What do you think?
Rate this book
Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook
This popular 13th-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. Collecting 635 meticulous recipes, Scents and Flavors invites us to savor an inventive cuisine that elevates simple ingredients by combining the sundry aromas of herbs, spices, fruits, and flower essences.
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.
With the exception of four extant Babylonian and Roman specimens, cookbooks did not appear on the world literary scene until Arabic speakers began compiling their recipe collections in the tenth century, peaking in popularity in the thirteenth century. Scents and Flavors quickly became a bestseller during this golden age of cookbooks, and remains today a delectable read for epicures and cultural historians alike."
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.
With the exception of four extant Babylonian and Roman specimens, cookbooks did not appear on the world literary scene until Arabic speakers began compiling their recipe collections in the tenth century, peaking in popularity in the thirteenth century. Scents and Flavors quickly became a bestseller during this golden age of cookbooks, and remains today a delectable read for epicures and cultural historians alike."
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 2, 2017
21 people are currently reading
187 people want to read
About the author
Charles Perry
85 books18 followersThere is more than one person in the Goodreads catalog with this name. This entry is for Charles ^ Perry, rock and roll journalist.
Charles Perry is a former rock and roll journalist (staff writer at Rolling Stone in the 1970s) who suavely transitioned into food writing in the 1980s. During his 18 years at the Los Angeles Times’ award-winning Food section he was twice a finalist for a James Beard award. He is a world-renowned food historian who has been cited in books in seven languages, and he is a major contributor to the “Oxford Companion to Food,” a two-term trustee of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery and president and co-founder of the Culinary Historians of Southern California.
Charles Perry is a former rock and roll journalist (staff writer at Rolling Stone in the 1970s) who suavely transitioned into food writing in the 1980s. During his 18 years at the Los Angeles Times’ award-winning Food section he was twice a finalist for a James Beard award. He is a world-renowned food historian who has been cited in books in seven languages, and he is a major contributor to the “Oxford Companion to Food,” a two-term trustee of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery and president and co-founder of the Culinary Historians of Southern California.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
Read
August 19, 2017a) This is literally a cookbook.
b) It consists of recipes. Not much else.
c) You'll want to be good at reading cookbooks to enjoy reading this one.
d) Like with poetry ; I suck at reading poetry. I suck at reading cookbooks.
e) BUT, this is like totally one of the oldest cookbooks in the world.
f) As for reading about food, I enjoyed Theroux's latest a bit (lot) more -- Einstein's Beets.
g) It would help to be practiced in 13th century Syrian cookery in order to properly interpret these recipes. For they are not written out for cooking=dummies.
h) But here's a modern interpretation of “an early draft for baklava” called “Eat-and-Give-Thanks” ::
http://www.libraryofarabicliterature....
i) Here's Meatballs with Whole Garlic Cloves ::
http://www.libraryofarabicliterature....
j) Pomegranate Chicken ::
http://www.libraryofarabicliterature....
k) Here's Chicken in Mustard-Yogurt Sauce ::
http://www.libraryofarabicliterature....
m) And for those who dig archeological cookery, here's one for you that's pretty cool :: The Classical Cookbook.
n) And some of you know Dogfish Head. They've been pairing brewing and archeology since their beginnings. Ever have a Midas Touch? Here's a few more they've done ::
https://dogfishalehouse.com/beers-typ...
o) And a little article on going from potsherds to frothy glass ::
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...
p) Yes, a deep interest in history is reason enough to raise a glass.
q) btw, this is a critical edition of the arabic text. How cool is that?
r) At first I had misread the title as Scents and Flowers.
s) 635 recipes is a lot of recipes.
t) Even recipes for things like perfumes and soaps and breath=mints.
u) One thing I particularly like about the LAL is that its only criteria (mor-less) for inclusion is that it be a text in Arabic and it be pre-20th century. That's some pretty wide-slung doors! They're sweeping up pretty much anything/everything translators are sending their way.
v) That's right, selection of texts is pretty much up to the translator.
w) And the scholarship! My god! The scholarship!
x) Predictably, here at the end of the alphabet, I give you some metal. First a documentary ::
Syrian Metal is War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-JyW...
y) I Am Immigrant: Dani Dark, the metal refugee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN0zG...
z) And the syrian band Netherion ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiHzP...
b) It consists of recipes. Not much else.
c) You'll want to be good at reading cookbooks to enjoy reading this one.
d) Like with poetry ; I suck at reading poetry. I suck at reading cookbooks.
e) BUT, this is like totally one of the oldest cookbooks in the world.
f) As for reading about food, I enjoyed Theroux's latest a bit (lot) more -- Einstein's Beets.
g) It would help to be practiced in 13th century Syrian cookery in order to properly interpret these recipes. For they are not written out for cooking=dummies.
h) But here's a modern interpretation of “an early draft for baklava” called “Eat-and-Give-Thanks” ::
http://www.libraryofarabicliterature....
i) Here's Meatballs with Whole Garlic Cloves ::
http://www.libraryofarabicliterature....
j) Pomegranate Chicken ::
http://www.libraryofarabicliterature....
k) Here's Chicken in Mustard-Yogurt Sauce ::
http://www.libraryofarabicliterature....
m) And for those who dig archeological cookery, here's one for you that's pretty cool :: The Classical Cookbook.
n) And some of you know Dogfish Head. They've been pairing brewing and archeology since their beginnings. Ever have a Midas Touch? Here's a few more they've done ::
https://dogfishalehouse.com/beers-typ...
o) And a little article on going from potsherds to frothy glass ::
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...
p) Yes, a deep interest in history is reason enough to raise a glass.
q) btw, this is a critical edition of the arabic text. How cool is that?
r) At first I had misread the title as Scents and Flowers.
s) 635 recipes is a lot of recipes.
t) Even recipes for things like perfumes and soaps and breath=mints.
u) One thing I particularly like about the LAL is that its only criteria (mor-less) for inclusion is that it be a text in Arabic and it be pre-20th century. That's some pretty wide-slung doors! They're sweeping up pretty much anything/everything translators are sending their way.
v) That's right, selection of texts is pretty much up to the translator.
w) And the scholarship! My god! The scholarship!
x) Predictably, here at the end of the alphabet, I give you some metal. First a documentary ::
Syrian Metal is War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-JyW...
y) I Am Immigrant: Dani Dark, the metal refugee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN0zG...
z) And the syrian band Netherion ::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiHzP...
January 6, 2025
I have a good friend whose families were Marranos, secret Jews. They emigrated from Spain to Cuba and Venezuela sometime after the Expulsion in 1492. And, noting my surname Rovira, Ana María said, “That’s a Marrano name; did you know that?” And I certainly did not.
So, it’s possible that in the 13th century, wherever my father’s ancestors were living in Spain, they were cooking like this. I’d like to think so, as Claudia Roden, who writes the foreword, is herself a Sephardic Jew. “It was thrilling to know that our foods have a history. It confirmed our ancestry,” she writes. If so, I pity those poor, poor folk.
This Syrian cookbook was the Joy of Cooking of the High Middle Ages; an astounding number of copies, complete and partial, remain in existence. Amazingly, this, Charles Perry’s footnoted translation of the Topkapi manuscript, released in 2017, is the first one ever! But, for the most part, it’s something to peruse for its historical value rather than as the basis of any dish you’d feed someone you liked. (Sweet and sour breadcrumbs, or a dough-wrapped bone-in pullet anyone, anyone? Or how about using chicken skin to make sausages or to inflate and stuff with fried egg and onions before boiling or frying? The latter was deemed “an impressive dish” by the cookbook author. I’ll bet!)
Scents and Flavors, unsurprisingly, isn’t your average cookbook. It’s littered with prayers and notations that the recipe was made for an exalted person (e.g., “which I once made for my uncle Al-Malik Al-Ashraf, may God the Exalted shower him with mercy”). It also contains recipes for perfume, incense, medicine, antiperspirant, breath fresheners, body soap, clothes soap, hand-washing powder, clothes dye, hair dye, vinegars and pickled turnips (to last a year!), as well as food and beverages; and boasts ingredients like ambergris, willow water, sandalwood, musk, spikenard (whatever that is), fat lamb tail, tree moss, camphor, civet, Cornelian Cherry, myrtle, quince fuzz, borage (whatever that is), lily water, barberries, mastic resin (in food!) and rue.
This cookbook also demonstrates how extensive the Silk Road was, as the recipes call for North African soy sauce, bananas; Chinese cinnamon or Ceylonese cinnamon, depending on the recipe; white sugar, an incredible luxury, and betel nut, black pepper and ginger. These were recipes for the 1%, and make no mistake. Just glad that I wasn’t an invitee to enjoy Candied Chicken on Croutons, a very sweet pistachio-chicken porridge, Egg Cake in Glass Bottles, or Sanbüsak (boiled leg or joint meat pounded into a pulp and then mixed with spices and boiled yet again, served in a bread wrapper).
So, it’s possible that in the 13th century, wherever my father’s ancestors were living in Spain, they were cooking like this. I’d like to think so, as Claudia Roden, who writes the foreword, is herself a Sephardic Jew. “It was thrilling to know that our foods have a history. It confirmed our ancestry,” she writes. If so, I pity those poor, poor folk.
This Syrian cookbook was the Joy of Cooking of the High Middle Ages; an astounding number of copies, complete and partial, remain in existence. Amazingly, this, Charles Perry’s footnoted translation of the Topkapi manuscript, released in 2017, is the first one ever! But, for the most part, it’s something to peruse for its historical value rather than as the basis of any dish you’d feed someone you liked. (Sweet and sour breadcrumbs, or a dough-wrapped bone-in pullet anyone, anyone? Or how about using chicken skin to make sausages or to inflate and stuff with fried egg and onions before boiling or frying? The latter was deemed “an impressive dish” by the cookbook author. I’ll bet!)
Scents and Flavors, unsurprisingly, isn’t your average cookbook. It’s littered with prayers and notations that the recipe was made for an exalted person (e.g., “which I once made for my uncle Al-Malik Al-Ashraf, may God the Exalted shower him with mercy”). It also contains recipes for perfume, incense, medicine, antiperspirant, breath fresheners, body soap, clothes soap, hand-washing powder, clothes dye, hair dye, vinegars and pickled turnips (to last a year!), as well as food and beverages; and boasts ingredients like ambergris, willow water, sandalwood, musk, spikenard (whatever that is), fat lamb tail, tree moss, camphor, civet, Cornelian Cherry, myrtle, quince fuzz, borage (whatever that is), lily water, barberries, mastic resin (in food!) and rue.
This cookbook also demonstrates how extensive the Silk Road was, as the recipes call for North African soy sauce, bananas; Chinese cinnamon or Ceylonese cinnamon, depending on the recipe; white sugar, an incredible luxury, and betel nut, black pepper and ginger. These were recipes for the 1%, and make no mistake. Just glad that I wasn’t an invitee to enjoy Candied Chicken on Croutons, a very sweet pistachio-chicken porridge, Egg Cake in Glass Bottles, or Sanbüsak (boiled leg or joint meat pounded into a pulp and then mixed with spices and boiled yet again, served in a bread wrapper).
December 26, 2018
If you're interested in historical cooking, specifically Middle Eastern food, this book is fantastic. NOT for the beginner cook or someone looking to try Middle Eastern food for the first time. This book does not contain modern styled recipes and requires experimentation.
May 23, 2020
I'm utterly fascinated by cookbooks from history. This one was a revelation and brilliantly curated and translated. I haven't made all the recipes, only a few, but I look forward to having this as a continues cooking guide from now on. If you have an interest in old cookbooks from the Middle Ages, this might be of interest to you. I do think it helps having a good deal of knowledge about the Middle East to really get something out of this.
"The book represents the cooking in the kitchens of the Ayyubid court and of the Syrian nobility. It features recipes from different parts of the Muslim Empire—they are Persian, Baghdadi, Turkish, Egyptian, Moroccan, Bedouin, Georgian. It was the period of the Crusades and the European influence can be seen in the “Frankish” dishes."
"From the tenth through the thirteenth centuries, Arabic speakers were, so far as we know, the only people in the world who were writing cookbooks."
"The book represents the cooking in the kitchens of the Ayyubid court and of the Syrian nobility. It features recipes from different parts of the Muslim Empire—they are Persian, Baghdadi, Turkish, Egyptian, Moroccan, Bedouin, Georgian. It was the period of the Crusades and the European influence can be seen in the “Frankish” dishes."
"From the tenth through the thirteenth centuries, Arabic speakers were, so far as we know, the only people in the world who were writing cookbooks."
March 17, 2021
Absolutely fascinating and a great work of erudition.
I am even remaking some of the recipes in my spare time, many of which are very tasty.
Once could never thank Mr Perry enough.
I am even remaking some of the recipes in my spare time, many of which are very tasty.
Once could never thank Mr Perry enough.
February 21, 2025
One of the more interesting cookbooks I have read, especially for cooking history. I enjoyed how the subjects were laid out in categories, like eggplant- eight ways.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews