Re:

Rastafari Beliefs and Practices

Sun, 12/Nov/23

Rastafari do not say “we” for plurality. They grow their lingo out of the Jamaican Creole, which is a dialect of English itself. They wear dreadlocks, and worship the emperor Haile Selassie I, believing he is a true messiah and a divine personality, also a direct descendant of King Solomon.

Livity is yet another Rastafari term for cosmic energy and a life force. So, I-tal works to increase livity.

  • Rastafari advocate unity with all things, believing every living soul on Earth is a “brother”, and this spreads far beyond humans. I asked once my Rastafari brother as I pointed to an ant – “And he?”, the dude replied: “Yes, he is my brother. Selassie-ai.”

  • Rastafari deny any violence in any form towards brothers, which are all living creatures on the planet! Rastafari do not usually protest, but when they do, they express their “fight” in reggae sounds. Apparently, not a fight in the Western mentality.

  • Rastafari oppose Babylon for the two reasons listed above.

Do all “rastas” smoke weed?

Nay, this isn’t true, not all Rastafari smoke weed – surprise! The Rastafari principal belief suggests the body is a temple of God, and they accept godsends (including marijuana) to take care of this temple of God and enhance the cosmic energy in it.

“Then God said: Behold, I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food” (Genesis 1:29)

  • Smoking weed for a Rastafari is a sacramental deal, the spiritual food for the mind, and a medium for meditation to feel universal energy and unity with Jah and oneself.

  • In a rare case when weed does not fit the body and/or the mind, making anything worse, some Rastafari followers refuse to smoke for sake of keeping the “temple of god” (the body) in a good shape.

  • The dominating majority of Rastafari, of course, smokes marijuana and blesses God every time and with every toke for that God gave to all of us such a generous gift.

Why do “rastas” wear dreadlocks?

The reason for wearing dreadlocks is a part of the same model, that the body of Man is a temple of God, and it’s better be not intervened. So Rastafari do not cut hair, because the latter is a part of the divine plan of God towards humans. The formation of a dreadlock is a natural process, and you guess, that “rastas”, those living in asceticism, do not go to a barber’s shop to make dreads. All goes natural way.

Rastafari do not say “we” for plurality

The religious meaning of deprecating “we” and removing it from the speech, is that every Rastafari is a part of God, where his body is a temple of God and at the same time a living man. Every living man describes himself as an “I”, a personal pronoun. Because everyone is an “I”, Rastafari do not say “we” for plurality but say “I and I”.

From the said, Rastafari tend to replace some leading syllables in regular words with “I”. For example, eternal becomes I-ternal, the creator is the I-reator, and an hour transforms into an I-owa. The name of the popular diet, the Rastafari exercise, derives from the word “vital” by silencing the leading “v” and making it “I-tal”.

The divine idea of an “I”, plural – I and I, also applies to the title of the emperor Haile Selassie I. Even though it is normal to use Roman numbers for counting princes, Rastafari believe that the trailing Roman numeric one in the “Haile Selassie I” title points to the divinity of the king.

I-tal diet of Rastafari

The word “I-tal” is transformed from the English word “vital”, but the “v” is silenced, removed at all, and the “I” is highlighted because they always highlight the “I” to emphasize the unity with Jah and the universe.

I-tal diet is a plant-based diet, where Rastafari practices borrow many ideas about how to limit food for I-tal diet from Judaism and Hindu. Thus, Rastafari as a religion is a sort of compilation and a blend of Hindu and Judaism, seh so (that’s how “say so” sounds in Rastafari dialect, we’ve found it in Bob Marley’s interview).

There is no strict rule about the I-tal as it is more a personal feeling about what strengthens the body and increases energy, and what does not, adhering to the purity of food. However, there are guidelines to start with:

  • Food is to be pure and delivered directly from the earth

  • Clay pots and wooden bowls often replace metal pans

  • Some followers decline metal at all, including spoons

  • I-tal declines meat, as it is not from earth, and it is dead

  • Fish may be acceptable, but seafood is less

  • Some I-tal practitioners avoid salt

What is Livity?

LIVITY is another Rastafari term for cosmic energy and a life force. So, I-tal works to increase livity. Why not they only inforced the i-letter by dropping the L-letter away, haha.

Is Rastafari Christian?

Not much.

Rastafari is not Christian, but the two religions share some prophets and the book. Rastafari, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism share the basics as they all are the Abrahamic religions (branches).

All Abrahamic branches take off from the same legends, and the same book, usually recognizing the same basic prophets. However, not all of them support the idea of the divine genealogy of Jesus, which is the core dogma making Christianity Christianity

Some Rastafari beliefs correspond to Judaism, such as their diet, called “I-tal”, but some beliefs, as a matter of course, are similar to Christianity.

However, the principal religion of Ethiopia is Orthodox Christianity, the same as in Russia and Greece!

So the emperor Haile Selassie was a Christian Orthodox. Jesus was not Christian, but a prophet for Christianity, while Selassie was not Rastafari but a prophet for Rastafari, simple as that.

Who is Haile Selassie?

The central personality in the Rastafari religion is the emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, who also happened to be the last king of the country. Rastafari worship Haile Selassie I as god, and he is also the second coming of messiah, described in the Bible, just like the first messiah was Jesus.

emperor Haile Selassie

Haile Selassie in Civilization 5 videogame

“Know that the emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is the Almighty. Wha’ dem want? A white God, well, God come black,” – Bob Marley.

Also, “rastas” believe, that the king of kings his imperial majesty Haile Selassie I is the direct descendant of a biblical royal couple of King Solomon and Queen of Sheba, and the land of Ethiopia is the biblical Canaan, the promised land for Rastafari.

The visit of Queen Sheba to King Solomon (role in Rastafari Religion)

Queen Sheba visiting King Solomon (by Edward John Poynter) the large image here

What does the “Ras Tafari” mean?

Haile Selassie’s name resulted from the coronation, which was somewhat an Ethiopian tradition to change the monarch’s name, less important for the present narrative. Yet more important, his real-world name, before his being-a-king, was Tafari Makonnen (no-o-o, he is a 100% Ethiopian prince, and he is absolutely not from Finland, whatever the surname may seem, and it makes me smile too)

The title of the crown prince Tafari was Ras Tafari as long as he used to be a governor of Harrar province in Ethiopia, where “ras” is a very word for a governor, or a duke, in the Ethiopian language.

Thus, Ras Tafari literally means Duke Tafari, the Haile Selassie’s name as a crown prince, a ruler of Harrar, and the icon of the Rastafari religion.

Rastafari Vocabulary

To make this post clear, we list several definitions Rastafari use. We already know who is emperor Haile Selassie I, and why we call the whole thing Ras Tafari. Let’s dig up deeper to find out what the Lion is doing here, and the importance of Babylon definition, so we pack all of it into this brief Rastafari vocabulary:

Jah — is the name of God in the Rastafari religion, the latter is the Abrahamic branch basically, along with Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. Thus, “Jah” is the same monotheistic deity for all Abrahamic religions, some call him Yahweh or Allah, yet he is one for all.

Haile Selassie I — is the last king of Ethiopia, the central person and messiah (what we call the second coming of Jesus) in the Rastafari religion. Whereas Rastafari believe, that the king of kings his imperial majesty Haile Selassie I is the direct descendant of King Solomon and Queen of Sheba, therefore a holy person and the deity himself, just like Jesus in Christianity.

★ Zion — is a biblical place, or a region, now located in Africa, in Ethiopia as of their belief, where the Rastafari have once moved from Israel in the prehistoric (biblical) times. Rastafari religion has rejected the traditional definition of Zion as a “spiritual place in the sky”, promoting instead that Mount Zion is the “heaven on earth”.

★ Babylon — Babylon — is every negative aspect of the “western culture”, which Rastafari religion opposes in the lyrics of ska and reggae, namely: the law enforcement, the government in its wide, and especially when it is recklessly unfaithful or going mad. Rastafari refer to the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Vatican as “Babylon” too.

How do you say “Haile Selassie” as blessing?

Rastafari say “Selassie” as often as Christians say “Jesus” as both use the name of their messiah for blessing. A full version is “Haile Selassie”, and “Selassie” is a short version for this.

I have discovered another curious fact on my quest to comprehend better the “rasta” culture: Rastafari also add the trailing Roman numeric “I” to the short version of the blessing, it becomes “Selassie I” slipping “Haile” out.

So,

– An English-speaking “rasta” would say [selasi-ai],

making “1” be an i-sound.

– A Spanish-speaking “rasta” would say [selasi-el],

converting capital “I” to “L”, because they look the same.

– You’ve got a good toke: you murmur “Selassie-ai”, or “Selassie-el”.

There are (at least) two monuments to Judah Lion in Addis Ababa

The Lion of the Judah tribe, aka Judah Lion or the Lion of Zion, is a historical symbol of Ethiopia, maybe because the royal family of Ethiopia descends from King Solomon, who was of the Judah tribe himself. Thus, Haile Selassie I is of the Judah tribe too, which makes the marijuana community accept the lion as a cannabis symbol under the influence of Rastafari culture. And, we can spot that Lion on the personal coat-of-arms of the emperor Haile Selassie.

Well, it is all about the Lion, and no surprise, lions are all around Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia. The first monument was erected in 1930 on the occasion of the coronation of Haile Selassie I (that is when he stopped being Ras Tafari and changed to Haile Selassie).

Judah Lion monument in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 1930

Judah Lion, Addis Ababa, 1930

Yet another Judah Lion (aka the Lion of Zion) in Addis Ababa got commissioned in 1954 by the emperor Haile Selassie I himself.

Judah Lion, Addis Ababa, 1954

Judah Lion, Addis Ababa, 1954

Rastafari discourage the use of -ism and -ians suffixes

Speaking about the Rastafari’s representation of evil, the Babylon. We use the term “Rastafari” instead of “Rastafarianism” because the latter is… wait for that: oppressive, Babylonic, and very negative.

Suprisingly, the Merriam Webster dictionary confirms it:

1) “ism”, as a noun – an oppressive and discriminatory attitude or belief.

2) “-ism”, as a suffix – indicates prejudice, discrimination, or an abnormal state resulting from an excess of a thing.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/-ism

Indeed!

Have you ever noticed that the Western culture refers to most of foreign religions and teachings adding “-ism” to the original word, such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, etc, but never say “christianism”? Try saying “christianism” to feel how hostile it sounds.

It is Hindu, and not “hinduism”,

It is Mazdayasna, and its practitioners hardly called it “zoroastrism”.

So Rastafari use the “Rastafari” word, discouraging “-ism” and “-ian” as much as they disgrace the Babylonic ideologies as a whole. Though, they protest peacefully singing, through the lyrics of reggae and ska.

Aye-aye, unbelievably, the reggae (and ska) are the rebellion songs!

Ska

Ska was a pop-version of reggae, called “bluebeat” in England, being a mix of jazz and blues. Ska is yet outdated and rarely in use nowadays.

Ska — is a precursor of reggae, developed in the 1950-60s as a mild protest against social and political conditions in Jamaica.

While ska rhythms seem happy and content, in fact, they are about the pain and suffering of the people of Jamaica under the dishonest governmental regime. Ska is similar to reggae but applies a softer manner of blues. My god, what on Earth can be even softer than reggae? Ska can be!

Ska introduced Jamaican drumming to the world for the first time, which has happened long before the transformation of ska into reggae. The famous ska titles were “Oh Carolina”, “Another Moses”, and “Babylon Gone”.

Female Corruptible Influence

Ska musicians expressed the deep personal pain they were gaining from the political forces and, surprisingly, the pain from the “corruptible influence of a female”. They’ve been promoting that the temptation of female flesh eventually leads in general to negative things: broken hearts, loneliness, and teardrops.

This explains a lot about Bob Marley’s “No woman, no cry” — while being romantic in sound, the lyrics disgrace the female role in society. Oops!

To advocate this provision, let me add that Woman is worshiped as the incarnation of love and a deity for tens of thousands of years in the history of mankind. Apparently, a woman clearly demonstrates the dual nature, just as gods do all the time.

Thus, the lyrics of reggae and ska do not necessarily mean anything bad towards women, but they support the divine duality of woman’s nature, just like so many cultures did for ages.

To understand the concept of divine duality of every Woman as she is an ancient goddess of life and war, try to think about water or the Sun: both create life, and both can severely destroy everything. Yep, that’s hot.

Only some of the Rude Boys were Rastafari

In 1965 in Jamaica, unemployed ghetto youths, 14-25 years old, living in the shantytown of Kingston, the capital city of Jamaica, formed a strong and well-organized rebellion force armed with knives, cutlasses, and guns. They became a certain threat to the middle class, looting houses and shops, clashing violently and successfully against the law enforcement, living only for “run faster, jump higher, fuck longer” as they claimed.

Rude Boys embraced the image of an outlaw hero and a symbol of a new generation opposing the system which (they suggested) produced unemployment and poverty in Jamaica. Guess that for “rudies” marijuana was not exactly a spirituality, and their behavior, righteous or not, can hardly match the “peace and love” approach of the Rastafari followers.

However, some “rudies” claimed and pretended they were Rastafari, adopting the Rastafari language, appearance, dreadlocks, and also consuming weed openly. Consequently, citizens of Jamaica organically associated Rude Boys with the already existing negative, lunatic image of Rastafari.

Rastafari in their turn desperately denied any connection to “rudies” by all means, and never encouraged or promoted any violent action towards other people in exchange for gaining their own liberty. The suffering of humans, regardless of their negativity, is out of the question too.

Rastafari and Rude Boys highlighted identical goals to “fight” poverty and oppression but indeed espoused two radically different ideologies.

Grounation day: “God is here!”

Only once the king of kings Haile Selassie has visited Jamaica, it’s happened on the 21st day of April in 1966, and the 4/21 day is celebrated ever since by Rastafari, and they call it “Grounation day”.

100,000 people gathered at the airport on the 4/21 of 1966, and 10,000 of them were Rastafari, who smoked bongs, all the time chanting “God is here!” — the long-awaited Messiah finally arrived on the island of Jamaica to liberate them and take them to Zion in Africa!

“We have to go to Africa to live with our brothers and sisters there. Blacks remember, our king Haile Selassie grants land space for us in Ethiopia,” — Rasta Historian, writer to Bongo-man, Rastafari newspaper, Jamaica, 1968

Well, their expectation of repatriation to Africa didn’t work that way. Even though there is a piece of free land in Ethiopia, that Haile Selassie allocated for the Rastafari community in Shashamane town, but the king of kings did not take all Jamaicans to that Zion after his visit of Jamaica.

Instead, Haile Selassie has spoken to Rastafari leaders and proposed a new concept to them — to refuse the idea of physical repatriation to Africa, to the biblical Canaan, the promised land, but replace it with the pursuit of political liberation of Jamaica.

  • Among other goals, the emperor Haile Selassie wished to influence the public opinion in the country, persuading political leaders of Jamaica that the “rastas” could no longer be written off as “dangerous freaks”. This made reggae commercially viable, and also allowed the Rastafari religion to take off for the global spread.

  • Rita Marley, the wife of Bob Marley, converted to Rastafari faith as she saw Haile Selassie passing by in his motorcade. She later said she saw a stigma on his hand when he waved to the crowd.

  • The “grounation” as a word in the “Grounation day” derives from “foundation”. We’ve mentioned how Rastafari invent words to stress Letter I’s divinity in the already hardly understandable Jamaican Creole; but this time, for the “grounation” word, Rastafari expressed the idea that the Haile Selassie’s touchdown in Jamaica felt like a foundation for them but as he touched the Jamaican ground it was actually the “Grounation”.

Haile Selassie influenced the incorporation of “rudies” into reggae

By the time of the visit of Haile Selassie to Jamaica, the “Rastafari music” was already transforming from ska to reggae under the influence of R&B. But the idea the emperor have thrown about the liberation of Jamaica made reggae more aggressive and political, as only “aggressive” reggae could be!

The reggae musicians reacted by applying to build the heroic image out of “rudies” (Rude Boys), demonstrating the virtual alliance between Rude Boys and Rastafari united from now on against the common enemy, the system that produced unemployment and poverty, the Babylonic evil.

From Ska passive crying Rastafari slowly switched to reggae struggle. The sounds of reggae changed to describe the society in the process of transformation. Also, the religious Rastafari became the political power, which promoted rebellion and liberation.

Peace and love!

The Western way of thinking may call a violent image of Rastafari fighting for liberation, disobeying the Babylonic government. However, in reality, Rastafari oppose the Western mentality, as they are the “silent protesters”, and the “peaceful rebels”.

“We are truly humble people whose response to evil is to flee from it,” — Bongo Dizzy in Bongo-man, Rastafari newspaper, Jamaica, 1968”

Rastafari express their claims and demands exclusively through music and never consider a violent action. Love and peace they also express in asceticism.

Rastafari shanty villa in Jamaica

Rastafari shanty “villa” in Jamaica


Pharaohs of Egypt tested positive on marijuana

Wed, 08/Nov/23

The German toxicologist Dr. Svetlana Balabanova has tested mummies of the Ancient Egypt for the drugs, and it’s positive as she demonstrates in her work the clear traces of cocaine, nicotine and marijuana (THC in particular) are present in tissues of the mentioned mummies.

Another funny fact: none of nicotine or coca originates in the Old World, but both things are truly American.

It’s okay, that the known history record asserts the trade with America has been established (or re-established?) some time in the 1500s-1600s, except that the old guys of the Ancient Egypt have been already entirely packed with the exclusively American ‘controlled substances’ thousands years before any columbuses, corteses, and walters raleighs. Who’s the plug?

Frankly, scientists constantly thirsty for the things like Ancient Egypt as well as any other Ancient Something-else. This time they have realized the chemical contents of the bodies, so well-preserved for almost a myriad years, may lead to greater discoveries like pointing out who crossed the Atlantic for the drug trade long before pirates of the Golden Age of Piracy did it.

So, they start digging it humbly rather far ago, in the 19th century, suggested there are certain political barriers for doing it freely. They really rush in 1924, continue in 1948, and finally the most of discoveries in the field belong to the 1989-1995, scored by Dr. S. Balabanova and the team.

Yay, the Pharaohs were the dudes!

All points to that the Pharaohs of the Ancient Egypt and their Ancient Egyptian high priests religiously or for-health were the dudes, and that’s why we call them “high priests,” hahahaha, kidding.

Provided, a king or a queen, and their retinue consuming marijuana and hashish all the way being stoned AF make no actual surprise. Of course, they are hilarious, no doubt, yet they are not any unique occurrence of the continuously impaired rulers, no matter with what.

The real question, however, arises from the naughty fact that neither cocaine nor nicotine is present in the plants of the known Old World, while either nicotine and cocaine are only found in the plants of the New World also known as America. Egyptology? Anyone?

Pharaohs smoked Marijuana, while Cocaine and Nicotine they consumed as edible

STUDY “Presence of drugs in different tissues of an Egyptian mummy” by Franz Parsche and Andreas Nerlich, published in “Fresenius’ Journal of Analytical Chemistry (1995)”, states that levels of THC suggest an inhalation of marijuana or hashish, while cocaine and nicotine are found mostly in the liver, so the latter two were eaten as edible. Where, the nicotine must not be necessarily a tobacco because, for example, eating tomato and potato through all life shows nicotine in the body as well. Here is the quote:

« 
By use of radio immunoassay systems and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, significant amounts of various drugs were detected in internal organs (lung, liver, stomach, intestines) as well as in hair, bone, skin/muscle and tendon. These analyses revealed a significant deposition of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), nicotine (and its metabolite cotinine) and cocaine in the tissue from the mummy. The concentration profiles additionally provide evidence for the preferential ways of consumption: Thus, the highest levels of THC in lung specimens point to an inhalation of this drug — as it has been assumed from known ritual smoking ceremonies —, while nicotine and cocaine containing drugs showed their highest concentrations in the intestines and liver, so that they seem to have been consumed perorally.
»

May it mean the Ancient Egypt traded to the Americas for nicotine and cocaine!!?

Marijuana traces in Pharaohs’ bodies entertain the marijuana community adding a whole lot to the marijuana culture, enigmatically. And, the whole of Egyptology really wants to explain it: how’s the hell that nicotine and cocaine landed in the tissues of the mummies from the New World while the latter’s got officially discovered only in 1492 by Columbus.

Even though tomatoes and potatoes do contain nicotine, neither of these plants was officially known to the Ancient Egypt, and there is no solid excuse about the fact that the mummies have packed weed and cocaine like 5,000 years ago, ages and ages before Christopher Columbus’s touchdown in the Caribbean.

Pharaoh’s Plug

The Ancient Egyptians have never been accounted as super good sailors, doing mostly on land, that may mean someone else delivered goods to them. Once I met a curious version that attracted my attention as a clear example of the out-of-the-box thinking: What if Pharaoh’s plug traveled not the way over the Atlantic but used the land route through Asia and China and then someone from Asia, even if not Chinese, crossed the Pacific? Filipinos and Indonesians were good sailors, right? Besides, on the top north where the Bering straight is, the distance between the two worlds is short enough and even shorter, it is merely 82 kilometers wide (equals to 51 land miles or 45 nautical miles, translates into 6-8 hours to travel by sail with a small sailboat, practically behind the corner).

Here — Chinese script carved into rocks (in New Mexico, Arizona and California) may prove Asians lived in New World 3,300 years ago

Here — A 2013 study suggests the possibility of contact between Ecuador and East Asia

We should not forget about the Olmec, the ancient culture of the Americas existed in the period roughly from 1200 BCE to 400 BCE, very roughly. More important, there is a claim they have contacted Africa.

No, we should not believe everything written. I only wonder what will happen first, either archeologists will find the evidence, or genetics will resurrect (or recreate) Ramses II and will just ask him. Like, what if they are right that the memory presumably is stored in molecules? Like, there is molecular storage in the DNA. Hmm, you know, this part of science moves on pretty fast too.

Mad?

Yes, but the teleport was once mad too, but it is not now and already invented, not yet sending people as a whole into any point; however, it is not a total miracle anymore 😜👍

Relevant enough (Critics)

Critics, presumably driven by envy, hits the finds, of course. The defense suggests that Dr. Svetlana Balabanova used a hair test which is accepted in a court of law as a proof that a substance was consumed while the person was alive, right now, in the modern age. How it works — a sample is washed in alcohol, then the solution is tested, while such a method is used to apply a hammer of law upon people nowadays, in the modern age. So, WHY for the love of gods the SAME method should not work perfect for a Pharaoh and his/her priests and priestesses? Bullet-proof enough, I think.

Wonder why I refer to a Pharaoh as “her” along with “his”? Of course, the tradition did not allow a feminine ruler in the Ancient Egypt, as far as we know, however, there were feminine rulers who disguised themselves as men. Hatshepsut was such, the most famous of the Egyptian feminine princes wearing a fake beard. Also, some sources suggest Nefertiti masqueraded herself under a man’s look. The monuments devoted to her rebellious husband, those made closer to the end of his rule, obviously show boobs and heaps as if he was a woman — some scholars think that Akhenaten was an alien, some scholars think those were the wrongs of genetics, but some think that Nefertiti took over the power eventually and just dressed as a Pharaoh-man (presumably the only way for a Pharaoh-woman to align to the tradition of the Ancient Egypt). Of course, she puffed, or we just love to think so, why not? Even if she had never usurped the absolute power, she was still a Queen of Egypt involved absolutely into religious spiritual rituals and most probably enjoying goods from the Americas and certainly from the Middle East, for gods sake.

Akhenaten and Nefertiti and their children, marijuana stoners in the Ancient Egypt, probably

IMG: Akhenaten and Nefertiti and their children (src:wikipedia)

“Those mummies are modern fakes” — the envy still shouts. Yack, yack, all of them, starting from RAMSES THE SECOND himself resting now in peace in the Cairo Museum!! Is it what you say? Do you hear yourself? Silence is gold more often than kept.

Ramses II

Ramses the Second, often referred to as Ramses the Great, was the magnificent Pharaoh of Egypt. He ruled the country for 66 years as the second longest reign, and died at the age of about 90 years old, his period is considered the Golden Age of Egypt. Let’s see what they’ve found in his body then.

Rameses II, this is his mummy in the Cairo Museum

Ramses II (1292–1190 BCE) ruled Egypt for 66 years!!! now R.I.P. at Cairo Museum, photo credit, creative commons license (mods applied: rotation 90% to be aligned with the actual position of the mummy in the museum as I’ve been contemplating him for an hour there back in 2003)

«
The presence of Nicotiana sp. and Anthemideae [plant known as chamomile belong to genera of this tribe] in the abdominal cavity of Rameses II, as plant substances utilized in the preservation process by the Ancient Egyptians. Both [substances] were discovered during the re-examination of his [Rameses II] mummy in Paris in 1976, the former as the fragments of leaf and the latter as massive amounts of pollen (>500,000 grains/cc) (Layer-Lescot 1985; Leroi-Gourhan 1985). The evidence for Nicotiana, tobacco, was published in 1978.
[…] a point is not lost on Balabanova et al. (1993). A short note on this research in Lancet (1993) elicited some sharp responses particularly as the evidence was extended to show the use of hashish (Cannabis Sativa) and cocaine (Erythroxylon coca), the latter at a date earlier than any record in the New World (cf. Cartmel et al. 1991). Like the use of opium, cannabis usage either in religious ritual or medicine is possible.
» source: Rameses II and the tobacco beetle, Buckland & Panagiotakopulu

Yet another doubt suggests there is no single depiction about any cocaine consumption by Pharaohs, neither showing the marijuana tokes, while all Egypt is full of pictures, and those pictures show many aspects, if not every aspect, of life.

To my personal perception, this “move” is weak or stupid or both because it’s not that “every aspect” got pictured, even though they were many.

Secondarily, when you meet somebody insisting the Egyptian script is perfectly decrypted, why not you ask him then, if it is so, the Egyptian script is perfectly deciphered why are the Senet’s rules yet a mystery?


How to make Cannabutter

Mon, 16/Oct/23

Cannabutter is a clear combination of “cannabis” and “butter”, also referred to as marijuana butter or weed butter. Cannabutter is the word we employ in the cannabis space for infused butter. Call it an industry standard or a stoner’s slang, if you wish, it does not change the idea:

— Cannabutter is regular butter with the active marijuana compounds, like THC, emulsified in it. Cannabutter is as high as marijuana itself (usually much higher) if you eat it.

Our best directions for weed butter cooking start just below in this post, but beforehand we cite a collection of noteworthy information you’d better acquire once you are on the cannabutter making quest.

How strict are the temperature rules, what is weed ghee and what are the best hints to store it, why do we want to add water to avoid the famous weedy smell, and many other things, just read on.

How to use Cannabutter

Cannabutter is rarely consumed “as is”, yet you may try of course, but more often, if not almost always, it is involved as a component of the recipes for creating weed edibles. Virtually any regular recipe which contains regular butter can be cooked with cannabutter instead so that the final product shall kick in once being eaten.

Cannabutter temperature range

Keeping an eye on the cannabutter temperature range is twice as important: (1) when you make cannabutter, and (2) when you cook with cannabutter. All because the THC, the active compound of marijuana making you “high”, is rather sensitive to temperature and can be easily destroyed by over-temperature.

The under-temperature in its turn may result that your marijuana eventually emulsified into butter shall not activate its THC, then your cannabutter shall face a risk of being not working.

The best temperature for simmering cannabutter

When you make cannabutter, you practically infuse butter with marijuana by simmering for a few hours. The sweet temperature point for cannabutter simmering is 230-250℉, which equals roughly 110℃. THC only gets “activated” at this temperature point, but in fact, it is already activated by prior decarboxylation, and you deliver a bit lower temp to the inside of your mix of butter and marijuana to keep all safe from destruction. Some sources recommend setting 320℉ (160℃) if you wish to save some time.

Do not allow boiling under no circumstances

Applying the “Bath Marie” technique for simmering cannabutter is a safe and common practice, especially if you lack a cooking thermometer and/or you are a first-timer. For this, you put a bowl with cannabis and butter mix over boiling water.

Adding water into cannabutter

The other practice is to add water inside to the mix of butter and marijuana. In this case, water shall be evaporating, taking away unnecessary heat, saving your cannabutter and THC in it from burning, and also removing the weedy herbal smell away more effectively than normal.

Using water as described is the perfect way to get rid of the herbal taste of weed in edibles when you bake them with cannabutter, and this is a beautiful discovery indeed.

On the other hand, there is already a small amount water in butter but you may add slightly more for enforce the effect. Note that idyllically water must evaporate completely out of cannabutter in the end of cooking, this includes water which is already in it before you’ve added any extra!!

Keep in mind, using water pouring it inside of a cannabutter is a sort of an “advanced technique” but you try your experiment. We would recommend following the classic cannabutter recipe first to understand the whole thing before going any further. On the other hand, being brave may give fruits, who may argue.

The best temperature for baking with cannabutter

The decomposition of THC occurs at 380-480℉, which is 200-250℃. For the cannabutter cookies temperature, you can go a little higher than the lower point in this range, because there is a slight difference between the outer temperature and how hot it is inside of your cookies or any other edible product that you cook.

For example, you bake weed brownies with cannabutter (historically the most classic weed edible recipe) at 390-430℉, which is 200-220℃, and that should be safe enough for preserving THC inside.

We confirm we have done this way a hundred times and it kicks in every time. Consider adjusting the temp specifically for your cooker and your sort of marijuana. Using a cooking thermometer is a good idea either.

We recommend staying at the lower temperature possible is the safe way. THC won’t go anywhere until you destroy butter itself, and burn it, but THC can be decomposed yet. By that, you select recipes containing butter but you choose ones where the cooking temp is low or no cooking at all: cheesecakes, brownies, cookies, buttercream to decorate cakes, etc.

Technically speaking, THC is trapped (or say “emulsified”) in cannabutter, so it won’t get released or destroyed that easily. But you stay very serious about not going any higher than the range of the recommended temperatures. THC is yet very sensitive anyway, just the cannabutter is here to help us with the temperature issue greatly.

What does decarboxylation do?

In your marijuana buds, there is no THC per se, but there is an acid instead, it is called THCA, where trailing “a” stands for acid in its name. Once THCA gets exposed to heating above 230-250℉, roughly 110℃, it converts into THC and the latter absorbs into the bloodstream in the lungs from the smoke that you inhale.

When you eat cannabis there is no 250℉ in your digestion system, that is why THCA shall never set you high if you just munch weed straight away.

The chemical process we discuss here is called “decarboxylation”, which is technically speaking, the removal of carbon dioxide group (CO2) by continuous exposure to heating from the mentioned acid compound, and it becomes THC.

In other words, you heat your buds at the proper temperature to perform decarboxylation as a chemical process, and such is called “decarboxylation” as a word, where decarboxylate is the verb, often shortened to “decarb” among the cannabis folk in the cannabis space.

Cannabutter Recipe Chef 420

Now we present a classic cannabutter recipe. Yes, finally. This one goes without water in it, but you can alter it, as we described earlier in this post. We thank our friend Chef 420 for the master class. And, before you even touch any butter — the first step — you want to activate THC in your marijuana buds. What we call “decarboxylation” or “decarb”.

The decarbed weed shall be already high even if you wish to consume it straight away. Yet for sake of better performance and taste, we’d better to emulsify the desired chemical compounds: taking them from that THC-ready weed (decarbed weed) and delivering them into butter — this is going to be the longest step. And, in the last stage then we filter out the grass matter, making your regular butter finally be a cannabutter.

How to decarboxylate marijuana for cannabutter

Crush or grind your marijuana, either bud or shake, but you do not grind it into powder. Make its pieces be looking slightly above the oregano state.

How to decarboxylate marijuana for cannabutter
The image is the courtesy of Chef 420

Put ground marijuana into a frying pan wide and shallow enough, or a tray (shown in the picture), or any other dish designed for heating that you are used to. We love using a thermo-glass tray.

Heat it at cannabutter decarboxylation temperature, which is, we mentioned, is 230-250℉ and that equals roughly 110℃. Keep in mind reaching 380℉ (or 200℃) shall kill your THC making marijuana useless since then and cannabutter shall not work consequently.

— The higher temperature you set (in the reasonable range) the shorter time you need for it to be ready.

— At 230℉ (or 110℃) you need about 30-40 minutes.

— At 320℉ (or 160℃) you need about 20-30 minutes.

— Check its readiness by color by the bare eye. Logically, you will need a little experience for that one, but you can see the visible change of color even on your first try.

— Also, you check the readiness of your decarbed marijuana by crushing it with your fingers. It must be felt as super dry, over-dried even, and it goes crushed into quasi-powder with almost no effort.

You’ll gain your experience after an attempt or two. Starting from a smaller amount is a good piece of advice, once you fail you won’t ruin all your harvest.

The ingredients for cannabutter

The ingredients to make cannabutter are:

1 LB. of BUTTER
1/2 OZ. of MARIJUANA BUDS

Yes, that is all we need, simple as that.

— Use essentially butter and not margarine.

— You can use shake, that shall be leaves and stems or trim, then you double the amount of weed for the same amount of butter.

— For the metric system followers: 1 oz, one ounce, constitutes 28 grams, and 1 lb, one pound, constitutes 450 grams. Then you use 420 grams for better luck in cooking, ha-ha.

— You can use a smaller amount of marijuana for the recipe, then you result in a less potent cannabutter. Not an issue at all as soon as it reflects your goal, either you have no wish to allocate that much weed for a mere cooking experiment. All directions stay the same for a smaller amount of weed in butter or a smaller amount of butter.

Will neighbors smell the cannabis I am cooking?

Oh, you’d better believe it, neighbors shall smell cannabis. An important message is when you cook cannabutter you be ready for a thick marijuana smell clouding around your kitchen and beyond during the whole period of cannabutter cooking. Means 6-7 hours.

Neighbors or wandering passers-by-your-window shall certainly guess what you are doing. We have cooked a few times in a yacht docked in a touristic port in the middle of summer, the number of smiles around in the marina we have joyfully contemplated.

Cannabutter directions

— Melt the butter at low fire and low temperature. Keep it in the “just about to start boiling” condition: small bubbles you allow, but a full-scale volcano you avoid.

— Add up decarboxylated marijuana buds into the liquid butter. Stir carefully.

How to make Cannabutter below the boiling point in Bath Marie

In the picture the Cannabutter quasi-boiling slowly (weed is in).

— Continue at a slow fire, or switch to “Bath Marie” (this is when a pan is placed over boiling water) and keep it going for the next 6-7 hours.

Yes, it takes that long!

— Filter the melted butter from the remains of the weed tissue. Use a classic paper filter or a medical gauze, the latter I prefer to use (as shown in the picture).

How to filter cannabutter with gauze filter

In the picture we are filtering hot cannabutter.

— The substance left in the filter is the plant tissue and other stuff, and it is already empty at this stage, just throw it away.

— The resulted liquid butter we already may call “cannabutter”, and it is already rich with activated THC and other pleasurable cannabinoids.

— Let it cool down at room temperature, and it’s ready.

Ready Cannabutter for edibles cooled in a glass jar

In the picture: ready cooled cannabutter in a glass jar.

You have noticed of course out of these cannabutter directions, the resulting product is more likely a rendered butter, aka ghee, rather than butter, but we bend to the influence of the industry norm and we all call it “cannabutter” in the community.

However, we mentioned ghee (clarified or rendered butter) for the next chapter clarifying that how we store ghee is how we store cannabutter.

How to store cannabutter

As soon as we see now that cannabutter is a clarified rendered butter, better known among cooks as “ghee”, we store cannabutter as we store ghee.

Ghee is cooked by humanity for centuries before any fridge has been even invented, and we suggest the primary purpose of ghee was its storage capabilities. Therefore, the storage of cannabutter (we remind, the latter is technically ghee) inherits the possibility to be put at room temperature for a relatively long while.

— The best container for cannabutter is a glass jar tightly sealed.

— A plastic container shall work as long as it is designed for storing food. We also love to use German-made plastic food containers, but a good old glass jar is simply the best.

— Low humidity, darkness and chill are friends to cannabutter.

— How long does cannabutter last at room temperature? At room temperature, cannabutter should stay well for about 1-2 months safely, and up to 3-4 months reportedly.

— How does cannabutter go bad at room temperature? You need to smell your weed butter before any further usage especially when it was there for longer than one month. Any foreign smell can indicate a problem. A few weeks or a month should be safe.

— In a fridge cannabutter is safe for a few months, peeps report up to 6 months. A rule of thumb is that weed butter lasts longer than regular butter, and is equal to regular ghee.

— In a freezer, there are reports about keeping it for 2 years and on, but just we have failed to keep a jar of weed butter for that long. We suggest knowing the safe storage of weed butter may continue for several weeks is simply a piece of comprehensive information.

— If there is liquid in the cannabutter you shall see how it’ll get separated once cooled in a jar. Yet another reason to use a glass jar is to detect water in the lowest layer. This is not very right, though this is not the end of the world, and you can use such cannabutter, no issue.

However, once the cannabutter gets separated in a jar, just remove all water away. In such a case, butter shall stay on top and water construe a lower layer as it is heavier. Carefully puncture a hole in butter with a spoon or a knife from aside of a “butter cap” and pour out all water.

Do not store your cannabutter with water inside the jar, except that for an immediate term, a couple of days or three, hardly a week. Proper ghee (including cannabutter) must not contain water, because the ideological reason for ghee is removing water and remains of milk out of butter for longer storage. Consider adjusting the cooking process on the next try. Once you’ve got water in it, cook it or eat it, and do not store it for too long.

How to calculate a cannabutter dosage

An overdose of marijuana may become an unpleasant experience, no matter how nonsensical many of us may accept this statement. Indeed, it is a harder task to overdose by merely smoking, but a “victim” most probably shall fall asleep before any bad effect comes. Even though many of us stoners have seen at least once in life another person barking at ants after a cannabis overdose from smoking.

When it comes to edibles, the issue grows. The digestion is a bloody slow-motion compared to the lungs-to-blood mechanics of smoking. The active compounds of marijuana (like THC) make their way towards the liver first, which is already too slow, then they defuse into the bloodstream, only then contracting CB-receptors of the brain. It may take an hour or hours from the moment you eat marijuana till the “high” effect reaches its peak, instead of a few seconds when you smoke.

An example of calculating a cannabutter dosage for edibles

1) Say, you have infused half a pound of butter with, say, half an ounce of weed.

2) You have baked a tray of brownies out of it, where there are 10 pieces of brownies.

3) In this case, each brownie roughly equals less than 1.5g of weed smoked.

You split 14g of weed (half an ounce) into 10 pieces of brownies. You divide 14g by 10 pieces, it results 1.4-1.5g per piece, count each such brownie is an equivalent to a good joint.

The effect from edibles is stronger, that is true, but you are waiting for an effect knowing you have consumed about 1.5 grams. For throwing off you need to eat that whole tray at once.

Other sources suggest trying cannabutter, a spoonful of it. Chew it well and then wait for half an hour or an hour. Fair enough, such should work either.

The effect however depends on many variables. Some of them are: what is already inside of your stomach, how full it is, how well you have slept, and when you smoked last time, finally the effectiveness of your cannabutter infusion process. Practical testing should bring better accurate results to you rather than a theoretical calculation of the dosage.

Effects of consuming edibles compared to smoking marijuana

Just be careful about eating weed, as you shall stay super-high and even higher than that significantly longer. With edibles, it is harder to control your “highness”, compared to smoking. And, whatever promising such may seem for an ideological stoner, be warned that consuming weed as edibles may become a challenge on your first try, but it’s worthy.

Having that said, there shall be no “waves of high” coming repeatedly in a curve, like when you are stoned by smoking, but with the edibles, it shall be more like one big wave and no down periods. You’ll be all way top-high if proper edibles, which may sound funny but it may occur be challenging on the first try.

If a super-high condition is not happening to you, such may mean you probably have washed out in the butter-making technology and you need to improve it.

Benefits of cannabutter edibles

Smoking marijuana versus eating edibles is a personal preference. Both are worth a try. However, there are other reasons why people go for edibles, except that it is tasty.

1) Many people start cooking weed edibles having no wish to smoke. Struggling with hardship to inhale smoke, or impossible to do so as of a health condition, or simply having no wish to smoke — these are common reasons why people find it beneficial to consume weed edibles instead of classic smoking.

2) Getting bored with smoking if one is looking desperately how else to consume marijuana, to get a different high, or merely change something looking for a new feeling. We smoke joints, then switch to bongs and pipes, then swap back, or use everything from the list depending on the occasion. Dear God, why not we attempt edibles? This is just another brilliant option and an endlessly tasty option.

3) Smell produced by smoking may become a serious reason to consider edibles. Imagine, having a handful of candies infused with marijuana in a pocket you stay “safe” in the surrounding of people who are still locked by the stereotypes of the past century. Edibles become a matter of convenience. Sharing such “candies” with friends is fun too.

4) Maybe you are seriously keen on cooking, having a bunch of favorite recipes you are proud about and a couple of cooking secrets on top. We suggest it is a matter of time for you to start making cannabutter and infusing weed edibles with it. This is love and the same reason, why marijuana images avalanche the internet and social networks being delivered by artists or photographers, who are also stoners.

Can I cook marijuana skipping cannabutter at all?

Yes, you can cook and eat decarboxylated (“decarbed”) marijuana without cannabutter. A good example is a weed smoothie containing no butter at all, or you can use decarbed marijuana as a spice for seasoning as they do it in Cambodia, India and god-only-knows where else.

I swear I saw with my own eyes in Cambodian “happy pizza” place, in Seam Reap, my chef threw a batch of decarboxylated weed, maybe eight grams or about, into pizza for us two for an early dinner. We ate and we were in la-la-land after one hour till next noon.

Ye-ah, Cambodians cook weed for thousands of years, I confirm they pick wilder and stronger marijuana than what we have here in the market.

Chef 420 animated GIF

Yoo-hoo! CHEF 420 is in this “photo”!!

That’s all for now.

Enjoy making your cannabutter.


Moroccan “love candy” called Majoun, brilliant storms of laughter

Thu, 12/Oct/23

Alice B. Toklas hashish fudge recipe, which we have discovered in her famous cookbook, has a strong link to the Moroccan hashish candy, aka love candy. It is called “majoun”, a traditional confection made of hashish, nutmeg, black pepper, other spices, and dried fruits in Berber cuisine, also found in India and Iran. Majoun’s primary purpose is spirituality and fun, of course, also peace and love, as its name means “love potion”. Besides, majoun helps greatly to stand common cold.

Who was Alice B. Toklas?

Alice Babette Toklas migrated from San Francisco to Paris in 1907, when she was 29. She was not a pretty girl: “the tiny stature, the sandals, the mustache, and the eyes”, but she used to be a charismatic hostess of her Parisian café, and a magnetic schmoozer.

Alice B. Toklas

Alice B. Toklas

Eventually, the hashish edibles along with the obvious virtuosity of the cook and the “enchantment of her speaking voice – like a viola at dusk” made Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse hung out frequently at her gatherings. Surely, the reason was not her mustache, ha-ha, I’m sorry, I’m just kidding. Anyway, thank you, Alice B. Toklas, for the fantastic assembly!

When the edibles kick in

This is a joke in the first place. Artists express the mind in their artworks, so we tracked down how Matisse and Picasso, “the wild men of Paris”, have changed their paintings after Alice B. Toklas opened the doors of her saloon. We do not insist there is any correlation between hashish edibles kick in and the paintings, the coincidence there is, nonetheless.

When edibles kick in, Picasso, Sleeping Peasants

Alice B. Toklas Cookbook

Alice B. Toklas’s book is not entirely an edible bible, to be precise, but a cookbook of an extravagant genre: called “autobiographic cookbook”. I dare to believe, this is the world’s only work of the kind, where the events of life are mixed in a ragtag with the recipes of the French cuisine, which Alice Babette Toklas approved greatly.

  • Alice B. Toklas cookbook is not made of cooking directions of a classic style, but they are small stories. She shared the recipes she collected all life, so she described all the trailing circumstances – how and when, and from whom she borrowed this or that one.
  • Alice B. Toklas spelled the hashish and marijuana words differently compared to the norm of the modern-day, she referred to hashish as “haschich”, and she called cannabis “canibus” or “canibus sativa” in her writing.
  • When the Alice B. Toklas book was published in 1954 the authorities in America strongly disregarded the inclusion of marijuana edibles. Later in an interview, she excused herself: “The recipe was innocently included without my realizing that the hashish was the accented part of the recipe. I was shocked to find that America wouldn’t accept it because it was too dangerous.”
  • Alice B. Toklas suggests that the mix of hashish, black pepper, and nutmeg in a form of candy is effective to survive the common cold: “In Morocco, it is thought to be good for warding off the common cold in damp winter weather and is, indeed, more effective if taken with large quantities of hot mint tea.”

Alice B. Toklas Hashish Fudge

Cannabis Chocolate Fudge

“Take one teaspoon of black peppercorns, one whole nutmeg, four sticks of cinnamon, and one teaspoon of coriander. These should all be pulverized in a mortar. About a handful each of stoned dates, dried figs, shelled almonds, and peanuts: chop these and mix them together. A bunch of ‘canibus sativa’ can be pulverized. This along with the spices should be dusted over the mixed fruit and nuts, and kneaded together. About a cup of sugar dissolved in a big pat of butter. Rolled into a cake and cut into pieces or made into balls about the size of a walnut, it should be eaten with care. Two pieces are quite sufficient. Obtaining the ‘canibus’ may present certain difficulties. It should be picked and dried as soon as it has gone to seed and while the plant is still green.”

The hint is – mash it by hand. Some sources recommend a food processor to blend by several short pulses, however cooking marijuana edibles is a mystery and a joy for the heart: as you love to roll joints manually, where a grinder is the only machinery, so cooking with hands and no machinery gives its fruits, you better believe it.

“Euphoria and brilliant storms of laughter; ecstatic revelries and extensions of one’s personality on several simultaneous planes are to be complacently expected,” – Alice B. Toklas.

Alice B. Toklas Brownie

Alice B. Toklas brownie has happened in the movie “I love you, Alice B. Toklas” of 1968, and not in her cookbook of 1954. Nancy, the character of Leigh Taylor-Young, used “Fudge Brownie” from a box for cooking marijuana brownies.

Alice B Toklas brownies in the movie I love you, Alice B Toklas

Leigh Taylor Young as Nancy in I love you Alice B Toklas movie

Leigh Taylor-Young as Nancy

The recipe in the book was for candy, and not a brownie. At least, there is no chocolate in the Moroccan candy of Alice B. Toklas, but a similarity between the names “Haschich Fudge” branded in the cookbook and “Fudge Brownie” branded in the movie could lead to confusion.

Decarboxylation

Remarkably, neither Alice B. Toklas in her book nor the makers of the “I love you, Alice B. Toklas” movie mention anyhow the decarboxylation of weed for edibles. Why?

  • Well-cured cannabis already has a fair quantum of THC instead of THCA. This is what we achieve by decarboxylation. This makes cured cannabis more potent, if we smoke it, and edible-ready evenly.
  • Traditional methods of making hashish yield decarbed hashish. This includes Moroccan kif, which is the original ingredient of the Moroccan hashish candy of Alice B. Toklas.
  • Decarboxylation will not harm whatsoever, but it shall kick in better anyway. Proper decarb process may result in up to 80-90% of THCA broken to THC, which you doubtfully can reach by curing.

Grind dry marijuana trim or buds, spread it over a cooking tray or a frying pan, then expose it to the temperature of 230-250℉, roughly 110℃, for about 30-40 minutes in the oven. Do not over-heat, otherwise, THC can be destroyed at all and you lose your weed. Applying “Bath Marie”, aka water bath, or crockpot, we extend the time to 1-1.5 hours.

Can I use cannabutter for Alice B. Toklas hashish fudge?

The short answer: yes, of course.

As soon as the famous Alice B. Toklas edible recipe already contains a “big pat of butter” in itself, therefore using cannabutter for making the weed edible is just logical. However, the original recipe suggests using buds or trim straight away as described in Alice B. Toklas book, or hashish (kif) as in the traditional Moroccan hashish candy recipe.

Cooking-wise, any random original recipe, and especially when it is that old, lasting for centuries, is tested by time, it becomes already impeccable. Our hashish candy contains other spices, some of them are somewhat psychoactive, like black pepper or nutmeg. If you wish, this makes marijuana a spice, or a fruit, applying to Alice B. Toklas hashish fudge.

Cannabutter is awesome, but specifically for this candy, I favor using buds as a spice rather than input cannabutter as a source of high only: after all, nobody knows what else the ancients meant when invented this recipe for us.

Best recipes for the munches

Edibles we eat to be high, while munches we eat being already high. Munches are all munches, not necessarily psychoactive. Here is our best selection of the munches recipes of Alice B. Toklas.

Alice B. Toklas Flaming Peaches

Alice B Toklas, flaming peaches recipes

Flaming peaches, or Peach flambe

“Fresh peaches are preferable, though canned ones can be substituted. If fresh, take 6 and cover with boiling water for a few minutes, and peel. Poach in 1½ cups of water over low flame for 3 or 4 minutes. Place in a chafing dish, add ¼ cup of sugar, and ¾ cup of peach brandy. Bring to the table and light the chafing dish. When the syrup is about to boil, light and ladle it over the peaches. Serve each peach lighted.”

Alice B. Toklas Mushroom Sandwich

“Mushroom sandwiches have been my specialty for years. They were made with mushrooms cooked in butter with a little juice of lemon. After 8 minutes of cooking, they were removed from heat, chopped, and then pounded into a paste in the mortar. Salt, pepper, a pinch of cayenne, and an equal volume of butter were thoroughly amalgamated with them. Well and good.”

Alice B. Toklas Chicken Sandwich

“This method is the same up to a certain point. These are the proportions. For ¼ lb. mushrooms cooked in 2 tablespoons of butter add 2 scrambled eggs and 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese and mix well. The recipe ends with: This makes a delicious sandwich that tastes like chicken. A Frenchman can say no more. Which gave me the idea of introducing chicken sandwiches in which chopped and pounded chicken is substituted for the mushrooms. Naturally, they are well received.”

Enjoy!