Medieval Arabs Ate Sandwiches Too!?

Keep on reading to get to the bottom of it while making this millennium old pinwheel sandwich made for the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil (d.861), and surprise yourself with how exotic and yet so familiar it is. Enjoy!

We all bought into the theory that the inventor of the sandwich was John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich of England (1718 – 1792). The story goes that he was the one who started the trend when he asked for his meal to be served between two layers of bread. John Montagu was an avid gambler, or a workaholic, according to another account, who chose to forgo the traditional proper table-dinners that would have interrupted whatever it was he was doing and, more importantly, to keep a hand free. 

Fourth Earl of Sandwich

The speculation is that soon enough people around him started to imitate him, to have that same 'thing' that Sandwich had, and that was how food consumed this way acquired the name ‘sandwich,’ with the first documented English sandwich recipe appearing in the 1773 English cookbook The Lady’s Assistant for Regulating and Supplying her Table by Charlotte Mason:

Mason, Lady's Assistant,  p. 427

Well, as far as naming goes, this is all plausible, but the fourth Earl of Sandwich was  definitely not the first one to have his meal this way. Food must have conveniently been eaten this way from ancient times in the Near East, where bread was baked in a variety of ways: flat ones and risen and spongy ones. They were variously made leavened and unleavened, large and small, and many more. Depending on how they were made, there was the clay oven tannūr for the leavened flat bread, the larger communal brick oven for baking puffed and spongy bread, and the metal plates (saj) for the large and thin bread varieties.

Baking Khubz in the tannūr

Excavated remains of a brick oven furn in ancient Mesopotamia Tell Brak

A baking thin sheet of flat bread, called marquq, shrak, lawash/lavash, etc.

In Mesopotamia alone more than 300 varieties of bread were known. Interestingly, we see in an ancient Mesopotamian cylinder seal, for instance, an Assyrian officer having a meal on the go-- the way sandwiches are always meant to be eaten. He is depicted as holding what looks like a roll of bread (a sandwich!) while standing, with his attendant fanning the flies away 

Iraqi Museum
(Reproduction in Tharwat Ukāsha, Al-Fann al-‘Irāqī, 1980: 517)

From scenes depicted on the ancient Egyptian temple walls we can see that fillings were added between two layers of bread resembling sandwiches, and cylindrical breads were made that looked like pinwheels.

An ancient Egyptian baking scene

As for ancient Greece and Rome, it was to the Near East that they looked for the well-made bread. In his “Life of Luxury,” Sicilian-Greek gourmet Archestratus (fourth century BCE) recommended the Phoenicians and Lydian bakers (in western Asia Minor) for their expertise in baking.

            A medieval cook kneading bread dough

Thus it follows that in a region so impressively rich and varied in making bread, it should come as no surprise to learn that the documented history of the sandwich and its culture in the Near East began much earlier than the eighteenth century in Europe. While the first English sandwich recipe appeared in the1773 Lady's Assistant, in the surviving medieval Arabic cookbooks many sandwich recipes were included as early as the tenth century. In fact, based on the references and descriptions of sandwiches in medieval Arabic literature, their origin can be pushed even further back to the eighth or ninth century, which was the beginning of the golden age of the Baghdadi cuisine. For instance, in al-Masʿūdī’s tenth-century Murūj al-Dhahab, a poem by the famous Abbasid poet of Baghdad Ibn al-Rūmī (d. 896) describes how to construct a sandwich, which he calls wasṭ (وسط), in which the stuffing is put between two layers of bread. Here is how he describes it: 

    You, seeker of delicious food, take a couple of fine breads, round and thick,

    The likes of which no one has seen, Slice off the top crusts, 

    so that you make them thin.

    Spread on one, finely minced grilled chicken, delectable and delicate, 

    which a mere puff would melt.

    On this arrange lines of almond intersected with lines of walnut.

    Let its dots be cheese and olive, and its vowels mint and tarragon,

    Now take boiled eggs, and with their dirhams [egg white] 

    and dinars [egg yolk] the wasṭ adorn.

    Give it a dusting of salt, but not much; just what it needs.

    And inspect it with your eyes for a second or two, 

    for the eyes have a share in it, too.

    Look at it appreciatively until your eyes have their fill, 

    then cover it with the other bread, and eat it with joy.

AS for recipes, the earliest ones occur in Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq’s 10^th-century cookbook, Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh, chapter 23 (my English translation, Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens). In this chapter, five recipes are given with a bonus food poem. In these five recipes, sandwiches are made in three different ways:

1. A thin flat bread similar to today's marquq (lavash) is spread with layers of finely chopped ingredients (meat, vegetables, herbs, etc.), and then seasoned and tightly rolled. The sandwich is served sliced into pinwheels, called bazmaward, a name of Persian origin. It was also called muyassar wa muhanni ميسر ومهني (i.e. delightful and easy to eat).   

2. Another type of sandwich is called wast (pl. aswat اوساط); it is similar to the one described in Ibn al-Rimi's verses.

3. The third type is called wast mashtour (وسط مشطور), which is an open-faced sandwich. This one, al-Warraq tells us, was made by no less than the Abbasid gourmet Prince Ibrahim b. al-Mahdi himself (d. 839), who was half-brother of Hārūn al-Rashīd. The recipe describes how the crusty edges and top of a brick-oven bread are first sliced off, and the face is spread with a fermented condiment, called binn, and then slathered with walnut oil. It is toasted on a grill set on a brazier, and after smearing it with yolk of soft-cooked eggs, and grated cheese if wished, it is good to eat. Here is the recipe as it occurs in al-Warraq's Arabic edition:

What is even more exciting is the fact that Ibn al-Mahdī supplemented his recipe with a short poem describing it, which in effect is an artistic representation of the dish itself -- second best to today's camera images. Here is his poem:  

What a delicious sandwich on the brazier I made, 

        slathered with binn and walnut oil!

Fragrant and shining, as if the binn I used 

       with ambergris and musk was embalmed.

Of nigella seeds I put what it needed, 

        as for fennel, I did sprinkle some. 

Olive oil I made sure to add, 

        for it gives a luscious coating and a saffron-glow.

Smeared with egg yolks, with cheese sprinkled, 

        looking like speckled embroidered silk.  

As colorful as striped silk it looks, 

        exuding musk and camphor.

The taste, luscious as pure honey, 

        for the best of aromatic spices I did use.

Here is a recipe for you to try: 

It is a recipe for making the pinwheel sandwiches, bazmāward, from tenth-century Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh by Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq, chapter 23. It was specially made for the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil, d. 861:

Use cold [cooked] meat of two legs and shoulders of a kid or lamb. Finely shred the meat into thread-like pieces. Choose whatever you like of leaf vegetables, excluding watercress (jirjīr) and endives (hindibāʾ). Finely chop them until they resemble sesame seeds and mix [part of] them with the shredded meat. Set the mixture aside.

Now choose good quality sharp cheese, scrape it with a knife, and collect the scraped cheese. Coarsely grind walnuts and add them [with the cheese] to the [set-aside meatless] chopped vegetables. Also add some chopped herbs and rue. A portion of the chopped vegetables should have been set aside unmixed with the meat. Next, peel and chop some olives and add them to the [meatless] chopped vegetable mixture.

Spread a soft and large ruqāqa [similar to lavash/markook bread], cover it with some of the meatless vegetable mixture and sprinkle it with seasoned salt. Next, spread the meat and vegetable mixture [to which you should have added] some spices. Then arrange a layer of eggs sliced lengthwise. Next, spread another layer of the meat and vegetable mixture followed by a layer of the meatless vegetable mixture. Sprinkle them with fine-tasting salt and drizzle them with sweet vinegar and rose water.

Tightly roll the bread with the filling and slice it crosswise into discs. Arrange the [pinwheels] on a platter and pass them around, God willing.

************************

I am not giving exact amounts of ingredients here, but a good rule of thumb is to decide how much to use of the main ingredient, which is the cooked meat here, and build around it. The layering is kind of elaborate; the following steps will help you keep track of the layers. 

On a lavash bread spread the ingredients in this order:

 

1. vegetable mix

2. vegetable + meat mix

3. sliced eggs

4. vegetable + meat mix

5. vegetable mix

Roll it up and slice it into pinwheels.

---

The full article is published in ArabLit Quarterly: Summer 2021: The Kitchen

FEAST OF THE BIRDS

وليمة الطير

Thanksgiving Stuffed Bird, Iraqi Style

Sorry birds! It is us humans who are feasting, but you will be remembered in good health, I am sure.

Dijaj Mahshi دجاج محشي

  

Surprise your turkey this Thanksgiving and make it happy with a delicious aromatic stuffing ‘Iraqi style.' Besides the cavity, the bird is stuffed underneath the entire skin, as well. A bonus: The skin will come out scrumptiously crisp and flavorful. Worth trying! 

I learnt this beautiful way of stuffing chicken from my friends in Mosul, in northern Iraq. I was invited to dinner, and there it was in the middle of the table an impressively plump bird, I thought it was a duck at first, and was quite amused to learn that it was just an ordinary chicken given the royal treatment.

Later on, I discovered, so much to my surprise, that stuffing chicken between the skin and the meat is not an entirely modern technique. In the 13th-century Andalusian cookbook Anwa’ al-Saydala (انواع الصيدلة في الوان الاطعمة), there is a chicken recipe called Al-dajaj al-‘Abbasi الدجاج العباسي (Abbasid chicken), which as the name indicates, is a loan dish from the medieval Baghdadi cuisine. The initial instruction in the recipe is to stuff the chicken between the skin and the meat, as well as the cavity (p. 23). 

More details on this method are given in the 13^th-century Syrian cookbook Al-Wusla ila'l-Habeeb الوصلة الى الحبيب في وصف الطيبات والطيب (by Ibn al-‘Adeem 2: 525--26). After the chicken is dipped in hot water and feathers removed, and before opening it up, the skin was separated from the meat by blowing very hard through the neck. For still undetached areas, a skewer was pushed through the neck, and the skin was carefully separated.

Abbasid chicken, detail from 'Aja'ib al-Makhluqat (13th-century), F 1954.101, Smithsonian Institution  

Here is the recipe. Amounts are for a small turkey or a large plump chicken:    

Mixture for rubbing the bird:

½ cup vinegar

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon crushed coriander seeds

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

For the stuffing:

2 tablespoons oil

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, grated

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ cup each of frozen peas, diced carrots, and chopped mushrooms

1 cup diced potatoes browned in 1 tablespoon oil

½ cup raisins

½ cup toasted slivered almonds

2 teaspoons baharat (use link for recipe), or garam masala

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cardamom

½ teaspoon of each cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, and chili pepper (or more chili)

2 cups uncooked rice

½ cup yogurt, for coating the bird

Preheat oven 425°F

Chicken before stuffing

1. To prepare the bird:
Wash it and rub it with vinegar and salt inside and out and let it stand for 30 minutes. Drain and dry. Then rub it with lemon juice. Mix the spices and rub them onto the bird inside and out, and then place it, bottom down, in a colander fitted on a bowl, at room temperature, until ready for stuffing.

2. In a large skillet, saute onion in the oil until transparent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and turmeric in the last minute. Add peas, carrots, and mushrooms. Pour in about ¾ cup hot water and simmer on medium heat about 10 minutes, or until liquid evaporates. Mix in browned potatoes, raisins, almonds, garam masala (baharat), salt, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, and chili pepper.

3. Cook plain white rice until just done, the grains should still be firm and separated. Gently fold it with the vegetable mixture.

3. To stuff the bird:
Hold the bird with one hand and with the fingers of the other, starting with the neck part, separate skin from flesh, going down slowly all the way to the thighs, taking care not to pierce the skin with your nails. This will create a pocket to hold the stuffing.   

Pat the cavities dry with white paper towels and fill the regular belly cavity very well with the stuffing (the rice is already cooked and would not expand). Sew the cavity closed. Then fill the pocket you have created with as much filling as it can hold, pushing the filling down to the thighs, the breast area, the wings, and the back. Sew the neck opening closed to prevent filling from coming out. Discard any filling that came into contact with the uncooked bird while filling it.

Place the prepared bird on a greased broiler pan and coat it with yogurt. Bake in the preheated oven for the first 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F, and continue baking (allow 30 minutes for each pound). While bird is roasting, baste it occasionally with the dripping juices until it is nicely browned. Let it rest for about 15 minutes before carving. Remove threads and serve on a platter surrounded with any remaining stuffing.

Enjoy!

Sparrows' Heads in 

Pomegranate-Walnut Sauce

Rummaniyya b'ras il-'Asfour

رمانية براس العصفور

Typical Iraqi spicy and aromatic small meatballs called ras il-'asfour (sparrows' heads), simmered in delectable pomegranate sauce.

In Iraq and Iran today similar dishes are more generally known by the Iranian name fasanjoun (فسنجون) and fasanjaan (فسنجان). The earliest record of a dish by this name is found in 19th-century court chef Mīrzā ʿAlī-Akbar Khan Āšpazbāšī’s Persian cookbook Sofra-ye aṭʿema, where ten varieties of what was called fasūjan are given (see Encyclopedia Iranica).

The dish is claimed to be ancient in origin going back to the era of the Persian Empire, but this is still unsupported by evidence. It is also still unknown how it acquired its name. However, it seems to me that it might have been associated with a Persian city in the mountainous central region. Its name is Fesenjan (فسنجان), mentioned in several medieval documents, such as Mu'jam al-Buldan (معجم البلدان) by 12th-century geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi (1977 ed., vol. 4, p. 266)                                       

Names aside, the dish itself -- meat of some sort simmered in sweet and sour pomegranate sauce and thickened with crushed nuts -- was a well-established way of cooking in the medieval Muslim world. It was known as rummaniyya, after the fruit rumman (pomegranate), and we are fortunate to have a variety of recipes for this dish, included in the extant medieval Arabic cookbooks from Baghdad and Egypt.

Here is a recipe I found in one of the copies of al-Baghdadi's 13th-century Kitab al-Tabeekh (British Library Manuscript, fol. 16r, see image below, this same recipe is also featured in the anonymous 14th-century cookbook Kanz al-Fawa'id, recipe no. 10 in my English translation Treasure Trove of Benefits and Variety at the Table):

Rummāniyya Mukhaththara (thickened pomegranate stew):

Cut pieces of meat are added to the pot with water. When the pot comes to a boil, the scum is removed, and cassia, mastic, ginger, and some sesame oil (shayraj) are thrown into the pot. Meatballs of pounded meat, made as small as hazelnuts, are added as well. Use a small amount of liquid so that when it is all done nothing remains but a little bit of a nice rich sauce.

Next, sour pomegranate juice, which has been balanced with rose petal jam made with sugar, is added to the pot along with some mint leaves. Pistachios are pounded to thicken the sauce, and a bit of saffron is added for color. The pot is sprinkled with a small amount of rosewater before it is removed from the fire.

The small meatballs used in the recipe above were commonly known as bunduqiyyat (i.e. small and rounded like hazelnuts). It is interesting to see how these small medieval meatballs found their way westwards to Spain and later to Mexico and South America, where they retained their original name-- Spanish albondiga. In the Middle East today, however, they are generally known as kufta/kefta/kafta, and in Iraq, we call them sparrows' heads (ras il-'asfour). Interesting how things might change and yet do not change!

Here is a modernized version of the dish, I only use meatballs in making it, and add the cut onion:    

RUMMANIYYA MUKHATHTHARA

(Based on the 13^th-century Baghdadi cookbook Kitāb al-Ṭabīkh)

Makes 6-8 servings

¼ cup sesame oil (or canola)

1 onion, medium, diced

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon crushed mastic

½ teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon salt

 For the meatballs (bunduqiyyāt):

1 pound ground lean meat

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

½ cup chopped cilantro

1 teaspoon crushed coriander

½ teaspoon cumin

1 tablespoon murrī (may use soy sauce)

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon cinnamon

 For the pomegranate sauce:

2 tablespoons pomegranate syrup diluted in ¼ cup water

¼ cup rose petal jam

2 fresh mint sprigs

½ cup ground pistachios

A pinch of saffron

Rosewater, for sprinkling

………………………………

1. Fry the onion in oil until transparent, and stir in rest of the spices and herbs. Add 2 cups hot water and let it boil.

2. Prepare the meatballs: In a food processor, put the meatball ingredients and grind the mix into a paste. Form into small balls (like hazelnuts buduq, the amount will make about 45 meatballs). Add the meatballs to the cooking liquid and carefully stir the pot. Let them cook gently until done and only a small amount of the liquid is left.

3. Prepare the pomegranate sauce by mixing all its ingredients. Add it to the pot and let it simmer until the sauce nicely thickens.

4. Sprinkle the top of the pot with a small amount of rosewater and serve it hot with bread or rice.

..............................................................................................

Rummaniyya, in one of its medieval versions, survived in the Levantine cuisine, especially in Palestine, cooked with eggplant, instead of nuts, thickened with a bit of tahini.

Here is my recipe: (Makes 4 servings)

(Winner of the Guardian's Readers' Recipe Swap: Meatballs)

  

For the sparrows' heads (meatballs):

8 ounces of ground lean meat
1 small onion, grated
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon crushed coriander seeds
¼ teaspoon each, allspice, ginger powder, curry powder, chili powder
For the sauce:
2 tablespoons oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
½ teaspoon turmeric
1 cup toasted walnuts, pulverized in a food processor until oily
3 cups water
¼ cup pomegranate molasses
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon crushed cardamom
¼ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon chili powder

12 ounces diced potatoes, lightly browned in some oil or brushed with oil and baked or broiled

1. To make meatballs: Combine all the meatball ingredients and knead lightly. With wet fingers, form it into small balls (as small as sparrows' heads). Shallow-fry them, or arrange them in one layer on a greased baking sheet, and broil or bake them in a preheated oven at 400°F. Turn pieces to brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Set aside. 

2. In a medium pot, fry the onion in oil until transparent, about 5 minutes. Add turmeric and pulverized walnuts and stir for about a minute. Add the meatballs, as well as the rest of the sauce ingredients. Stir the pot gently, bring it to a quick boil, and then reduce heat, and let it simmer gently for about 30 minutes, or until the sauce is nicely thickened.

3. Ladle it into a deepish plate and garnish with chopped parsley and pomegranate seeds when in season; otherwise, chopped red pepper will be equally nice.

Scrumptious served with white rice.