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  • Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table: A Fourteenth-Century Egyptian Cookbook trans. by Nawal Nasrallah
  • Sahar Amer
Nasrallah, Nawal, trans., Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table: A Fourteenth-Century Egyptian Cookbook (Islamic History and Civilization, Studies and Texts, 148), Leiden: Brill, 2018; cloth; pp. xix, 704; 94 colour illustrations and plates; ISBN 9789004347298.

Nawal Nasrallah's long-awaited English translation of the anonymous Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table is a delectable addition to her earlier translation of the famous tenth-century Baghdadi cookbook, Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq (Brill, 2007). It includes a scholarly introduction that provides an overview of the five surviving manuscripts and of earlier Arabic editions of the text and, at the end, a useful 'Index of Ingredients, Dishes, Beverages, Aromatics, and Other Preparations'.

This fourteenth-century cookbook is unique in being the sole example of an Egyptian cookbook produced under the Mamluks. And it is indeed a treasure trove, with a coverage that is so extensive that it surpasses all surviving medieval Arab cookbooks. It is a massive collection with 750 recipes (plus another seventy-nine included in two of the manuscripts) divided into twenty-three chapters. It offers no less than 142 recipes for main dishes, ten of which include sparrows, evidently eaten at the time by kings and dignitaries to boost their libido (p. 161). It also boasts the largest extant collection of recipes for fish (thirty-six in all), some eleven variations for what appears to be the precursor recipe for hummus (crushed boiled chickpeas mixed with tahini), seventy-five recipes for pickles, eighty-one for sweets, and, importantly, the sole recipe for okra in the entire Arab Middle Ages.

The anonymous author/compiler gives equal attention to recipes for sweet and fermented foods and drinks as is given to preserving fruits and vegetables to produce them unexpectedly and to one's guests' delight in any season. In addition, the compiler of the fourteenth-century Egyptian cookbook includes multiple recipes for digestive beverages and devotes much space to matters of hygiene, like washing one's hands with fragrant soaps, using scented powders and deodorants, flossing one's teeth after eating, and consuming aromatic pills to sweeten the breath. There is also much attention to the use of incense to add fragrance to the body, to a particular room or space, and even to the containers and bottles preserving certain sauces. Early examples of aromatherapy, no doubt.

It is perhaps not surprising that the wide range of recipes contained in this cookbook should include commentary on the health benefits of certain foods and how to treat specific conditions, situating the work at the intersection of gastronomy and medieval public health. From the very first chapter of the cookbook, the author gives 'indispensable instructions for cooks' (p. 66) on the importance of cleanliness of hands, vessels, and ingredients. The cook 'needs to keep his fingernails trimmed at all times' (p. 66) and 'kitchen utensils and pots are to be cleaned with pure clay followed by potash and rose petals' (p. 67). Later on the author lists recipes that enhance coitus (pp. 177–78), that nourish the sick [End Page 277] (p. 184), treat fever and excess yellow bile (p. 185), or nausea, heartburn, and diarrhoea (p. 187).

Nasrallah's translation provides a rare insight into the culinary tastes of Egypt's multi-ethnic population in the fourteenth century—a combination of Arab Muslims and Copts, but also Turks, Kurds, Moroccans, Sudanese, Persians, and Iraqis—as well as into the culinary accommodations and substitutions of ingredients—using sugarcane molasses instead of honey, or pure white salt instead of rock salt for example—made by different social groups and cultural heritage. It is an invaluable resource for the study of medieval Egyptian foodways, as it includes a large number of references to both indigenous foods and ingredients imported from abroad but used in Egyptian cooking at the time, such as Levantine cheese and Ceylon cinnamon (p. 134), Macedonian parsley (p. 202), or Moroccan caraway (p. 203).

Because of the wealth of information it provides on medieval Egyptian cuisine, this cookbook...

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