Lecture 12: Islam—A Thousand and One Nights of Cooking
spinach. Eggplant is also very common. Fruit, such as apricots,
peaches, and grapes dried into raisins, is used in cooking. There’s
also extensive use of crushed nuts in cooking, especially almonds
and pine nuts, to make dishes creamy. Persian cuisine excels at sweets. For example, they invented
marzipan, which is made from almond paste and sugar and can
be molded into little shapes. The Persians also invented iced fruit
drinks, such as sherbet, as well as the ancestors of ice creams. The Muslims also initiated what can undoubtedly be called an
agricultural great leap forward—if not an agricultural revolution.
They used new irrigation practices and new ways of intensively
cultivating fruits and vegetables—practices they wouldn’t start
using in Europe for hundreds of years. This cuisine has all of the prerequisites for the development of a
complex culinary culture. The strength of this cuisine is to a great
extent due to the attention paid to the senses—to the aroma and
texture of food. Muslims were also fond of coloring dishes yellow with saffron,
red with sandalwood, or green with mint, for example. In addition,
food was made creamy with nuts but was garnished with raisins
or pistachios, so the consistency was a combination of smooth
punctuated by crunchy bits. This is foremost the cooking of the elite. Among poor people, there
is a great deal of diversity from place to place in terms of what is
cooked and consumed.Zouali, Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World.
Zubaida, Taste of Thyme.Suggested Reading