Kinds of Starch Dishes: Couscous, Rice, Meat Porridges (Harisas), Noodles and the Like.

Tharî das[144] are heavy and phlegmatic. However, they moisten dry bodies and are good and beneficial for them, very nutritious, of much chyme for him who has that temperament. They are also good for young people, especially what are tempered with vinegar and meat of fat calves and what you may want of spices and those of unleavened dough and the like, because they are heavier and slower to digest and of more phlegm and cause constipation. The use of rich tharidas is more beneficial in winter than in summer because of the strength in digesting in winter, unless one tempers them with vinegar and light meats, like lamb, kid, and chicken and with gourd and vinegar and with purslane and saltwort, because these belong to summer and autumn on account of the dryness that governs these two seasons, especially in the dry and warm temperaments that are naturally fond of eating tharidas.

The Perfect Tharî d (The Complete Tharî d)

Take fat beef from the chest, hip, shoulder blade, waist, neck, belly and from the fatty sites, cut it up and put it in a big pot with salt, [p. 57, recto] onion, pepper, ginger, coriander seed, cumin and a quantity of oil, cook it over a moderate fire until it is ready; take the meat out of the pot and leave it to one side. Then take meat from a fat sheep, and do the same with it; cook it also in the pot with the spices that go best with it and oil until it is done and leave it also and the same with cooked chicken and young domestic pigeons or turtledoves cooked separately and fried birds. Take the broths of these specified meats and put them together in a clean pot, after removing the bones and add to it what is needed of strong vinegar, saffron, and pepper and what is needed of spices and prunes infused with vinegar; cook until it is done and moisten with it a tharid crumbled from white bread crumbs and leavened semolina well kneaded and baked. When it is properly moistened, put its meat on top. Arrange the beef in a circle on the dish, and near it the lamb, and on top of it the chickens, and at the lowest part of the platter put the pigeons and turtledoves. Spot on top of it the fried birds, meatballs and fried sausage, the ahrash, egg yolks, olives and chopped almonds; then sprinkle it with the necessary amount of ground pepper [the text says spikenard, but that is certainly a scribal error] and cinnamon; cover it with a flatbread (raghî fa) or isfî riyâ and serve it. It is a dish of kings and viziers.

Vinegar Tharî da, Which is One of the Best

Take the fatty meat from the fattest parts, chop it and put it in the pot with salt, onion, pepper, saffron, cumin, garlic, strong vinegar and a quantity of oil, put it on a moderate fire and when the meat is done put in what you have of vegetables, such as large tender turnips, eggplants and gourds, peeled and cooked separately [from the meat]. As for the eggplants, make the tharida with them whole and uncut, and the turnips likewise, and the gourds [should be] the largest possible, after pressing out their water. And add vinegar to taste and when it is all cooked, take it off the fire, moisten with it the crumbled tharid of leavened bread and repeat the moistening until it is ready, pour the couscous on it and it turns out marvelously.

Soldiers' Couscous (Kuskusû Fityâ ni)

The usual moistened couscous is known by the whole world. The fityâ ni 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[145] 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 Fityâ ni[146] in Marrakesh.

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