Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook

by Candida Martinelli (Editor)

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 Almohads, 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 the editor of this paperback edition, Candida Martinelli.

Candida Martinelli 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.

The book is sold at cost at $4.22 via CreateSpace.

Genres: Food

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Italo Italophiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite recipe from the Andalusian Cookbook, for its sheer audacity, is this so-called lamb dish:

Roast Lamb, which was made for the Sayyid 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.

Read more, with illustrations, at the Italophiles Book Review blog at
http://italophilebookreviews.blogspot...

[Ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

The original translation by Charles Perry is available for FREE. This version rearranges the recipes into a very modern order, quite unlike the order in medieval Arabic language cookbooks, which were generally arranged by the type of cooking method and not by main ingredient. She also placed in the front a collection of recipes which were added to the manuscript after it was written, and which were rightly placed at the end - the drinks, pastes, electuaries, an powders, which were all medicinal, and not to be consumed in a typical meal.

Besides interpolating a lot of modern information and ideas, she even includes some ingredients from the Americas, which were certainly unknown in the Iberian Peninsula in the 1200s.

I don't find her version any more useful than the original because i have to remove all the stuff she added to it. Additionally, because of her rearrangement, anyone who wants to compare it with the original translation will have trouble finding things.

This edition is misleading and inaccurate. If you want to use these recipes, as i have often done, consult the original translation.
http://daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Co...