Food Resources and their Transformation - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 119

2. Storage and preservation
The preservation of food is an impor-
tant problem in all societies. The Muslim
civilization had inherited processes from
the ancient East and from the classical
civilizations. Cereals were stored either
in granaries or in silos ( mamūra ) and
the agronomists recommended various
processes to preserve them from decay,
weevils, etc. For fruit, especially grapes,
there were handed down various recipes
for preserving them from any deteriora-
tion and keeping them fresh. Preservation
by cold storage was known; melons from
Transoxania were transported to Badād
packed in ice inside lead boxes. Drying
was a less expensive and more widely
used process. We have seen that before
Islam the Arabs were already familiar
with the drying of meat ( adīd ) and of fish.
Desert truffles were also dried. Fruits were
often preserved in a sealed air-tight con-
tainer which was sometimes buried in the
ground. The curing or smoke-drying of
meat seems to have been very little known
among the Arabs; it is described as being
a Greek process. It was, however, one
of the processes applied to arāi , slices
of meat, in particular to those known as
miriyya , “Egyptian”, and known in some
places as mudaana “smoked”. The
crystallizing of fruits in honey or sugar,
a process known to ancient Rome and
a speciality of modern Damascus, was
known there at this time according to
A. von Kremer, Culturgeschichte des Orients
unter den Chalifen , Vienna 1875-7, ii, 333,
who however quotes no evidence. adīd ,
or dried meat, must have been coated
with fat. But the chief method of preser-
vation was by means of antiseptic agents,
particularly salt and vinegar, often used
together and with the addition of many
condiments; hence the names of these
preserves: muallalāt, mulūāt . In addi-
tion to vinegar and salt (steeping in salted

water, impregnating with salt), a great
deal of honey, or its substitutes sugar and
treacle ( dibs ), was used in these prepara-
tions, also lemon juice, oil, mustard, wal-
nuts or hazel nuts roasted and crushed, all
kinds of herbs and spices, etc. In this way
were preserved, for long or short peri-
ods according to the preparation used,
vegetables, fruits and also (using vinegar,
oil, etc.) small fishes and birds ( ufūr ).
Special preserves were made (often to
be kept for a shorter period) to be used,
spread on bread or otherwise, as a kind
of hors d'œuvre: many condiments and
salted herbs, or herbs mixed into salted
goat's laban . In their preparation, laban
and anbarīs (curds) were sometimes used.
Spices made possible also the preservation
of sausages, of which those considered the
best contained only mutton without beef,
goat-meat etc., and not too much semo-
lina; their name, laāni, naāni , betrays
their Roman origin ( lucanicae , sausages of
Lucania). The principal method of pre-
serving milk was in the form of cheese.
The eastern Jews sometimes transported
kosher ( alāl ) cheese very great distances;
the transport of food over medium or
long distances enabled the inhabitants
of the larger cities to enjoy a rich vari-
ety. Generally speaking, the preservation
of food was sometimes done by the pro-
ducers for home consumption or for sale
( e.g. , cheeses), sometimes by the wives or
the servants in private households or in
palaces, and sometimes it was the work
of specialist craftsmen and prepared to
be sold at a later date, sometimes after
transport. The manuals of isba enjoin
the mutasib to make sure for example
that any fish left unsold was salted. But
there was very little which resembled the
modern food-preserving industry, though
one might so classify the sausage-sellers
( naāniiyyūn , see above), perhaps those
who sold slices of meat ( arāiiyyūn ), and