Source: Ustädh al-tabbakhin by Khalil Sarkis, Beirut, 1931, pp. 99-100
Takeaways:
- Modern molokhia, according to Maxime Robinson, is straightforward relative to medieval molokhia. It has far fewer steps and does not call for the array of spices that are in medieval molokhia.1
- According to Sarkis, there are two versions of molokhia worth recording in 1931 Lebanon: a fresh version and a dry version. Both are almost identical, except for the fact that the fresh version is chopped whereas the leaves in the dry version are presumably left whole. Sarkis does not specify any treatment of the dry leaves. Whereas he instructs readers to finely chop the fresh leaves the way you would chop tobacco. (pg. 99)
- He starts the dried molokhia recipe by explaining how to dry fresh leaves. The book is purely a manual on cooking. There aren’t any narratives or stories about how drying leaves allows you to prepare molokhia year round. This style of cooking manual is more common in contemporary cookbooks.
- Noticeably missing is any discourse on slime or لزوجة. The closest we get to a mitigating factor for slime is the addition of lemon juice, which breaks down the mucilaginous texture into something that is more liquid than viscous, although Sarkis does not give any explanation or context to the lemon juice.
- The subtitle of Sarkis’ book–on all the varieties of foods, sweets, and refreshments, in Eastern and Western preparations–also sheds light into a common theme of cookbooks of that era. To be modern is to include Western recipes alongside Eastern or local recipes.
Thank you to Dr. Anny Gaul for sharing her copy of Khalil Sarkis’ book with me.
1 Medieval Arab Cookery. Devon, England :Prospect Books, 2001