PERALATAN KUNA ARAB LIBYA

Disappearing Tools, Vanishing Vocabulary: The Kitchen
09/08/2008

From early hearths to today’s appliance-equipped wonderlands, kitchens have always been at the heart of any home. However, before blenders and supermarkets, and before kitchens were equipped with microwaves and refrigerators, food preparation was a time-consuming process, requiring tools that today are unlikely to be seen outside of a museum.

The rha or mill, for example, is something not often seen these days, although one feature of the rha has lingered on tenaciously in some places in the form of songs and chants originally sung by women while working the mill.

One intriguing aspect of these songs is the relationship between the rhythm of the song, the mood of the singer, and what she wants to produce. Fast energetic songs are generally happy, and are sung while making crushed wheat for example, while slower, sad songs were sung while grinding rice-flour which would be used to make mahalabia (a milk pudding) and baby food, among other things.

While spices would be ground in a much smaller mill, the rha could be so big that it would take two women to work it, each swinging the wooden handle a half-circle, before handing it over to the other.

Another one-time essential part of any Libyan household was the shakwa, which is typically made out of a whole lambskin, which is cleaned, cured and then rubbed and disinfected once a month with salt and juniper.

The shakwa is used to churn milk to butter by shaking it from side to side with the help of a rope. Part of the butter produced in this way would then set aside for use, while the rest of it was stored in the soufa, where it is left to clarify and turn into samn or ghee.

The soufa, like the shakwa, is also made out of whole lambskin, however with the soufa the lamb’s wool is left intact. This explains the soufa’s name, which comes from the word souf or wool.

The soufa and shakwa can still be found and are still used in some parts of Libya today, however they are nowhere near as common as the ubiquitous gufa, a large basket that has long been used for a vast variety of purposes, and is still widely used throughout the country.

On the other hand, while tanur bread is still made, these days it is more likely to be baked inside an ordinary oven than in the traditional way, using the clay oven or the tanur.

The tanur is made up of clay hoops which are fixed on top of each other to form a cylinder about 1 meter in diameter, and the dough is then placed against the inside of the tanur, which is heated to a degree that bakes the bread.

These types of ovens have been made out of metal and other materials that have the advantage of being much easier to move than the very heavy clay ovens.

However, it is said the bread baked in the metal tanur does not have distinctive taste of original tanur bread, and so as with so many other things that have made food preparation easier, more practical, and less time-consuming its advantages are not without drawbacks.

SONDOS ELGATIT

(The tripoli Post)