# سمن، بهار



## SofiaB

This recipe is from Dubai but popular all over the gulf.It is originally frm Iran.Can someone explain a few words?

*تنظف الدجاجة جيداً بالملح والخل والطحين ، ومن ثم نقطعها الى أربعة اجزاء*
*Clean chicken well with salt, vinegar and flour, and then go into four parts*
*نقلي قطع **الدجاج **بالسمن** او الزبدة ونضيف اليها مقدار الملح والفلفل والبهار*
???? chicken or butter and add to the amount of salt, pepper and ؟؟؟
*بعد أن يتحول لونها الى الذهبي نرفعها ونصفيها من السمن*
After turning to a golden color add ???
*ثم**نقلي البصل حتى يصير لونه مائل للذهبي ، ونضيف اليه السكر ودبس الرمان والجوز ويترك حتى الغليان* 
add onions until the color of golden  add sugar and ??? pomegranates, nuts,??? until 
boiling*نضيف قطع الدجاج الى السائل السابق ـ ونترك على نار هادئه لمدة ساعة الى ساعة** ونصف*
Add chicken pieces to the liquid and leave to simmer for an hour to an hour and a half
*ثم يغرف الدجاج في صحن ، وتضاف اليه** المرقة** الموجودة في الوعاء*
add chicken in the dish and add ??? in the dish
*و**يقدم** مع الأرز الأبيض بالزعفران أو بعض الناس يأكلونه مع خبز* 
???with white rice or some people eat with bread
 please tell me the words in red.Also any mistakes


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## ayed

Wash up chicken with salt , vinegar , flour and cut into four parts. *Fry chicken's parts* i*n oil* or butter and add amount of salt , pepper and cardamom. Turning to golden color, lift and clarify from oil. Fry onions until become goldish and add sugar , *pomegranate molasses* , nuts and *leave* to boiling. Add chicken parts to the previous liquid on a calm fire for an hour to an hour and a half. Dish chicken out in a plate and add *soup* which is in the bowl .*Serve* beside white rice with saffron and preferred eaten with bread by some people.


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## elroy

A little tweaking: 





ayed said:


> Wash up Clean chicken with salt , vinegar , flour and cut into four parts (pieces). *Fry chicken's parts pieces of chicken* i*n oil* or butter and add amount of salt , pepper and cardamom (I'm not sure, but I think بهار is pimento) (called for in the recipe). Turning to golden color When the chicken is golden in color, lift and clarify from drain oil. Fry onions until they become goldish somewhat golden in color and add sugar , *pomegranate molasses* , walnuts and *leave* to boiling (let boil). Add pieces of chicken parts to the previous liquid and leave to simmer on a calm fire low heat for an hour to an hour and a half. Dish chicken out in on a plate and add *soup* broth which is in from the bowl .*Serve* beside with white rice with saffron. and preferred Eaten with bread by some people.


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## cherine

Good work guys  

May I just note that السمن is not oil. I'm not sure how it is translated into English, but oil is الزيت while السمن is a kind of "solid" fat, almost like butter الزبد but different. Unless things are different in the Gulf, which is possible.

On a culinary note  frying with السمن makes a very heavy food, so maybe you should go with the guys translation (oil)


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## Abu Bishr

cherine said:


> May I just note that السمن is not oil. I'm not sure how it is translated into English, but oil is الزيت while السمن is a kind of "solid" fat, almost like butter الزبد but different.


 
In South Africa we call it "ghee".


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## elroy

cherine said:


> May I just note that السمن is not oil. I'm not sure how it is translated into English, but oil is الزيت while السمن is a kind of "solid" fat, almost like butter الزبد but different. Unless things are different in the Gulf, which is possible.


 Yes, I know what سمن is, but like you I wasn't sure what the English equivalent was.   But because you can pretty much use anything fatty or greasy to fry something, I didn't think "oil or butter" would be too misleading, since they're both acceptable alternatives that won't ruin the meal or anything.


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## Josh_

The English equivalent to سمن is 'shortening'.


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## elroy

Josh_ said:


> The English equivalent to سمن is 'shortening'.


 I'm not convinced the words are synonymous, as _shortening_ can be (and often is) used generically in English.  But even if we consider only the "general usage in recipes," we still can't really conclude that _shortening_ is a synonym of سمن because سمن is not always a "solid vegetable fat" - it can also be an animal fat. 

What this means on a practical level is that if we translate سمن as _shortening _in a recipe, there is no guarantee the person cooking the meal will actually use سمن.


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## Josh_

I never said they were synonymous, only equivalent -- corresponding in functions in some ways.  I agree with your analysis and thought about bringing it up, but I refrained because I did not want to overburden the thread with the minutiae of the issue.  But since I'm here I will mention that if I wanted to translate سمن into English then I would use shortening as it is closer than oil or butter which are totally different in texture, consistency, and overall function from either سمن or shortening.  Anyway, I think we are splitting hairs.  The best thing to do is just transliterate the word into English.

It also just occurred to me that it is sometimes translated as 'clarified butter' in English, but that does not help me any as I do not know what clarified butter is.  But I have seen it written on سمن jars in the grocery store.

Edit: Maybe this will help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee
http://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B3%D9%85%D9%86
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarified_butter


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## ayed

Thank you , Elory for your modification .I like your tweaking, man ! 
Thank you for Abu Bashir , and sofiaB .Thank you Cherine for pushig us to the correct translation.


Josh_ said:


> I do not know what clarified butter is. But I have seen it written on سمن jars in the grocery store.


In Badawi daily life , I would spot my grandmother process butter as follows :

Milk is fermented by adding either few drops of Laban(yogurt) or left till it gets fermented.It is churned for an hour or more and a churner is occasionally opened up to check if there are some butter globules accumulated .If so, pour the churned milk(Laban)in a pan and you'll notice tiny globules of white butter float on the surface of Laban . These scattered floating globules are skimmed by hand and put in a bowl .Put this bowl on fire and let boil .Sprinkle some wheat flour by hand on the boiling butter as you stirring with a stick or a spoon. Wheat flour drags drops of water and some tinny things down .Now, you have reasonable quantity of pure crystal oil(clarified butter) as the pliable paste is down at the bowl bottom mingled with tinny things .


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## CarlosPerezMartinez

I agree with Abu Bishr, سمن is ghee or fat in English:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghee


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## elroy

"Fat" is too general."  "Ghee" is probably the technically correct term, but I daresay most speakers of English aren't familiar with it.  Let's hope whoever sees it in a recipe has easy access to a culinary dictionary, or to Wikipedia.


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## CarlosPerezMartinez

I myself never heard of it until I arrived in Riyadh. In any supermarket near the olive oil, palm oil, etc, you find it as "ghee", "butter ghee".


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## Abu Bishr

Hi all

My suggestion is to popularise the Arabic "samn" or "samneh" just as the Indian "ghee" has been popularised. (I think Josh suggested this). I mean if it is also made by Arabs then to call it "ghee" would sound a little strange because it would suggest it's made by Indians or imported from India at least. Also, there might be slight differences between the Indian method and Arabian method in preparing clarified butter. Add to this the fact that many Arabic words related to Arabian cuisine have already entered into English and other languages, e.g. tahineh.

If you google samn, samna or samneh you will see that it is already in use but often needs to be clarified (no pun intended), and they often translate it as 'butter fat' or 'clarified butter'.

Here are some links:

link 1

link 2

link 3


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## MarcB

In the US and I believe the UK ghee is associated with the store bought product and clarified butter is usually associated with rendering butter in one's kitchen. The name ghee and the product are mostly found in Indian shops and sometimes gourmet shops. As far as how many people know the name ghee it depends on where the person lives and their exposure to cuisine that uses it.


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## Abu Bishr

CarlosPerezMartinez said:


> I myself never heard of it until I arrived in Riyadh. In any supermarket near the olive oil, palm oil, etc, you find it as "ghee", "butter ghee".


 
Hi Carlos

These might be the ones imported from India, and if locally produced then I suppose "ghee" or "butter ghee" might be the way to go since we can suggest that "samn" or "samneh" should be popularised but what actually gets popularised - I suppose - is not in our hands.


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## MarcB

elroy said:


> cardamom (I'm not sure, but I think بهار is pimento)


My dictionary shows بهار as spice,so is it cardamon  here or pimento/allspice


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## ayed

Well, I mis-translated the word "buhaar" as "cardamom" immediately because we call "cardamom" Buhaar" and" Hael" which is used in coffee .*هيل* *أو بهار*


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## MarcB

Hi Ayed since I asked the question I saw an Iranian recipe and they do use cardamon. Also maybe they use * بهار*  the same way in Dubai where Sofia said the recipe is from.


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## ayed

Well, here in Saudi , many restaurants use "cardamom" in cooking rice so as to add a flavor .
In my dialect :
*If we say *بهار* then it connotes cardamom
*If we say *بهارات* then it connotes "pigmento".


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## zooz

I remember the word 'ghee' written on the cans of *سمن *of several brands in Saudi Arabia.

AFAIK, ghee is mostly known and used by Arabs (could be by other nations like Indians or Iranians too). One won't find it normally in any supermarket in Europe or the States. The alternative is butter. According to my grandmother, butter is the lighter version of ghee. So I say in such translation both words should be used to make it clear to all readers (ghee/butter).


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## Beate

Hello,

can *سمن*
also be lard?

Bye Beate


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## cherine

elroy said:


> I'm not convinced the words are synonymous, as _shortening_ can be (and often is) used generically in English. But even if we consider only the "general usage in recipes," we still can't really conclude that _shortening_ is a synonym of سمن because سمن is not always a "solid vegetable fat" - it can also be an animal fat.


I'm not sure I know what shortening is, but I wanted to confirm that سمن can be both from animal fat (produced from milk) or vegetable fat (hydroginated (?) oil) زيوت مهدرجة , like the سمن produced from زيت النخيل .



ayed said:


> Thank you Cherine for pushig us to the correct translation.


I'm not sure I deserve to be thanked, I feel rather embarrassed for pushing the thread towards an unexpected point  But thank you Ayed for the grandma's recipe  I think -but not sure- this is the way home made samn is produced in Egypt.



Beate said:


> can *سمن *also be lard?


No. Lard is porc fat, and it's not what we use to make samn. Actually, in Egypt, only Christians eat porc products, and I'm not sure how they call lard. What I know is that porc itself (the meat) is called mortadella.

Anyway, crude animal fat is called دهن or, in case of sheep, some people use the fat in the sheeps tail for cooking, and we call it liyya لية .


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## ayed

> cherine : I'm not sure I deserve to be thanked, I feel rather embarrassed for pushing the thread towards an unexpected point.


You do deserve to be , Cherine 


> Anyway, crude animal fat is called دهن or, in case of sheep, some people use the fat in the sheeps tail for cooking, and we call it liyya لية


Well, Cherine , in Badawi daily life , we use this sort of oil.It is called "widak"(*ودك*),"Ihalah"(*إهالة*)(melted tallow)which my grandmother cut raw sheep tail into pieces and then roast it till it become oil and the hard tinny pieces that did not melt called" qisham"(*قشم*).

*الوَدَك : الدَسَم من اللحم والشحم وهو ما يتحلَّب من ذلك(لسان العرب لابن منظور)*
*والدِكَة كعِدَة اسم منهُ
------------*
*الإهالة: الشحم والوَدَك المُذَاب: الإهالة ، يقال في المثل:أنا مِنْهُ كحاقن الإهالة وليس يحقنهاإلا الحاذق بها، يحقنها حتى يعلم انها قد بَرَدَتْ لئلا تحرق السقاء‏، يضرب للحاذقبالأمر‏(كتاب صبح الأعشى في صناعة الإنشاء، أحمد بن علي القلقشندي).*
*القِشْم : اللحم إذا نضج واحمرَّ والشحم(لسان العرب لابن منظور) *​


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## SofiaB

Thanks to everyone for all of your contributions. They were very helpful to me and I am sure to everyone. Special Thanks to Ayed for your extra information. I will be cooking this very soon.


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## Mahaodeh

Actually, بهار is spices, هيل is cardamom.  Both can be used in cooking rice (I prefer cardamom, but that's a personal taste) as well as cooking other things.  Here in Dubai they use هيل but I cant be certain that what is meant is cardamom.  Anyway, maybe you should check the dish itself.  Can I ask what it is called?  I'm guessing فسنجون.

Anyway, as someone who knows quite a little about cooking, I'd say the mention was بهار as in spices because it is left to the person's taste.  At least this is the Iraqi way of cooking fasanjoon.


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## suma

Recipes and food ingredients are *highly *regional.
So it's always best and safest, if you want to be certain to get it exaclty right, to refer to speakers where the food or recipe comes from.


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## MarcB

Mahodeh welcome,
Yes it is فسنجون the first 12 posts say it. also see post 20 Ayed says:
Well, here in Saudi , many restaurants use "cardamom" in cooking rice so as to add a flavor .
In my dialect :
*If we say *بهار* then it connotes cardamom
*If we say *بهارات* then it connotes "pigmento".


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