pakashastra: Hindu and Hinduized alien food •December 13, 2008 • Leave a Comment The field of pAkashAstra is well worthy of study as it is dying along with many other shAstra-s. Unfortunately, I no longer have access to some remarkable pAka texts that I examined in the city of my youth. Towards the very end of the last decade in bhArata, ekanetra inspired by ST induced me to take up the issue. ST, who is the living tradition of pAkashAstra, reminded me of those texts again and I only put down some notes relating to the discussion. Not having most manuscripts with me I cannot give the precise indices for the same. There is a text called the pAkashAstra that I examined. The manuscript transcribed in shaka 1598 (1677 CE) is in legible nAgarI form and to my knowledge has never been published. Comparing it with the mAnasollAsa suggests that it is a late text. The language is late saMskR^ita. It has 3 sections: 1) bhaktAdi-prakaraNa; 2) phala-shAkAdi prakaraNa 3) bhojana-prakaraNa. The 2nd and much of 3rd were stained by some liquid and not easily readable at all. The first section gives vidhi-s for preparation of the following dishes that my mAtAshrI was able to identify and has full knowledge of: pAyasa (milk-lentil variety); polikA; laDDuka; bindu-modaka; dugdha-kara~njikA (actually it was made very rarely, and only in my maternal lineage); jalebI; pUrikA; vaTaka (the one with the hole in the middle); sUpa; pApara (the rice variety which is fried and sprinkled with pepper. I cannot forget the immense resistance we would face from our elders when we would want to eat this in the famous fair in the karnATa country). ST was able identify the lApAsI and kasAra as godhUma dishes that are still extant in the lATa country. But ST mentions that the wheat precipitate (which my maternal clansmen mentioned as requiring a few hours in the old days to generate), which was in the originally, is not used in the modern form. ST as a proper molecular biologists said that precipitating the material with ammonium chloride works, but the prospect of having ammonium chloride remaining, even after washes is less appetizing (?). ST has also identified and successfully reproduced phenikA, koharI, bahurI and kasAra. These last ones, along with the jalebi, are actually of turushka origin. These things entered the shAstra and since then have become a part of Hindu existence. Keeping with the Hinduization of the turushka-bhojana we actually heard vatavyadhi indignantly declare that we were discrediting Vedic cooking :-). Are there older, pre-manasollasa paka texts surviving? There were two dateless manuscripts that I examined which might be pre-manasollasa texts. However, the condition of the manuscript as well as the writing precluded me from making a very detailed study. The first of them is the sudashastra. The sudashastra is cited by the chakrapanidatta, the great physician from Meghalaya, who wrote his medical works around 1070-1080 CE. The sudashastra manuscript had a description of the preparation of some quintessential dishes that define a Hindu: “dal”, modaka and ladduka. Additionally, I noticed that this text had a cake known as shashkulI made from a large white rice and sesame and the well-known apupa that survives in classical form only in the dravida country. The citation of chakrapanidatta relates to the modaka supporting that this sudashastra indeed (at least in part) is the one from before his times. In support of this at least the
parts of the manuscript I could examine had no alien foods typical of the later texts. The other manuscript was samirana-sunu’s sUpa-tantra (i.e. bhimasena’s work on cooking). This also appears pretty archaic because it has no mention of the alien foods or substances and has certain preparations that are not known today. Something recipes that could be easily identified as being still extant were: lime and tamarind rices, dal-s of different types, pAyasa-s and pAnaka-s. He also mentions some weird curries, such as one from the neem tree berries prepared in a special way to counter its innate bitterness. This was supposed to have remarkable curative properties. Posted in Heathen thought, History, Life Ref-http://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/page/3/
Cake Cake is a variety of sweet baked food item. It is generally a synergy of flour, a sweetening agent (commonly sugar), a binding agent (generally egg, though gluten or starch are used instead by vegetarians and vegans), fats (usually butter, shortening, or margarine), a liquid (milk, water or fruit juice), flavors and some form of leavening agent (such as yeast or baking powder). Rich and elaborate cakes are commonly the preferred dessert after meals at ceremonial occasions, particularly weddings, anniversaries and birthdays in the west A Brief Historical Background The boundaries between cake and bread, biscuit and bun are indistinct in the history of food items. The progenitor of all these products is bread in its simplest form. As techniques for baking and leavening developed, and eating patterns changed, what were originally regarded as forms of bread came to be seen as distinct categories of their own and named accordingly. Cake is believed to have originated shortly after the discovery of flour by human beings in the ancient times. The cakes that we read of in the medieval English literature are not cakes as it has come to mean today. Those cakes were simple flour-based sweet foods meant to be distinctly different from breads, which were merely flour-based foods without sweetening. In fact, for long bread and cake were used interchangeably, with the cake meaning smaller breads. The earliest evidence of cakes have been found by archaeologists from the Prehistoric Neolithic sites in the Swiss lake villages. These primitive variety of cake have been described as nothing but crushed grains, moistened, compacted and cooked on a hot stone. It is very similar to present day oatcakes or biscuit or cookie.
Ancient Egypt was the first culture to show evidence of true skill in bakin, making many kinds of bread including some sweetened with hone. The Greeks had a form of cheesecake and the Romans developed early versions of fruitcakes with raisins, nuts and other fruits. These ended up in 14th century Britain. Chaucer mentions immense cakes made for special occasions. One was made with 13 kilograms of flour and contained butter, cream, eggs, spices, currants and honey.
The Greeks used the word '/plakous/' meaning flat to refer to cakes. These cakes were usually combinations of nuts and honey. Another Greek cake that we come across in the culinary history is '/satura/', which was a flat heavy cake. During the Roman period cake was called placenta. They were also called '/libum/' by the Romans, and these were primarily used as an offering to the gods. Placenta was more like a cheesecake, baked on a pastry base, or sometimes inside a pastry case. Moulds, in the form of cake hoops or pans have been used for forming cakes since at least the mid-17th century. Most cakes were eaten accompanied by a glass of sweet wine or tea. During this period cakes were baked for special occasions and hence were made of the the finest and most expensive ingredients available to the chef. As is evident from the paintings from this era where we see large banquets, elaborately decorated cakes By the middle of the 18th century, yeast was used less often, being replaced by beaten eggs as a raising agent. Once as much air as possible had been beaten in, the mixture would be poured into molds, often very elaborate creations, but sometimes as simple as two tin hoops, set on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. It is from these cake hoops that our modern cake pans developed. By the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution made the cake-baker's life much easier. The chemical raising agent bicarbonate of soda, introduced in the 1840's, followed by baking powder ( a dry mixture of bicarbonate of soda with a mild acid), replaced yeast, providing a greater leavening power with less effort. Another technology breakthrough was more accurate temperature controlled ovens. By the mid-19th century the French were including a separate "sweet" course at the end of the meal which might include 'gateau.'