Scents and Flavors: A Syrian Cookbook (Library of Arabic Literature, 47)

This is wonderful! I have tried many of the recipes and found them all tasty!

Very interesting and informative book. This will go well with my other medieval cookbooks.

It's a good book

interesting

Charles Perry has once again blessed us with his excellent translation of a medieval Arabic-language cookbook. This particular one survives in more copies than any other, so i was thrilled to see it was finally in English. It covers not only food, but scented hand cleaners, perfumes, and incense, because a luxurious meal should be redolent of scents, not only from the food, but of the diners themselves. I'm currently reading my way through it, and i look forward to cooking from it. Note to those not familiar, recipes in these old historical cookbooks are quite unlike those in modern cookbooks. The cook has to determine for themself how much of each ingredient to use, as well as to figure out the details of the cooking processes which are mentioned but not described in depth. I love the challenge and thrill of cooking from these old cookbooks - it is a journey back in time to taste the foods of the royal and wealthy of 700 or 800 years ago.

This book is a treasure of medieval Syrian cooking. It satisfied my need for academic rigour with its introduction and careful footnotes.