4. Cookbooks

4.1. Libre de Sent Soví

Aragonese cookbook “Book of saint Sophia” published between 1313 and 1324 is the oldest culinary text written in Catalan.

The book is a collection of 220 period Catalan recipes period, with clear Roman and Arabic influence. There are recipes for soups, roasts, desserts, etc. There are more than fifty recipes of fish, fresh or salty. There are also recipes with crustaceans (shrimp, lobster, prawn, crab, and manatee) and cephalopods (squid, cuttlefish, and octopus), but there are no recipes for using clams.

There are three recipes for sardines, for salted tuna, anchovies in oil and the pickling techniques. There are no recipes for freshwater fish, although it is known that they were fished and salted. It also does not mention the herring or the non-Mediterranean fish, such as salmon.

As meats, we find pork, mutton, goat, rabbit and beef. Pork was used to make bacon, ham and sausages. Included are eggs and poultry, such as chicken, hen, capon, duck, pigeon, goose and peacock.

The game present in Sent Soví are wild rabbits and hares, wild boars, deer, bears, partridges, pheasants, quails, wild pigeons, cranes, tudons and thrushes.

Eleven recipes contain milk, nine of them specify it as goat’s. Almond milk appears in many more recipes and has a much more important presence in the book. Fresh or dry cheese was used as well.

Many recipes use onion and almonds as a base for sauces that are used in the dish. Spices are considered to be very important, especially in the sauces.

There are also panadas and fritters. In particular there is a recipe for sweet cheese fritters that are still made in Menorca, where they are typical for All Saints. We find the whitemange, the flaó cake, etc.

The taste for the mixture of sweets and savoury dishes is already evident in this recipe, which is a clear influence on the Arabic cuisine. There are also recipes with asparagus, chickpeas, or eggplant. There are also recipes for tender beans.

In addition, there are also many recipes that use bitter orange juice (the sweet orange came from the Portuguese in the 15th century), cider or rose water.

Saffron is the most widely used spice. The saffron was the only species not imported in the Catalan Countries. Then 12.8% of recipes contain black pepper and 11.6% use ginger.

Nutmeg is only present in a recipe for peacock sauce, sweet and sour and with fine herbs, which was used to accompany birds such as peacock, capon or pheasant.

Cinnamon powder was used to cover and decorate all kinds of sweet and savory preparations. [CMDC]

4.2. Andalusian cookbook

Thanks to the work Charles Perry, Candida Martinelli and team of translators, great English translation of 13th century anonymous analusian cookbook ‘The Book of Cooking in Maghreb and Andalus in the era of Almohads’ is available online at http://italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf .

In 22 chapters it discusses healthful cooking quoting Galen and Hippocrates, hygiene, utensils, ingredients and recipes for

  • Drinks and syrups.
  • Pastes and jams, jellies.
  • Medicinal electuaries and powders.
  • Light dishes for a weak stomach, and medicinal dishes.
  • Breads.
  • Tharîdas (bread puddings).
  • Rice, couscous, noodle.
  • Non-meat dishes.
  • Jewish dishes.
  • Fish dishes.
  • Sausage, meatballs, meat patties, meatloafs.
  • Lamb dishes.
  • Beef, mutton, kid, rabbit dishes.
  • Generic meat dishes.
  • Chicken dishes.
  • Other fowl dishes.
  • Pastries.
  • Cookies, biscuits.
  • Cakes and sweet breads.
  • Candies.
  • Puddings.

4.3. How to make friends through scents and tastes (Syrian cookbook)

Another great translation by Charles Perry is “Scents and Flavors A Syrian Cookbook”.

Collecting 635 meticulous recipes, Scents and Flavors describes an inventive cuisine that elevates simple ingredients by combining the sundry aromas of herbs, spices, fruits, and flower essences.

This popular thirteenth-century Syrian cookbook is an ode to what its anonymous author calls the “greater part of the pleasure of this life,” namely the consumption of food and drink, as well as the fragrances that garnish the meals and the diners who enjoy them.

Organized like a meal, it opens with appetizers and juices and proceeds through main courses, side dishes, and desserts, including such confections as candies based on the higher densities of sugar syrup—an innovation unique to the medieval Arab world. Apricot beverages, stuffed eggplant, pistachio chicken, coriander stew, melon crepes, and almond pudding are seasoned with nutmeg, rose, cloves, saffron, and the occasional rare ingredient like ambergris to delight and surprise the banqueter. Bookended by chapters on preparatory perfumes, incenses, medicinal oils, antiperspirant powders, and after-meal hand soaps, this comprehensive culinary journey is a feast for all the senses.

  • Perfumes, antiperspirants.
  • Beverages.
  • How to Make Various Kinds of Fruit Juices and Treat Them, How to Distill Vinegar.
  • How to Melt the Several Varieties of Tail Fat.
  • Chicken Dishes—Sweet, Sour, and Other Varieties.
  • Sautés and Related Dishes.
  • The Many Kinds of Sweets, Baked Goods, and the Like.
  • How to Make the Various Types of Sour and Salty Pickles.
  • On Hand-washing Powders and Perfumed Soaps.
  • On Distilling Waters and Perfuming the Breath.

4.4. Drink types

Non-alcoholic:

  • Water
  • Water with vinegar as antibacterial treatment
  • Fruit juices
  • Vegetable juices
  • Syrups
  • Lemonade
  • Sharbat
  • Milk - cow?, goat: CSM 052, almond, …
  • Milk + fruit juice shakes

Alcoholic:

  • Beer
    • Iberian ‘caelia’ was crafted from fermented oats. Drinking beer vanished from Iberian peninsula during Roman times, several comebacks started in 16th century, but was mainly operated by foreigners, mostly Germans, French and Englishmen. There are no mentions about beer in [CSMT], [CSME], [LADT], [LAMG], [LPDR].
  • Sparkling
    • Cider is mentioned in [SP] as drink favoured by sailors.
    • Wine
  • Non-sparkling
    • Wine
    • Fortified wine - Amontillado made in Jerez; Brandy
    • Mead? /hydromiel/
    • Spirits /distilled, known to Arabs as al-kuhl since 10.c.AD/

Quran explicitly prohibits wine made from: grapes or raisins, dates, wheat, barley and honey. [HDT0]

4.5. Food types

Dry:

  • Bread
    • Bun.
    • Flatbread.
    • Cake, wafer, pancake, cookie, waffle?, …
    • Pie. Tart. Flan. Pudding.
    • Pizza. Calzone.
  • Double baked bread: Bread stick. Biscuit.
  • Pastries.
  • Candies.

Bread stick and bun are depicted with spanish term ‘pan’ in [LAMG] folio 7v Fig. 11.14.

Wet:

  • Sauces.
  • Soups.
  • Jams, jellies.
  • Pastes.
  • Rice, coucous, noodles, lasagne.
  • Sausage, meatballs, meat patties, meatloafs.
  • Meat.