cooked soot

Ingredients

cooked soot, Arabic gum, pomegranate peel, iron sulphate, iron scrap (nails), dried myrtle leaves, saffron, rose water, pure water

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Method 1 (Nefeszade İbrahim): 40 g of nails (3 cm size) are kept in water for 8 days (p. 94). In a separate container, 25 g pomegranate peel is boiled with 125 g of water for 5 minutes and filtered to obtain yellow water. 10 g ferrous sulfate is dissolved in 30 g water. The pomegranate liquid and ferrous sulfate liquid are combined to create a black mixture. The iron scrap/nail water is added to this liquid and boiled for 20 minutes. 50 g of this mixture is then added to a mixture of 2.5 g cooked soot and 32 g Arabic gum, which have been crushed together in a mortar for one week. Finally, 1 g dried myrtle leaves, 0.05 g saffron, and 25 g rose water (stored together for a day) are filtered and added to the ink (p. 94).

Evidence

"In practice, the ink production method given in the copy named Gülzâr-ı Savab of Nefeszâde İbrahim was used. The method is as follows: “10 dirhams of Arabic gum with a filtered honey consistency is put into a mortar with some soot. Pomegranate peel juice and iron sulfate water is combined in a pot and boiled with an amount of scrap until the mixture becomes like a sherbet. This sherbet and soot and gum are gradually crushed in a mortar for one week. Then rose water, saffron and myrtle water is mixed and filtered and added to the ink.""

Remarks

The resulting ink produced 85 g of fluid. The authors observed that although the ink had no fluidity problems, the background of the writing remained partially visible due to transparency (p. 94). The ink showed no visible color change after 5 months under sunlight (p. 94).