Cookbook talk:Hummus I

about the garlic, in English, we call them either cloves or heads. A "clove" of garlic is a single "bulb", about 2 cm long and 0.5 - 1 cm thick; several cloves (10 or more) are gathered together into "heads", about 5 cm tall and 3 cm in radius; the bundle of paper wrapped garlic you can buy in a store, or go down to Gilroy and dig up. I like the name teeth, as they do kinda look like the eye teath. I'm going to wikify this recipe now, making links to all the ingredient pages, then I'll add it to the Recipe Index. Gentgeen 22:14, 30 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Thanks. Well, it was worth posting this recipe just to learn that. Garlic "teeth" is a literal translation from Hebrew. - yish 00:10, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Instead of 'Thina' didn't you mean 'tahini?' Tahini is sesame-seed paste and I thought it was an important ingredient in humus. I've never heard of 'thina' KJ 02:42, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Well, yes. Thina, or perhaps T'xina, is what native English speakers call tahini. Sometimes "tahini sauce". I tried to be true to the Hebrew / Arab phonetics, as I know it. - yish 23:07, 14 Apr 2004 (UTC)

So what happened to the garlic in the recipe? There's no garlic mentioned in ingredients or procedure, just here in the discussion. How can you have hummous bi tahina without garlic?

Regarding the pronounciation of tahini/tahina - Native Lebanese speakers would say something that sounds more like tahini, which is why you see it spelled like that in English. Several Lebanese-American grocery companies began marketing tahini in the US in the early to mid 20th century and I believe that's how the spelling caught on. But a Palestinian would say tahina. It's a regional variation on how to pronounce the vowel. There is substantial variation in vowel and dipthong pronounciation across Arabic dialects - never mind what teachers insist correct pronounciation is. Spoken Arabic varies from standard or Classical Arabic.

And BTW, the x in txina just indicates that special aspirated h that non-native Arabic speakers find so difficult. I never see scholars distinguishing between that letter and "h" when translating to English in popular writing - see Juan Cole, Abu-Aardvark, or As'ad Abu-Khalil. Leila - 28 Nov 2004

It would be nice to have as a part of the standard template a description of what role each ingredient plays in the recipe and the reasoning behind certain procedures. In this recipe, for example, what purpose does the baking soda serve? Why can't a food processor be used? Why should the chickpeas be shelled? Why must the chickpeas be soaked for so long instead of cooked for a shorter amount of time? -T.M.- 20 Feb 2005


 * I'm curious about the food processor warning too. I have a variant recipe (which for simplicity's sake uses two cans of chickpeas rather than the shelled kind, 6 Tbsp tahini, 6-8 Tbsp lemon juice, scallions, garlic and spices) which I've always used a food processor for and which has turned out fine for me on several occassions. --MC MasterChef 01:50, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Two variations I see from many other Humus recipies: 1) The ingredients list does not include olive oil. Other recipies I have seen include this, and all local Greek/Lebenese restaurants serve the Humus with olive oil mixed in.  (Sometimes it separates and "floats" on the top.)  2) All of the other recipies I have seen recommend starting with canned chick peas rather than dry, and just mixing in a blender or food processor. Also, I am not sure if adding the baking soda during soak is necessary or desirable unless you have hard water. -Aaron 23 June 2005

Disambiguation
I'm sorry if it seems like I'm changing the name of the existing humus recipe to hummus I without reason. But, in the the process of creating a disambiguation page to accommodate a Greek variation of hummus, I had to choose the least ambiguous, and most easily recognisable form for the word (humus can also mean decayed vegetable matter in English). Geo.T 09:59, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

food processor - chickpeas
My understanding of the suggestion to use the sieve and not the food processor is the fact that you will not be able to press the cooked chickpeas thru the sieve unless they are really overcooked and soft enough to go thru easily. A food processor has so much raw power, it will mash halfcooked chickpeas. Frank Z March 27 2006

criticism of this recipe
First of all --- it is very legitimate in making Houmus to use a food processor.

My mother, who is from Israel, uses a food processor every time she makes Houmus - and her houmus is considered the best. Other people, who refuse to use a food processor - their Houmus does not turn out as well. There are other, better ways of determining when you've cooked the beans enough -- such as (maybe) sampling them.

Also, there's a number of other ways that this recipe for Houmus is not a good one at all.

-- S. Shapira - March 30, 2008
 * Would you mind expanding on these other ways this recipe is not good? Maybe this article can be improved.  I am making hummus for the first time, and I'd like to know do it right.  74.138.155.68 (talk) 15:12, 4 July 2009 (UTC)