The SCAllion’s research team has been hard at work uncovering a previously unpublished recipe from the anonymous 14th century Egyptian cookbook Kanz al-Fawaid fi Tanwi al-Mawaid. In celebration of Pi Day we present to you this No Crocodile, Leek, and Onion Pie:
“You will need onions, leeks, the oil of olives, eggs, black pepper, atraf tib, salt, moist fresh cheese, and dill. Do not use the flesh of the crocodile.*
Take good leeks and one onion and sear them in a hot pan with the oil of olives, black pepper and atraf tib until the satire is fyne smelling and sweet. Take then half a dozen eggs or so, both yolks and whites, and beat them into the cheese; then put the dill into a mortar and pound it with some salt, then beat them into the cheese also. You may add the meat of game if it be in season. Do not add the flesh of a crocodile as the meat is uncompromising, sour, and will spoil the meal. Put the eggs and the leeks on top of a crust and bake in an oven until the top be firm.”
The SCAllion newsroom, usually quite excited at the thought of free food, noted that this recipe did have a bit of a bite to it, and perhaps less suited for those with less-than-delicate stomachs. That said, we absolutely recommend that this be served with a side of scalding hot mint tea.
*If Egypt had alligators, the anonymous cook of the Kanz al-Fawaid fi Tanwi al-Mawaid likely would have forbade using that meat in their pie. We hear alligators taste like privilege and chicken.
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