Ful medames

Typical fūl medames breakfast as served by an Egyptian street vendor with bread & pickled vegetables and fresh rocket leaves on the side.

Fūl medammis (Egyptian Arabic: فول مدمّس, IPA: [fuːl meˈdæmmes] fūl mudammis; alternate spellings include ful medames or ful mudammas), or simply fūl, is an Egyptian dish of cooked and mashed fava beans served with olive oil, chopped parsley, onion, garlic, and lemon juice. A staple meal in Egypt, it is popular in the cuisines of the Levant, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

History

The roots of fūl medammis can be traced to Pharaonic Egypt. Quantities of beans have been found in Twelfth Dynasty tombs (1991-1786 BC). Fava beans were also mentioned in Hittite texts and the Bible. Ramses II of Egypt is known to have offered 11,998 jars of beans to the god of the Nile. Some writers have suggested that beans were not commonly cultivated in Ancient Egypt, and Herodotus in the fifth century B.C., mentions the fact that the Egyptians "never sow beans, and even if any happen to grow wild, they will not eat them, either raw or boiled."

Ful in hieroglyphs

Some believe that the word medammis was originally Coptic, meaning "buried," and its use here might mean that the beans are buried in the pot. This cooking method is mentioned in the Talmud Yerushalmi, indicating that the method was used in Middle Eastern countries since the fourth century. Although there are countless ways of embellishing fūl, the basic recipe remains the same. Once the fūl is cooked it is salted and eaten plain or accompanied by olive oil, corn oil, butter, clarified butter, buffalo milk, béchamel sauce, basturma, fried or boiled eggs, tomato sauce, garlic sauce, tahini, fresh lemon juice, or other ingredients.

Fūl medammis served with sliced hard-boiled eggs

In the Middle Ages, the making of fūl was monopolized by the people living around the Princess Baths, a public bath in a tiny compound near today's public fountain of Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, a block north of the two elegant minarets of the Mosque of Sultan Mu’ayyad Shaykh above the eleventh-century Bab Zuwaylah gate. During the day, bath-attendants stoked the fires heating the qidras, huge pots of bath water. Wood was scarce, so garbage was used as fuel and eventually a dump grew around the baths. When the baths closed, the red embers of the fires continued to burn. To take advantage of these precious fires, huge qidras were filled with fava beans, and these cauldrons were kept simmering all night, and eventually all day too, to provide breakfast for Cairo's population. Cookshops throughout Cairo would send their minions to the Princess Baths to buy their wholesale fūl.

Fūl is prepared from the small, round bean known in Egypt as fūl ḥammām. The beans are cooked until very soft. Other kinds of fava beans used by Egyptian cooks are fūl rūmī, large kidney-shaped fava beans, and fūl baladī, country beans, of middling size. Fūl nābit (or nābid) is fava bean sprouts, fūl akhḍar ('green fūl') is fresh fava beans, and fūl madshūsh is crushed fava beans.

Fūl medammis outside of Egypt

Fūl medammis in the Aleppan style, with tahini and olive oil, topped by a touch of Aleppo pepper sauce.

Fūl medammis was exported from Egypt to other parts of the Arab world, particularly the Levant, Somalia, Eritrea, and Sudan.

Syria

Fūl medammis, in its own different style, also enjoys considerable popularity as a breakfast meal in Syria, especially in Aleppo. The fava beans are left simmering in large copper jars throughout the night, to be served from the next morning on; the beans swim in tahini and olive oil, completed with a hint of red pepper paste over the top.

Horn of Africa

In northern Somalia, ful is eaten with a pancake-like bread called laxoox. It is also part of Ethiopian cuisine, where it is served with flatbread and mitmita powder.

Malta

In Malta ful bit-tewm (beans with garlic) is usually associated with fasting during Lent and Good Friday. The beans are soaked overnight, cooked with garlic and fresh or dried mint and dressed with oil and vinegar before serving.

Nutritional information

A typical recipe of ful medames has the following nutrition facts per serving (around 200g):

• Calories: 342
• Total fat (g): 27
• Saturated fat (g): 4
• Cholesterol (mg): 0
• Carbohydrates (g): 20
• Protein (g): 7

External links

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• Step-by-step guide
• Ottolenghi, Yotam. "The perfect hummus debate", The Guardian, June 29, 2010.
• Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People by Linda Civitello