Gastronomía de Al Andalus, La

Gastronomy is one of the most distinctive cultural elements of a society. In the case of Andalusia, it is a reflection of its own mixture: to that rich Hispano-Roman base -common to the Mediterranean- is added the Islamization and orientalization introduced by the refined elites who sought to emulate the court of the cradle of Islam: Great Syria. From recipe books intended for the wealthier classes of Andalusian society -which included complicated and costly recipes unaffordable for most people- to simple and popular dishes, many of them of pre-Islamic tradition, these pages contain a wide variety of foods and the ways to prepare, season and preserve them, based on scientific treatises, poetic texts, hisba treatises -which regulated the good government of the souk-.... but, above all, thanks to two Andalusian recipe books that would have been elaborated in the 13th century. The Gastronomy of Al Ándalus is a journey to the flavors of Andalusia, from the privileged tables of emirs and caliphs to the popular cuisine, whose mark still remains in our most traditional recipes.