(An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century)
Take a ratl of carrots, of which you have cleaned the interior. Cook it in a ratl of water, some two boilings, then take it off the fire and let it dry a little, over a sieve. Add it to three ratls of honey, cleaned of its foam, and cook all this until it takes the form of a paste. Then season it with ginger, galingale, cubeb and flowers [of clove?] , half an û qiya in all for each ratl. Eat it like a nut at meals. Its benefits: it fortifies coitus and increases desire beautifully; it is admirable.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. Carrots
• ½ lb. (about 3/4 c.) honey
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• ¼ tsp. ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp. ground cubebs

Method:

• Boil the carrots until done.
• Drain and cool them, and then puree them with the honey in a food processor.
• Transfer the puree to a non-stick skillet and cook again to remove some of the
• moisture and thicken the honey.
• Add the spices.
• Serve with pita bread.
• I did not use galingale, because it was not available.

Notes:

• The original calls for three parts honey to one part carrots, but these proportions seemed to be too much honey.
• You lose the character of the carrots, so I changed the proportions to two parts carrots to one of honey.
• It is likely that modern carrots are sweeter than period ones; perhaps this accounts for the large amount of honey in the original.
• I believe that “flowers” refers to flowers of cinnamon, not clove as is indicated in the translation.
• Flowers of cinnamon were not available, so I went ahead and used ground cloves.
• The flavor is similar to pumpkin pie.