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A librarian and a food historian rediscovered the recipes of Moorish Spain
- sammalloy 5y ago> In tūma (eggplants “Looking Like Ostrich Eggs”), whole peeled and boiled eggplants are arranged vertically in a casserole topped with grated cheese, garlic, olive oil, and chopped walnuts. This sounds amazing. I’ve been a fan of eggplant dishes for years, so I will have to try this (minus the dairy-style cheese).
- YasminHuxley 5y agoA new culinary book, that sounds wonderful. However, the Arabic text has been known for a long time and was published almost 40 years ago already. I think there’s also a Spanish translation. Also, I’m not sure what Nawal means by ‘discovering’ the British Library manuscript, since this manuscript was already mentioned in a translation of another Arab cookbook, the Sultan’s Feast (2020).
- extrememacaroni 5y agoI thought I'd get a few recipes to try but the result is a $200 academic book :(
- zwaps 5y agoI googled some of the recipes and found this blog http://eatlikeasultan.com/ http://eatlikeasultan.com/ in spite of the name, it seems to go for accuracy featuring historical information and a nice section on cookbooks and sources, including the one treated in the op.
- grenoire 5y agoWow, incredible resource and a lot of delicious foods. Thanks for the tip!
- specproc 5y agoIf you search for the author on well-known sites for the free downloading of copyrighted books, you'll find "The Annals of the Caliph's Kitchen", which I'm flicking through in PDF right now. It's a great read. There's the scholarly stuff at the front, but most of it appears to be recipes.
- daoudc 5y agoClaudia Roden's book of Middle Eastern Food is excellent and includes many medieval recipes.
- nanna 5y agoAlso her amazing Book of Jewish Food, which has a strong emphasis on Sephardi and Mizrahi cookery.
- xtiansimon 5y agoWhat a great reason to visit your public library! in my local library system I found a copy of the +$555, five volume set of “Modernist cuisine : the art and science of cooking” by Nathan Myhrvold with Chris Young and Maxime Bilet And AFAIK public municipal libraries also participate in inter-library loan programs which can borrow from across the US.
- mistrial9 5y agoI would never, ever, in any way, direct any of my money to Nathan Myhrvold or his circles; if my public library considered buying that book I would object. In fact, thanks for reminding me, I will write a few letters in case this is "a thing"
- aerostable_slug 5y agoIt's an excellent book, FWIW. I get not wanting to support him, but I think the overall gain from having the book available to any interested party trumps the minuscule impact one book sale has on Myhrvold or his businesses. I would encourage your library to buy a used copy if it's that important to you, because in that case no new revenue is generated for the authors.
- mistrial9 5y agook thats FAIR
- nitred 5y agoRadiolab has an incredible hair raising episode about something very similar and it's an old-english or viking recipe which is also an anti-biotic. In this case the duo is a microbiologist and a historian! https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/best-medicine https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/best-...
- happy_path 5y agoInteresting. Most of the cuisine of Spain has some traces of the people's that lived/conquered/immigrated to Spain: salted fish (Phoenicians), olive oil (Greeks), wine (Romans), paella (Arabs), etc. On the other side, I hate to critizice this article as publishing old discovered content is fascinating, but I want to clear some points: - Spain was not always a peaceful time for Jews and Christians during the Muslim domination. There were massacres/pogroms[1][2], and most of the Christian population were forced to leave (by intimidation or by increasing the tax for being non Muslim (jizyah). These emigrants were called Mozarabs[3] and they had an unique culture. Don't get me wrong, the other side would have done the almost the same and later, indeed, they did (see points bellow). - The name of Andalusia (the southern region of Spain) comes from Al-Andalus, but Al-Andalus was bigger than that as the name referred to all territory held by the Muslim conquerors[4]. - Muslims were allowed to stay in Spain when the Christian kingdoms took Granada. But as you can image, most of them fled to Northern-Africa and other places. The ones that remained, rebelled against the Crown in 1499[5] and were expelled in 1609[6]. - Jews were expelled (or forced to convert to Christiany) in 1492[7]. Spain was the last country in Europe to do so, but it was a traumatic decision: the country had a big Jew population ("Judíos Sefardíes" in Spanish) with a unique culture (even their own language) and they have had important roles through all Spanish history. - During its duration, the (damned) Spanish Inquisition killed 5000 people[8], tortured much more and detained more than 100000 inocent people. A tragedy of course, but considering that the institution lasted for almost 4 centuries, the numbers are comparable to other puritanist/intransigent religious institutions of Europe[9] To sum up, I don't like the idealization of some cultures. Most cultures clashed with others and that resulted in wars, death and pain. The History was written by the victors, and now we are here. I hope some non-Spaniards and loving History people see this comment useful. Thank you! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs_of_C%C3%B3rdoba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs_of_C%C3%B3rdoba [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1066_Granada_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1066_Granada_massacre [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozarabs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozarabs [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Andalus (see the maps) [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellion_of_the_Alpujarras_(1568%E2%80%931571) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebellion_of_the_Alpujarras_(1... [6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Moriscos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Moriscos [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra_Decree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra_Decree [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition [9] https://www.statista.com/chart/19801/people-tried-and-executed-in-witch-trials-in-europe/ https://www.statista.com/chart/19801/people-tried-and-execut...
- billfruit 5y agoI found the recent Amazon Prime series "El Cid", rather engaging with good acting performances and production value. It could be an introduction to the Spanish History of the time.