An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century. Translated by Charles Perry (webbed here)

Lamb Roast with Its Skin. Take a plump ram and take out what is in it, as is is, in its skin, through a narrow place, and put it in a tub or kettle, pour boiling water on it, and pull out [Huici Miranda's plausible guess: the verb sumika is unknown] the wool so that none of it remains in the skin; then get what was taken from inside it, clean it and make of it a stuffing and cook with spices, oil and a bit of murri naqî' and return it into the inside of the ram, after beating it with egg and spices and whatever you wish. Sew up the belly and the neck and any other openings so that no place remains for the fat to run out; place it in the tannur and leave it until it is done; then take it out and cut it in pieces with a sharp knife and sprinkle it with ground salt, pepper, and cinnamon.

The Making of Another Marrow. Take lamb's brains and clean them of their veins; then take tender meat, such as lamb's shoulder, and pound it fine in the stone (mortar); mix it with the cleaned brains, insert into intestines and cook them; then take them out and sprinkle them with powdered sugar, and if you add almonds or crushed nuts at the beginning, it is better.

Recipe for Jullâbiyya, a Dish with Julep [Rosewater Syrup]. Take a cleaned chicken and remove the neck, leaving it whole and not cutting it up. Cook white tafaya and when it is done, take it out of the pot and leave it aside until it is dry. Then take three ratls of white sugar and dissolve it in rosewater and cook syrup of julep (sharâb al-jullâb) from it in a kettle, and perfume it with lavender, Chinese cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. When it is thick, cut it with some musk and camphor dissolved in good rosewater. Then put in the chicken already spoken of and cover it so the julep fills it and thickens on it. Then remove the kettle and leave it until the syrup of julep [sharâb mujallab; literally, "juleped syrup"] thickens on the sides of the chicken and becomes thoroughly cooked, as if it were a citron. When it is completed according to this recipe [or description], put it on a damascene dish [? bâ qiya] and present it with a complete range of garnishes.

A Dish of Young Pigeons. Take plump, active pigeons, clean them and put them in a pot and add a little salt, pepper, coriander, and oil. Fry a little and then pour over it water to cover, throw in a quarter ratl of sugar and finish cooking it until it is done, and then cover the contents of the pot with four eggs beaten with saffron and cinnamon. Dot it with egg yolk and leave it on the hearthstone a while, then empty it into a plate and sprinkle it with sugar, lavender and cinnamon and use it.

A Dish With Prunes (Ijjâs). Take fat young lamb, cut it up and put it in a pot with salt, pepper, coriander, a little cumin, saffron, and sufficient vinegar and oil. Put it on the fire and when it is almost done, throw in "cow's eyes" [prunes] candied and steeped in vinegar. Cook it in the pot, then cover the contents of the pot with all this and leave it until its surface is cold and clarified. Then take it down [from the fire] into a dish, break eggyolks and garnish the dish with them and with meatballs, sprinkle with fine spices and present it. If you wish to put in place of mint juice the juice of rue, celery or clove basil, from each of these will come another dish.

Recipe for a Dish of Chicken or Partridge with Quince or Apple. Leave overnight whichever of the two [birds] you have, its throat slit, in its feathers. Clean it and put it into a new pot and throw in two spoonfuls of rosewater and half a spoonful of good murri, two spoonfuls of oil, salt, a fennel stalk, a whole onion, and a quarter dirham of saffron, and water to cover the meat. Then take quince or apple, skin the outside and clean the inside and cut it up in appropriate-sized pieces, and throw them into the pot. Put it on a moderate fire and when it is done, take it away with a lid over it. Cover it with breadcrumbs, a little sifted flour and five eggs, after removing some of the yolks. Cook it in the pot, and when the coating has cooked, sprinkle it with rosewater and leave it until the surface is clear and stands out apart. Ladle it out, sprinkle it with fine spices and present it.

Boiled Dish of Stuffed Eggplants. Split medium-sized eggplants and stuff the cuts with salt to remove any bitterness they have, then boil them until they are cooked, then take them out and place them in cold water. Then take a head of garlic, clean it and pound it in a mortar with a little salt and cold breadcrumbs, a little sifted flour, a little murri and a little cilantro juice. Then squeeze the water out of the eggplants and hollow them out [preceding 4 words missing in published Arabic text], removing its flesh ["fattiness"] and its little seeds. To the contents of the mortar add whole peppercorns, cinnamon and powdered lavender. Fry for all six eggs, or as many as the dish will take, and beat all very well. Take egg yolks [apparently from boiled eggs] and stuff the eggplants with this, and save some of the stuffing. Then cover them with flour and fry it in fresh oil until browned. Boil eggyolks and also fry them a little, then arrange the eggplants in a dish spread with citron leaves, and pour the stuffing over all parts of the dish, cut up the eggyolks and garnish the dish with them and "eyes" of citron, mint and rue [leaves], then sprinkle with extraordinary spices and present it.

A Dish of Eggplants with Saffron. Peel the eggplants and split them, salt them, and leave them a little so their moisture comes out. Then boil them in water and when they are cooked, place them in cold water. Put into a pot two spoonfuls of vinegar, half a spoonful of murri, ground coriander, pepper, caraway, cumin, a whole onion, fennel stalks, a little cleaned garlic, half a dirham of saffron, salt, a spoonful of oil and a little water. Then put the pot on the fire until everything in it is cooked, then remove to the euphorbia embers. Take six eggs and cold breadcrumbs and a little sifted flour, beat it all with a little cilantro juice, remove some of the yolks, cover the contents of the pot with that. And cook the yolks in it, and leave it until its surface appears. Then take the boiled eggplants, cut their belly-sacks [reading bajâjîn as irregular plural of bajnâna] and complete the splitting of them so that four pieces come from each. Dust them with flour, fry them with oil until they are browned, and place them in a dish spread with citron leaves. Throw over this all the spices from the pot, separate eggyolks and garnish the dish with them as well as with "eyes" of rue, mint, and citron [leaves]. Sprinkle over this what you wish of fine spices and present it. It is made the same way with gourd, down to the letter, except that the saffron is omitted and sticks of thyme are added, God willing.

A Dish of Fried Chicken. Leave a plump hen overnight in its feathers, then clean it well, put it in a pot and pour in a good deal of both water and salt, two spoonfuls of oil, half a spoonful of vinegar, a whole onion, fennel stalks, citron leaves, cleaned almonds, pepper, cinnamon, a little cumin, caraway, and coriander, well ground. Then put it on a moderate fire and when the hen is cooked, take it out and fry it with fresh oil until it is browned, and take it out of the frying pan. Take the sauce in which the hen boiled and beat it well in a dish with six or eight eggs. Separate four whole eggyolks and pour all this into a frying pan until it is rippled and well browned. Then put the chicken in a dish covered with citron leaves and put this filling around it and over it, garnish it with the eggyolks after they too are fried and sprinkled with spices.

Recipe for "Hunchbacked" Chicken. Take a big, plump hen, the biggest and plumpest there is, clean it well, and break it in the middle of its back until a hump protrudes. Then peel three heads of garlic and pound them well with salt [last 2 words not in published Arabic text], and throw on pepper, cinnamon, lavender, Chinese cinnamon, and some murri. Break over that four eggs and beat well with it. Skin [the chicken] and divide it into two halves; clean a head of garlic, peel it and put part of the egg and part of the garlic in the chicken's back between the skin and the meat, and do this carefully so as not to break the skin, then finish the egg and garlic and enlarge the chicken's hump. Then sew up any place where the filling tries to escape, then put the chicken in a pot of its own size and put on it a little water, two spoonfuls of oil, one of murri, and a little hand-grated thyme. Break two eggs over the pot and send it to the oven. When it is cooked and browned, spread a dish with citron leaves and put the chicken on top of the leaves after removing the stitching, and its back appears on top so that the hunchback is evident. Garnish it with cut-up eggyolks, cut rue over it, sprinkle it with fine spices, and use it.

Stuffed Lamb Breast in the Oven....take it to a dish and arrange eggyolks on it, sprinkle with spices and present it, God the Most High willing.

A Dish of Large Fish. Take pieces of a large fish, clean and put in a pot. Separate a piece from it to make meatballs, and throw in a spoonful of strong vinegar, a spoonful of bread murri, a spoonful of oil, a whole onion, a head of garlic separated [into cloves], fennel stalks, citron leaves, pepper, cinnamon, coriander, a little cumin, caraway, a little water, and sufficient salt. Put it in the oven until it is done. During this time, make meatballs by the recipe with they have been made before, and throw them into the pot. Then take for ("in") covering cold crumbs, some flour and eight eggs, and separate some of their yolks to dot it with. Beat the dough [viz. the crumbs and eggs] with pepper and cover the contents of the pot with this, and when the surface of the dish is clear, ladle it into a dish, garnish it with its meatballs and eggyolks, sprinkle it with fine spices, and use it, God willing.

Farrûj Mubarrad, Cooled Chicken. Wash the chicken, clean it and salt it with salt and pepper and put it in a pot. Pound a handful of almonds and throw it on. Break over it six eggs, whole pine-nuts, pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, ginger, lavender, and a spoonful of murri; stir all this with three spoonfuls of fresh oil and a little water. Put the pot on a moderately hot hearthstone and stir it carefully. When it has cooked, put it in a dish and sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon, cut rue over it, garnish it with eggyolks, and present it.

Recipe for a Dish of Olives. Clean a partridge and put it in a pot with salt, coriander, pepper, garbanzos, Chinese cinnamon, and all the spices, two spoonfuls of oil, a little water, citron leaves and fennel stalks. Make small meatballs from its breast and cook them in the pot. When it has boiled some three times, take it out to the hearthstone. Take stalks of Swiss chard or orach [aka French spinach] and cut them in quarters, make a bundle of them, tie them with a string, and place them in the pot with ten olives. Skin cheese, cut it in small pieces and boil it in oil until it is browned, and throw it in the pot. Take out two or three meatballs and pound them in a mortar, and break three eggs over them, cook their yolks in the pot, and beat the eggs with a little white flour. Cover the contents of the pot with it and stir it at the sides until the dough is cooked and the surface of the pot stands out. Then put it in a dish, garnish it with its meatballs, eggyolks, pieces of cheese and olives, sprinkle it with fine spices, and present it, God willing.

Recipe for a Hen Stuffed Without Bones. Slit the throat of a hen, as large and plump as possible, and inflate it well while still warm after tying up the neck. Then pluck it gently so as not to burst it, and as soon as you are done plucking it, divide it along the back from neck to tail, and skin it little by little with all possible care until it is all skinned except the tips of the wings, for these are left with their skin. Then take all the meat with the breast and pound it strongly in a mortar, and pound it with peeled almond, nuts, and cold breadcrumbs steeped in cilantro juice. Then take what is inside it [liver and giblets] and boil it with water and salt until it is cooked, cut it in small pieces on a wooden board, and add this to the pounded meat. Put all this to fry and add cilantro juice and murri in the necessary amounts, with whole peppercorns, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, lavender, and galingale, cook eggs, shell them, and keep the yolk aside, cut the white finely and add it to the stuffing. Break over this eight or ten eggs, put it on a moderate fire and stir with a spoon until ... and place the stuffing. Then return the stuffing and pound it in such manner that it will not fall apart, then stuff the skin that was peeled off with this stuffing, after sewing it up on all sides, but leave a hole where the stuffing can go in. Place cooked eggyolks under the wings, thighs, and legs until it takes the form that the hen had before it was gently stuffed. Then sew up the hole where the stuffing was put in, and let there be as much water as necessary to cover it. Then moisten [reading uthqubhâ , "puncture," as isqîhâ] with vinegar on all sides lest it dry out, [taking care] that [the skin] is not separated or punctured, but only after putting in the water. And when the stuffing is on the point of being done, take it out of the water and put it in a pot or a tajine and sprinkle it with murri and oil, clean the mortar in which the meat of the chicken was pounded, put a little thyme with it, and rub it with the thyme, and send [the chicken] to the bread oven until the sides are browned, and watch that it not burn. Then spread a dish with citron leaves. Take the chicken out and split the chicken in half from above to below and leave it ...[about four words missing]... some clove, pepper, Chinese cinnamon and cinnamon, sprinkle them over it and over both pieces, garnish it with toasted almonds, and present it.

An Extraordinary Dish of Chicken. ... Put it in a dish and garnish it with its meatballs and its eggyolks, and scatter fine spices over it and present it, God willing.

Sa'tariyya, a Thyme-flavored Dish. Cut meat small and put it in a pot with three whole onions, a spoonful of murri, a dirham and a half of pepper, and some juice from fennel-stalks, and almonds, peeled pine-nuts, sprigs of thyme and sufficient salt. Put it on a moderate fire and when you see that the pot has become dry, throw in a spoonful of vinegar and dot it with four eggyolks, and when it is done cooking, ladle it out and cut tender rue over it very finely, and sprinkle it with half a dirham of cloves ground with pepper, and present it.

Rashîdiyya. Take pieces of meat without bones and cut them as for shishkebab. Put in a pot and mix with them a spoonful of good vinegar, another of murri, a handful of pine-nuts and all the spices and flavorings. When it has cooked, take out the meat and fry it in a frying pan until it is browned. Then return it to the pot and cut some rue very finely and cover the contents of the pot with this and with four eggs, make small sambusak and very small meatballs for this dish, and fry them also and dot it with eggyolks. Ladle out the dish and garnish it with the sambusak, the meatballs, and the eggyolks, and cook an egg until it is hard, cut it up small and scatter fine spices over the dish and present it, God willing.

A Good Dish. Divide meat into medium-sized morsels, like mouthfuls, and put them in a new pot with salt, crushed onion, coriander, two dirham of pepper and as much of cinnamon, a dirham of Chinese cinnamon, two spoonfuls of fresh oil, one of good murri and two of fragrant rose water, a spoonful and a half of strong vinegar, a handful of blanched pine-nuts and almonds and enough water. Put the pot on a moderate fire, and make meatballs and sambusak and stuffed eggs. When the meat is cooked, take out the stuffed egg and put aside and fry the meat and the meatballs. Then return it to the pot with the meatballs and empty into it the rest of the oil, put it on the euphorbia embers and cover the contents with four eggs and a little white flour and grated breadcrumbs. Dot it with eggyolks and keep stirring carefully until all the water disappears and nothing remains but the oil alone, and the coating wrinkles. Then grind half a dirham of galingale [literally, "wood"] and a little musk. Ladle out the dish and garnish it with sanbûsak, and split the stuffed eggs and put them over the dish, sprinkle the galingale and musk on it and present it, God willing.

A Dish of Chicken. Clean a plump, tender hen, divide it and put it in a pot with two spoonfuls of oil, the same of vinegar and as much of murri, a handful of almonds and pine-nuts and all the spices and flavorings, three spoonfuls of cilantro juice, pepper and vinegar in the amount of two spoonfuls, if it is of bad quality, and two spoonfuls of fresh oil, a handful of cleaned almonds and sufficient water and salt. When it is done, cover it with breadcrumbs, a little flour and three or four eggs. Reduce it in the broth, and ladle it out, sprinkle it with pepper, cinnamon, and lavender, and present it, God willing.

A Roast of Stuffed Shimâs. Cut fat meat and put it in a pot with whole, small onions, some eight or ten. Pound the meat and make good meatballs from it with pepper and cinnamon. Throw in four spoonfuls of oil and two of murri, cilantro juice, and some eight beaten eggs. Stir it gently on all sides to even the stuffing in the pot, and perfume it. Send it to the oven until it is cooked and lightly browned, and present it, after decorating it with its meatballs. Sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon and garnish it with "eyes" of mint and present it, God willing.

Farrûj Maghlûq, a Closed Dish of Chicken. ... Then ladle it out and present it; garnish it with eggyolks and cut in some rue and a boiled egg and sprinkle it with fine spices and present it.

Stuffed Rabbit. .... Then take it out and put it in a dish and untie the sewing that you did, and dot with the eggs you prepared, and with the meatballs, and sprinkle it with spices.

Tajine of Birds' Giblets. Clean them and stew them with oil and water and two cloves of garlic crushed with a little cilantro, and when the giblets are cooked, crush them with a little of the heart of an onion, and season with fine spices and flavorings, a spoonful of murri, a little white flour, and cut-up rue. Break six eggs over it and beat this all with the rest of the sauce from the pot, and fry it in the frying pan with oil until it takes the consistency of a tajine, and present it. Cut rue over it, sprinkle with a little murri and garnish it with mint.

An Extraordinary Stuffed Rabbit .Separate it at the joints, then take the meat from its legs and back, called the lunbâl (loin), and add the meat of another rabbit and pound it well in a mortar. Add to this onion juice, murri, clove, spices, and all that is put in meatballs. Take the bones and other parts and put them in a pot, pour over them two spoonfuls of vinegar, the like of oil, one spoon of murri, peeled almonds, pine-nuts, citron leaves, fennel stalks, an onion, a clove of peeled garlic, sprigs of thyme, "eyes" of rue, and a dirham's weight of saffron. Cook it with sufficient water until it is done, and then take out everything from the pot. Take the bones of the thighs and the lunbâl, clothe them with the ground meat, and make meatballs of the rest. Throw all this carefully into the pot. Take two egg yolks, after boiling, and dress them with the meat as well, and throw them into the pot. When all is done and the greater part of the broth has evaporated, crumble crumbs of cold bread and a little flour [p. 16, verso] of fine wheat. Dissolve that with one spoonful of the rest of the stuffing together with eight or ten eggs, and sprinkle on it sufficient salt and spices, and fry the parts removed from the pot until they are browned. Then return them to the pot and fry the meatballs and the eggs covered with meat likewise. Then cover all the contents of the pot with eggs and throw in the rest of the oil that was in the frying pan. Rebuild a moderate fire, and stir [or agitate] from the sides of the pot carefully until the stuffing is done and wrinkled and the broth departs. Then take the parts and arrange them on a dish in which citron leaves have been arranged, and sprinkle the stuffing over it. Then put the rest of the parts in the dish with the rest of the stuffing. Then garnish the dish with the fried meatballs, and split the meat-clad yolks and put among the meatballs and sprinkle the rest of the stuffing between them, with almonds, pine-nuts, and minced cloves of garlic. Cut rue over it, sprinkle it with fine spices, and present it. If you omit the saffron and garlic, add a spoonful of cilantro juice and increase the murri a little, another dish will result.

Recipe for Making Qaliyya. With a Covering Cut up an adult crane, and throw in spices, pepper, cinnamon, onion scraped with salt, citron leaves, stalks of fennel, vinegar according to its strength, and likewise murri according to the degree of its blackness, enough oil and water, and "eyes" of thyme and sprigs of rue. Cook until done, take out the meat and fry it in oil until it is browned, then return it to a pot and cook it until the water disappears. Then cover the contents of the pot with white flour, grated breadcrumbs and eggs. Dot it with eggyolks and when you ladle it out, cut rue over it, boil eggyolks, garnish it, and present it, God willing.

Jewish Partridge. Clean the partridge and season it with salt, then crush its entrails with almonds and pine-nuts and add murri naqî', oil, a little cilantro juice, pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, lavender, five eggs and sufficient salt. Boil two eggs, stuff the partridge with the stuffing and insert the boiled eggs and let the stuffing be between the skin and the meat, and some of it in the interior of the partridge. Then take a new pot and put in four spoonfuls of oil, half a spoonful of murri naqî' and two of salt. Put the partridge in it and put it on the fire, after attaching the cover with dough, and agitate it continuously so it will be thoroughly done, and when the sauce has dried, remove the lid and throw in half a spoonful of vinegar, throw in an "eye" of citron [leaves] and an "eye" of mint, and break two or three eggs into it. Then put a potsherd or copper pot full of burning coals on it until it is browned, and then turn (the contents) around so that the other side browns, and roast it all. Then put it in a dish and put the stuffing around it, and garnish it with the eggyolks with which you dotted the pot, or with roast pistachios, almonds and pine nuts, and sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon after moistening with sugar, and present it, God willing.

The Making of Cooled Chicken. .... Boil two eggs and cut them over it with "eyes" of rue, pour out the surface of the pot over it, sprinkle it with fine spices, and present it, God willing.

A Jewish Dish of Chicken. ... Put this on the fire so that it cooks gently, and when it has cooked, cut up ...[about two words missing]... and leave it until it is absorbed. Then ladle it into a dish [and pour the rest of the sauce on it, and cut up an egg and sprinkle with spices, and ladle the preceding almonds into another dish], and garnish it too with eggyolks; sprinkle it with fine spices and present both dishes, God willing. [Bracketed matter in Arabic but not in Huici Miranda's translation.]

A Jewish Dish of Partridge. Clean it, joint it and put it in the pot with all the spices and flavorings and cilantro juice, onion juice, murri, half a spoonful of vinegar, three of oil, and sufficient water, "eyes" of mint, citron and whole pine-nuts. When it is cooked and the greater part of the sauce is gone, pound the giblets and the liver well and beat them with three eggs and leaven; cover the contents of the pot with this and stir it at the sides until it wrinkles. Dot it with eggyolks and then ladle it out and garnish it with eggyolks and "eyes" of mint, toasted pine-nuts and pistachios, sprinkle it with a little rosewater and present it, God willing.

A Recipe for Roast Partridge. Clean it and place it [p. 18, verso] on a spit, pound its entrails and beat them with two eggs, pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, lavender, two spoonfuls of oil and one of murri. Roast it over a moderate fire and at a distance from it. Grease the inside and outside with this filling continuously until it absorbs it and is lightly browned. Put it in a dish and cut rue over it and sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon and present it, God willing.

Recipe for Farrûj Mubarrad, Cooled Chicken. Clean the chicken and put it in the pot; throw on top spices, pepper, cinnamon, and all the flavorings, two spoonfuls of oil, water and salt and cook it carefully. Wash two eggs and put them in the pot, and when all is done, take the giblets and the liver, shell the eggs and cut everything with a knife on a board into very small pieces; fry it in a frying pan, beat the two eggs and throw in murri naqî', and turn it over in the frying pan until it is browned. Then put the chicken in a dish, put the stuffing on it and around it and moisten it with the rest of the grease remaining in the pot. Cut up a boiled egg with rue and sprinkle it on the surface of the dish and sprinkle fine spices over all this and present it.

A Stuffed Dish of Chicken (Cooked) in the Oven. Clean a plump chicken and pound its giblets, its liver, and its heart well; add to these ten eggs and spice it and adjust the salt. Stuff the chicken with this and sew it up, put it in a pot and throw on top spices, pepper, salt, and three spoonfuls of oil. Take one spoonful from the stuffing with which you filled the chicken, beat it with three eggs and cover the pot with it, dot it with eggyolks and send it to the oven until it is browned and the stuffing is wrinkled. Take out the chicken onto a dish and put around it the stuffing, garnish it with eggyolks, cut rue over it, sprinkle it with fine spices and present it, God willing: praise be to Him, there is no Lord but He.

A Jewish Dish of Chicken. Clean the chicken [p. 20, recto] and pound its entrails with almonds, breadcrumbs, a little flour, salt, and cut-up fennel and cilantro. Beat it with six eggs and the amount of a quarter ratl of water. Then expose the chicken over the fire a little and place it in a clean pot with five spoonfuls of fresh oil, and do not stop turning it on the fire in the oil until it is well browned. Then cover the contents of the pot with stuffing prepared earlier and leave it until it is bound together and wrinkled. Ladle it out and put the stuffing around it, garnish with cut rue and fennel, eyes of mint, and toasted almonds, and present it, God willing.

Egyptian Chicken. Clean the chicken, joint it and put it in a pot; throw in spices, pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, lavender, three spoonfuls of oil and half a spoonful of murri, one of vinegar, some juice of both cilantro and onion, three spoonfuls of water and pine-nuts and almonds. Put it on the fire until it is done, and fry it in the frying pan until it is lightly browned. Place it on a dish and pour on the sauce, and cut eggyolks and rue over it, sprinkle it with spices, and present it, God willing.

A Chicken Known as Zukaira. Slit the throat of a chicken and skin it, as before, gently. Pound its breast and entrails with cold breadcrumbs, almonds and walnuts, break fifteen eggs over it and throw on top a spoonful of murri, another of cilantro juice, all the spices and sufficient salt. Stuff the chicken skin with this, and place it in hot water until it becomes solid. Take the rest of the meat and put it in a pot with three spoonfuls of oil, five of water, half a spoon of murri, one of vinegar, two of rosewater, and one of cilantro water, cook this until it is ready, and cover the contents of the pot with four eggs, breadcrumbs and ground almonds, and when it has thickened, take it out. Heat the spit red-hot, and insert it into the chicken [MS reads "insert the chicken in it"] to roast on a moderate fire until browned; then put it on a dish, empty the almonds over it, garnish it with eggyolks and toasted pine-nuts, sprinkle it with spices and present it.

Recipe for an Extraordinary Chicken Dish. Slit the throat of a plump chicken, clean it and take out the entrails. Separate the guts and pound the liver and giblets not too hard. Put in a quarter ratl of almonds and pine-nuts, cilantro juice, a little murri, spices, flavorings and pistachio juice and beat with six eggs and boil four. Stuff the chicken with it and insert the boiled eggs in it and sew it up. Put water and a spoonful of oil into the pot, and place the chicken in and cook it, without overdoing [p. 20, verso] the cooking. Then put into another pot six spoonfuls of oil, half a spoon of vinegar, half a ratl of water, and a ratl and a half of honey; when it boils, place the chicken in it and when it is done cooking, cover it with five ûqiyas of starch, the weight of two dirhams of 'akar (lees) and rosewater; agitate this carefully until it is thick. Then take it off the fire and take the intestines, turn them inside out and clean them. Pound a piece of breast meat and beat it with two eggs, make an isfîriyâ. And pound a piece of lamb and put in all that you would put into a mirqâs, as well as a clove of garlic, a little murri and cilantro, and an egg; beat this and stuff the gut with it and a stalk of fennel and make of it mirqâs ...[one word missing]... Then ladle out the almonds, garnish it with the isfîriyâ and the mirqâs, pine-nuts and pistachios, and present it, God willing.

Tharda of Khabîs with Two Chickens. Slit the throat of two chickens and take out the entrails, pound them and put spices with them and season them with all the flavorings and murri naqî'. Pound them with breadcrumbs, almonds, pine-nuts, and pistachios, beat all this with fifteen eggs, boil eggyolks and stuff a chicken with this filling and sew it up and put it in the pot with a ratl and a half of water and half a ratl of oil. Boil it over a moderate fire and when it is almost cooked, throw in two ratls of honey and four dirhams of saffron, and when the chicken is colored, take it out and put khabis on top of the honey, and cook it until it is thick. Then take the breast of the second chicken and make isfîriyya with it, with pepper, cinnamon, and two eggs or however many are needed. Pound the thigh meat and add to it all that is needed for mirqâs, as in the previous recipe. Clean the guts and fill them with this, and make mirqâ s. Then put the khabis on a dish and set the chicken in the middle, garnish it with the isfîriyya and mirqâs, sprinkle pepper, cinnamon, and sugar over it, place pine-nuts and pistachios on top and present it.

A Stuffed, Buried Jewish Dish. Pound some meat cut round, and be careful that there be no bones in it. Put it in a pot and throw in all the spices except cumin, four spoonfuls of oil, two spoonfuls of penetrating rosewater, a little onion juice, a little water and salt, and veil it with a thick cloth. Put it on a moderate fire and cook it with care. Pound meat as for meatballs, season it and make little meatballs and throw them [p. 21, recto] in the pot until they are done. When everything is done, beat five eggs with salt, pepper, and cinnamon; make a thin layer [a flat omelette or egg crepe; literally "a tajine"] of this in a frying pan, and beat five more eggs with what will make another thin layer. Then take a new pot and put in a spoonful of oil and boil it a little, put in the bottom one of the two layers, pour the meat onto it, and cover with the other layer. Then beat three eggs with a little white flour, pepper, cinnamon, and some rosewater with the rest of the pounded meat, and put this over the top of the pot. Then cover it with a potsherd of fire until it is browned, and be careful that it not burn. Then break the pot and put the whole mass on a dish, and cover it with "eyes" of mint, pistachios and pine-nuts, and add spices. You might put on this dish all that has been indicated, and leave out the rosewater and replace it with a spoonful of juice of cilantro pounded with onion, and half a spoonful of murri naqî'; put in it all that was put in the first, God, the Most High, willing.

A Green Dish Stuffed with Almonds. Cut up the meat and put it in a pot with spices and flavorings and some half a ratl of the juice of cilantro pounded with onion, three spoonfuls of oil, and salt. When it is done, cover the contents of the pot with six eggs, cilantro juice, an ûqiya of ground almonds, and breadcrumbs; further, cover this with four eggyolks and when the dough has wrinkled, ladle the contents out and garnish it with eggyolks, sprinkle it with spices and present it, God willing.

Recipe for White Tafâyâ: Another Kind. Take the meat of a young, tender lamb, cut it in little pieces and put it in the pot with salt, coriander, pepper, a little onion juice, and what oil is necessary. Put it on a gentle fire and fry it with its oil and spices; then add enough water. Take the fat intestine and offal [reading q.mâ as qumâsh] from the intestines, remove them and tie their lower part and put a peeled, boiled egg in the tied intestine, and put over this balls of ground meat, improved with spices. Then put on top of this another egg, and a morsel of the said meat, until it is full to the top. Tie the mouth and put it in the pot, and finish cooking the tafâ yâ, and when it is done, take out the fat intestine and brown it in a frying pan with fresh oil. Then ladle out the tafâyâ, if you like it covered with beaten eggs or plain, and cut up the offal [the egg-stuffed sausage] with a sharp knife and dot the tafâyâ with the pieces. It must have meatballs and split almonds. Sprinkle it with cinnamon and lavender and present it; and if you wish, make it green with cilantro juice alone [p. 25, verso] or with a bit of mint juice.

The Making of Qatâif. Put a potful of water on the fire until it boils, and throw in coarsely ground semolina, and cook it on the fire until it becomes pudding ('asîda). Then take it out of the pot and put it in a dish; boil honey and pour it on top, with pepper, and present it, God willing.

Sukkariyya, a Sugar Dish from the Dictation of Abu 'Ali al-Bagdadi. Take a ratl of sugar and put in two ûqiyas of rosewater and boil it in a ceramic pot until it is on the point of thickening and sticks between the fingers. Then take a third of a ratl of split almonds, fried, not burnt, and pound well and throw the sugar on them and stir it on the fire until thickened. Then spread it out on a dish and sprinkle it with ground sugar.

Khabîsa from His Dictation. Take half a ratl of sugar and one third ratl of the crumb of bread made of white flour. Pound the sugar and mix with the crumb and put in three eggs. Heat in an earthenware pot half a ratl or less of fresh oil, and when it has boiled, throw in the sugar and breadcrumbs and eggs. Stir it on the fire until it is cooked and intertwined, then leave it and sprinkle it with ground sugar.

A Dish of Eggplants. Boil eggplants and remove its flavor from the upper peel, pound all that flavor and put into a kettle a spoon and a half of oil, two of murri, pepper, caraway, some well-pounded onion, and salt. Put it on the fire and when it has boiled, throw in the pounded egg plants and stir it little by little, and when it is done, cover the contents of the pot with eggyolks and cover them with eggwhites, crumbs and walnuts, and when it is put into a dish, sprinkle it with pepper and cut rue over it.

A Dish Praised in Springtime for Those with Fulness and Those with Burning Blood. Take a chicken or taihûj partridge or black partridge or rump of veal, whichever of these is possible, and joint. Put in a pot [p. 28 recto] and put with it cilantro juice, cover it with concentrated ["evaporated"] vinegar, and put in sour apples, peeled and seeded, and their seeds are moderately cut up, and some Chinese cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and white pepper. Then take as much as you like of eggyolk, and beat with it enough to coat the cooked chicken, and cover the contents of the pot with it, and ladle it out. Sprinkle it with some spices and present it, God willing.

Recipe for Khubaiz with Meat. ... then take khubaiz [scribe erroneously writes khabîs, pudding], pound it and put it in the pot, stir it little by little and when the khubaiz [khabîs] is done, take it down to a clay dish, sprinkle it with fine spices, and present it, God willing.

The Making of Qâhiriyât. Take sugar and pound sweet almonds well; take equal parts of each in a mortar and mix them and knead them with fragrant rosewater, and perfume them with fine spices, like cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, lavender, pepper, galingale, and nutmeg. Add these in proportion to what the sugar and almonds can bear. Beat all this well and the kneading will be stronger. Then make small rings of this in the shape of ka'k. Then take a ratl or half a ratl of fine flour or as much as the sugar and crushed almonds can bear, knead it with khubaiz and salt and leave it until it rises. Then take some starch and put into that starch the dough with water. Then take a frying pan and clean it well and put in some fresh oil, and if it is oil of sweet almonds, it is better. Put this on the fire and when the oil boils, take the rings made before, [p. 28 verso] one after another, and dip [reading ghumisat for hummisat] them in that dough and throw them in that boiling oil, so that they cook before they are taken out, and they have begun to brown a very little. Arrange and order them on a dish in an attractive order. Then pour over them skimmed honey from the comb, or well-thickened julep syrup [i.e. rose-flavored sugar syrup], and sprinkle with ground sugar and present it, God willing.

The Making of Dafâir, Braids. Take what you will of white flour or of semolina, which is better in these things. Moisten it with hot water after sifting, and knead well, after adding some fine flour, leavening, and salt. Moisten it again and again until it has middling consistency. Then break into it, for each ratl of semolina, five eggs and a dirham of saffron, and beat all this very well, and put the dough in a dish, cover it and leave it to rise, and the way to tell when this is done is what was mentioned before [it holds an indentation]. When it has risen, clean a frying pan and fill it with fresh oil, then put it on the fire. When it starts to boil, make braids of the leavened dough like hair-braids, of a handspan or less in size. Coat them with oil and throw them in the oil and fry them until they brown. When their cooking is done, arrange them on an earthenware plate and pour over them skimmed honey spiced with pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, and lavender. Sprinkle it with ground sugar and present it, God willing.

The Making of Râs Maimûn, Monkey's Head. It is made with semolina, the same as before to the letter. Add some clarified butter, and to every ratl put in four or five eggs as we have said, and go on beating it continuously with water and butter until all the lumps are gone. Take a new, glazed pot with a belly and a neck, and sprinkle it with oil and butter until it is soaked. Then place the dough in the pot, only to the neck, and take a segment of cane, pierced at both ends, and place it in the middle of the pot, having greased it with clarified butter. Then leave the dough to rise, and the sign that it is done is making an indentation in it, as we have said. .. . [p. 30 recto] And when it rises, send it to the oven, put it far from the fire, and leave it until it is cooked and browned. When it comes from the oven, shake the pot well and carefully to separate the head from it. Then break it little by little so that the shape comes out in its proper form, and if it resists, pour in some honey and clarified butter, and continue being careful with it until it comes out whole, for the intent in this case is that it come out in the form of a human head. Then have care also in removing the cane, and fill the hole with honey and clarified and fresh butter, and put it, just as it is, in a dish and stick peeled pine-nuts and pistachios in it. Then pour melted clarified butter over it, sprinkle it with ground sugar and present it, God willing.

Recipe of the Necessities of Bread and Confection. Take a ratl of wheat flour and knead it with twenty egg yolks, a little water and oil. Then make small, very thin round flatbreads of it, and as soon as they are made, fry them in plenty of oil until they are close to browning. Put them in a dish, boil honey a little and clean it of its foam, and cut almonds and walnuts into the honey, pour it into the dish, sprinkle with sugar, set whole pine-nuts about, and present it.

Stuffed Monkey-Head. Take a ratl of wheat flour and knead it until it is a little soft, then mash it with half a ratl of clarified butter, water and ten eggs, and beat all this together gently until it softens. Then take a young pigeon and clean it, take out its innards and pound with a little onion, breadcrumbs and peeled almonds. Beat together five eggs, pepper, cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon, lavender, and some cilantro juice. Fill the young bird with this, insert a boiled egg in the stuffing and sew it up; put it in a pot with water, salt and oil. And when it is cooked, take a second pot with belly and neck, and put oil and rosewater in it; make meatballs of mutton or of chicken breast and cook with the necessary salt, water, crushed onion, citron leaves, and fennel stalks until it is cooked, and when it is done, cover the contents of the pot with six eggs, cold breadcrumbs, and wheat flour. Make four stuffed eggs and dot yolks over them, and when the cooking is done and the covering is wrinkled, take a frying pan to a weak fire with some oil, beat an egg with some pepper and salt, and spread it over the frying pan, which should be temperate of heat, until it fries and becomes very thin. Loosen it and put it in the bottom of the dish and make another egg [p. 30 verso] according to the same recipe. Then ladle the almonds and put the [egg] raghîfa (into the dish) and garnish with its meatballs and stuffed eggs, after cutting the latter in fourths. Put the stuffing between these and cover with another [egg] raghîfa so that none of the almond shows, and plant "eyes" of mint in it, and toasted almonds and pistachios, and present it, God willing.

A Dish of Partridge. Joint the partridge after cleaning it and put it in a pot. Throw in half a spoonful of vinegar, a spoon of oil, an eighth of a dirham of saffron, pine-nuts, crushed onion, spices, pepper and a dirham of Chinese cinnamon. Beat meatballs made from another partridge with sufficient salt and water; put it on a moderate fire and when it is done, cover the contents of the pot with four eggs and a little white flour, and take it out to the hearthstone so that the dough wrinkles. Hard-boil two eggs, ladle it out, and garnish it with the meatballs and yolks. Cut up two eggs fine and sprinkle them on the surface of the dish. Sprinkle it with fine spices and present it, God willing.

A Qâdûs with Meatballs. Make meatballs, in the way that they are made, with onion juice, a little cilantro juice, murri and spices. Beat them with eggwhite and then take a small, new pot, put in crushed onion with cilantro, salt, two spoonfuls of vinegar and one of the best murri, pine-nuts, a dirham of Chinese cinnamon, pepper, cinnamon, spices and a little water. Take this to the fire until it boils gently, and then make meatballs of the minced meat and throw them into the pot and boil until most of the water is gone. Cover the contents of the pot with two eggs and breadcrumbs and put on the eggyolk until the stuffing thickens. Then take the qâdûs and put oil on it, and you will have pounded meat well, as prescribed for the meatballs with cilantro juice, and beaten it with water, two or three eggs and a little white flour, put a little of this in the qâdûs and take out the meatballs in the pot and put them in the qâdûs over the ground meat and put on top of the rest of the ground meat. Cover it with a lid and watch the cooking carefully. When it is browned, put the qâdûs in cold water until it has cooled. Then empty it into a dish and throw the sauce and the remaining stuffing over and around it, and cut rue-leaves over it, sprinkle with pepper, cinnamon, and Chinese cinnamon, and serve it.

Preparation known as Hashîshiyya, a Grassy Dish. Take fat meat [from] the neck, breast, short (?) or shoulder, and cut small and fine. Take the coarse paunch, large intestine and bowels and cut small, and put in a pot with onion water, and turn it around in it so that it absorbs it. [Probable break; following looks like a continuation of the "Stuffed Monkey's Head" above.] Take some dough and put it in the lowest part of the pot, and put a small bird in it and put the rest of the dough on it, and let it rise a while, and send it to the oven. And when it is cooked, break the pot, after shaking it several times so that the dough is freed from the pot, and put it in a plate, whole, as it is. And boil clarified butter and honey and pour it on it, and decorate with toasted pine nuts and sprinkle with sugar and present, God willing.

A Recipe for Stuffed Qursas. Knead two ratls of white flour well with water, oil and leaven until it is as soft as dough or a little less. Then make a stuffing of sugar and almonds as is made for stuffed ka'k, and roll out half the dough with half the stuffing, and strike it with oil and make a small bread (khubza) from it, and leave it until it rises. Then put it in a new glazed tajine which has been greased with oil, and heat honey and pour it on it, after piercing all of it with the fingers, and leave until it absorbs the honey. Cut on it pine nuts and sprinkle with sugar and serve. And make from half the dough that remains thin qursas and stuff with the remaining stuffing, and fry them in fresh oil and put in a clay plate. Heat walnuts and boil a little in honey and pour over them and sprinkle with sugar, and serve.

Another Qursa Recipe … Then boil pounded walnuts in honey, and pour pistachios and pine nuts on them [the qursas] and sprinkle with sugar and serve.

Tharda with Flat Breads in a Tajine … Then split with a knife into two separate pieces, and sprinkle with sugar, and present, God willing.

Tharda of Isfunj with Milk … Then melt butter and throw on the tharid, and sprinkle with sugar and use, God willing

The Preparation of âdhân (Ears). Knead white flour with water and oil without leaven, then roll out little thin qursas, like the qursas of aqrû n, and let them be as big as the palm of a hand or bigger. Fold in two, and mix fold with fold, and open their edges, and fry, after inserting thin sticks into them so that the open ends do not seal. And when they are fried, make a filling of pistachios or almonds and sugar and knead with rosewater, and stuff the "ears" with them. Whoever wishes to aromatize the stuffing [with spices] may. Then pour into a plate and moisten with stiffly thickened rosewater syrup, after sprinkling with rosewater. And sprinkle with sugar, galingale [literally, "wood"], clove and ground cinnamon and use.

Stuffed Muqawwara, a Hollowed Pastry … Then boil fresh clarified butter and good honey, pour it on the muqawwara and when it makes a boiling sound, put the lid [the removed crust] back on top and seal it, and pour the rest of the honey and butter over the lid, sprinkle with sugar, and present it.

Recipe Known as the Tharda of the Emir. Knead white flour well with water, a little oil and leavening, make four thin raghîfs, and fry them in a frying pan with much fresh oil, until they brown a little, and take them out of the oil and pound them well. From the rest of the dough make little hollow things on the pattern of mujabbana (cheese pie), and make top crusts for them. Fry them in fresh oil, watch them and take care that they be white and not turn brown, and fry the top crusts also. Then take peeled pistachios, almonds, and pine-nuts, and sufficient sugar; pound them coarsely, spice them and knead them with sharp rosewater and mix with the ground raghîf and stir until completely mixed. Fill the hollow dumplings prepared earlier with this, and put on their covers, and proceed confident that they will not be overdone. Arrange them on a dish and put between them the rest of the filling and then sprinkle them with sharp rosewater until the dish is full. Sprinkle with plenty of ground sugar and present it. And if some syrup of thickened, honeyed rosewater syrup is dripped on it, it will be good, God willing.

Tharda of Meat. Cut up meat and put in a pot with oil, salt, an onion pounded with cilantro and spices. Cook until done, and throw in it meatballs already prepared. Stuff guts with its meat and put in it [guts or the pot?] whole almonds and pine nuts, and break in it [guts or pot ?] eggs. When the tharda is made, cut up the gut [viz., sausage] and put on the tharda with the meatballs and eggs. Scatter on it pepper and cinnamon. If you boil eggs and cut them into thirds or quarters and garnish with them, it is good, God willing.

Tharda of Meat and Eggplants. Cut up meat and put in a pot, and put with it onions, spices, salt, oil and vinegar. When it boils, pour on it water to cover, and crumble bread for it. Take eggplants and remove their calyxes [literally, "their burnouses"] and insides and what is appointed of their meat. Take that and put it together with a little meat, and cut up with it onions, and throw on it spices and cilantro and a little salt, and rue and murri, and pound all fine, and stuff [the eggplant skins] with it, and return the calyxes with thin pieces of wood, and put on the fire until done. And when it is done, garnish with breadcrumbs. It can be made otherwise and sprinkled with pepper and cinnamon.

Another, Called Mukallala (Crowned). Take a ratl of honey, or if you want, sugar, and put it in a boiling kettle. Throw on it saffron and pepper, and when it boils, sprinkle into it white flour little by little, and stir until it thickens, then moisten with fresh oil. Throw in a ratl of peeled almonds and stir, and when you take it from the fire and array it, put on it almonds and sugar, and pistachios dyed with heart of safflower and indigo, God willing.

Preparation of a Tharda of Two Chickens, One Stuffed With the Other. Kill two chickens [p. 35, verso] and inflate one of them at the time of its death from the place of killing [the throat], and tie the place of inflating tightly so that no air escapes, and pluck carefully so that the stitches stay intact and the air remains in it while you pluck it. When it is cleaned and its innards are removed, add them to the meat of the second chicken and its innards also, except for the breast meat, which is reserved and made into meatballs. Pound all the meat until it is like brains, and pick out the tendons, and throw on it in the mortar spices, murri, onion pounded with cilantro, salt, two eggs, walnuts and almonds or pine nuts, whichever of the two you can, and let some remain whole. Then mix everything and throw in fresh oil, after adding to it a little water, then stuff the chicken with it. And if there is not enough stuffing, increase it with meat when you make it. When the stuffing of the chicken is completed, put it in the pot and throw on it two spoonfuls of honey and a like amount of oil, and a little saffron and salt, and cover with water, and put on the fire until it begins to boil. Then leave it on a charcoal fire until nearly done. Then throw its meatballs and sanbusaks into it, and I shall describe the making of those at the completion of the tharda, God willing, as I shall describe the mixture of spices. Break eggs into the chicken broth, and when it is done, cover with two eggs. Make for it flatbreads of fine flour, the finest you can get, and do their cooking one on another in a plate, and cover them until, when as many as are needed of them are done, you throw the broth on them little by little, covering them even with a cloth or another plate. When you have taken enough, strain off the excess broth and put the chicken on the tharda and garnish with meatballs, sanbûsaks and eggs broken around it and on it, and sprinkle on it pepper, Chinese cinnamon and cinnamon, God willing.

Covered (Crusted) Tafâyâ. Put meat in a pot and put with it spices ...[two words missing: probably one of them is onions]... pounded and oil and fennel stalks and enough cilantro juice to cover the meat, and cook until it is ...[word missing: probably half]... done. Throw in meatballs and break into it eggs and cover with their whites along with cilantro juice, and leave on the hearthstone until it is done. Make stuffed gut from the meatball forcemeat and put in them whole almonds, and pine nuts, and [fry it and] cut it up and garnish the tafâyâ [scribe erroneously wrote "almonds"] with it along with the well-known meatballs, and ladle out and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon.

Stuffed Tafâyâ. Peel meat from its bones and make with it what is made into meatballs. Put the bones in a pot with meat, pounded onions, fennel stalks and enough cilantro juice to cover the bones, and cook until done. Then take the bones out and dress them with the pounded meat, and throw them into the pot, and boil carefully, and leave until it stiffens. Dot eggs over it and put with the meat meatballs, made as before with almonds and pine nuts. Ladle it out and garnish with stuffed gut and farthalât and eggs, and sprinkle with pepper, cinnamon and lavender.

TafâyâSaqlabiyya, Tafâ yâSaqaliba-Style. Take fat meat, soft small intestine and breast, for every ratl eight [boiled] eggs which have been cleaned and split into quarters, and cover with water, and skim until it is clear. When it is clear, throw on it an onion [scribe repeats the words "on it" but recipe requires an onion at this point], pepper and dry coriander, and put it on a charcoal fire and stir continuously until the onion and meat are done. When done, pound four garlic cloves from odor [? of great odor?] and throw them in the pot with a sprig of rue. Ladle out and sprinkle with pepper, cinnamon and lavender.

A Dish of Murri from Any Meat You Wish. Put meat in the pot and throw on it spices, an onion pounded with cilantro and salt, and throw on it three spoonfuls of murri [p. 37, recto] and one spoonful of vinegar, and the same of oil, and fry and cover with oil and cook until done and browned. Ladle out and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon. If you omit the vinegar, it is good, and if you throw in soaked garbanzos and a little rue, it is good, God willing.

Burâniyya. Cut up meat and put in a pot. Pound and put with it a spoonful of vinegar and the like of oil, and rue leaves. Fry and cover with water and cook. When it is nearly done, throw in meatballs, and complete its cooking. Then take boiled eggplants and remove their interior, and add to it the same amount of the well-known meatball forcemeat, and pound it with an egg, and stuff the eggplants with it. Dust with flour and fry until brown, and throw in the pot until you know that the forcemeat has bound, and ladle it out and sprinkle with pepper.

A Remarkable Dish in Which is Safî riyya of Eggs. Cut up any kind of meat you wish and put in a pot, and throw on it three spoonfuls of vinegar, one spoonful of murri, as much spice as you need, two onions pounded with salt, the juice of a large handful of cilantro, what pounded meat you want, and likewise pounded walnuts, and a handful of whole pine nuts and water to cover all until it cooks. Cover [the contents of the pot] with two eggs, then break however many eggs you want and brown them well and make of them a fine tajine, and turn them into the frying pan until they brown on both sides. Cut up like isfîriyya and fry it in the pot. Ladle it out and sprinkle with pepper and cut up rue, and serve, God willing. And if the meat is coarse, fry in oil and throw after that into the pot.

A Dish of Auhashi of Fat Ram. Cut the meat up small. Put (into a pot) a spoonful of vinegar, two spoonfuls of murri, a spoonful of oil, an onion pounded with cilantro, salt, spices, pepper, a little cinnamon and the same of whole fennel [râziyânaj], rue leaves and three heads of garlic, and cook it all until done. Take out as much meat as you can and pound with bread crumbs and two eggs, and cover the pot with it, and sprinkle with lavender, Chinese cinnamon and pepper, and serve.

A Dish With Eggplants. Cut up meat small and throw into a pot, and put with it half a spoonful of vinegar, a spoonful of murri, a like amount of fresh oil, spices and an onion pounded with cilantro and fry. Then cover with oil and cook until done. Then boil [p. 37, verso] the eggplants separately, and cut up into thirds and quarters and dust with flour and fry in oil. Throw them in the pot, and cover [its contents] and ladle out and sprinkle with cinnamon, lavender and pepper, and serve

Jimliyya. Cut up meat from the innards or elsewhere small. Put in a pot and put with it salt, cut-up onions, a little vinegar and good murri, pepper, lavender, cinnamon, almonds and sweet sweet [scribe repeats word] oil, and cook until done. Break eggs into it and cover it, and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon, and serve.

Dish of Meat with Walnuts and Mastic. Cut up the meat, after boiling it, and put with it half a dirham of mastic, pepper, cinnamon, lavender, garlic, rue, a little vinegar, oil, salt, whole onions, head (and) greens (or: whole green onions) and a little water. When you have done this, pound walnuts smoothly and pulverize them until they are white and thickened and throw into the pot and stir until they give out their oil and serve on walnut leaves; cover the contents of the pot with an egg and pour it out, sprinkle with pepper and spices and serve it, God willing.

Dish of Meat with Cauliflower. Cut up the well marbled meat and put with it the white part of scallions, salt and oil, fry and then pour over it a little water and throw in it after it has boiled cauliflower cut to the size of fingertips, after they have been half cooked; break eggs in it and cook until done with vinegar and murri. Cover the contents of the pot and sprinkle chopped cilantro on it, God willing.

Safarjaliyya, a Quince Dish. Take meat and cut it in pieces which then throw in the pot and throw on it two spoons of vinegar and oil, a dirham and a half of pepper, caraway, coriander seed and pounded onion; cover it with water and put it on the fire, clean three or four quinces or five and chop them up with a knife, as small as you can; cook them in water and when they are cooked, take them out of the water and when the meat is done throw in it this boiled quince and bring it to the boil two or three times; then cover the contents of the pot with two or three eggs [p. 38, recto] and take it off the fire, leave it for a little while, and when you put it on the platter, sprinkle it with some pepper, throw on a little saffron and serve it.

Partridge. Cut the partridge through all its joints, clean it and place in an earthenware pot and throw in salt, chopped onion, a spoon of murri and two of oil, chopped cilantro, pepper, some caraway and enough water; cook till done, then take a handful of coriander seed, ground as fine as kohl, break over it four eggs and cover the contents of the pot with them and throw some whole pine-nuts on it and serve, God willing.

Sliced Chicken. Slice the breast of the chicken, after cleaning it, and fry in the frying pan with fresh oil until it browns, then place in the earthenware pot with salt and onion-juice, a spoon of murri, two of oil and four of water, pepper, rue, thyme, chopped cilantro, pine-nuts and cut almonds; boil this on the fire and make meatballs with lamb meat, and cook with it; cover the contents of the pot with some of the stuffing and eggs; then boil the eggs separately and cut in quarters, arrange them with the almonds on the platter and sprinkle a little chopped rue on top and serve, God willing.

Chicken with Stuffed Eggplants. Boil the eggplants and take out the insides, beat with eggs, ground meat and all the flavorings, murri, onion juice, salt and chopped rue; stuff the eggplants with this and fry them in fresh oil until brown and the stuffing is cooked. Roast the chicken on a spit and baste it constantly with oil and murri beaten together until it is brown and take care that is does not touch the fire and burn; then place it on a platter and put around it citron leaves and the stuffed eggplants and decorate with sliced eggs, and chop some rue and serve.

A Coral Dish of Chicken. Roast the chicken, according to the recipe for roasting in the recipe previous to this one. Take a new pan and place in it two spoons of vinegar, one of murri, three of water and two of fresh oil, citron leaves, two fennel stalks, an onion pounded with salt, cilantro, a sprig of rue, another of thyme and skinned almonds and put the pot on a low fire; if you make lamb meatballs and fry and put in it, it is good. When the onion is done and the pot has boiled several times, dot with the yolks of eight eggs, cover the contents of the pot with the whites together with some white flour and pepper; put the roast chicken in it until the chicken absorbs the sauce and sprinkle with some murri; put on a platter and pour the sauce over, chop rue over it and serve, God willing.

To Make the Dish Asfar (The Yellow Dish). Cut the meat in the estimated quantity and throw on top of it half an onion pounded with salt, a spoon of vinegar, half a spoon of murri and the same amount of cilantro juice, and there is no need to increase the murri nor the coriander juice, because you are not making broth; and two spoons of fresh oil and all the previous spices, and go easy on the cumin, and enough water, but not too much. Then take about fifteen walnuts per ratl of butcher's meat, shell them and cut in halves and quarters; boil them and peel them and put in the pot about two thirds and reserve a third to cover the pot, and also throw in peeled almond and pine-nuts. You may make small meatballs and not fry them, but if you prefer them fried, do it. Take saffron according to the quantity of meat, a dirham and a half, grind half with water in the brass mortar until it is finely ground, and pour it into the pot as you begin to cook it. When the meat is done, cover [with] four egg yolks, and take the whites and beat with some white flour, and pound the rest of the walnuts until smooth and dissolve in the rest of the saffron. Beat it all and cover the contents of the pot with it; agitate carefully by the sides (of the pot) until the crust is cooked; take it for a while to the embers until it settles and the grease comes out. Ladle it out and garnish the platter with the walnuts, the meatballs and the yolks, and serve it. And if you make for this dish some very small sanbûsak and garnish the platter with it, it will be good, God willing.

Another Partridge Dish. Put an earthen pan (qaswila/cazuela) on the fire [p. 41, recto] and put in it a spoon of murri, another of oil and another of vinegar, spices, a whole onion cut in halves, sprigs of thyme and two eggs in their shells after being washed; cook it all until done, roast the partridge, cut it up and throw it in the sauce. After dissolving in the sauce the yolks of the two eggs, cut up the whites and sprinkle over the meat in the platter with pepper and cinnamon and serve, God willing

Jûdhâba with Qatâ if. Take a new qaswila [a cazuela or earthenware casserole] and wash it and pour in it fresh oil. Then put a qatâif or a ruqâq (thin flatbread), according to the size of the mold (the earthenware casserole); then break over it four eggs and a handful of ground sugar or honey, then add qatîfa [the rarely used singular of qatâif] in addition, or two ruqâqs, and break over them four eggs and a handful of sugar, and do all this the same as you would chicken. Then proceed to cover it all up with fresh milk and a little fresh oil; arrange it in the tannur or in the bread oven and put on it the chicken or a fat rib or whatever fat meat you wish and leave it until it is done, arrange it on the marble, sprinkle with sugar and serve, God willing. And if you want to use sugar or almonds in place of eggs, it is very excellent.

A Remarkable Stuffed Mutajjan (Fried Dish). Cut the meat up small and place in pot, and throw in spices and a little cumin, onion pounded with cilantro, salt, a spoon of vinegar and a little murri; cook until done, and then remove the meat from the sauce and fry it in the pan with oil until it is brown. Then take the necessary quantity of eggs, throw them in on it, after beating them very well in a platter, and leave them until they set and thicken. Then put the sauce in the pan and lift it with a knife around all its edges so that the sauce runs underneath and all is absorbed, and simmer until it thickens and stays rather smooth. Turn it onto the platter and sprinkle with rue and present it, if God wills. And if you make it with meatballs, it is good.

A Similar Mutajjan with Meat Balls … And if the tajine is made separately, arrange the meatballs with [p. 41, verso] the broth on the platter and pour over them the contents of the tajine, and it is good, and sprinkle it with rue, God willing.

A Remarkable Tajine. Beat the eggs with the meat, coriander, dried pepper, caraway, coriander juice and onion juice; pour into the pan and fry until browned and sprinkle with pepper and rue, God willing.

Another Tabâhajiyya. Slice the meat and sprinkle over it salt and pepper, fry with fresh oil until it is browned and its juices have dried into the oil; take a handful of almonds, which have been well ground and moistened with vinegar; cook in the pan and sprinkle minced celery leaf on it and cinnamon.

Another Tabâhajiyya. Cut the meat up small and fry in oil and salt; throw in some pepper, cumin, salt and a little vinegar and leave for a while and fry with fresh oil until browned. Take an egg and throw over it a spoon of vinegar and another of murri and the same of cilantro; stir it all and throw over the meat in the pan, leave and stir until it is good and serve it sprinkled with pepper, rue and cinnamon.

Another Tabâhajiyya. Cut the meat up small and fry with oil and salt, and when it is brown, cook it until done with vinegar. Pound a handful of almonds or walnuts and throw them on and boil a while. Take pomegranate juice and dissolve in it a lump of sugar, to get rid of its tartness, and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Another with Pistachios and Sugar. [p. 42, recto] Slice the meat, fry it, and cook with cilantro juice. Pound pistachio moistened with some water, murri and sugar; pour this over the meat in the pan and sprinkle with cinnamon and rue and serve it.

A Dish of Meatballs. Make meatballs, as told before, and put the pot on the fire. Put in it a spoon of vinegar and another of murri, spices, an onion pounded with cilantro and salt, a little thyme, a clove of garlic and enough rue and fresh water as needed until it is nearly done. Throw in the meatballs and dot with egg yolks and coat the contents of the pot with the whites, and add whole pine nuts and almonds. Ladle out and sprinkle with pepper, cinnamon and rue

A Roast of Meat. Chop meat of a young animal small and throw in enough salt, spices, a little cumin and the same amount of thyme, chopped garlic and vinegar; leave a little while, then roast, basting with oil and murri, and eat. And if you wish to sprinkle it with chopped rue, it will be good, God willing

A Roast of Meat. Roast salted, well-marbled meat [cut up] like fingertips, and put in a pot spices, onion, salt, oil and soaked garbanzos. Cook until done and add the roast meat; cover the contents of the pot with cilantro and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon; and if you add whole pine nuts or walnuts in place of garbanzos, it will be good.

Dish of Chicken. When it is Roasted Roast a fat hen and anoint it with salt, oil and thyme until it is browned and done; then cut it up and put in the pot and throw in two spoons of murri and the same of vinegar, a spoon of oil, onion chopped with cilantro, salt, spices, leaves of thyme and chopped rue. Put it all on the fire until it comes to a full boil and cook with the flavorings. Then grind up walnuts, almonds and pine nuts, leaving to the side some whole ones and beat [with] three eggs, and cover the contents of the pot with them, and dot with egg yolks and leave over the coals until they bind together and are good. Sprinkle it with pepper and cinnamon, God willing.

Preparing a Dish of Cardoons with Meat. Take meat and cut it up, put in the pot with water, salt, two spoons of murri, one of vinegar and another of oil, pepper, caraway and coriander seed. Put on the fire, and when it is cooked, wash the cardoons, boil, cut up small and throw over the meat. Boil a little, and cover the contents of the pot with two eggs and bread crumbs, and sprinkle pepper on it in the platter, God willing.

Making 'Umâniyya [or possibly 'Ammâniyya]. Cut up the meat and throw in the pot with pepper, cinnamon, spikenard, four and a half dirhams of each, and one thumn of honey, one fourth of a thumn of saffron, half a ratl of walnuts and three spoons of oil; when it is cooked, take a ratl of white flour, dissolve it in a dish with water, throw it in the pot and boil with everything; take care to stir it; put on a platter and sprinkle with sugar, God willing.

[p. 47, verso] Dish of Lamb With Truffles. Cut the meat small and boil with onion juice, pepper and salt, and when the water and the salt have disappeared, throw in the pot washed, chopped truffles, and when the truffles are done, sprinkle the pot with a little murri, after breaking into it what eggs you want; dish it up and sprinkle with cinnamon and chopped rue.

Chicken Covered With Walnuts and Saffron. Cut chicken in two, put in the pot, throw in onion pounded with cilantro, salt, spices, a spoon of vinegar and half a spoon of murri; fry until it smells good; then cover with water and cook till almost done: make meatballs from the chicken breast, and throw in the pot; dot with egg yolks and cover with the whites and pounded walnuts and saffron; ladle out and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon and serve, God willing.

Jaldiyya of Chicken. [p. 48, recto] Take a fat hen and remove its wings and the ends of its thighs; wash and put in a new pot with a third of a thumn of honey, salt, four dirhams of pepper and the same of cinnamon, a dirham of spikenard, a dirham of galingale and three of saffron, half a ratl of almond and a fourth of a ratl of pine nuts; take the pot to a gentle fire and let it come to a boil four times and it is done, and leave it over the coals and take three eggs and dot it with the yolks in the pot and cover with the whites, throw in the pot a round sponge, beaten with honey; dish up and sprinkle with spices and sugar.

Chicken Dish With Wine. Take a fat hen and clean it, put in the pot and along with it ten [hardboiled] eggs, which have been sliced like eggplants, a ratl of wine [Marginal notation in MS: "or in its place a ratl of honey, which is better and sweeter"], a fourth of a ratl of murri, the same of vinegar and of oil, two dirhams of pepper, one of cumin, several sprigs of thyme and enough salt; put a lid on the pot and seal the edges with dough, leaving an air-hole; break into it many eggs and cook until done on a slow coal fire, dish up and sprinkle with pepper and serve; and he who covers it with egg white and flour, it is very good. [grammatical incoherence in the original]

Stuffed Burâniyya. Take meat and chop it small; put, after washing, in a closed or sealed pot and cover with water, throw in enough oil, vinegar, murri, salt, fennel sprigs, citron leaves, a head of garlic and a whole onion; then put on a moderate fire and take the flesh of a leg, pound it very well and clean it with great care, throw in some white flour, cinnamon and what spices you can, egg white and enough of the meat; beat very well and make meatballs of the right size, throw in the pot until done and when it is done, take them out and fry them and also boil an egg, take off its shell and roll it up in some of this meat in the mortar and fry it also until it is browned; then take a handful of eggplants, which have been washed and boiled and take out what they have inside, beat in the mortar with the rest of the meat from the meatballs and stuff the eggplants with this, and cloak them also on the outsides [with the meat mixture] and fry in the skillet until brown; then, when you have fried that, throw it all in the pot after throwing in the first meat, and pour in the pot the rest of the oil in which the things were fried. And when that is done, take the pot to the embers until its surface cools and cover with crumbs of cold bread and the whites of four eggs and cook the yolks in the pot; then spoon out on the platter and garnish with its meatballs; slice those eggs wrapped with meat into quarters and garnish the platter with them along with the yolks [p. 49, recto] which remained in that (crumb-and-eggwhite) covering. Also cook an egg, peel it and chop it very small with some tender rue leaves and sprinkle with fine spices. If you wish to serve this dish with saffron, do so, God willing.

Honey Recipe. Take flesh from [a sheep's] tail, rump, belly and brisket or a fattened hen, whichever you have, after washing it, and put it in a new pot; cover with water and throw in a sufficient quantity of salt, a spoon of oil and another of honey, cleaned and split almonds and sufficient saffron, some two dirhams or thereabouts; then put the pot on a coal fire and when it is done, take out the meat and strain the broth. Then take six ratls of white honey, skimmed, and pour it on the sauce; take to the fire and do not stop stirring for any reason and when the honey is cooked, take a ratl of starch less a fourth -- this is for six ratls; and if it is less or more, use equivalent amounts. Add water; take off the fire and leave for its heat to break, then throw in starch and stir well until it is all mixed; then pour over all this four ratls of fresh oil and put on a very low fire and do not stop stirring it with the greatest care, as this will make it good or bad, and when it reaches the state of fâlûdhaj, take the pot off this fire to the hot embers; after pouring in the rest of the oil and returning the meat to it, take white flour, make it into a dough and from this make very small sanbûsak (samosas), and stuff them with sugar and pounded almonds, spiced with cinnamon, spikenard, Chinese cinnamon and pepper; knead all this with rosewater and then fry in the skillet; then ladle the dish of honey in an earthenware dish and put these sanbûsak on it and add some shelled pine nuts, then sprinkle with ground sugar and cinnamon, God willing.

Preparing Saqlabiyya (Dish of the Saqaliba) … cut the gut with the egg which is inside and beat between the meatballs and sprinkle with fine spices and serve, God willing.

Recipe for a Good Dish … then dish up and sprinkle with spices, decorate with the egg yolks and serve.

Recipe for the Chicken Dish known as Sabâhi (of morning) … Then put it in a dish and sprinkle it with fine spices.

Recipe for a Dish of Partridge with Honey … Then sprinkle it with fine spices and present it.

Recipe for the Dish Known as Maghmû m (Veiled) …When what has been described has been finished, put it on a platter, dust it with fine spices, and serve it, if God wills.

Recipe for a Dish of Pullet or Partridge. Clean whichever you have of them, after letting it hang overnight in its feathers. Put it in a pot with dried, ground coriander, caraway, pounded onion, sufficient salt for the pot and two spoonfuls of fresh oil. Take the breast of whichever fowl, before it touches the water, pound it and make well-shaped meatballs, and throw them in the pot. When it is almost done and it is just ready, take it to the coals. Take some mint juice and beat it with cold breadcrumbs and some flour with five or six eggs, after taking out some yolks. When the crust has congealed, make a tharida out of thin flatbreads of fine flour and moisten it with the sauce [p. 70, verso] until it is soaked evenly, and put the fried fish [or: the boiled bird] on top, after cutting it down the middle so that the eggs are sliced which you inserted in the center of it, the interior of it. Pile it up with the meatballs and garnish the tharida with them and with almonds and pine-nuts, and present it, God willing.

Soldiers' Couscous. (Kuskusû Fityâni) The usual moistened couscous is known by the whole world. The fityâni is the one where the meat is cooked with its vegetables, as is usual, and when it is done, take out the meat and the vegetables from the pot and put them to one side; strain the bones and the rest from the broth and return the pot to the fire; when it has boiled, put in the couscous cooked and rubbed with fat and leave it for a little [p. 57, verso -- HM actually says p. 57, recto here] on a reduced fire or the hearthstone until it takes in the proper amount of the sauce; then throw it on a platter and level it, put on top of it the cooked meat and vegetables, sprinkle it with cinnamon and serve it. This is called Fityâni in Marrakesh.

Tharid that the People of Ifriqiyya (Tunisia) Call Fatîr. It is one of the best of their dishes. Among them this fatir is made with fat chicken, while others make it with the meat of a fat lamb. Take whatever of the two you have on hand, clean and cut up. Put it in the pot with salt, onion, pepper, coriander seed and oil, and cook it until it is done; then take out the meat from the pot and let the broth remain, and add to it both clarified and fresh butter, and fry [or boil] it. Then fabricate crumbs of a fatîr that have been prepared from well-made layered thin flatbread cooked in the tajine with sourdough, and repeatedly moisten the dish [evidently, the dish in which the crumbs are] until it's right. Then spread on it the meat of that chicken, after frying it in the pan with fresh oil or butter and dot it with egg yolks, olives and chopped almonds; sprinkle it with cinnamon and serve it.

[p. 58, verso] Preparation of the Cooking of Itriyya. Take the hind ends of the meat, fat tail, chest, waist and whatever of those parts that may be fat, cut and put in a pot with salt, pepper, coriander seed and oil; put it on a moderate fire and cook it until it is done; then take it from the pot and clarify the sauce, return it to the pot and add fresh or clarified butter or fresh oil; when it has boiled, put in itriyya in a sufficient quantity, boil it and stir it gently and when the water dries up and it is ready, take it off the fire and leave it for a little; empty it into the platter and level it until the fat separates, then take that meat cooked as it is or fried, whichever you want, and arrange it on the platter, pound some of it on the itriyya and sprinkle it with cinnamon and ginger and serve it. You can make rice and noodles according to this recipe

Preparation of Rice Cooked Over Water. [a double boiler method] Take rice washed with hot water and put it in the pot and throw to it fresh, pure milk fresh from milking; put this pot in a copper kettle that has water up to the halfway point or a little more; arrange the copper kettle on the fire and the pot with the rice and milk well-settled in it so that it doesn't tip and is kept from the fire. Leave it to cook without stirring, and when the milk has dried up, add more of the same kind of milk so that the rice dissolves and is ready; add to it fresh butter and cook the rice with it; when the rice is done and dissolved, take off the pot and rub it with a spoon until it breaks up; then throw it on the platter and level it, dust it with ground sugar, cinnamon and butter and use. With this same recipe one cooks itriyya, fidaush and tharî d al-laban [milk tharid].

Recipe for Milk Tharîd. Take fresh sheep's milk, because you don't prepare this except with sheep's milk still warm from milking, and put it in a clean pot on a moderate fire; stir it gently from time to time, add fresh butter and continue stirring it until it thickens and forms a white foam on top; then add crumbs of thin flatbread made with semolina or wheat flour, of middling sourness, crumbled as fine as possible, and leave it until it is all absorbed and it is finished; then throw it on a platter; make in its center a hollow filled with fresh butter and sprinkle it with a lot of sugar and cinnamon and use it.

Recipe for Folded Bread from Ifriqiyya. Take coarsely ground good semolina and divide it into three parts. Leave one third aside and knead the other two well and it is made from it. Roll out thin bread and grease it. Sprinkle some of the remaining semolina on top and fold over it and roll it up. Then roll it out a second time and grease it, sprinkle some semolina on top and fold it over like muwarraqa (puff pastry). Do this several times until you use up the remaining third of the semolina. Then put it in the oven and leave it until it sets. Remove it when tender but not excessively so. If you want, cook the flatbreads at home in the tajine. Then crumble it and with the crumbs make a tharid like fatir, either with milk like tharid laban, which is eaten with butter and sugar, or with chicken or other meat broth, upon which you put fried meat and a lot of fat. Dust it with cinnamon and serve it.

How Rice Is Cooked in the East. [p. 59, verso] Take rice washed with hot water and put it in a pot and with the rice put fat mutton, from the chest, the hind parts and from the waist, and the fat and the leg bones. Add water to cover it plus a little more and sufficient salt. Put it in the bread oven overnight and take it out the next morning. When it is all mushy, turn it onto a platter and dust it with cinnamon, spikenard, ginger and ground sugar. You can cook this at home with fresh milk and it is better and more delicious.

Jûdhâba Beneficial for the Cold and It Strengthens Coitus. Take walnut kernels and hulled almonds, hazelnuts, kernels of pine nuts and pistachios, a quarter of a ratl of each. Grind them in a wooden or stone mortar until it is like fine flour. Add two-thirds of a ratl of bread crumbs made from semolina and two ratls of ground meat from the shoulder of a sheep, cleaned of its tendons. Break in fifteen eggs and beat it all together. Add ginger, galingale, pepper, cloves and Chinese cinnamon, one part of each; a dirham of mastic and of saffron, of each one half a dirham and of oil a good half ûqiya. Put it all in a new pot and throw in a ratl and a half of fresh milk. Lower it into the tannur (clay oven). Seal it and leave it until it is done, binds together, and is ready. Take it out, scatter ground sugar on it and serve it.

Preparation of Musammana [Buttered] Which Is Muwarraqa [Leafy]. Take pure semolina or wheat flour and knead a stiff dough without yeast. Moisten it little by little and don't stop kneading it [p. 63, verso] until it relaxes and is ready and is softened so that you can stretch a piece without severing it. Then put it in a new frying pan on a moderate fire. When the pan has heated, take a piece of the dough and roll it out thin on marble or a board. Smear it with melted clarified butter or fresh butter liquified over water. Then roll it up like a cloth until it becomes like a reed. Then twist it and beat it with your palm until it becomes like a round thin bread, and if you want, fold it over also. Then roll it out and beat it with your palm a second time until it becomes round and thin. Then put it in a heated frying pan after you have greased the frying pan with clarified butter, and whenever the clarified butter dries out, moisten [with butter] little by little, and turn it around until it binds, and then take it away and make more until you finish the amount you need. Then pound them between your palms and toss on butter and boiling honey. When it has cooled, dust it with ground sugar and serve it.

Recipe for Honeyed Rice. Take rice and soak it in fresh water, enough to cover it, for a day or overnight. Then wash it and put it on the fire in a pot or kettle (tinjir). Cook it with water or fresh milk, then add four or five ratls of clean honey from which you have skimmed the foam. Cook it carefully on a gentle fire. Moisten it, while cooking, with fresh milk until it sticks together, coagulates and becomes a paste. Pour it onto a platter and macerate it with a spoon. Make a hole in the center which you fill with fresh, melted butter and dust it with ground sugar and cinnamon and use it.

Manner of Making it. Knead wheat or semolina flour with some yeast into a well-made dough and moisten it with water little by little until it loosens. If you moisten it with fresh milk instead of water it is better, and easy, inasmuch as you make it with your palm. Roll it out and let it not have the consistency of mushahhada, but firmer than that, and lighter than musammana dough. When the leaven begins to enter it, put the frying pan on the fire with a lot of oil, so that it is drenched with what you fry it with. Then wet your hand in water and cut off a piece of the dough. Bury inside it the same amount of rubbed cheese. Squeeze it with your hand, and whatever leaves and drains from the hand, gather it up [? the meaning of this verb eludes me] carefully. Put it in the frying pan while the oil boils. When it has browned, remove it with an iron hook prepared for it and put it in a dipper ["iron hand"] similar to a sieve held above the frying pan, until its oil drips out. Then put it on a big platter and dust it with a lot of sugar and ground cinnamon. There are those who eat it with honey or rose syrup and it is the best you can eat.

Recipe for Qaijâta, Which is Made in al-Andalus, and it is called "Seven Bellies." Take moist, fresh cheese and knead it in the hands; then take a deep, wide-bellied clay tajine [tâjin min hantam] and in the bottom of it put a thin flatbread, made like kunafa. Put the cheese over this, and then a[nother] flatbread (raghîf), and do this until there remains a third to a quarter of the pan. Pour fresh oil over it, place it in the oven, and leave it a little; then take it out, moisten it with a little fresh milk, and return it to the oven, and take it out and moisten with fresh milk and return to the oven thus until the milk and the oil disappear. Leave it until its surface is browned to the color of musk; then take it out and pour skimmed honey cleaned of its foam, or rose syrup, over it. There are those who sprinkle it with ground sugar and spices, and others who leave it be.

Recipe for Mushahhada (Honeycombed), which is Muthaqqaba (Pierced). The mushahhada is the best of [p. 65, recto] the rafis dishes, all of them, the lightest, the most quickly digested, and the healthiest, because yeast is in it and it is kneaded firmly. Take good semolina and knead it with yeast. Moisten it with water little by little until it becomes slack and like thick hasu, in such a manner that you throw it in the frying-pan and it spreads out over the pan. Cover it and leave it a while. Then go back and do the same thing again until you are done kneading, it rises and you see that bubbles rise. Then set up a ceramic [hantam] frying pan over a hot fire, or an iron frying pan over a moderate fire, and when it has heated, rub it with a cloth soaked in fresh clarified butter or oil. Take up some of the batter in a cup and pour it in the middle, to the desired size, either great or small, and turn over on it a stoneware plate until it is done and pierced, and keep on greasing the pan and pouring dough [rather, batter] until it is used up. Then melt fresh butter and clean honey, and pour them over the mushahhadas in a serving dish, leave it a while until they are proper, sprinkle it with ground sugar, and serve. There are those who add eggs as necessary to the batter.

Rafîs Cooked with Soft Cheese. Take flatbreads kneaded with eggs. Crumble very finely the necessary amount. Rub fresh cheese after adding salt, a little more than the loaves, and put aside. Then take a kettle (tinjir), put in sufficient honey, and clean it of its scum. Add fresh oil and then add the aforementioned crumbs and cheese. Keep stirring it gently with a spoon, little by little, until the oil disappears. Turn it onto a platter, smooth it, and dust it with sugar and ground cinnamon.

Qursa (Small Round Flat Loaf) with Dates, One of the Dishes of the People of Ifriqiyya. Take good semolina, knead it, and make thin flatbreads of it, and cook them, but not too long so they lose their tenderness. Then crumble them very finely and put them over a moderate fire, and pour in fresh, odorless oil, and cover it with the oil. Then take good Shaddâkh dates, as much as the crumbs, and there are those who use more Shaddâkh dates than crumbs. After cleaning them of their stones and pellicles, pound them in a mortar until they are like rose jam, and put it in the tinjir [kettle] with boiling oil. Stir it with a spoon, and when it dissolves in the oil, throw in the breadcrumbs little by little, and stir until it is blended and there is no distinction between the crumbs and the dates and they are a single mass, like a paste, then remove it from the fire, and the oil will disappear; leave it a while, then sprinkle it with sufficient cinnamon, spikenard, cloves, ginger, and galingale. Stir it with a spoon until the spices are mixed in, and pour it into a dish. Even out the bread, smooth it out, make a hole in the middle, and fill it with the butter in which it was cooked. Sprinkle it with sugar, spikenard, and cloves. Insert split almonds and fâ nîd, and serve it. According to this recipe it lasts for the space of many days [p. 66, verso] and does not spoil or change.

Recipe for Tarfist, a Dish of the People of Fez. Knead the finest white flour, or semolina, and make flatbreads, cook them in a tannur or in the (bread) oven over a moderate fire, and crumble them small. Take skimmed honey and dilute it with the same amount of fresh water, and throw in as much saffron as will color the crumbs to the desired tint. Then throw in these crumbs and stir it until it takes body like a paste, and continue stirring. When it hardens, turn it out in a bowl after sprinkling it with plenty of split almonds, and stir it until it is mixed. Make a hole in the middle and fill it with aromatic clarified butter or fresh butter, sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, spikenard, cloves and fanid, and present it.

Preparation of Khushkalân. Take coarse semolina and rub it with plenty of clarified butter and fresh oil. Soak it in a little water, and do not handle it too much, lest the dough be dry. Then make flatbreads filled with the filling described for ka'k, and diverse shapes. Cut them with shears or a knife, and shape them into rings and semicircles, ka'k and small and large flatbreads This is the true khushkalan. Then fry it in fresh oil, take it out, and sprinkle it with spikenard and ground sugar.

The Dish Ghassâni. Take a ratl of meat, without bones, from a fat sheep. Cut it and put it in a pot. Cook also a white tafâyâ, and when the meat is done, throw in four ratls of clarified honey and a ratl of peeled, pounded almonds. Color with saffron and pour on half a ratl of oil, and stir over a gentle fire until the cooking is done, and pour it into a dish and sprinkle it with minced sugar and ground Chinese cinnamon.

Sukkariyya, A Sweet of Sugar. Take a ratl of ground sugar and two thirds of a ratl of white bread crumbs scraped until they become like semolina flour. Add eggs and beat them with the flour and sugar. Then put a frying pan on a gentle fire with a ratl of fresh oil. When it boils, toss in these crumbs and the sugar beaten with eggs. Stir it on a gentle fire until it binds and cools. Dust with sugar, spikenard and cinnamon.

Making of Elegant Isfunja. ("Sponge") You take clear and clean semolina and knead it with lukewarm water and yeast and knead again. When it has risen, turn the dough, knead fine and moisten with water, little by little, so that it becomes like tar after the second kneading, until it becomes leavened or is nearly risen. Take a small new jug, wet it in water and then in clarified butter or fresh oil until it is soaked. Then take a fat reed. Cut off a length to reach to the bottom of the pot. Grease the reed with oil and put the lid on the pot and seal (the lid to the pot) with clay with the reed inside, and put it in the oven with bread, and let it be in the middle of the bread. When the bread is done, know that it (the "sponge") is also ready. Take it out, remove the clay and take out the reed. Take fresh or clarified butter and honey. Heat them [p. 74, verso] and pour them into the pot in the place where you removed the reed and leave it until the "sponge" soaks it up. When it has absorbed it, add butter or honey until it soaks up more. Then break the pot away from it, put it on a platter and cut it as you would cut watermelon. Chop almonds and walnuts and pine nuts and pistachios and lump white sugar and sprinkle it over it ...[about two words missing]... with cinnamon, Chinese cinnamon or the like, if God wishes.

Preparation of Qursas. Take very white flour and knead it with milk, salt and yeast. And when you have kneaded it considerably, leave it until it rises. Then take one egg or several, according to the quantity of the dough. Break them in a bowl and beat them. Moisten the dough with them little by little and knead it until it slackens. Take a new frying pan and shower it with clarified butter or fresh oil. Take a handful of the dough and spread it in the pan. Put over it a layer of almonds and pistachios, or whichever one you have. When the almonds cover the dough, put another dough on the almonds, and so on, layer on layer. In this way you fill the frying pan up to two fingers (from its rim). Put it in the oven with the bread and when it is done, prick it with a knife and take it out as it is. Heat honey and clarified butter and pour over, and when it has soaked them up, throw it on a platter and sprinkle over it Chinese cinnamon and cinnamon and serve it, if God wishes.