ابراهيمية

"To make it, cut the meat into medium pieces and put it in the pot, covering it with water and adding salt as needed. Boil until it begins to sweat. Take a fine linen cloth and tie in it some saffron, ginger, and pepper [and stick] finely pounded, and add it to the pot. Then add pieces of cinnamon bark and mastic, and cut two or three onions into small pieces and add them in. [Pound red meat and make it into small meatballs in the usual way and add them as well.] When the ingredients are cooked such that the cloth with the herbs is done, season it with aged sweet verjuice (juice of unripe grapes); if not available, use fresh verjuice squeezed by hand without boiling [or distilled vinegar]. Then strain and enrich it with blanched sweet almonds well pounded with water. Pour the verjuice over it. Then slightly sweeten it with white sugar so that it is not too sour. Leave it on the fire for an hour until it settles. Wipe the sides of the pot with a clean cloth. Then sprinkle a little rose water on top. When it settles, remove it from the fire."

The recipe is written in classical Arabic, using economy of expression and assuming familiarity with standard cooking techniques of the day. Ingredients like saffron, mastic, and verjuice may be spelled differently in manuscript sources due to the lack of standardized orthography at the time. Directions are often nested in long sentences, requiring attentive reading and some interpretation. Spelling variations aside, key techniques like wrapping spices in cloth, sweet-sour flavor balancing, and souring with verjuice were common. The instruction to wipe the sides of the pot reflects an attention to presentation and cleanliness, hallmarks of elite medieval cookery.