Syrian Lamb Pilaf

This is a variant of a dish known as fāʾiziyya (فائزية) from 13th-century Aleppo, which requires boiling and cooking lamb. While the meat is on the hob, pound and strain sour cherries (an alternative to medlar or cornelian cherry) with mint. The resultant juice is added to rice as it is being cooked in the meat broth, and then sweetened with honey or sugar to taste. The rice is further cooked with some sheep’s tail fat (ألية, alya) until the mixture thickens. The lamb is served on a bed of the rice and cherries.

The Arabic culinary term for pilaf was aruzz mufalfal (أرز مفلفل), literally meaning ‘peppered rice’, in reference to the appearance of the grains of rice as separate grains. Pilafs are particularly associated with Mamluk cuisine, from both Syria and Egypt.