]
and serve it, if God wishes.
The Making of Ras Maimun, Monkey's Head [butter-cream filled head-

shaped cake]
It is made with semolina, the same as before to the letter [4 liters of flour to a half
pound of oil]. Add some clarified butter, and to every rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] put in
four or five eggs as we have said, and go on beating it continuously with water
and butter until all the lumps are gone.
Take a new, glazed pot with a belly and a neck [like a vase], and grease it with
oil and butter until it is soaked [inside the pot]. Then place the dough in the pot,
only to the neck, and take a segment of cane, pierced at both ends, and place it
in the middle of the pot, having greased it with clarified butter. [The cane ensures
room inside the head for a filling, like a Bundt pan.]
Then leave the dough to rise, and the sign that it is done is making an indentation
in it, as we have said. And when it rises, send it to the oven, put it far from the
fire, and leave it until it is cooked and browned.
When it comes from the oven, shake the pot well and carefully to separate the
head from it [from the sides of the vase]. Then break it little by little [break the
vase] so that the shape comes out in its proper form, and if it resists, pour in some
honey and clarified butter, and continue being careful with it until it comes out
whole, for the intent in this case is that it come out in the form of a head.
Then have care also in removing the cane, and fill the hole with honey and
clarified and fresh butter [stuff it with the butter-cream], and put it, just as it is, on
a dish and stick peeled pine- nuts and pistachios in it [presumably to make the
illusion of the head more apparent with eyes and nose]. Then pour melted
clarified butter over it, sprinkle it with ground sugar and present it, God willing.
The Making of Khabts [starch and very thin starch crepes, warqas]
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pies, and sealed with egg yolk. When they dry, they become brittle, but you could
soak them to soften them when you wanted to use them.]

crepes]
remains.
When the khubaiz [starch] has been made, take some of it before it dries - it will
be like yogurt -- and beat it until it is smooth. If you wish, dissolve dry starch in
batter.]
called Thde, which can also be made from a soft dough that is divided into little
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Counterfeit Isfiriya [crepe] of Garbanzos [chickpea flour]

flour].
cheese...].

Sift white flour three times, take the choicest part, mingle it with butter and knead
it with egg yolk and put into the dough some saffron and salt. [Form a round loaf.]
Put clarified butter into an earthenware frying pan, boil it and take one part of
honey to one part dough [an equal portion of honey to the loaf] and put them into
the melted butter until it [the loaf] is cooked. Before it is fully cooked, put on
blanched almonds and pine-nuts.
[Finish cooking.]
Sprinkle it with pepper and present it.
[This unleavened dough is like the Moroccan Tride dough. That dough is divided
into little balls, and each ball is rolled into a circle and cooked in a pan like a
pancake. In this recipe, the pancake is cooked in butter and honey.]
pastries]
Knead two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of white flour well with water, oil and leaven
until it is as soft as dough or a little less.
Then make a stuffing of sugar and almonds as is made for stuffed ka’k [biscuits,
cookies],
And roll out half the dough with half the stuffing [spread the stuffing on the dough],
and sprinkle it with oil and make a small bread loaf [khubza] from it [roll it up], and
leave it until it rises. [Then bake.] [You can slice the loaf and lay the slices flat, let
them rise, and cook them like Danish.]
Then put it in a new glazed tajine which has been greased with oil, and heat
honey and pour it on the loaf, after piercing all of it with the fingers [or a knife],
and leave until it absorbs the honey. Cut on top of it pine nuts and sprinkle with
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sugar and serve.
And make from the half of the dough that remains, thin qursas [small rounds] and
stuff them with the remaining stuffing, and fry them in fresh oil and put them on a
clay plate. Heat chopped walnuts in boiling honey and pour over the cakes and
sprinkle them with sugar, and serve. [This dough-covered sweet is like the
Moroccan Haloua pastries.]
Little Sweet Cheese Breads Recipe [fried cheese rounds with honey
and nuts]
Take white flour and five egg yolks and half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of fresh bread,
and take some cheese, and mix everything until the cheese is not visible in it
[mixed in completely].
Then knead the dough with the whites of the eggs and a little water and make
good thin qursas [flat, round cakes] and fry in much oil so that they come out
white.
Then boil pounded walnuts in honey, and pour it with pistachios and pine nuts on
the cakes and sprinkle with sugar and serve.
Making Stuffed Isfunj [semolina leavened egg bread, fried as balls]

Take semolina and sift it, and take the flour and put it in a dish. Take water and
sprinkle it lightly on the semolina. Then knead it into a dough and gather it all up
and cover it with a second dish, leaving it until it sweats [this stimulates the
gluten].
Then uncover it and knead it until it becomes soft. Throw oil in it, and knead it,
and put in leavening and eggs, throw in about of five eggs and then knead the
dough with the eggs.
Then put it in a new pot, after greasing it with oil, and leave it until it rises. [Form
into loafs and let rise once more, then bake in a bread oven. Egg bread is often
braided and sprinkled with sesame seeds or sugar.]
Then take almonds, walnuts, pine nuts and pistachios, all peeled, and pound in
a mortar until as fine as salt. Then take pure honey and put it on the fire and boil
it until it is on the point of thickening. Then take the almonds, walnuts, pistachios
and pine-nuts that you have pounded, and throw all this upon the honey and stir
it until it is thickened. And if you wish to throw almonds, ground sugar, and
rosewater into the filling, do so and it will come out aromatic and agreeable. [This
is the filling.]
Then take a piece of the semolina dough that was put in the pot, and make a thin,
small flat cake of it, and fill it with a morsel of this thickened paste. The dough
should be only moderately thin. Make all the dough according to this recipe, until
the filling is used up.
Then take a frying pan and put oil in it, and when it starts to boil, throw in a piece
of stuffed isfunj and fry it with a gentle fire until it is done. And if you wish to cover
with sugar, do so.

You take clear and clean semolina and knead it with lukewarm water and yeast
and knead again. When it has risen, turn the dough, knead fine and moisten with
water, little by little, so that it becomes like tar [thick and sticky] after the second
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kneading, [and leave it] until it becomes leavened or is nearly risen.
Take a small new jug, wet it in water and then in clarified butter or fresh oil until it
is soaked. Then take a fat reed. Cut off a length to reach to the bottom of the pot.
Grease the reed with oil and [put the dough around it inside the jug, then] put the
lid on the pot and seal [the lid to the pot] with clay with the reed inside, and let it
be in the middle of the bread. [The reed makes a Bundt hole in the center of the
bread.]
When the bread is cooked, know that it is ready. Take it out, remove the clay
[sealing the jug] and take out the reed.
Take fresh or clarified butter and honey. Heat them and pour them into the pot in
the place where you removed the reed and leave it until the bread soaks it up.
When it has absorbed it, add butter or honey until it soaks up more.
Then break the pot away from it. Put the bread on a platter and cut it as you would
cut watermelon. Chop almonds and walnuts and pine nuts and pistachios and
lump white sugar and sprinkle it over it and also sprinkle with cinnamon, Chinese
cinnamon [cassia] or the like, if God wishes.

A Dish which is Made in the Region of Constantine and is called Kutamiyya.
Knead a well- made dough from semolina like the isfunj dough with yeast. [You
knead again.]
is slack [like a mash].
Then set up a frying pan of clay [bantam] on a hot fire, and when it has heated,
grease it with clarified butter or oil. Put in a thin circle of the dough and when the
bread is cooked, turn over.
Take some of the dough in the hand and smear the surface of the bread with it.
Then turn the smeared surface to the pan, changing the lower part with the upper,
and smear this side with dough too. Then turn it over in the pan and smear it, and
keep smearing it with dough and turning it over in the tajine, and pile it up and
raise it until it becomes a great, tall loaf. [Each time, butter the pan.]
Then turn it by the edges a few times in the tajine until it is done on the sides, and
when it is done, as it is desired, put it in a serving dish and make large holes in it
with a stick, and pour into them melted butter and plenty of honey, so that it covers
the bread, and present it.
[A similar cake is made in Indonesia, with each layer alternating in color. It has a
spongy consistency, and is usually flavored with pistachios. Constantine is a city
in Algeria; the name "Kutamiyya" refers to the Berber tribe Kutama, centered in
the area around Sitif in Algeria, who were prominent during the ascendancy of
the Fatimid dynasty in North Africa during the 9th and 10th centuries. One notices
in the course of the recipe that the clay frying pan becomes a tajine; as a tajine
is a clay casserole, it can serve for frying.]
Recipe for Murakkaba Layered with Dates [sweet bread layered with
dates]
Take the dough described under murakkaba kutamiyya.
[Knead a well-made dough from semolina like the isfunj dough with yeast. [You
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knead again.]
is slack [like a mash].]
And make of it a thin flatbread in a heated tajine, and when it is done, turn it over,
and top it with dates that have been cleaned, pounded, kneaded in the hands and
moistened with oil.
Smooth them down with the palm, then put on another flatbread and turn it over,
and then another bread, and repeat this until it is as high as desired. [Butter the
pan for each "turn".]
When it is done on all sides, put it in a dish and pour over it hot oil and honey
cleaned of its scum; this is how the people of Ifriqiyya [Tunisia] make it.
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Chapter 21
Candies
Fried Nougat Soaked in Honey

Boil good honey on a moderate fire, and when it melts, strain it in a woolen
kerchief [remove the scum from the honey, clarify it], then return to the pot and
stir with a brass spoon so that it does not burn.
If the honey is from the comb, take the whites of six eggs, and if not from the
comb, take the whites of ten, and beat by hand, without the yolks, until the foam
rises from them. [Whip the egg whites until firm.]
Let the honey cool well and then throw onto it [add it gradually to the egg whites,
stirring continually], then return to the fire and stir with the rod unceasingly until it
whitens well [it makes a nougat].
Then take the pot off the fire and put a big frying pan or an appointed pot [another
pot] on the fire and fill with fresh oil so that it warms well. [Heat a pan of oil for
frying.]
Then throw pieces of the mixture in it, [form chunks and let them cook in the oil]
then take it out quickly with a slotted spoon. And continue until it is all cooked.
Put the pieces a board to cool.
And when cool, break up fine, then throw onto [warm] thickened honey [reduced
over a fire] and mix with it. And the amount of what is thrown in per 1 measure of
honey is 2 measures of the [nougat] mixture. Leave it until it thickens and cools
and use it, God willing.
And also, you can peel sesame and toast it a little and put it in mixture. God
willing.
[The traditional, white nougat candy, torrone in Italy, is similar to this, minus the
frying part, which makes the nougat extra brittle.]
Recipe for Mu'aqqad of Sugar [Nougat with Pistachio and Almonds]

Dissolve a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar in two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of aromatic
rosewater on a moderate fire, and when it is dissolved, strain it through a woolen
cloth [to clean off the scum]. Then return it to the fire and stir it gently until it is
well cooked. Then remove it from the fire so that it cools slightly.
Beat the whites of a dozen eggs in a dish until they give up their foam [whip egg
whites stiff], and throw them on the melted sugar. Return it to the fire and beat it
with the confectionery whip ['asab hulwa] until it whitens and takes the
consistency of 'asfda [porridge].
Remove it from the fire and put in half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of pistachios, if
possible, and half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of peeled almonds, and serve it forth,
God willing.
[This is the more traditional white nougat candy, but today we use a candy
thermometer to make sure we’ve cooked the sugar enough, to ball phase,
meaning a spoonful of the dough dropped in a glass of cold water forms a ball.]
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Mu'aqqad of Honey [almond nougat]
Put a portion of comb honey on a moderate fire until it dissolves, then strain it
and return it to the fire [removing the scum].
Then beat [stiff] the whites of twenty-five eggs, if comb honey, and thirty if not,
and throw them into the honey. Beat the mixture with a confectionery whip until it
whitens and thickens [over the fire].
Then throw in a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of peeled almonds and serve it, God willing.
[This is the more traditional white nougat candy, but today we use a candy
thermometer to make sure we’ve cooked the sugar enough, to ball phase,
meaning a spoonful of the dough dropped in a glass of cold water forms a ball.]
A Preparation Known as Sweet Cane [creamy, caramel candy]

Take a portion of fresh milk and put in two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar, [heat
it until the sugar dissolves] and [then] strain it with a cloth [removing the scum].
Then take it to a moderate fire and reduce it while stirring it well until it is thickened
[to ball stage, meaning a spoonful of the dough dropped in a glass of cold water
forms a ball].
Then put [out] it on a stone work surface [oiled marble] until it is lukewarm. Then
roll it out in pieces the size of four fingers each, and roll them up as though they
were segments of cane [into candy logs].
Roll them in sifted wheat flour, and even [out] the ends with a knife, put them in
layers [stack the logs with flour between them so they do not stick] and serve
them, if it please God.
Sukkariyya, a Sugar Dish from the Dictation of Abu 'AM al-Bagdadi

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar and put in two uqiyas [1 ug/ya=39g/7tsp] of
rosewater and boil it in a ceramic pot until it is on the point of thickening and sticks
between the fingers [it makes a candy string].
Then take a third of a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of split almonds, fried, not burnt, and
pound well and add them with the sugar and stir it over the fire until thickened [to
ball stage, meaning a spoonful of the dough dropped in a glass of cold water
forms a ball].
Then spread it out on a dish and sprinkle it with ground sugar.
[It hardens as it cools and is a rose flavored sugar candy with almonds in it. You
can form it into sugar candy logs before it cools completely. This candy is sold in
many North African and Turkish stores as a bar candy, individually wrapped, the
length of a finger, and the width of two fingers. It has a yellowish, translucent
outside with a nut filling, and it is rolled in grated coconut. It is important to get the
sugar to the right temperature. You can use a candy thermometer.]
Qahiriyya which is Called Sabuniyya [sugar coated marzipan candies]

Pound almonds very well and add them to an equal amount of sugar, and add
spikenard, cloves, some camphor, and musk dissolved in rosewater. Pound all
this in a wooden mortar until it is mixed and smooth [marzipan].
Then roll out ka’ks [biscuits, cookies, from the mixture] and small flatbreads and
pieces shaped like walnuts and hazelnuts. Leave them a while and then
submerge them in sugared rose syrup and thickened julep, and take them out.
[Let them dry.] Submerge them a second time, and a third, and [each time] leave
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them until they dry.
It is good, magnificent, and it used to be made in Marrakesh.
Sanbusak [marzipan figures]

It used to be made in Marrakesh in the house of the Prince of the Believers, Abu
Yusuf al- Mansur, God have mercy upon him.
Take white sugar and dissolve it and mix it with rosewater [in a pot over a low
fire]. Then put in almonds pounded like dough, and stir it gently until it is combined
and becomes like the filling of a qahiriyya [marzipan].
Then take it from the fire, and when it is lukewarm, put in spikenard, cloves, a
little ginger, and a small amount of mastic, after first dissolving these ground
spices in rosewater in which has already been dissolved some camphor, musk
and cut almonds. Mix all this and knead it until one part blends with the other [until
well blended].
Make rounds of the size of ka’ks [biscuits, cookies] and make balls in the shape
of oranges and resembling apples and pears, until the marzipan is used up. It is
delicious, and it is called sanbusak in the East, and it is the sanbusak of kings.
[This marzipan is a bit spicier and has camphor and musk in it along with chopped
almonds. Today, these sorts of figures are dried and painted with food colorings
to closer resemble what they mimic. In Sicily, Italy, they are called "Royal
Marzipan”.]
A Sweet Called Ma’quda [marzipan candies]

Take good sugar and moisten it with fresh water. Put it on a moderate fire [and
stir it] until it binds [to ball stage, meaning a spoonful of the dough dropped in a
glass of cold water forms a ball] and [then] put in chopped [ground] almonds.
[Keep cooling and stirring.]
Test it over marble [meaning see if a bit of it sets when put on greased marble.
The sugar must be a certain temperature to make the candy form properly.
Usually, without a candy thermometer, you do a ball test. You take a spoonful of
the sugar and drop it in a cup of cold water. If it forms a ball, it is ready.] Grease
the marble.
[When it is ready, put the candy on the greased marble.] And it [the candy] is
shaped on it [the marble] into patties that you cut with scissors in whatever shape
you want.
While it is still warm, give it the shape of dates stuffed with almonds or with a
piece of fanid [taffy] or resembling Malaga figs or like grapes or raisins and so
forth. Leave it until it cools and lay it aside.
Fruit Made of Sugar [almond sugar figurines]

Add one part of sieved sugar to one part of cleaned and pounded almonds. Knead
it all with rose water and roll your hand in almond oil and make with it whatever
you want of all fruits and shapes, if God wishes.
Rukhamiyya, a Marble Dish [spicy, sugar almond candy]

Take white sugar, dissolve it in a little water and put it on a gentle fire. Remove
the froth, and when it is almost bound together, throw in peeled almonds,
pounded somewhat coarsely until they become like semolina, in the quantity of
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two thirds of the sugar.
When it is finished binding together [to ball stage, meaning a spoonful of the
dough dropped in a glass of cold water forms a ball], remove it from the fire and
cut it with some camphor, spikenard and clove dissolved in rose water. Knead it
and turn it onto a marble slab greased with oil when it is still warm. Lay on it a
smooth greased plank until the surface is smooth [to flatten it]. Then cut it with a
knife in the shape of reeds or whatever shape you want, and set it aside.
Preparation of Fanfd [Pulled Taffy]

Take white sugar and dilute it with a moderate amount of water, neither too much
nor too little. Put it on a gentle fire. Remove the scum to clean it. Continue cooking
until it binds moderately [to ball stage, meaning a spoonful of the dough dropped
in a glass of cold water forms a ball].
Then take it from the fire and when it has cooled a little, take it with your hand
and pull it as you do with pulled honey sweet [another candy], until it whitens and
you like the whiteness. If you see that it is drying out between your hands and
isn't yet as white as you would like, put it near the fire until it softens and continue
doing it [the pulling] and putting it near the fire until you are pleased with its
whiteness.
He who wants it musky, dissolve some musk and camphor in good rose water
and sprinkle the sugar with it and lubricate your hands in this rose and musk water
while you pull it little by little, until the musk and camphor penetrate it. It will turn
out excellently.
Then make ka’ks [biscuits, cookies] and qursas [small rounds] and shapes similar
to maftuna and fists [ma'asim] and whatever shape you want. Set it on a slat in
the air to cool and dry and set it aside.
[The terms mean only that you shape the taffy into various candy forms. Maftuna
is not explained, but it means "enamored, mad with love," clearly the name of a
sweet.]
Recipe of Ma'asim [Wrists] [almond and sugar stuffed taffy]

In Marrakesh this used to be called "children's wrists." Pound peeled almonds
with white sugar, but don't be too extreme in pounding them. They should have
the coarseness of grits. Then knead it with your palm and make it into a form,
either round or long, shaped like a wrist.
Then spread out a bit of fresh fanfd [pulled taffy, see previous recipe] before it
dries, and put the "wrist" in the middle of it. Twist it and lift it on all sides until the
sides stick together. Set it aside. [Stuff the taffy with the filling.]
Then put white flour in a tajine [pot] on a weak, gentle fire and when the flour has
heated, put the wrist-in-taffy in it and turn it over and over until the flour sticks to
it all over. Lay it aside and let the children play with it. [A favorite children's candy.]
[The taffy shell around the almond and sugar filling is covered with the toasted
flour so it is no longer sticky. You could cover it with starch, too. This candy is
sold in many North African and Turkish stores as a bar candy, individually
wrapped, the length of a finger, and the width of two fingers. It has a white taffy
outside with a nut filling.]
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A Sweet from Syria [yellow, almond, pistachio candies]
Take three ratls [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of white sugar and one of clean honey. Put
them together in a tinjir [pot] on a gentle fire and continue stirring. When it begins
to thicken add 1 1/2 ratls [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of dissolved starch paste, colored
[yellow with saffron], and white flour.
Continue stirring and when it begins to thicken, pour on oil [28 teaspoons per
pound of honey], and scatter in it sweet, washed and chopped almonds and
pistachios. Thicken it carefully [stirring over the fire].
When it is completed [to ball stage, meaning a spoonful of the dough dropped in
a glass of cold water forms a ball], set it aside and loosen it [mix in] with rose
water, camphor, spikenard and clove. Then pour it over a salaya [oiled, stone
work surface, such as marble] and make qursas [small rounds] with it. Put them
on a greased tray and set aside.
Faludhaj [honey-almond, chewy candies]

Take good, clean honey [heated and scum removed] and put it on a moderate
fire in a clean boiling kettle [tinjir]. For each rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of honey add
two uqiyas [1 ag/ya=39g/7tsp] of [dissolved] starch, that dilutes and mixes with
the honey, and stir it continually. If you want, color it with saffron [yellow]. Stir it
with a spoon so it doesn’t stick.
When it is almost thickened, add for each rati of honey, four uqiyas [1
wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of oil and continue to stir it. Add half an uqiya [1
wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of good yellow [bees'] wax [makes it chewy] for each rati and a
half of honey. When the oil begins to dribble/leak through, remove that oil with a
cloth, clarifying the oil. [Remove it from the heat.]
Then add to it peeled, chopped almonds in a sufficient amount. With the almonds,
you might add some hulled sesame seeds, and stir.
Pour it over an oiled salaya [a stone chopping board or work surface, marble].
Make with it large or small rounds. Use them as they are or make with them
whatever kind of shapes you may wish.
Faludhaj with Sugar [chewy, almond candies]

Dilute a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of sugar [with a small amount of water in a pot] and
put it on a gentle fire. Add four uqiyas [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of honey so the sugar
retains its moistness and doesn't break apart [crystallize] while thickening. Cook
it until it thickens [to ball stage, meaning a spoonful of the dough dropped in a
glass of cold water forms a ball].
Then throw in three uqiyas [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of good oil, one of liquified starch
and three dirhams [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of gum arabic [makes it chewy]
dissolved in rose water. Continue to stir it until it binds together. Add chopped
almonds to it. When it thickens [remove from heat].
Form [finger thick slabs of the dough] on a salaya [stone work surface, marble]
greased with sweet almond oil. Cut the candy into squares with scissors.
A Sweet of Dates and Honey [date, honey-nut candy]

Take Shaddakh dates. Clean them of their pits and fibers and pound a rati [1
ratl=468g/1 lb] of them in a mortar. Then mix them with water in a tinjir [pot] on a
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gentle fire. Add an equal amount of skimmed honey [heated and the scum
removed]. Stir it until it binds together.
Throw in a good amount of peeled almonds and walnuts. Put in some oil so it
doesn't burn and to bind firmly.
Pour it over a greased salaya [stone work surface, marble]. With it you make
small round or square candies. Cut it with a knife in big or little pieces.
Preparation of Sugar Candies [spicy, chewy candies]

Take good sugar and dissolve it in a little water. Put it [in a pot] on a gentle fire
and leave it to boil until the water dries up [to ball stage, meaning a spoonful of
the dough dropped in a glass of cold water forms a ball]. Pour it onto a greased
marble slab to cool a bit.
When it has stiffened, take it from the marble and add ginger, galingale,
spikenard, clove and ground, dissolved mastic. Knead it and then throw it again
over the greased marble. Make it into small candy rounds and let them be until
they cool and become solid.
For him who wants it musky, dissolve some musk and camphor in good rose
water and cut it [mix it into the candy] with this at the end, when it is removed
from the fire and cooling. It improves [or perfumes] the breath, warms the
stomach and helps digest food.
Sukkariyya, a Sugar Dish [nut nougat, turron]
Take a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] and a half of sugar and throw in rosewater and water
to cover.
Stir it and pound it. [Fleat it in a pan.] Clarify it with a sieve in a ceramic [hantam]
vessel [remove the scum],
[Remove from the heat.] Add an uqiya [1 uq/'ya=39g/7tsp] of honey for each rati
of sugar. Take a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of peeled white almonds and cut them into
thirds and quarters. [Stir it in with the sugar.]
Return it to the fire. Cook it until it thickens [to ball stage, meaning a spoonful of
the dough dropped in a glass of cold water forms a ball]. Put it out on a marble
sheet which has been greased with almond oil and roll it out. And work it to see
whether it takes them [see if the nuts attach to the nougat]. And throw it on the
salaya [stone work surface, marble board] and roll it out and it is very good. Cut
it as you will. Sprinkle it with sugar and do the same with pistachio, pine nuts and
walnuts.
Then make with it what you may want. [Shape it into logs, balls, rings, bars, etc.]
If you want it with camphor and aromatic spices, grind whatever of them you want
and sprinkle them over it, if God wishes.
Preparation of Juraydat, Small Locusts [honey-spice candy balls]

Take bread from white semolina, take it outside and put it in the sun until it dries.
Grind it and sieve it, soak it in oil and leave it a day and a night. Throw on
thickened honey [heated, skimmed, reduced], after cleaning it, and knead it with
pepper and enough spices. Make it into round hazelnuts [small balls], God willing.
Cast Figures of Sugar

Throw on the sugar an equal amount of water or rosewater and cook until its
consistency is good [to ball stage, meaning a spoonful of the dough dropped in a
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glass of cold water forms a ball]. Empty it into the mould and make of it whatever
shape is in the mold. [Oil] the places of the "eyebrow" and the "eye" of the mold
[the tight spots of the mold], because it comes out of the mould in more easily.
Then decorate it with gilding and whatever you want of it. If you want to make a
tree or a figure of a castle, cut it piece by piece. Then decorate it section by
section and stick it together with mastic until you complete the figure you want, if
God wills.
[The gilding referred to is also ambiguous in the Arabic; both gold leaf and egg-
yolk to color something gold were practiced in the Islamic world.]
Preparation of What is known as Fustuqiyya of Sugar [pistachio candy]

Take half a ratl [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of sugar and three uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of
almond oil, two of fine flour and three of pounded pistachios. Cook it all together
on the fire until it binds together and cut it with musk and clove, if God wishes.
[The name comes from "fustaq" meaning pistachio. The author has omitted the
last part, which is pouring the mixture into a greased pan and letting it cool. It
turns firm and is sliced up and served.]
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Chapter 22
Puddings
Preparation of Kunafa [sweet crepe pudding]
Take some of this thin bread [for the crepe recipe, see the Chapter: Breads], as
was mentioned before how to do it. Cut it and trim it to the size of big rose leaves.
Then take a tinjir [pan], in which you put fresh oil, enough to cover the cut bread.
Let it boil [and add the cut crepe] until it absorbs the oil and disintegrates.
Then throw in clean honey, free of its froth [heated and skimmed], to cover it.
Then sprinkle it with rose water in which some camphor has been dissolved. Stir
it gently so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Stir it and sprinkle it with
spikenard, cloves, ground sugar, chopped peeled almonds and whole fanid
[taffy]. Smooth it with a spoon while it boils and the oil disappears, as you do with
mu'assal. Stir it and when it has become thick, take it off the fire.
The people of Bijaya [Bougie] and Ifriqiyya [Tunisia] make this kunafa [crepe dish]
with fresh and clarified butter instead of oil, but oil is better and lasts better.
[The cut up crepes are used as a bread thickener for this pudding. It is very sweet
from the sugar. The taffy gives it a chewy consistency. Depending on the portions
you use, this could become like a fudge.]
A Sukkariyya from Dictation of Abu 'AN al-Bagdadi [rose pudding]

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar, pound and sift.
Take a third of a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of fresh oil and put it in an earthenware
pot, and when it is on the point of boiling, throw in a third of a rati [1 raf/=468g/1
lb] of white flour and two uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of breadcrumbs from white
wheat or semolina, and stir it two or three times.
Then throw in the sugar and two uqiyas [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of rosewater and stir
it until the oil appears as a ring on top and the falu dhaja [pudding] appears
combined and thickened.
Take it off the fire, remove the oil [that is on top] and present it, God willing.
Khabisa from Dictation of Abu 'AN al-Bagdadi [oily egg pudding]

Take half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar and one third rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of
the crumb of bread made of white flour. Pound the sugar and mix with the crumb
and put in three eggs.
Heat in an earthenware pot half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] or less of fresh oil, and
when it has boiled, throw in the sugar and breadcrumbs and eggs.
Stir it on the fire until it is cooked and thickened, then leave it and sprinkle it with
ground sugar.
Khabfsa with Pomegranate [very thick pudding]

Take half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar and put it in a metal or earthenware pot
and pour in three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of juice of sweet table pomegranates and
half an uqiya [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of rosewater, with a penetrating smell.
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Boil it gently and after two boilings, add half a mudd [2 litres] of semolina and boil
it until the semolina is cooked. Throw in the weight of a quarter dirham [1
dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of ground and sifted saffron, and three uqiyas [1
ug/'ya=39g/7tsp] of almonds.
Put it in a dish and sprinkle over it the like of pounded sugar, and serve as balls
the size of hazelnuts.
Four-Ingredient Khabfsa [plain pudding]

Take half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of sugar and throw in three uqiyas [1
wqf/ya=39g/7tsp] of water, boil it on a fire and then add three uqiyas [1
t/g/ya=39g/7tsp] of starch and a third of a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of fresh oil. Boil it
until the oil spits, and then strain off this oil and pour in some almond flour and it
is done, if God wills. [There are actually five ingredients, but maybe water does
not count.]
Recipe for Honeyed Rice [rice pudding]

Take rice and soak it in fresh water, enough to cover it, for a day or overnight.
Then wash it and put it on the fire in a pot or kettle [tinjir]. Cook it with water or
fresh milk, then add four or five ratls [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of clean honey from which
you have skimmed the foam. Cook it carefully on a gentle fire. Add, while cooking,
fresh milk until it sticks together, thickens and becomes a paste.
Pour it onto a platter and shape it with a spoon. Make a hole in the center which
you fill with fresh, melted butter and sprinkle it with ground sugar and cinnamon
and serve it.

Wash what you want of the rice and cook it as usual [covered with water plus
some water, or twice the rice of water]. Then take it to the hearthstone and leave
it a while [to dissolve] and when it is ready and has become mushy, mash it with
a spoon until it dissolves and not a trace of the grain remains.
Then add ground white Egyptian sugar and stir it vigorously. Add sugar bit by bit
until its sweetness dominates and it becomes like dissolved fanid [taffy, meaning
until it becomes sticky].
Then turn it onto a platter and make a hole in the center that you fill with fresh
butter, or with oil of fresh sweet almonds. If you cook this with fresh milk instead
of water, it will be more delicious and better.

Take rice washed with hot water and put it in the pot and add to it fresh, pure milk
fresh from milking. Put this pot in a copper kettle that has water up to the halfway
point or a little more [in a double boiler, bain-marie]. Arrange the copper kettle on
the fire and the pot with the rice
and milk well-settled in it so that it doesn't tip and is kept from the fire. Leave it to
cook without stirring.
When the milk has dried up, add more of the same kind of milk so that the rice
dissolves and is ready [add milk and cook until the rice is done]. Add to it fresh
butter and cook the rice with it.
When the rice is done and dissolved, take off the pot and stir it with a spoon until
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it loosens. Then throw it on the platter and level it [forming a round loaf]. Sprinkle
it with ground sugar, cinnamon and butter and use.
With this same recipe one cooks itriyya, fidaush and tharfd al-laban [milk bread
pudding].
Royal Raffs [bread pudding]

Take sweet, peeled almonds, and pound them until they are like a flour, and add
an equal amount of wheat flour, and knead it hard with eggs in place of water,
and sprinkle with a little rosewater in which a little camphor has been dissolved.
Then make thin flatbreads and cook them in a clay pan over a gentle fire until
they cook and do not overcook. [You make lots of round breads.]
Then pound [the breads] with sweet almond oil or fresh, melted, cleaned butter.
Form it into a round loaf and put it in a large dish, as if it were a sugar loaf [the
hard, tall, round form of sugar made from refined sugar cane].
And when you serve it, pour almond oil or fresh, melted, cleaned butter, or rose
syrup, over it.
A Good Royal Raffs [almond bread pudding]

Take flour of wheat or semolina, liquify it [add water] and knead it with fresh milk,
eggs, and yeast.
Knead it very well until the dough becomes flexible, and make flatbreads with it,
and cook them on a metal sheet [tabiq] and do not leave it for long, but rather
take it out still moist.
Add peeled, minced almonds and ground sugar [to the cooked breads]. Knead
all together according to the previous recipe [with sweet almond oil or fresh,
melted, cleaned butter], shaping it like a sugar loaf.
Sprinkle it with ground sugar, and pour fresh, melted butter over it and serve it. It
is moist and sweet.
Recipe for Raffs with Soft Cheese [honey cheese bread pudding]
Take sieved crumbs of leavened bread fresh from the oven and pound only the
crumbs without the crust. Knead it by hand with an equal amount of moist, soft,
unsalted cheese and with a bit of butter. Make a small round bread of this, put it
in a dish, and throw thereon melted, clarified butter and sufficient honey, cleaned
of its foam.
Raffs Cooked with Soft Cheese [honey cheese bread pudding]

Take flatbreads made with eggs. Crumble very finely the necessary amount.
Grate fresh cheese after adding salt, a little more than the loaves, and put aside.
Then take a kettle [tinjir], put in sufficient honey, [heat it] and clean it of its scum.
Add fresh oil and then add the aforementioned crumbs and cheese. Keep stirring
it gently with a spoon, little by little, until the oil disappears.
Turn it onto a platter, smooth it, and sprinkle it with sugar and ground cinnamon.
Qursa with Dates [date bread pudding]

One of the Dishes of the People of Ifriqiyya [Tunisia], Take good semolina, [add
water, then] knead it, and make thin flatbreads of it, and cook them, but not too
long so they lose their tenderness.
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Then crumble them very finely and put them over a moderate fire [in a pot], and
pour in fresh, odorless oil, and cover it with the oil.
Then take good Shaddakh dates, as much as the crumbs, and there are those
who use more Shaddakh dates than crumbs. After cleaning them of their pits and
fibers, pound them in a mortar until they are like rose jam [a mush], and put it in
a tinjir [pot] with some boiling oil. Stir it with a spoon, and when it dissolves in the
oil, throw in the breadcrumbs little by little, and stir until it is blended and there is
no distinction between the crumbs and the dates and they are a single mass, like
a paste.
Then remove it from the fire, and the oil will be absorbed. Leave it a while, then
sprinkle it with sufficient cinnamon, spikenard, cloves, ginger, and galingale. Stir
it with a spoon until the spices are mixed in. Then pour it into a dish.
Even out the mixture, smooth it out [into a ringed mound], make a hole in the
middle, and fill the hole with clarified butter and let it absorb in. Sprinkle it with
sugar, spikenard, and cloves. Insert split almonds and fanfd [taffy candy or
candied sugar bits] and serve it. According to this recipe it lasts for the space of
many days and does not spoil or change.
Tunisian Date Qursa According to Another Recipe [oily date pudding]

Take semolina and mix it with fresh oil, knead it like the dough for ka’k [biscuits,
cookies], sprinkling oil over it. Make good qursas [small rounds], like sugar molds
or smaller. Place in the oven, and do not overcook. Then take them out, crush in
a dish, and crush in the palms until it is like semolina again, and pass it through
a sieve and put it aside. [The flour and oil mixture is very crumbly, like a polvorone
cookie.]
Then take Shaddakh dates cleaned of their pits and fibers, and pound them into
a paste. Mix in the same amount of the sifted semolina [what you prepared
earlier], and add a sufficient amount of the mentioned spices [cinnamon,
spikenard, cloves, ginger, and galingale]. Knead this until it is blended and forms
a single body. Then smear your hand with oil and make a mound of this dough in
the middle of a dish, and pour fresh oil over it.
Recipe for Tarfist [saffron honey bread pudding]

Dish of the People of Fez. Knead the finest white flour, or semolina, [with water]
and make flatbreads. Cook them in a tannur [clay oven] or in the [bread] oven
over a moderate fire, then crumble them small.
Take skimmed honey [heat and remove the scum] and dilute it with an equal
amount of fresh water, and throw in as much saffron as will color the crumbs to
the desired tint. Then throw in these crumbs and stir it until it takes body like a
paste, and continue stirring. When it hardens, sprinkle it with plenty of split
almonds, and stir it until it is mixed.
[Put in on a serving dish and form the dough as a ring.] Make a hole in the middle
and fill it with melted aromatic [flavored or perhaps rancid] clarified butter or fresh
butter. Sprinkle it with sugar, cinnamon, spikenard, cloves and taffy pieces [or
candied sugar], and present it.
The Dish Ghassani [mincemeat pudding]

Take a rati [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of meat, without bones, from a fat sheep. Cut it and
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put it in a pot. Cook it in a white tafaya [an almond milk stew].
When the meat is done, throw in four ratls [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of clarified honey
[heated, skimmed] and a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of peeled, pounded almonds. Color
with saffron and pour on half a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of oil, and stir over a gentle
fire until the cooking is done [it is thick and a bit dry].
Pour it into a dish and sprinkle it with minced sugar and ground Chinese cinnamon
[cassia].
Recipe for Mu'assal of Meat [mincemeat pudding]

Take meat from a tender, fat sheep, from its shoulder and fatty extremities,
without bones, and fat tail as it is, to the amount, as near as may be, of four ratls
[1 ratl=468g/1lb]. Put it in a new pot with spices and water, six uqiyas [1
uqiya=39g/7tsp] of oil and six of clean honey.
Cook it until it is done and falling apart, and skim off the grease. Take the meat
out of the pot, and to what remains of the broth add three ratls [1 ratl=468g/1 lb]
of skimmed honey, a third of a rati [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of dissolved starch and
minced almonds.
Keep stirring until it is almost thickened, then return the meat which had been
removed, and moisten it with the strained fat little by little until it absorbs the fat,
like mu'assal [pudding].
Remove it and leave it until it cools.
Recipe for Mu'assal, Used Among Us as the Last Dish [almond

pudding]
Take good, strained honey and put it in a pot [tinjir over a fire]. Add four uqiyas [1
ug/ya=39g/7tsp] of starch for each rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of honey, dissolved in
rosewater, and if you wish, color it [yellow] with saffron. Keep stirring it until it is
almost thickened.
Then pour in enough fresh oil that it cooks and doesn't burn. Scatter on it chopped
almonds. When it is dry, it is finished cooking. Remove it and empty into a dish
and remove any oil remains on it.
You might add some hulled sesame and camphor dissolved in rosewater, and it
will turn out admirable.
White Mu'assal [almond pudding]

Take a rati [1 ratl=468g/1lb] of clean, white honey, and three uqiyas [1
t/g/ya=39g/7tsp] of starch, the white of two eggs, sufficient fresh oil and minced
almonds. [Put in a pot.]
Cook over a gentle, weak fire and keep stirring, without being careless about
stirring, until it whitens and boils and takes the consistency of mu'assal [pudding].
Cut it with camphor dissolved in water and it will turn out admirable.
A Mu'assal Used in Tunis at Banquets [yellow pudding]

Take strained honey and pour in dissolved starch, tinted with saffron. For one rati
[1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of honey, half a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of starch. And if there is
no starch on hand, use dissolved [in water] fine white flour according to this
recipe.
Pour in sufficient oil and keep stirring it until the oil disappears from it. Mix in
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pepper, cloves, and a little camphor, re-thicken it [cook it a bit more] and serve it.
White Faludhaja With Milk; It is Eastern [sweet pudding]

Take a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] and a half of fresh milk and put it in a tinjir on a gentle
fire. Add one quarter rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of diluted starch paste and one rati [1
ratl=468g/1 lb] of fresh oil. Stir it and then add two ratls [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of
pounded white sugar and stir it until it is done. Put it into a clean clay dish and
serve it.
Sukkariyya, A Sweet of Sugar [bread custard pudding]

Take a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of ground sugar and two thirds of a rati [1 ratl=468g/1
lb] of white bread crumbs grated until they become like semolina flour. Add eggs
and beat them with the crumbs and sugar.
Then put a frying pan on a gentle fire with a rati [1 ratl=468g/1 lb] of fresh oil.
When it boils, toss in these crumbs and the sugar beaten with eggs. Stir it on a
gentle fire until it binds and cools. Sprinkle with sugar, spikenard and cinnamon.
An Eastern Sweet [sweet pudding]

This is given to feverish people as a food and takes the place of medicine.
Take sweet, peeled almonds and pound them fine. [Add some water.] Then
extract their liquid with a sieve or clean cloth, until it becomes like milk [almond
milk]. Add pomegranate and tart apple juice, pear juice, juice of quince and of
roasted gourd, whatever may be available of these. Prepare them with the "juice"
squeezed from the almonds by adding some white sugar.
Put it in a glazed earthenware tinjir [pot] and light a gentle fire under it. After
boiling, add some dissolved starch paste. [Stir.] When it thickens, put together
[add] rose oil and fresh oil and cook on a gentle fire until it thickens. Then take it
off the fire and serve it.
If the stomach is weak, add rosewater mixed with camphor.
Excellent Faludhaj [sweet almond milk pudding]

Pound sweet almonds very fine and add fresh water. Pass this through a fine
sieve until it becomes like milk [almond milk].
Then take a quantity of the juice of sour and sweet pomegranate, or juice of tart
apples, or pear juice, or quince juice or juice of roasted gourd-whichever of this
you may have, and take an equal amount of sugar and white honey. Put it all in
an earthenware pot. Light under it a gentle fire and [bring to a boil].
Throw in, after boiling, some starch. When it begins to thicken, add drops of
almond oil. Light under it a weak fire until it thickens, and it becomes like
thickened khabis [pudding] Take it from the fire and use it, if God wishes.
Tharfda of Isfunj with Milk [bread pudding]

Make isfunj from white flour and make it well, and fry it. Add to it while kneading
as many eggs as it will bear. [See the Chapter: Breads for a full recipe for this
bread.] When you are finished making it and frying it, cook as much fresh milk as
is needed and beat in it egg whites and fine white flour, and stir carefully until
cooked [in a pot on the stove]. Then cut the bread into small pieces with scissors
and moisten with the milk until saturated. Then melt butter and throw that [in] the
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tharfda [bread pudding] and sprinkle with sugar and use, God willing.
Tharfda Called Mukallala [Crowned] [almond pudding]

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey, or if you want, sugar, and put it in a pot to
boil. Throw on it saffron and pepper, and when it boils, sprinkle into it white flour
little by little, and stir until it thickens, then moisten with fresh oil.
Throw in a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of peeled almonds and stir, and when you take
it from the fire and present it, put on it almonds and sugar, and pistachios dyed
with heart of safflower and indigo, God willing.
Tharfda Called Mudhahhaba [Gilded] [nut custard pudding]

Take a rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of honey and pour into a pot, and put with it a half of
clarified butter then as much saffron, pepper and cinnamon as needed. Put the
pot on a fire of coals [embers], and when it boils, take eggs and break in a
separate plate and throw on them [ground] almonds, walnuts and pistachios, and
stir them with the eggs, and then throw them into the pot.
Stir until mixed and cooked [the eggs and nuts thicken the custard], [It needs to
cool first into a solid mass.] And when it thickens [cools], take from the fire and
overturn the pot on its face [put a plate over the top of the pot and quickly turn it
over, to put the pudding on the plate], and serve.
Recipe for [Sheep's] Milk Tharfda

Take fresh sheep's milk, because you don't prepare this except with sheep's milk
still warm from milking. Put it in a clean pot on a moderate fire. Stir it gently from
time to time. Add fresh butter and continue stirring it until it thickens and forms a
white foam on top.
Then add crumbs of thin flatbread made with semolina or wheat flour, of middling
sourness, crumbled as fine as possible, and leave it until it is all absorbed and it
is cooked.
Then put it on a platter. Make in its center a hollow, and fill with fresh butter and
sprinkle it with a lot of sugar and cinnamon and use it.
'Asida Which Fortifies and Nourishes Much and Fattens [honey,

almond pudding]
Take two ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of clarified honey, cleaned of its scum. Add oil
and fresh clarified butter, a quarter rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of each, and put it on a
gentle fire.
When it has boiled, put in the heart [crumbs minus the crust] of pure leavened
bread, grated, as much as is needed, and peeled and pounded almonds, and the
yolks of ten eggs. Stir it and do not neglect stirring it until the oil disperses and it
melts and thickens.
Then take it from the fire and leave it to cool and use it like 'asida, after sprinkling
it with ground sugar and whatever you like of the different kinds of fats.
'Asida Made with Grits that Nourishes and Fattens [sweet grits
pudding]
Take the mentioned cracked wheat and pour water on to cover it. Cook it until the
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water dries up and then moisten it with fresh milk and stir until done.
Then add skimmed honey and grease from meat cooked with its fat. Repeat this
several times until it is well mixed and seasoned. Then add fresh butter and
ground sugar, fanid [taffy] and ground cinnamon.
Serve it and it is a good dish.
The Making of Qataif [wheat, honey pudding]

Put a pot of water on the fire until it boils, and throw in coarsely ground semolina,
and cook it on the fire until it becomes pudding.
Then take it out of the pot and put it in a dish. Boil honey and pour it on top, with
pepper, and present it, God willing.
Making Muhallabiyya [mincemeat, layered tharida quiche]

It is reported that a cook of Persia had his residence next to that of Muhallab b.
Abi Safra and that he presented himself to prepare for him a good dish so that he
could test him. He prepared it and offered it to him. He was pleased and called it
Muhallabiyya.
Its Recipe
Take four ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] of fat lamb, cut it up and put it in a pot and pour
in four uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp] of oil, two dirhams [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp] of
salt, a piece of Chinese cinnamon [cassia], galingale, chopped onion and a
sufficient amount of camphor. Cook it until it is almost done, then take from the
fire.
Take out the meat and put it in a receptacle [set aside]. Take lamb fat and cut it
with a knife as you cut vegetables. Then take a clean pot and put a layer of fat in
the bottom. Then put over it a strip of cooked meat and another of thin flatbread
cut up and made into tharfda
[bread crumbs] and don't stop doing this -- a layer of meat, a layer of fat, a layer
of thin flatbread crumbs -- until you are finished.
Then pour on it enough fresh milk to cover it, and add to it enough ground sugar
for its sweetness to appear in all. Then take 20 eggs and beat them until they are
mixed. Put them in the pot on top of the meat and bread and keep tipping it from
side to side and moisten it until all the milk has spread throughout the contents.
When the milk appears on top, put it in a hot clay oven [tannur] and cover it, and
leave it until it is done. Then take it out and turn it onto a pretty vessel and serve
it.
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Appendix
Editor David Friedman's Notes

This translation has a somewhat complicated history. The original project was to
retranslate into English Ambrosio Huici-Miranda's Spanish translation of the
Arabic original of the Manuscrito Anonimo, a 13th century Andalusian recipe
collection. During a period of several years, almost the entire collection was
translated; the translators were Stephen Bloch [Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib],
Elise Fleming [Alys Katherine], Janet Hinson [Mairoli Bhan], and [Habib ibn al-
Andalusi]. The names in parentheses are those used by the translators within the
SCA; I unfortunately have no other name for the last translator listed.
After almost all of the translation had been completed and several preliminary
versions circulated, Charles Perry offered to redo the translation from Huici-
Miranda's Arabic edition of the original manuscript, with the assistance of Huici-
Miranda's Spanish translation and the English retranslation. It is that translation
that is given here. While he made use of suggested readings by the other
translators in deciding ambiguous points, and in some places retained their
phrasing, the final interpretation is his, and is based on the Arabic not on Huici-
Miranda's Spanish translation.
Weights and Measures

The measures are vague, sometimes bearing a relation to measures used in
Greece or Rome, or the Arab regions of North Aftrica. At times, Al-Andalus has a
separate meaning for a measurement.
It is best to try out a recipe first, using your best judgment, noting the quantities
you’ve used. Then you can adjust the recipe on it’s second run according to how
it turned out.
• 1 ratl [< the Greek litra < the Roman libra]=12 uqiyas [1 uqiya=39g/7tsp]; in
13th century Andalusia, 1 ratl =468.75 g, about a pound
• 1 uqiya [< the Roman uncia]=10 dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp]; in 13th
century Andalusia, 1 uqiya =39 g, about 1 1/3 ounces or 7 teaspoons
• 1 mithqal =10/7 dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp]; in Andalusia, 5.7 g
• 1 dirham [< the Greek drachme]=6 danaq; in 13th century Andalusia, 1
dirham=3.9 g, or 3/4 teaspoon
• 1 thumn = 1/8 qadah [according to Hinz. The word literally means an eighth,
and its application to saffron in this cookbook suggests that it may sometimes
be an eighth of a dirham [1 dirham=3.9g/3/4tsp]] which would make a thumn
a pinch.
• 1 mudd [< modius, the Roman peck]; in the Maghrib=4.32 liters. Some recipes
in this book refer to the "small mudd," which might have been 1.08 liters.
• 1 qadah=0.94 liters or [the "great qadah"] 1.88 liters, by Egyptian measurement,
which might be implied in some recipes. In Andalusia, however, the qadah
was a measurement of wine and very much larger, on the order of 32 liters.
• 1 kail can equal from 6.5 liters to 22 liters. The word literally means "a
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measure."
• Makkuk'. Another vague unit of volume, varying from 7.5 to 18.8 liters.
From Islamische Masse und Gewichte by Walther Hinz, E. J. Brill, Leiden 1955
Murri
The 13th-century Islamic recipes frequently contain an ingredient called murri or
[in some translations] almori. It is one of a group of condiments that were popular
in early Islamic cooking and vanished sometime after the fourteenth century.
Many of those condiments resembled either soy sauce, fish sauce, or today’s
Worchester Sauce, and were used to enhance flavors.
There are recipes in Al-Baghdadi’s cookbook that require 40 days of work. But in
the end, the result seems to taste much like soy sauce. So a substitute for these
recipes can be soy sauce. One recipe mentions cinnamon and saffron and other
herbs are added to the resulting condiment, so you can add these to your soy
sauce if you’d like.
I report here the notes about recipes for the condiment murri for fun. I advise you
to use soy sauce in its place in the recipes, not least because these recipes might
actually be carcinogenic. Murri was a salty, liquid, flavor enhancing condiment.
Sometimes it is a fish- mam. Soy sauce and ketjap are Asian salty, liquid, flavor
enhancing condiments, and the Southeast Asian fish sauce condiment is a salty,
liquid, flavor enhancing condiment. They can be used as substitutes for both sorts
of murri.
According to Charles Perry, the penny-royal in the following recipes is a
mistranslation and should be budhaj [rotted barley]. He gives the following
instructions for making budhaj: "All the recipes concur that budhaj was made from
barley flour [or a mixture of barley and wheat] kneaded without leaven or salt.
Loaves of this dough were rotted, generally in closed containers for 40 days, and
then dried and ground into flour for further rotting into the condiments."
Al-Baghdadi gives this recipe for murri.

Take 5 ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb] each of penny-royal and flour. Make the flour into
a good dough [with water] without leaven or salt, bake, and leave until dry. Then
grind up fine with the penny-royal, knead into a log with a third the quantity of salt,
and put out into the sun for 40 days in the heat of the summer, kneading every
day at dawn and evening, and sprinkling with water. When black, put into
conserving jars, cover with an equal quantity of water, stirring morning and
evening: then strain it into the first murri. Add cinnamon, saffron and some
aromatic herbs.
[It is a salty bread that is left to ferment in the sun, adding a yeasty taste to the
liquid that is left to soak in it. I know some people who use Marmite and Vegemite
in a manner similar to murri in these recipes, and it too has a salty, yeasty flavor,
adding a nice background flavor to dishes, enhancing the flavor.]
Al-Baghdadi also gives this recipe for murri.

Take penny-royal and wheaten or barley flour, make into a dry dough with hot
water, using no leaven or salt, and bake into a loaf with a hole in the middle. Wrap
in fig leaves, stuff into a preserving-jar, and leave in the shade until fetid. Then
remove and dry.
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[This recipe is differs from the first mainly by storing the bread in a jar in the shade
to ferment, rather than in the full sun and adding water. Also, this recipe leaves
out the last part, where the liquid murri is actually extracted from the fermented
bread by soaking it in water and straining it off.]
Fake murri - Byzantine murri

In addition to the surviving recipes for murri, there are also at least two surviving
references to what was apparently a fake murri, a substitute made by a much
simpler process. If one cannot have real murri, period fake murri seems like the
next best thing.
Description of byzantine murri [made] right away: There is taken, upon the name
of God the Most High, of honey scorched in a nuqrah [perhaps this word means
'a silver vessel'], three ratls [1 raf/=468g/1 lb]; pounded scorched oven bread, ten
loaves; starch, half a raf/[1 raf/=468g/1 lb]; roasted anise, fennel and nigella, two
uqiyas [1 wqr/ya=39g/7tsp] of each; byzantine saffron, an uqiya [1
uq/ya=39g/7tsp]; celery seed, an uqiya [1 t/g/ya=39g/7tsp]; Syrian carob, half a
rati [1 raf/=468g/1 lb]; fifty peeled walnuts, as much as half a rati [1 raf/=468g/1
lb]; split quinces, five; salt, half a makkuk dissolved in honey; thirty ratls [1
raf/=468g/1 lb] water; and the rest of the ingredients are thrown on it, and it is
boiled on a slow flame until a third of the water is absorbed. Then it is strained
well in a clean nosebag of hair. It is taken up in a greased glass or pottery vessel
with a narrow top. A little lemon from Takranjiyya [? Sina'ah 51 has Bakr Fahr] is
thrown on it, and if it suits that a little water is thrown on the dough and it is boiled
upon it and strained, it would be a second [infusion]. The weights and
measurements that are given are Antiochan and Zahiri [as] in Mayyafariqin.
The following quantities are for 1/32 of the above recipe.
3 T honey [2/3 t nigela] 1 1/2 oz quince
1 1/2 oz bread 1/41 saffron 1/2 c salt in 3T honey
1 T wheat starch 1/31 celery seed 1 pint water
2/3 t anise 1/4 oz carob lemon [1/4 of one]
2/3 t fennel 1/4 oz walnut
“I cooked 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 tasted scorched. The
bread was sliced white bread, toasted in a toaster to be somewhat blackened,
then mashed in a mortar. The anise and fennel were toasted in a frying pan or
roasted under a broiler, then ground in a mortar with celery seed and walnuts.
The quince was quartered and cored. After it was all boiled together for about 2
hours, it was put in a potato ricer, the liquid squeezed out and lemon juice added.
The recipe generates about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 c of liquid. I then add another 1/2c or
water to the residue, simmered 1/2 hr -1 hr, and squeezed out that liquid for the
second infusion, which yields about 1/3 c. A third infusion using 1/3 c yields
another 1/4 c or so.” [Here end the original document notes.]
Sourdough Starter and Sponge, Leavening Agent

These detailed instructions are for beginners to breadmaking. There were taken
from a very detailed document on the Internet writen by a bread enthusiast. For
a quick sourdough starter, see the next section.
The sourdough starter is a fermented mixture of flour and water. To make your
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own organic sourdough starter follow these steps. Consider your sourdough
starter a pet, it will become seriously ill if you do not care for it.
Select a container that your "pet" will live in.
The first thing your pet will need is a place to live. It likes a container which allows
it to breathe without being contaminated by airborne debris. A large necked
plastic, glass or stainless steel container is ideal. Do not use any metal other than
stainless steel otherwise the starter will react with it. You can use a plastic ice
cream container.
Blend a cup of warm water and a cup of flour, and pour it into the jar. Your pet is
a combination of water and flour, combine one cup of flour and one cup of warm
water, stir well to mix and incorporate some air (this is where the wild yeast which
will do the work comes from). The flour can be unbleached bread flour or
wholemeal bread flour, tap water is OK.
Every 24 Hours, Feed the Starter
Make feeding of your ‘pet’ a regular event to be carried out at about the same
time each day. To feed your starter add half a cup of flour and half a cup of water
to the container and stir vigorously, do this each day until the starter becomes
active. After a day or two you will see some surface bubbles forming, this
indicates that the starter is on the way to becoming active. It is not active until the
bubbles are scattered throughout the mixture (this is indicated when the surface
of the starter becomes frothy and the sour smell permeates the room you are
working in.
Refrigerate the Starter
When the starter has activated it can be refrigerated. Put two cups of starter in a
screw top jar (pickle jars are ideal) and put it in the refrigerator. Once it has been
refrigerated, the starter feeding can be reduced to about once a week (when you
make bread is a good time). When the starter matures somewhat it will develop
a pool of hooch over the surface. The hooch is normally a dark colour and smells
of alcohol (alcohol is a product of fermentation). Hooch should be stirred in when
feeding the starter. By all reports hooch is not good to drink.
The Sponge
Several hours before you plan to make your dough (recipe below), you need to
make a sponge. A "sponge" is just another word for a bowl of warm, fermented
batter. This is how you make your sponge.
• Put your starter in a large plastic or stainless steel mixing bowl.
• Wash the starter storage jar and dry it.
• Add warm water and flour to the bowl. Add two cups of water and two cups of
flour to the mixture and stir well, set it in a warm place for several hours. This
allows the yeast to multiply and is called "proofing," another word for
fermenting. Sourdough bakers have their own language; use it to impress your
friends.
• Watch for Froth and then Sniff. When your sponge is bubbly and has a white
froth, and it smells a little sour, it is ready. The longer you let the sponge sit,
the more sour flavour you will get.
• Put two cups of the sponge back in the refrigerator. This is the new starter
ready for next time you make bread, remember to treat it kindly and feed
regularly if you do not want to use it soon.
• The proofing-time varies. Some starters can proof up to frothiness in an hour
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or two. Some take 6-8 hours! Just experiment and see how long yours takes.
If you're going to bake in the morning, set your sponge out to proof overnight.
For Bread
2 cups starter
3 cups flour (at least 2 cups should be unbleached white bread flour, the other
cup can be unbleached white, rye or wholemeal (or a mixture).
2 tablespoons fat (olive oil or softened butter)
4 teaspoons sugar 2 teaspoons salt
To the “sponge” add sugar, salt and fat, mix well and add flour 1/4 cup at a time
mixing with a wooden spoon until the mixture will not stick to your hands. As soon
as the mixture is dry enough you can begin kneading to incorporate the remaining
flour. The dough will seem very dry at first but will moisten as the flour is
incorporated (the moisture content of flour varies depending on the weather and
how it is stored), if the flour is very dry it may be necessary to add a little water a
tablespoon full at a time. If the dough is too wet when it is finished the resulting
loaf will be flat rather than round. Kneading should continue from ten to fifteen
minutes after the flour has been incorporated, this develops the gluten in the
dough so that it will trap carbon dioxide produced by the yeast in the starter,
causing the dough to rise.
To knead, press down on the dough with the heels of your hands, flattening the
dough, fold the dough away from you and continue kneading, this will produce a
wide flat piece of dough. Turn the mixing bowl/dough 90 degrees and continue
kneading, turning as the dough shape requires. Properly kneaded dough is
smooth, elastic and does not stick to the bowl or hands. If necessary rub hands
together from time to time to remove dough adhering to them, incorporate the
removed dough into the loaf.
Remove the dough and clean the mixing bowl, put a little olive oil in it, form the
dough into a ball and roll it in the oil so that the entire surface is covered in a thin
layer of oil, this will stop the dough from drying as it cures (rises) prior to making
your loaf.
Cover the mixing bowl with a damp tea towel and put it in a warm place to cure
(rise) until approximately doubled in size (note that sourdough rises more slowly
than yeast bread). When a finger poked into the top of the dough creates a pit
that doesn't"heal" (spring back), you've got a risen dough.
Punch the dough down and knead it a little more. Make a ball and place it on a
baking sheet (lightly greased). Slit the top if you like, cover the loaf with a tea
towel or the inverted mixing bowl and place it in a warm place to rise again, until
doubled in bulk.
Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius and bake the bread for approximatelyl
hour, turning at 15 minute intervals to ensure even cooking. Check the loaf at 45
minutes to see if it is done. The loaf is done when the crust is brown and the
bottom sounds hollow when thumped with a wooden spoon. Turn the loaf out
onto a cooling rack or a towel and let it cool for an hour before slicing.
Quick Sourdough Starter

1 yeast cakes or dried yeast packages
2 teaspoons of sugar (this accellerates the process)
1 cups lukewarm water (if tap water, let set for 24 hours uncovered to release
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the chlorine)
2 cups flour
Mix and store it in a crockery or glass container and cover.
Leave it for at least 24 hours to sour.
Stir each day.
Use each day, or store in the fridge.
For each % cup removed for baking, replenish it with 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup
warm water.
Sourdough Sponge
1/4cup of your starter 2 teaspoons of sugar 1 cup warm water or milk 1 cup flour
Let it proof until it bubbles. Then add flour to make a dough for bread, or to make
a batter for pancakes. If you make a batter, let it rise a bit before cooking. For
bread, knead and rise the dough once or twice. Then cook in a hot oven until it
sounds hollow when tapped. You can also use the dough for pizzas, calzone,
pizza bread and bread sticks.
Decoctions
A decoction is herbs that have been simmered in water.
It is the best method for drawing the healing elements from tough plant parts such
as bark roots, stems and heavy leaves. To make a decoction use 1 ounce of dried
herbs to 1 pint of water that has been brought to a boil. Keep water just below
boiling for about 30 minutes and let herbs simmer. Simmering may take up to 1
hour, depending on plant used. A higher heat than infusions is necessary
because of the toughness of the plant parts.
Decoctions should always be strained while hot, so that the matter that separates
on cooling may be mixed again with the fluid by shaking when the remedy is used.
Use glass, ceramic or earthenware pots, or clean, unbroken enameled cast iron.
Do not use plain cast iron with astringent plants.
Electuary
When powders are mixed with syrup, honey, brown sugar, or glycerin to produce
a more pleasant taste or to make them easier to use internally, they are called
electuarys. These are rarely prepared in advance, but are done when needed.
Different substances need different proportions of syrup. Light vegetable powders
usually require twice their weight, gum resins 2/3 their weight, mineral substances
about half their weight.
If an electuary is made up in advance and it hardens, add more syrup. If it swells
up and emits gas, merely beat it in a mortar.
Extracts
Extracts are solid substances resulting from the evaporation of the solution of
vegetable principles. The extract is obtained in three ways: by expressing the
juice of fresh plants, by using a solvent such as alcohol, or simmering a plant tea
and reducing it to a thickened state. The last is done by simmering a plant and by
repeating the process until most of the water used has evaporated, making a
decoction. This gives a distillation of the most active principles in the plant. Add
1/4 teaspoon of alcohol (brandy, gin or vodka will do), glycerin, or tincture of
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benzoine to preserve the extract.
Fomentations
A fomentation is a strong herbal tea in which a clean cloth is dipped. The cloth
can be filled with herbs. The cloth is then applied to the affected part.
Infusions
This is the origin of the idea of witches potion. It is a process of soaking herbs in
water.
Hot Infusion : To make an infusion boil water. Add the boiled water to 1 teaspoon
dried herb. Cover and let steep for 9-13 minutes. Strain, cool. Infusions are drunk
as teas, added to bath, rubbed into furniture and floors, and to anoint body.
Powdered Bark, root, seeds, resin and bruised nuts, seeds, bark and buds may
be used in hot infusions.
Cold infusion : Steep in cold water or cold milk for several hours. Wet, mashed
herbs can be used internally as a tea or ad poultices on body.
Oils
Aromatic oils and rectified alcohol can be combined. The oils seep into the alcohol
to produce and essence. Oils may be captured by evaporation from flower petals.
Vegetable, nut, or fruit oils can be used as a medium for steeping aromatic plants
to extract volatile oils. Aromatic oils can also be steeped in alcohol to extract
essence.
To make an oil, pick your own fresh herbs or purchase dried herbs form a
reputable source. Pack a large jar with the chosen herb and pour in any favorite
mono unsaturated or polyunsaturated oil. Use enough to cover the herb. Close
tightly. Label the jar and place in a sunny place for several weeks. Strain out the
herb by pouring through cheesecloth into a fresh jar. Hold the cheesecloth over
the opening of the jar containing the herbs and secure with a rubber band. Invert
the jar and pour the infused oil through the cheesecloth. Before discarding the
herbs, squeeze all the oil out of them. Repeat the entire procedure. Repack a
clean jar with more of the same herb. Add the infused oil, plus enough additional
oil to cover the herbs. Store again in sunlight. Strain again through cheesecloth.
Pour the oil into a labeled jar and store until needed.
Syrups
Medicinal syrups are formed when sugar is incorporated with vegetable infusions,
decoctions, expressed juices, fermented liquors, or simple water solutions.
Sometimes tinctures are added to a simple syrup, and the alcohol is evaporated.
The tincture is sometimes combined with sugar and gently heated, or exposed to
the sun until the alcohol is evaporated. The syrup is then prepared with the
impregnated sugar and water. Refined sugar makes a clearer and better flavored
syrup. Any simple syrup can be preserved by substituting glycerin for a certain
portion of the syrup. Always make syrups in small quantities.
To make an herbal syrup, add 2 ounces of dried herb with 1 quart water in a large
pot. Boil down and reduce to 1 pint, then add 1 -2 tablespoons of honey. If you
want to use fresh fruit, leaves, or roots in syrups, you should double the amount
of herbs. Store in refrigerator for up to a month. Honey-based syrups are simple
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and effective way to preserve healing qualities of herbs. Syrups can soothe sore
throats and provide some relief from coughs.
Teas
Home-made herbal teas are much more potent than the store bought teas. Their
flavor can be quite strong and sometimes unpleasant. To make a tea, boil 1 pint
of water. Add 1 ounce of dried herb tops (leaves flowers, stems) steep 3 -5
minutes.
Tinctures
Tinctures are solutions of medicinal substances in alcohol or diluted alcohol.
To make a tincture, grind plant parts with mortar and pestle (or a blender). Add
just enough high-quality vodka, whiskey or grain alcohol to cover herbs. Let sit
for 21 days then add a small quantity of glycerin (about 2 tbs per pint) and about
10 % volume of spring water. Strain and store in airtight amber colored glass. If
kept cool and dry it will last for up to 5 years. Dose is usually 20 drops in a cup of
tea or warm water, 4 times a day.
For a stronger tincture place herbs in a cone-shaped piece of parchment paper.
Pass alcohol repeatedly through the powdered or cut herb. Catch the slow
drippings in a jar. When it has passed once, you may use it, but the more you
repeat the process, the stronger the tincture will be.
It is acceptable to dilute any alcohol tincture with water. Add 4 ounces of water
and 1 teaspoon of glycerin for every pint of alcohol .The glycerin is optional, it is
an additional preservative.
Non Alcoholic Tincture

Alcohol is a near perfect preservative of plant attributes. If for some reason you
wish to evaporate the alcohol, add the tincture dose to a cup of water then add
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of boiling water. Some herbs can be steeped in milk to make
a milk tincture. Strain out the herbs, and store in a labeled jar in the refrigerator.
Ointments
An ointment is a soothing, healing, slightly oily or fatty substance into which the
essence of a healing plant has been dissolved. This is done by heating the fat or
oil with the plant until it loses its normal color and the oil or fat has absorbed the
healing chemical principles, the plant is then strained out, and beeswax is added
to harden the ointment. Preservatives such as drops of tincture of benzoin, poplar
bud tincture, or glycerin are optional additions. If you make ointments in small
batches and keep them tightly closed with paraffin wax, they don't decompose.
The traditional folk, herbal, and pharmaceutical base for ointments is pork lard.
Purify it by simmering and straining. It has healing abilities even without the
addition of herbs, but so do a lot of fats and oils. It is said to have great drawing
power.
Purified, liquefied anhydrous lanolin is also used as a base for ointments. Lanolin
is the substance washed from the wool of sheep. It comes in many levels of purity,
so the results vary depending on the product. This oil is the closest to skin oil.
Almond oil, cocoa butter, wheat germ, and vitamin E are neutral bases for
ointments. If no other product is available, Vaseline may be used, but is listed
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here in case nothing else is available.
All ointments must contain one substance that will thicken the final product.
Lanolin is a thickener, as is cocoa butter. Both are non sticky and mix well with
most other oils. Other useful but sticky thickeners are glycerin, honey, or liquid
lecithin. Also, various powdered resins and gum swell up and thicken when first
soaked in cold water, then simmered in gently boiling water, and added to
preparations. Agar-agar and Irish moss are seaweed thickeners. Green apples
provide and excellent acid fruit pectin that is a good addition to creams and
ointments.
While any of the above sticky and non sticky thickeners will help swell a product
and keep it emulsified, you will still need some wax to harden a cold cream or
ointment. Beeswax is perfect, although expensive. It may be combined with
paraffin wax.
Poultices
A poultice is a raw or mashed herb applied directly to the body, or applied wet
directly to the body, or encased in a clean cloth and then applied. Poultices are
used to heal bruises, putrid sores, soothe abrasions, or withdraw toxins from an
area. They may be applied hot or cold, depending on the health need. Cold
poultices(and compresses) are used to withdraw the heat from an inflamed or
congested area. Use a hot poultice or compress to relax spasms and for some
pains.
To make a poultice, use fresh or dried herbs that have been soaked in boiling
water until soft. Mix with enough slippery elm powder to make poultice stick
together. Place on affected part then wrap body part and poultice with clean cloth.
Vinegars
Herbs that are soluble in alcohol are usually soluble in vinegar, and are useful for
salad vinegars, cosmetic vinegars, some liniments and preventive sickroom
"washes".
Waters
Steeped herbs, water, and alcohol and steeped herbs plus honey and other fruits
are often called waters. Sometimes extracts or spirits of various herbs, such as
lavender, are also called waters
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Glossary and some Translator Explanations
• Ahrash are flattened meatballs cooked in oil in a pan. They are flattened with
the back of the spoon directly in the pan.
• Boil and Fry: The respective verbs are ghala and qala, which are devilishly
similarlooking in Maghribi script. When there's a lot of oil in a pan, I allow HM
to say boil, but I have not hesitated to differ from his interpretation. The
Spanish translation has rendered "boil" as "boil" when it refers to heating a
liquid and "scald" when it refers to cooking a solid ingredient in boiling liquid;
a handy distinction, though not one either English or Arabic happens to make.
Since in English "boil" means to boil lightly, I have changed nearly all scalds
to boils.
• Chinese cinnamon [cassia]: [C. cassia: wooden bark] also known as cassia.
For most purposes ordinary cinnamon can be substituted, but there is a slight
difference of flavor. Chinese cassia is sweet with a peppery afterbite. It is
always in the Sichuan 5- spice mixture. You can generally find it in Asian food
stores.
• Clarified Butter is melted butter separated from its milk solids.
• Coriander is coriander seed ball or ground seed. It can vary in hotness, and
is sometimes describes as having a flavor that combines lemon and sage. It
is used in sweets, meat and fish dishes, and is thought to be one of the oldest
spices used by man, and the first to be brought to the Americas. It is often
used in curries.
• Cilantro is the name generally given to the Coriander leaves and stem.
• Cut or slice: When it comes to knifework, I distinguish between qata'a, "to cut,
to cut off," qatta'a, "to cut up," and sharaha, "to slice."
• Fanid is used to refer to candied sugar bit and pulled taffy.
• Furrr. Bread oven. In general, we translate it as oven, and give the Arabic for
tannur [clay oven],
• Galingale is an herb that has a hot, spicy, peppery flavor, and is a substitute
for Asian ginger root. It can be purchased as a powder.
• Gourd: Not our squash or pumpkins, which are from the new world. The gourd
mentioned in period recipes may be Lagenaria sicereia, the white blossomed
gourd. Some of the edible gourds used in Chinese cooking are Lagenaria,
and the Italian Edible Gourd is a Lagenaria.
• Gum Arabic is used in syrups mainly and syrup based soft-drinks, and soft
gummy candies like taffy and gum drops.
• Hearthstone: Dishes are removed from the fire ["taken down" is the
terminology; putting a pot on a fire literally means "raise it"] and set on the
hearthstone [radaf\.
Huici Miranda has translated this word as "embers," but it definitely is a stone,
and some recipes make it clear that radaf was the word for the stone outside the
tannur [clay oven] oven onto which ashes could be swept. Presumably the dishes
are
224
removed to the hearthstone to be cooked at a low heat. Things are also often
removed to the embers [jamr] or the euphorbia embers [ghada] to cook, though
more slowly.
Isffriya was a small meat patty, the size of the palm of the hand.
Julep: It was basically a rose-flavored sugar syrup. Jullab is the word in Arabic,
but it's Persian to begin with: gul-ab, "rose-water."
Ka'k. Hard rolls or cakes. One of the most ancient baked goods of the Near East.
It's so old we don't know whether the word is Aramaic or Ancient Egyptian.
Anyway, it was [and is] a biscuit in the sense of something baked or cooked twice.
It is also used for small cakes and pastries.
"Knead," "beat" or "stir.": The verb that has stumped me most often is 'araka.
According to the lexicons, this means "to be a strong fighter" [ma'raka means
battlefield], or "to consume all the vegetation in an area" [of animals]. The context
shows that in recipes it means to mix in some way, but I have often been unsure
whether to translate it "knead," "beat" or "stir."
Mastic should be available from a good spice store, or possibly an Indian grocery
store. It is used for flavoring in sweets and liquores, and for the pure whiteness it
gives, and for the gum properties. It is also chewed like gum. It is common in ice
creams.
Mirkas are sausages
Moist: Ratb means moist, fresh, succulent. I have sometimes differed from HM's
interpretation, usually favoring moistness.
Murri: A salty, liquid flavor enhancing condiment much like soy sauce. It can be
made of fish too, like today’s, Southeast Asian fish sauce. Soy sauce is an
acceptable substitute. See the notes in the next section.
Murri naqf is the technical name of the variety of murri unique to Andalus. The
name means "infused" or "macerated" murri. Soy sauce is an acceptable
substitute.
Mustard: Sinab was simply mustard as we know it, ground mustard seed made
into a condiment with grape juice or honey or raisons and vinegar; it was common
in Andalusian cooking but not known in the Levant, where mustard was always a
spice, never a condiment.
Pan, Frying pan: Used to translate miqlat, which was used only for frying. It might
be either clay or iron.
Pot: Used to translate qidr.
Pound: The verb daqqa, one of the commonest verbs in any recipe of the mortar-
happy Middle Ages, means to pound. I have always translated it that way.
Qursa is a small round bread, relatively flat; like a small pita. It is also used in the
text to describe a small, round cake or pastry.
Raghff means flatbread generally, but it is really a category of bread that includes
pancakes. These types of bread are often folded many times with butter and fried,
making them flaky.
Rahibi is a meatloaf cooked in a bread oven.
Ram: In the recipes that call for ram, I wonder whether they might be steered
rams. Adult ram is pretty tough and gamy. Also, it makes good sense to castrate
most of the males in a flock that are allowed to grow up.
Roll Out: madda means to stretch out or roll out. I usually translate it as roll out
implying a rolling pin. The Italian word for the extra long rolling pin used to roll
225
and stretch things out is matarello, meaning a little mata, or club. Very close to
madda.
Rue is common rue which is a very bitter, medicianal tasting, evergreen herb
used by the ancient Romans, Asians, North Africans and by many in Middle Aged
Europe. Parsley is used in much the same way today, as a decorative, green
herb, chopped up, raw, put on top of cooked dishes. Parsley has a bitter taste,
too, but not as bitter as rue. Considering the amount of oil in the dishes, the bitter
rue would have a good effect on the liver to help digest it all.
Ruqaq means a crepe, as does kunafa. In Moroccan cooking, a knaafeh is a
cheese pastry.
Sa/aya: a stone chopping board or work surface, marble
Samn means clarified butter; pure butterfat with the milk solids removed by
heating and skimming off the solids, like Indian ghee.
Serve, Present or Use: Some recipes say, when a dish is done, to present it
[qaddama]', others say to use it [ista'mala]. European cookbooks of a slightly later
period use similar terms, much as our cookbooks say to ‘Serve it hot’, or ‘Serve
it immediately’. Many of the European cookbooks say ‘Serve it to your Lord’
meaning the Lord of the manner, as the cookbooks were intended for cooks
working on large manor estates. Missing from the Christian European cookbooks
are the invocation at the end of many of these Muslim Spain recipes ‘God willing’,
or ‘In sha'a Allah’.
Sesame Oil in Islamic recipes corresponds to modern Middle Eastern sesame oil,
which is almost tasteless, not to the strongly flavored sesame oil used in Chinese
cooking. Sunflower oil can be used too.
Skimmed Honey: Honey was nearly always boiled and then skimmed of the froth
or scum that would come to the top. Since "honey, cleaned of its scum" is a
clumsy locution, I have rendered it as "skimmed honey." Sugar syrup was often
skimmed the same way.
Spikenard has a similar spicy, peppery flavor as galingale and they can substitute
for each other. They both similar in flavor to ginger root. Sometimes, however,
Mediterranean medieval cooking called Spike Lavender by the name Spikenard,
so it is not really clear to which the recipes in this book refer.
• Sourdough: This refers to sourdough sponge, the medieval rising agent for
breads made into a batter. The starter for sourdough is a natural rising agent
made from flour and water and the yeast in air, wild yeast, left to grow 5 days.
Some of the starter is mixed with flour and water and left a few hours to
ferment into a batter which is used in some of these recipes. The original
starter can be replenished indefinitely. See the Sourdough section below for
a recipe and instructions for making sourdough starter and sourdough
sponge.
• Spices: There is no distinguishing between tib [literally, goodness; perfume],
tawabil [spices], afawfh [aromatics] and 'aqaqir [drugs], because they seem to
be used indiscriminately. I have translated them all as "spices."
• Sumac is a spice that has a fruity, tart flavor that is similar to lemon juice, but
slightly more subtle. It is widely available in Middle Eastern food stores.
• Ta/aya: stew, often colored green with cilantro or mint juice, or yellow with
saffron, or white with almonds
• Tajine\ tajin, A North African earthenware cooking dish with a lid. A
226
couscousiere is also called a tajine and has a tall, pointed lid. Tajine can also
refer to a stew.
• Tannur [clay oven]: Clay oven, cousin to the Indian tandoor, often partly buried
in the ground. It differs from the surface oven by having around 125 cm in
length, 50 in breadth, and some 40 in height.
• Turmeric, also tumeric, is a root spice that is ground up and used to dye food
yellow, and to add a pungent flavor to meat and fish. It is used together with
many spices in curry mixes and even in mustard and sauces.
• Qatifa or Qataif is a pancake. In Moroccan cooking a kataif is a sweet stuffed
pancake.
• Wheat Starch can be found in Iranian grocery stores.
Acknowledgment
This book is due to the effort of many scholars: many have done
the translation from Arabic, Charles Perry has revised the entire
translation, Candida Martinelli has revised the gastronomic aspects,
David Friedman has further reorganized the text and has obtained a
book.
Everyone allowed the PDF file to be made publicly available for
non-commercial use.
The copyrighted book is available in the library.
The original text has been slightly reformatted at the barn to
facilitate on-screen reading.
EM
227

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Raccolta di testi

Kitab al tabikh fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus

Kitab al tabikh fi-l-Maghrib wa-l-Andalus fi asr al-Muwahhidin,

The book was complied by a scribe in the 1400s, whose name

The Customs that Many People Follow in Their Countries

Of the Utensils that Those Charged with Cooking or Pharmacy Must

The Great Drink of Roots

The Little Drink of Roots: Way of Making It

Making Raison Drink

Recipe for Honey-Water

Syrup of Aloe Wood: Way of Making It

Syrup of Citron Leaves: Way of Making It

The Great Cheering Syrup: Way of Making It

A Syrup of [spiced] Honey

The Recipe for Making a Syrup of Julep [rosewater syrup]

Syrup of Sandalwood: Way of Making It

Formula for Making a Syrup of Mastic [and Mint]

Syrup of Mulberries: Way of Making It

Syrup of Mint: Way of Making It

Syrup of Fresh Roses, and the Recipe for Making It

A Recipe for Making It by Repetition

Syrup of Dried Roses

Manner of Making a Syrup of Maryut

Syrup of Simple Sikanjabm [vinegar syrup]

Syrup of Sour Grapes [verjuice]

Syrup of Flowers of Isfitan [possibly isfinar-white mustard]

Syrup of Lavender [Halhal]

A Syrup which Dries Black Bile and Phlegm

Carrot Paste [carrot jam]

Green Walnut Paste [walnut jam]

Quince Paste [quince jam and jelly]

Paste of Honeyed Roses [rose jam]

Violet Paste [violet jam]

Tfqantast Paste [prickly pear jam]

Qirsa’nat Paste [Thistle jam]

Orange Paste [orange marmalade]

Recipe for Making Sinab [mustard paste]

[A recipe from an earlier chapter...]

Electuary of Ginger and Pepper

Electuary of White Sandalwood

Another Delicate Medicinal Powder

Powders That Digest The Food

The Extraction of Meat Juice for Invalids [concentrated meat broth]

A Dish which Reduces Appetite and Strengthens the Stomach

Recipe of a Summer Dish of Praised Nutrition with Sour Grape Juice

Another Like It, a Summer Dish that Cools the Body

Another Dish Which Strengthens the Stomach Before Heat

Preparation of Tuffahiyya, Apple Stew

A Dish of Safarjaliyya, Good for the Stomach

Sikbaj of Veal, Used for Young People in Summer

A Dish Suitable for Autumn

A Dish Made in Winter for Those with Cold Illnesses

Recipe for the Dish Mentioned by Al-Razi

Judhaba Beneficial for the Cold and It Strengthens Coitus [mincemeat

Leavened White or Semolina Bread

Making Isfunj [leavened semolina egg bread]

Flaky Loaf [Khubza Muwarraqa]

Loaf Kneaded with Butter

Recipe for Folded Bread from Ifriqiyya [Tunisia]

Loaf Fried in Honey and Butter [honey, saffron loaf]