The Preparation of Jaldiyya (Leathery)

Make this dish with a goose, hen or capon. Take what you have of it, clean it and put it in a pot. Then take two ratls of raisins and pound them fine and steep them in water until their sweetness comes out, and strain and put the strained part in the pot and add three spoonfuls of strong vinegar and two of oil, as well as pepper, coriander and half a chopped onion. Balance it with salt and cook it until it is done and the sauce thickens. Then take peeled, pounded almonds, the same of walnuts, and grated breadcrumbs, pepper and six eggs and cover the contents of the pot with them after cooking. And dot it with eggyolks and leave it on the hearthstone until its fat rises.

Recipe for Thû miyya, a Garlicky Dish

Take a plump hen and take out what is inside it, clean that and leave aside. Then take four û qiyas of peeled garlic[19] and pound them until they are like brains, and mix with what comes out of the interior of the chicken. Fry it in enough oil to cover, until the smell of garlic comes out. Mix this with the chicken in a clean pot with salt, pepper, cinnamon, lavender, ginger, cloves, saffron, peeled whole almonds, both pounded and whole, and a little murri naqî '. Seal the pot with dough, place it in the oven and leave it until it is done. Then take it out and open the pot, pour its contents in a clean dish and an aromatic scent will come forth from it and perfume the area. This chicken was made for the Sayyid Abu al-Hasan[20] and much appreciated.

A Chicken called Ibrâ hî miyya[21]

Take a cleaned hen and make two pieces from each limb, and place it in a pot with salt, onion, pepper, cilantro, saffron and split almonds. Pour over it two spoonfuls of oil and two more of vinegar and five of sugared rose syrup, put it over a moderate fire and leave it until it is cooked. Then take four eggs and beat them with some fine flour in rosewater, saffron, lavender and cloves, cut them with some camphor and cover the contents of the pot with it. Leave it on the hearthstone a while and use it.

Mahshi, a Stuffed Dish

It is made with a roast hen, or with young pigeons or doves, or small birds, or with the meat of a young lamb. Take what you have of this, clean it, cut it up and put it in a pot with salt, a piece of onion, pepper, coriander, cinnamon, saffron, some murri naqî ' and plenty of oil. Put this on the fire and when it is done and the broth has formed, take out the meat from the pot and leave it aside. Take as much as necessary of grated white breadcrumbs and stir them in a tajine with the remaining chicken fat and sauce. Tint it with plenty of saffron and add lavender, pepper and cinnamon. When the breadcrumbs have come apart, break over it enough eggs to cover [" flood" ] it all and sprinkle it with peeled, split almonds. Beat all this until it is mixed, then bury the pieces of chicken in this so that the chicken is hidden in the stuffing and whole eggyolks, and cover this with plenty of oil. Then place in the oven and leave it until it is dry, thickened and browned and the top of the tajine is bound. Then take it out and leave it until its heat passes and it cools, and use it.

The making of Badî 'i, the Remarkable Dish

Take the meat of a very plump lamb and cut it in small pieces and put them in a pot with a little salt, a piece of onion, coriander, lavender, saffron and oil, and cook it halfway. Then take fresh cheese, not too soft in order that it will not fall apart, cut it with a knife into sheets approximately the size of the palm, place them in a dish, color them with saffron, sprinkle them with lavender and turn them until they are colored on all sides. Place them with the cooked meat in the pot or in a tajine and add eggs beaten with saffron, lavender and cinnamon, as necessary, and bury in it whole eggyolks and cover with plenty of oil and with the fat of the cooked meat. Place it in the oven and leave it until the sauce is dry and the meat is completely cooked and the upper part turns red [" browns" --CP, but turns red in my experience. DF]. Take it out, leave it a while until its heat passes and it is cool, and then use it.

Another Badî 'i

Rub cheese in a dish, with the hand or in the palm, until it is like crumbs, and beat it with eggs, saffron and the aforementioned spices, sauce and grease from cooked meat, then put it in a pot or a tajine and add the cooked meat and drown it with oil and milk and put it in the oven, and leave it until it is dry and browned on top, and take it out and leave it a while.

Tajine with Cheese

Take soft cheese, not fresh that day but that has passed three or four days, and rub it in the hand. To two ratls of this add two û qiyas of white flour, put it in fresh milk and break in ten eggs and sprinkle with pepper, saffron, cinnamon, lavender, and coriander. Beat all this together in the tajine and when it is thick, moisten it with fresh milk and cover it all with plenty of oil. Bury in it fried small birds or cut-up pigeons, eggyolks, and split almonds. Put in a moderately hot oven and leave until it is dry and thickened and browned on top, take it out so it can cool, and use it. This dish may be made green [mukhdarr; text has mukhtasar, meaning " abbreviated" ] with water of coriander seed and of cilantro and mint water in place of saffron, and another dish will result. And he who wishes to make this tajine with cheese alone, without fowl or meat, shall do so in the same way, and in each of these ways it is good.

Recipe for Barmakiyya[22]

It is made with a hen, pigeons, doves, small birds or lamb. Take what you have of them, after cleaning, and cut up and put in a pot with salt, an onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or cinnamon, some murri naqî ', and oil. Put it on a gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce is dried. Take it out and fry it in fresh oil without overdoing it, and leave it aside. Then take fine flour and semolina, make a well-made dough with leaven, and if it has some oil it will be more flavorful. Then roll out from it a flatbread and put inside it the fried and cooked meat of these birds, cover it with another flatbread and stick the ends together. Put it in the oven, and when the bread is done, take it out. It is very good on journeys. You might make it with fish and that can be used for journeying too.

The Preparation of Bilâ ja

Take the meat of young, plump sheep, without bones or tendons -- rather, pieces of its meat and its fat, waist, intestines, liver, heart and belly. Cut all this in very small pieces and put them in a pot with salt, a piece of onion, coriander, oil and a little murri naqî '. Put it on a moderate fire and cook it until it is done. Remove it from the fire, strain off the sauce, and fry [the meat] in a tajine with plenty of oil until it is browned. Then put it in another pan and pour over it as much as necessary of the fat and broth in which it cooked. Break over it enough eggs and add pepper, coriander, and lavender, and sprinkle it with peeled, split almonds, color it with saffron to taste, and beat it until it is mixed. Pour on plenty of oil and bury inside it as many eggyolks as possible, put it in the oven and leave it there until the broth is dried and the top is browned, and take it out. This recipe for bilâ ja is the one that used to be made in the West, such as Cordoba and Marrakesh and the lands between them.

A Dish With Prunes (Ijjâ s)[23]

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, [24] from each of these will come another dish.

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