The Thousand and One Nights, Vol. I.: Commonly Called the Arabian Nights' Entertainments

“A whole lamb, stuffed in the same manner as the fowls above mentioned, is not a very uncommon dish; but one more extraordinary, of which 'Abd-El-Laṭeef gives an account[161] as one of the most remarkable that he had seen in Egypt, I am tempted to describe. It was an enormous pie, composed in the following manner:--Thirty pounds of fine flour being kneaded with five pounds and a half of oil of sesame, and divided into two equal portions, one of these was spread upon a round tray of copper, about four spans in diameter. Upon this were placed three lambs, stuffed with pounded meat fried with oil of sesame and ground pistachio-nuts, and various hot aromatics, such as pepper, ginger, cinnamon, mastic, coriander-seed, cumin-seed, cardamom, nut [or nutmeg?], &c. These were then sprinkled with rose-water infused with musk; and upon the lambs, and in the remaining spaces, were placed twenty fowls, twenty chickens, and fifty smaller birds; some of which were baked, and stuffed with eggs; some, stuffed with meat; and some, fried with the juice of sour grapes, or that of limes, or some similar acid. To the above were added a number of small pies; some filled with meat, and others with sugar and sweetmeats; and sometimes, the meat of another lamb, cut into small pieces, and some fried cheese. The whole being piled up in the form of a dome, some rose-water infused with musk and aloes-wood was sprinkled upon it; and the other half of the paste first mentioned was spread over, so as to close the whole: it was then baked, wiped with a sponge, and again sprinkled with rose-water infused with musk.--A dish still more extraordinary will be described in a note on public Royal feasts.”

Recipe from The Book of Household Management of 1861.

“Among the more common dishes are the following:--lamb or mutton cut into small pieces, and stewed with various vegetables, and sometimes with peaches, apricots, or jujubes, and sugar; cucumbers or small gourds, or the fruit of the black or white egg-plant, stuffed with rice and minced meat, &c.; vine-leaves or pieces of lettuce-leaf or cabbage-leaf, enclosing a similar composition; small morsels of lamb or mutton, roasted on skewers, and called "kebáb;" fowls simply roasted or boiled, or boned, and stuffed with raisins, pistachio-nuts, crumbled bread, and parsley; and various kinds of pastry, and other sweets. The repast is frequently commenced with soup; and is generally ended with boiled rice, mixed with a little butter, and seasoned with salt and pepper; or after this, is served a water-melon or other fruit, or a bowl of a sweet drink composed of water with raisins, and sometimes other kinds of fruit, boiled in it, and then sugar, and with a little rose-water added to it when cool. The meat, having generally little fat, is cooked with clarified butter, and is so thoroughly done that it is easily divided with the fingers.”

Recipe from New system of domestic cookery, formed upon principles o of 1806.

“NOTE 7.--_On Public Royal Feasts._ On certain periodical festivals, and on other occasions (as those of the kind here described), it has long been, and still is, a custom of Muslim princes to give public feasts to all classes of their subjects, in the palace. El-Maḳreezee quotes a curious account of the feasts which were given on the festival following Ramaḍán to the inhabitants of Cairo, by the Fáṭimee Khaleefehs.[365] At the upper end of a large saloon was placed the sereer (or couch) of the monarch, upon which he sat with the Wezeer on his right. Upon this seat was placed a round silver table, with various delicacies, of which they alone ate. Before it, and extending nearly from the seat to the other extremity of the saloon, was set up a kind of table or platform (simáṭ) of painted wood, resembling a number of benches placed together, ten cubits (or about eighteen or nineteen feet) in width. Along the middle of this were arranged twenty-one enormous dishes, each containing twenty-one baked sheep, three years old, and fat; together with fowls, chickens, and young pigeons, in number three hundred and fifty of each kind; all of which were piled together in an oblong form, to the height of the stature of a man, and enclosed with dry sweetmeat. The spaces between these dishes were occupied by nearly five hundred other dishes of earthenware; each of which contained seven fowls, and was filled up with sweetmeats of various kinds. The table was strewn with flowers; and cakes of bread made of the finest flower were arranged along each side. There were also two great edifices of sweetmeats, each weighing seventeen hundred-weights, which were carried thither by porters with shoulder-poles; and one of these was placed at the commencement, and the other at the close, of this sumptuous banquet. When the Khaleefeh and Wezeer had taken their seats upon the couch, the officers of state who were distinguished by neck-rings or collars,[366] and the inferior members of the court, seated themselves in the order of their respective ranks; and when they had eaten, they gave place to others. Two such feasts, given on the festival after Ramaḍán and on the "great festival," cost four thousand deenárs, or about two thousand pounds sterling.--Two military officers, named Ibn-Fáïz and Ed-Deylemee, distinguished themselves at these feasts in a very remarkable manner. Each of them used to eat a baked sheep, and ten fowls dressed with sweetmeats, and ten pounds of sweetmeats besides, and was presented with a quantity of food carried away from the feast to his house, together with a large sum of money. One of them had been a prisoner at 'Asḳalán; and after he had remained there some time, the person into whose power he had fallen jestingly told him that if he would eat a calf belonging to him, the flesh of which weighed several hundred-weights, he would emancipate him. This feat he accomplished, and thus he obtained his liberation.[367]”

Recipe from The Book of Household Management of 1861.

“The porter had scarcely heard her words when he took up his crate, and he followed her until she stopped at the door of a house, and knocked; whereupon there came down to her a Christian, and she gave him a piece of gold, and received for it a quantity of olives, and two large vessels of wine,[III_4] which she placed in the crate, saying to the porter, Take it up, and follow me. The porter exclaimed, This is, indeed, a fortunate day!--and he took up the crate, and followed her. She next stopped at the shop of a fruiterer, and bought of him Syrian apples, and 'Othmánee quinces,[III_5] and peaches of 'Omán, and jasmine of Aleppo, and water-lilies of Damascus, and cucumbers of the Nile, and Egyptian limes, and Sulṭánee citrons, and sweet-scented myrtle, and sprigs of the ḥennà-tree, and chamomile, and anemones, and violets, and pomegranate flowers, and eglantine: all these she put into the porter's crate, and said to him, Take it up. So he took it up, and followed her until she stopped at the shop of a butcher, to whom she said, Cut off ten pounds of meat;--and he cut it off for her, and she wrapped it in a leaf of a banana-tree, and put it in the crate, and said again, Take it up, O porter:--and he did so, and followed her. She next stopped at the shop of a seller of dry fruits, and took some of every kind of these, and desired the porter to take up his burden. Having obeyed, he followed her until she stopped at the shop of a confectioner, where she bought a dish, and filled it with sweets of every kind that he had,[III_6] which she put into the crate; whereupon the porter ventured to say, If thou hadst informed me beforehand, I had brought with me a mule to carry all these things. The lady smiled at his remark, and next stopped at the shop of a perfumer, of whom she bought ten kinds of scented waters; rose-water, and orange-flower-water, and willow-flower-water,[III_7] &c.; together with some sugar, and a sprinkling-bottle[III_8] of rose-water infused with musk, and some frankincense, and aloes-wood, and ambergris, and musk, and wax candles; and, placing all these in the crate, she said, Take up thy crate, and follow me. He, therefore, took it up, and followed her until she came to a handsome house, before which was a spacious court. It was a lofty structure, with a door of two leaves, composed of ebony, overlaid with plates of red gold.[III_9]”

Recipe from The Boston cooking-school cook book of 1896.

“I went forth at the hour of nightfall, and proceeded until I came to the garden. I found its gate open, and entered, and beheld a light in the distance; so I advanced towards it, and when I arrived at it, I found there a large maḳ'ad,[VIII_20] over which was constructed a dome of ivory and ebony, and the lamp was suspended in the midst of the dome. The maḳ'ad was furnished with silken carpets embroidered with gold and silver; and there was a great lighted candle in a candlestick of gold beneath the lamp: in the midst of the chamber was a fountain ornamented with various designs:[VIII_21] by the side of this fountain was a table of viands covered with a silk napkin, near which was a large china bottle full of wine, with a cup of crystal adorned with gilding; and by the side of all these things was a great tray of silver, covered over. I uncovered it, and beheld in it a variety of fruits, such as figs and pomegranates and grapes and oranges and citrons of different kinds, together with various flowers, as roses and jasmine and myrtle and eglantine and narcissus, and all kinds of sweet scents. I was astonished at this place, and affected with the utmost delight, and my anxiety and grief were dissipated; but I found not in this abode any being of the creatures of God (whose name be exalted!); not even a male or female slave did I see, nor the person who thus neglected these things. I sat in this chamber, waiting for the coming of the beloved of my heart, until the first hour of the night had passed, and the second hour, and the third; but she came not; and hunger began to torment me violently, for a long time had elapsed without my eating food, through the excess of my passion; but when I beheld this place, and my cousin's correct understanding of the signs made by my beloved became manifest to me, I felt at ease; yet I still experienced the torment of hunger, and the savoury odours of the food upon the table had excited my desire on my arrival there. Feeling secure, therefore, of the attainment of my object, and longing to eat, I approached the table, and took off the cover, and found in the midst of it a dish of china containing four fricandoed fowls seasoned with spices, around which were four saucers; one containing sweetmeats; and another, conserve of pomegranate-grains; and a third, baḳláweh;[VIII_22] and the fourth, ḳaṭáïf:[VIII_23] the contents of these saucers consisting both of sweet and acid. So I ate of the ḳaṭáïf, and a piece of meat, and I put my hand to the baḳláweh and ate of it as much as was agreeable, and then turned to the sweetmeat and ate a spoonful, or two, or three, or four, and I ate a portion of a fowl, and a morsel of another dish: and when I had done this, my stomach was full, and my joints became loose, and I was too lazy to remain awake; so I laid my head upon a cushion, after I had washed my hands, and sleep overcame me, and I knew not what happened to me after this. I awoke not until the sun scorched me (for some days had passed without my having tasted sleep); and when I awoke, I found upon my stomach some salt and charcoal; and I stood up and shook my clothes, and looked to the right and left, but found no one: I discovered that I had been sleeping upon the marble pavement without anything spread beneath me, and I was perplexed in my mind, and mourned greatly; my tears ran down upon my cheeks, and I lamented for myself.”

Recipe from The Book of Household Management of 1861.

“With respect to clean and unclean meats, the Muslim is subject to nearly the same laws as the Jew. Swine's flesh, and blood, are especially forbidden to him; but camel's flesh is allowed. The latter, however, being of a coarse nature, is never eaten when any other meat can be obtained, excepting by persons of the lower classes, and by Arabs of the desert. Of fish, almost every kind is eaten (excepting shell-fish), usually fried in oil: of game, little; partly in consequence of frequent doubt whether it have been lawfully killed. The diet consists, in a great measure, of vegetables, and includes a large variety of pastry. A very common kind of pastry is a pancake, which is made very thin, and folded over several times like a napkin; it is saturated with butter, and generally sweetened with honey or sugar; as is also another common kind, which somewhat resembles vermicelli.”

Recipe from New system of domestic cookery, formed upon principles o of 1806.

“NOTE 54.--_On Sherbets._ The Arabs have various kinds of sherbets, or sweet drinks; the most common of which is merely sugar and water, made very sweet. The most esteemed kind is prepared from a hard conserve of violets, made by pounding violet-flowers, and then boiling them with sugar. Other kinds are prepared from conserves of fruits, &c. The sherbet is served in covered glass cups, containing from two-thirds to three-quarters of an English pint; the same which I have described in a former note as used for wine. These are placed on a round tray, and covered with a round piece of embroidered silk, or cloth of gold; and on the right arm of the person who presents the sherbet, is hung a long napkin with a deep embroidered border of gold and coloured silks at each end, which is ostensibly offered for the purpose of wiping the lips after drinking, though the lips are scarcely touched with it.”

Recipe from The Book of Household Management of 1861.

“NOTE 22. "Baḳláweh," from the Turkish "baḳláva," is a name given to a kind of pastry, which is generally thus prepared:--A paste made of fine flour with clarified butter is rolled thin, and laid upon a tray: upon this paste is then spread a composition of clarified butter and blanched almonds (and sometimes walnuts and currants) beaten small; and over this is put another layer of paste. Eight of these double layers of paste with the composition above mentioned between them are placed one upon another, making the whole about an inch thick. It is baked in an oven; cut into lozenge-shaped pieces, about three inches long, and two inches wide; and after it is thus cut, some honey or treacle is poured over.”

Recipe from American Cookery of 1796.

“NOTE 99. "Ḳaṭáïf" is a name applied to various kinds of sweet pastry: particularly to a kind of small pancakes, made of a thin paste of fine flour and water, about three inches broad, and a sixth of an inch or less in thickness, baked upon a copper tray over a fire, like kunáfeh (the composition of which is the same), and eaten with honey or sugar: also to cakes composed of fine flour, treacle or honey, and sesame-oil. The sirup mentioned in the same sentence is (as my sheykh states in a marginal note) treacle thickened over the fire.--The proper singular of ḳaṭáïf, namely, "ḳaṭeefeh," is seldom used; one of these cakes being generally called "fard ḳaṭáïf." Sometimes, it appears, they were perfumed with musk.”

Recipe from The Book of Household Management of 1861.

“I entered the Khán, and ate my breakfast, and then went forth to collect the price of my stuffs; after which I returned. I had prepared for my wife a roasted lamb, and purchased some sweetmeat and I now called the porter, described to him the house, and gave him his hire. Having done this, I occupied myself again with my business until sunset, when the owner of the ass came, and I took fifty pieces of gold, and put them into a handkerchief. Entering the house, I found that they had wiped the marble and polished the vessels of copper and brass, and filled the lamps and lighted the candles, and dished the supper and strained the wine; and when my wife saw me, she threw her arms around my neck, and said, Thou hast made me desolate by thine absence! The tables were then placed before us, and we ate until we were satisfied, and the slave-girls took away the first table, and placed before us the wine; and we sat drinking, and eating of the dried fruits, and making merry, until midnight. We then slept until morning, when I arose and handed her the fifty pieces of gold as before, and left her.”

Recipe from The Book of Household Management of 1861.