Kāmakh Rījāl (Matured Fermented-Milk Condiment)

History

Kāmakh rījāl (كامخ ريجال) is one of the matured fermented-milk relishes that medieval Arabic cooks grouped under the name kāmakh — a class of sharp, salty condiments eaten as table dips, of Persian origin. Rather than being curdled and pressed like ordinary cheese, it was preserved by salt together with yogurt's own acidity: strongly salted sour milk was left in an open vessel and repeatedly topped up with fresh milk over months, ripening into a pungent, spreadable, cheese-like paste with a hint of rancidity. The name is usually glossed as "something eaten by licking," describing that semisolid, lick-able consistency. Al-Baghdadi's version packs the mixture into a hollowed dried gourd with salt and leaves it in the high-summer sun from June into October — a method a modern editor pairs directly with al-Warrāq's tenth-century "white kamakh," noting a thirteenth-century variant that places "yogurt, milk, and salt in a gourd scooped free of its pulp." He records three versions: plain; one seasoned with nigella (shūnīz) and garlic; and one perfumed with dried red rose petals. Kindred condiments were also made by blending the fermented sauce murrī with milk. Charles Perry is credited with reviving the technique for modern cooks.

Ingredients

• large dried gourd vessel
• raṭl sour milk
• raṭl sweet milk
• raṭl salt
• raṭl per day sweet milk (daily feed)
• mint leaves
• nigella
• garlic
• dried red rose petals

Instructions

1. Clean a large dried gourd shell (ẓarf yaqṭīn) of its flesh and seeds, soak two hours, and dry well to serve as the fermenting crock.
2. Put in 5 raṭl sour milk, 10 raṭl sweet milk, and 1.5 raṭl finely ground salt; stir, cover, and set in hot sun. Begin in June, at the start of high summer.
3. Each morning add 3 raṭl sweet milk and stir morning and evening, topping up whenever it drops, until the start of August.
4. In August add mint leaves, nigella, and peeled garlic; stir and keep feeding sweet milk as it decreases until mid-September.
5. Cover the mouth until the start of October, then take it out of the sun until it sets firm, and use.
6. Variants: plain (sādhij) with no seasoning; flavored with nigella and garlic; or flavored with dried red rose petals.