The Andalusian Kitchen: Olive Oil in Medieval Cookbooks

The Andalusian Kitchen: Olive Oil in Medieval Muslim Cookbooks

Part 2 of 7 — From Pantry to Table | sub-pillar of the broader story of olive oil in the Quran and Sunnah.

In an authentic narration preserved in Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1851 and Sunan Ibn Majah 3319, both graded sahih, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ instructed his community to eat olive oil and anoint themselves with it, "for it comes from a blessed tree." Three centuries later, in the kitchens of 10th-century Baghdad, Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq compiled the earliest surviving Arabic cookbook — a 615-recipe, 132-chapter compendium of Abbasid haute cuisine in which olive oil is a dominant fat. Three centuries after that, an anonymous author in Almohad-era al-Andalus compiled the Kitab al-Tabikh fi al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus, a 462-recipe manual in which olive oil is essentially the default cooking medium. This article walks through five named dishes from those two manuscripts — tharid, zirbaja, mujabbana, an Andalusian aubergine preparation, and a closing bread-and-oil-and-za'atar bridge — with manuscript citations and modern recipes you can cook tonight.

The short answer

The Prophet ﷺ instructed his community to eat olive oil and anoint themselves with it (Tirmidhi 1851 and Ibn Majah 3319, both sahih). The earliest surviving Arabic cookbook is Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Kitab al-Tabikh, compiled in Baghdad c. 940–960 CE; the standard modern English critical edition is Nawal Nasrallah's Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens (Brill, 2007). The earliest cookbook from al-Andalus is the anonymous Kitab al-Tabikh fi al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus, compiled in the 13th century; the standard English translation is by Charles Perry. Olive oil is the dominant fat in both. This article modernizes five named dishes from those manuscripts — tharid, zirbaja, mujabbana, a fried aubergine in olive oil, and a Levantine bread-and-oil breakfast — with full manuscript citation and a recipe schema for each.

The Prophetic anchor — "eat olive oil and anoint yourselves with it"

The teaching that anchors every page that follows is preserved in two of the canonical Sunni hadith collections. The first sits in Jami' at-Tirmidhi, in Kitab al-At'imah (The Book on Food), Book 25, Chapter 43 — explicitly titled "What Has Been Related About Eating Olive Oil."

"Eat olive [oil] and use its oil, for indeed it is [from] a blessed tree." >— Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1851. Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrator: 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ. Available at https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:1851

The parallel narration through 'Umar is preserved in Sunan Ibn Majah, Book 29 (Kitab al-At'imah), Chapter 34, on olive oil specifically.

"Season (your food) with olive oil and anoint yourselves with it, for it comes from a blessed tree." >— Sunan Ibn Majah 3319. Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrator: 'Umar ibn al-Khattab from the Prophet ﷺ. Isnad: al-Husayn ibn Mahdi → 'Abd al-Razzaq → Ma'mar → Zayd ibn Aslam → Aslam → 'Umar. Available at https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:3319

A third sahih narration ties the discussion forward to one of the dishes recipe-listed below. In Sahih al-Bukhari 3411, in Kitab Ahadith al-Anbiya (The Book of Prophets), Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) reported the Prophet ﷺ as saying that "the superiority of 'Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) over other women is like the superiority of tharid over other meals." That single sentence establishes a dish-level Prophetic preference; the dish itself appears with more than a dozen variants in al-Warraq's tenth-century Baghdadi cookbook.

Classical Muslim physicians read these texts as a foundation for praxis rather than as a slogan. Ibn Sina (d. 1037 CE) in the Canon of Medicine and Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 1350 CE) in Al-Tibb al-Nabawi both catalogued olive oil as a foundational pantry and pharmaceutical ingredient. We have laid out their entries in detail in the broader story of olive oil in the Quran and Sunnah; a forthcoming sibling article in this series — Part 6 of 7, on smoke point and oil grade — will take up the cooking-science side of <!-- TODO when sibling article #6 publishes, replace with live link: <a href="/blog/cooking-smoke-point-ibn-sina-oil-grade">what Ibn Sina already knew about olive oil grade</a> -->what Ibn Sina already knew about olive oil grade (forthcoming).

Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Kitab al-Tabikh — the kitchens of 10th-century Baghdad

Baghdad in the second half of the tenth century was the culinary capital of the Islamic world. The late Abbasid period had produced a court cuisine of extraordinary complexity, and it is from this milieu that the earliest surviving Arabic cookbook emerges. Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq — properly al-Muzaffar ibn Nasr Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq — compiled his Kitab al-Tabikh (Book of Cookery) under the patronage circles of the Buyid emirate, drawing, by his own account, on at least twenty earlier Arabic cookbooks now lost. <!-- TODO when sibling article #1 publishes, replace with live link: <a href="/blog/ancient-olive-pantry-apicius-cato-pliny">how Greece and Rome cooked with olive oil before Islam</a> -->For comparison with the pre-Islamic Mediterranean kitchens that fed into this synthesis, see Part 1 of this series, on the ancient olive pantry of Apicius, Cato, and Pliny (forthcoming).

The book itself is sprawling: 615 recipes across 132 chapters, with poems praising specific dishes interleaved between technical preparations. The standard modern English critical edition is Nawal Nasrallah's Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens: Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Tenth-Century Baghdadi Cookbook, English translation with introduction and glossary, Leiden: Brill, 2007 (Islamic History and Civilization, vol. 70). Cloth ISBN 9789004158672; paperback (2010) ISBN 9789004188112.

Olive oil's role across the corpus is striking. Nasrallah's introduction and the recipe corpus together show olive oil as the dominant cooking fat for vegetable, fish, and many meat dishes, with sesame oil and samn (clarified butter) reserved for richer or sweeter preparations. The picture al-Warraq preserves is one in which the Prophetic injunction to eat olive oil had, three centuries on, become the everyday practice of the most sophisticated kitchens on earth.

A note on attribution. Al-Warraq's manuscript names some dishes by association with caliphs and courtiers — al-Mu'tasim, al-Wathiq, al-Mu'tamid, named cooks and patrons from Abbasid Baghdad. Many such attributions are court legend layered onto recipe headings rather than primary court documentation, and we hold them at the register of "the Abbasid caliphal table" and "the kitchens of Baghdad" rather than locking dishes to specific banquets on specific dates.

Recipe 1 — Zirbaja (زيرباجة, sweet-sour braised chicken in olive oil)

Zirbaja is one of the signature dishes of medieval Arab cuisine, recorded with multiple variants in al-Warraq's Kitab al-Tabikh (in the meat-dishes section of Nasrallah's English edition; al-Warraq gives several zirbaja preparations of which this is a faithful composite). The same dish reappears in al-Baghdadi's later thirteenth-century Kitab al-Tabikh and in the Andalusian repertoire, and a near-relative of it survives in modern Iraqi-Persian sweet-sour cookery. The name is from Persian and is often glossed as "priceless," though several etymologies have circulated in the secondary literature and we do not assert the reading as definitively settled. The colour is the colour of saffron: deep gold.

The original shape, per al-Warraq via Nasrallah's translation: chicken jointed and browned, simmered with chickpeas, whole or quartered onions, galangal, and salt; finished at the table with a sweet-sour reduction of sugar (or honey), grape vinegar, blanched almonds, and a heavy bloom of saffron, with olive oil throughout as the cooking medium.

Modern recipe — Zirbaja (serves 4)

• 1 whole chicken (about 3 lb / 1.4 kg), jointed into 8 pieces
• 3 tbsp (45 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 medium onion, quartered
• 1 cup (180 g) cooked chickpeas (drained, from a 15-oz can or home-cooked)
• 1 tsp ground galangal (or substitute 1 tsp grated fresh ginger)
• A generous pinch of saffron threads, bloomed in 2 tbsp warm water
• 2 tbsp (25 g) sugar, or 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) white wine vinegar (the original used grape vinegar)
• ½ cup (60 g) blanched almonds, lightly toasted
• Salt to taste

1. Warm the olive oil in a wide heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Brown the chicken pieces on both sides, then remove and reserve.
2. Add the onion to the pan and soften for 4–5 minutes. Return the chicken, add the chickpeas, galangal, and salt, and pour in water to barely cover.
3. Bring to a low simmer, cover, and cook for 30 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the broth has reduced by about a third.
4. Stir in the bloomed saffron, sugar (or honey), and vinegar. Add the almonds.
5. Uncover and reduce for 5–7 minutes, basting the chicken with the liquid until the surface is glossy and the sauce coats a spoon.
6. Serve hot, with flatbread or plain rice.

Manuscript citation: al-Warraq, Kitab al-Tabikh, zirbaja recipes (multiple variants in the meat-dishes section), as translated in Nasrallah, Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens, Brill, 2007. Exact recipe-level numbering pending physical-edition verification.

Recipe 2 — Tharid (ثريد, the Prophet's ﷺ preferred dish in al-Warraq's Baghdad)

Tharid is one of the most documented continuities in Arab culinary history. The Prophet ﷺ described its standing among foods explicitly:

"Many amongst men reached (the level of) perfection but none amongst the women reached this level except Asia, Pharaoh's wife, and Mary, the daughter of 'Imran. And no doubt, the superiority of 'Aisha to other women is like the superiority of tharid (i.e. a meat and bread dish) to other meals." >— Sahih al-Bukhari 3411, Book 60 (Kitab Ahadith al-Anbiya — Book of the Prophets). Grading: sahih (canonical). Narrator: Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ. Available at https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3411

By al-Warraq's tenth century, tharid was no longer a Hijazi field meal but a court preparation. He devotes an entire chapter to it, with at least a dozen variants — plain tharid sadhij, tharid of lamb, tharid with herbs, tharid finished with hot fat. The migration continues: tharid travels from the Hijaz of the Prophet's ﷺ time to the high tables of Baghdad and onward to al-Andalus, and is the apparent ancestor of the broader Iberian category of bread-thickened stews that survived the medieval period.

The original shape across al-Warraq's variants is consistent. A meat-and-vegetable broth (lamb most often) is simmered with onion and warming spices. Day-old flatbread, torn into pieces, is layered into a wide bowl. The broth and meat are ladled over, often arranged with the meat in a low pyramid at the centre, and finished with a generous drizzle of olive oil before serving.

Modern recipe — Tharid (serves 4)

• 1 lb (450 g) lamb shoulder or shank, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil for browning
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil for finishing
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• Salt to taste
• 1 cup (180 g) cooked chickpeas
• 4 cups (1 L) water or unsalted lamb stock
• Optional: 1 leek, 1 carrot, 1 small turnip, all chopped
• 4 thick slices day-old Arabic bread, pita, or Iraqi samun, torn into 2-inch pieces

1. Warm the browning oil in a heavy pot over medium-high heat. Brown the lamb in batches, then set aside.
2. Lower the heat, add the onion, and soften for 5 minutes. Add the cinnamon stick, cumin, and black pepper.
3. Return the lamb, add chickpeas, optional vegetables, and stock. Bring to a simmer.
4. Cover and cook on low heat for 60–90 minutes, until the lamb is tender and the broth is fragrant.
5. Arrange the torn bread in a wide serving bowl. Ladle the broth, meat, and chickpeas over the bread so the bread soaks but is not submerged.
6. Drizzle the finishing olive oil generously over the top before serving.

Manuscript citation: al-Warraq, Kitab al-Tabikh, the tharid chapter (multiple variants), as translated in Nasrallah, Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens, Brill, 2007. Hadith anchor: Sahih al-Bukhari 3411, sahih.

The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook — Almohad-period al-Andalus

Three centuries after al-Warraq, on the western edge of the Islamic world, a second great culinary manuscript was compiled. The Kitab al-Tabikh fi al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus fi 'Asr al-Muwahhidin — Book of Cookery from the Maghrib and al-Andalus in the Almohad Era — survives anonymous, dated by internal evidence to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Arabic text was edited in the modern period and the standard English translation is the working scholarly translation by Charles Perry, the food historian and former Los Angeles Times food writer who also produced the English edition of al-Baghdadi's Kitab al-Tabikh.

The book runs to 462 recipes across five parts: simple dishes, meats, vegetables, breads and sweets, and medicinal preparations. The author identifies himself internally as Andalusian, well-travelled (he names Marrakesh, Ceuta, and Ifriqiya), and culinarily-medically literate in the manner of his age — a cook who knew his Galen. Olive oil is the default fat across the corpus. Samn (clarified butter) and tail fat appear in specific sweet preparations and select rich meat dishes, but for vegetables, for fish, and for many meat preparations, olive oil is what the manuscript reaches for first.

Charles Perry's English translation circulates as an open PDF — a working scholarly mirror hosted at Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site (https://www.italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf), with a companion landing page that explains the translation provenance (https://www.italophiles.com/al_andalus.htm). For narrative context — the social, agricultural, and trade-route picture in which these recipes were written — the standard reference is Lilia Zaouali, _Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World: A Concise History with 174 Recipes_, foreword by Charles Perry, translated by M. B. DeBevoise (University of California Press, 2007/2009; paperback ISBN 9780520261747). David Waines, _In a Caliph's Kitchen_ (Riad El-Rayyes, 1989; ISBN 9781869844608), gives a complementary picture of the eastern Islamic culinary tradition.

The pattern Perry's translation and Zaouali's narrative establish is consistent: olive oil is the medium in which Andalusian cooking happened.

Recipe 3 — Mujabbana (مجبنة, Andalusian cheese fritters fried in olive oil)

Mujabbana is among the most accessible medieval Arab recipes for a modern home cook. Every ingredient is supermarket-available, the technique is straightforward, and the result is recognizable to anyone who has eaten Spanish queso frito, in which the dish survives recognizably across the Christian-Iberian transition. The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook records mujabbana in its section on cheese dishes and fried foods, in Charles Perry's translation. The manuscript is unusually specific about the cheese ratio: a binding of one-quarter cow's-milk cheese to three-quarters sheep's-milk cheese, the proportions explained in the recipe itself.

The original technique: a yeasted flour-and-water dough is rested, divided into small portions, and stuffed with the cheese mixture. The stuffed patties are deep-fried in olive oil until golden, then dusted at the table with cinnamon, ground aniseed, and sugar, and served with a small dish of honey for dipping.

Modern recipe — Mujabbana (makes about 12 fritters)

For the dough:

• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• ¾ tsp fine salt
• About ¾ cup (180 ml) warm water

For the filling:

• 1½ cups (170 g) grated sheep's-milk cheese (manchego works well; aged pecorino is acceptable)
• ½ cup (60 g) grated cow's-milk cheese (low-moisture mozzarella or fresh paneer)

For frying and finishing:

• Olive oil for shallow- or deep-frying (about 1–2 inches in a heavy pan)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground aniseed
• 2 tbsp (25 g) sugar
• Honey, for dipping

1. Mix flour, yeast, and salt in a bowl. Add warm water gradually, kneading until a soft, slightly tacky dough forms. Cover and rest for 60 minutes until visibly puffed.
2. Mash the two cheeses together until well combined; the higher proportion of sheep's cheese should dominate.
3. Divide the dough into 12 pieces. Flatten each into a small disc, place a spoon of cheese filling in the centre, gather the edges over the filling, and pinch closed. Flatten again into a 3-inch (7–8 cm) patty.
4. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan to about 340°F (170°C) — a small piece of dough should sizzle steadily without burning.
5. Fry the patties in batches, 40–60 seconds per side, until deep golden. Drain on a rack.
6. Combine the cinnamon, aniseed, and sugar; dust the hot fritters generously. Serve with honey for dipping.

Manuscript citation: Anonymous, Kitab al-Tabikh fi al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus, the mujabbana recipe in the section on cheese-and-fried-food preparations, as translated in Charles Perry, An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century — open PDF mirror at https://www.italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf. Exact recipe-within-section index pending physical-edition verification.

Recipe 4 — Andalusian aubergine in olive oil (badhinjan)

The aubergine — badhinjan — reached al-Andalus from Persia via early Abbasid trade and became, over generations, the iconic Andalusian vegetable. The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook records more aubergine preparations than any other vegetable: fried, stuffed, baked, simmered in stews, dressed with vinegars and honeys. Olive oil is the cooking medium across nearly all of them. What follows is a faithful modernization of the simplest line of the manuscript's aubergine work — a fried aubergine, dressed warm with olive oil, garlic, vinegar, and warming spices, with the option of an Andalusian honey finish that survives recognizably in modern berenjenas con miel served in Cordoba and Granada today.

Modern recipe — Fried aubergine in olive oil (serves 4 as a side)

• 2 medium aubergines (about 1 lb / 450 g total), sliced ½-inch thick
• 1 tsp salt, for drawing moisture
• ½ cup (120 ml) extra-virgin olive oil for shallow-frying
• 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
• 2 tbsp (30 ml) white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground coriander
• Salt to taste
• Optional finish: 1 tbsp honey or 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses

1. Salt the aubergine slices and let them drain in a colander for 30 minutes. Pat dry.
2. Warm the olive oil in a wide heavy pan over medium-high heat. Fry the aubergine slices in batches until golden on both sides, 2–3 minutes a side. Transfer to a serving plate.
3. In the residual oil, lower the heat and add the garlic, cumin, and coriander. Cook for 30 seconds until fragrant — do not brown the garlic.
4. Pour in the vinegar and let it bubble for 10 seconds, scraping the pan.
5. Pour the warm dressing over the aubergine.
6. If using, drizzle the honey or pomegranate molasses across the top. Rest for 15 minutes before serving warm or at room temperature.

Manuscript citation: Anonymous, Kitab al-Tabikh fi al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus, aubergine (badhinjan) preparations across the vegetable section, as translated in Charles Perry, An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century — open PDF mirror at https://www.italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf. Exact recipe-within-section index pending physical-edition verification.

Recipe 5 — Bread, olive oil, and za'atar (a thousand-year breakfast through the manuscripts)

The final dish is the simplest, and the closest to the Prophetic register. A piece of warm flatbread, a saucer of high-quality extra-virgin olive oil, and a side of za'atar — wild thyme, sumac, sesame, salt, in the canonical Levantine blend — is the breakfast that survives essentially unchanged from the tharid-era Hijaz through al-Warraq's Baghdad and into the modern kitchens of Beirut, Damascus, Amman, and Jerusalem. The Anonymous Andalusian also records bread-and-oil preparations as breakfast and traveller's food across its simple-dishes section.

There is no recipe to formalize. Tear the bread, dip in oil, dip in za'atar, eat. <!-- TODO when sibling article #3 publishes, replace with live link: For the full thousand-year story of bread, za'atar, and the Levantine breakfast, see <a href="/blog/bread-zaatar-levantine-breakfast">Part 3 of this series</a>. -->For the full thousand-year story of bread, za'atar, and the Levantine breakfast, see Part 3 of this series (forthcoming).

The most sophisticated kitchens on earth, the most studied caliphal banquets, and a thousand years of evolution all resolve, when the day starts, into a breakfast you can eat tomorrow morning.

From manuscript to modern Mediterranean diet — what survived

The central place of olive oil in modern Levantine, Maghrebi, and Andalusian-Spanish cuisines is not coincidence. It is direct, documented continuity from these manuscripts. Mujabbana survives recognizably in Spanish queso frito. Tharid persists as modern Hijazi tharid and reappears in the Levantine family of fatta dishes. The sweet-sour technique of zirbaja fades as a single named dish but its grammar — meat braised in olive oil, sweetened, soured, finished with nuts — survives across Iraqi, Persian, and Maghrebi kitchens. Aubergine fried in olive oil and finished with honey remains, line for line, the berenjenas con miel of <!-- TODO when sibling article #4 publishes, replace with live link: <a href="/blog/pulses-olive-oil-hummus-mujadara-ful">the same olive-oil-and-pulse pattern that gave us hummus, mujadara, and ful</a> -->Andalusia today (the same olive-oil-and-pulse pattern that gave us hummus, mujadara, and ful is taken up in Part 4 of this series, forthcoming).

This is heritage continuity, not a health claim. Modern peer-reviewed reviews have studied the dietary pattern of which olive oil is a central ingredient — the broader treatment of that literature, with its caveats, is in the broader story of olive oil in the Quran and Sunnah. What we mean to record here is narrower and more honest: the manuscripts show that for the cooks who produced them, olive oil was the everyday medium of a sophisticated culinary tradition. Modern Mediterranean cuisine descends from that practice. <!-- TODO when sibling article #7 publishes, replace with live link: <a href="/blog/daily-spoonful-mediterranean-olive-oil">the Mediterranean tradition of a daily spoonful of olive oil</a> -->Part 7 of this series will take up the modern "daily spoonful" tradition (forthcoming).

Disclaimer

This article is for educational and historical interest. It is not medical advice. Modern recipes have been adapted from medieval manuscripts and are intended for home cooking; readers with dietary restrictions or food allergies should consult a qualified physician or dietitian.

Frequently asked questions

What is the oldest known Arabic cookbook?

Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Kitab al-Tabikh, compiled in Baghdad c. 940–960 CE, is the earliest surviving Arabic cookbook. It contains 615 recipes across 132 chapters and draws on at least twenty earlier Arabic cookbooks now lost. The standard modern English critical edition is Nawal Nasrallah's Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens (Brill, 2007).

What is the oldest known cookbook from al-Andalus?

The Kitab al-Tabikh fi al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus, an anonymous thirteenth-century manuscript from the Almohad period, contains 462 recipes across five parts. The standard English translation is Charles Perry's working scholarly translation, available as an open PDF mirror at https://www.italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf.

What is zirbaja?

Zirbaja is a signature medieval Arab dish recorded with multiple variants in al-Warraq's tenth-century Baghdadi cookbook: a sweet-sour meat (typically chicken) braised in olive oil with chickpeas and onions, finished with saffron, vinegar, sugar or honey, and almonds. The name is from Persian and is often glossed as "priceless," though several etymologies have circulated.

What is mujabbana?

Mujabbana is an Andalusian cheese-fritter recipe recorded in the thirteenth-century Kitab al-Tabikh fi al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus: a yeasted dough stuffed with a one-quarter-cow's-milk-to-three-quarters-sheep's-milk cheese mixture, fried in olive oil, dusted with cinnamon, aniseed, and sugar, and served with honey for dipping. It survives recognizably in modern Spanish queso frito.

What is tharid and why did the Prophet ﷺ refer to it?

Tharid is a meat-and-vegetable broth thickened with crumbled bread and finished with olive oil. The Prophet ﷺ described 'Aisha's superiority over other women as resembling the superiority of tharid over other foods (Sahih al-Bukhari 3411, sahih, narrated by Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, may Allah be pleased with him). Available at https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3411.

Did medieval Muslim cookbooks use olive oil more than animal fat?

In the Anonymous Andalusian and many of al-Warraq's Baghdadi recipes, yes — olive oil is the default fat for vegetables and many meat dishes, while samn (clarified butter) and tail fat are reserved for richer sweets and select meat preparations. The pattern is documented in Charles Perry's translation of the Andalusian manuscript and discussed in Lilia Zaouali, Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World (UC Press, 2007).

Where can I read the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook in English?

Charles Perry's working English translation circulates as an open PDF hosted at Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site, at https://www.italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf, with a companion landing page giving translation provenance at https://www.italophiles.com/al_andalus.htm.

Sources

Quran

1. Surah An-Nur (24:35), Sahih International translation — the "blessed olive tree" verse, the textual pole of the broader Islamic tradition on olive oil. Available at https://quran.com/24/35

Hadith (authentic)

1. Jami' at-Tirmidhi 1851, Book 25 (Kitab al-At'imah — The Book on Food), Chapter 43 ("What Has Been Related About Eating Olive Oil"). Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrator: 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ. Available at https://sunnah.com/tirmidhi:1851
2. Sunan Ibn Majah 3319, Book 29 (Kitab al-At'imah — Chapters on Food), Chapter 34. Grading: sahih (Darussalam). Narrator: 'Umar ibn al-Khattab from the Prophet ﷺ. Isnad: al-Husayn ibn Mahdi → 'Abd al-Razzaq → Ma'mar → Zayd ibn Aslam → Aslam → 'Umar. Available at https://sunnah.com/ibnmajah:3319
3. Sahih al-Bukhari 3411, Book 60 (Kitab Ahadith al-Anbiya — Book of the Prophets). Grading: sahih (canonical). Narrator: Abu Musa al-Ash'ari (may Allah be pleased with him) from the Prophet ﷺ — the tharid hadith. Available at https://sunnah.com/bukhari:3411

Classical primary sources — cookbooks

1. Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq (al-Muzaffar ibn Nasr Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq), Kitab al-Tabikh (Book of Cookery), c. 940–960 CE, Baghdad. Standard modern critical edition: Nawal Nasrallah, Annals of the Caliphs' Kitchens: Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Tenth-Century Baghdadi Cookbook — English translation with introduction and glossary, Leiden: Brill, 2007 (Islamic History and Civilization, vol. 70). Cloth ISBN 9789004158672; paperback (2010) ISBN 9789004188112. Publisher catalogue (search-resilient fallback): https://brill.com/display/title/15030 ; Google Books: https://books.google.com/books/about/Annals_of_the_Caliphs_Kitchens.html?id=dUC-e-l3XM8C ; translator's open-access summary: https://muslimheritage.com/baghdadi-cookbook/
2. Anonymous, Kitab al-Tabikh fi al-Maghrib wa'l-Andalus fi 'Asr al-Muwahhidin (Book of Cookery from the Maghrib and al-Andalus in the Almohad Era), 13th century, Iberia / Maghrib. Standard English translation: Charles Perry, An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the 13th Century, working scholarly translation. Open PDF (canonical mirror): https://www.italophiles.com/andalusian_cookbook.pdf ; companion landing page with translation provenance: https://www.italophiles.com/al_andalus.htm ; Arabic edition (WorldCat): https://search.worldcat.org/title/kitab-al-tabikh-fi-al-maghrib-wa-al-andalus-fi-asr-al-mawahhidin/oclc/606101656
3. Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Baghdadi, Kitab al-Tabikh (1226 CE, Iraq). Translated by Charles Perry as A Baghdad Cookery Book, Petits Propos Culinaires, Prospect Books, 2005. ISBN 9781903018422. Used here as cross-reference for zirbaja variants in the eastern tradition.

Classical Islamic medicine (referenced; full treatment in pillar)

1. Ibn Sina (Avicenna, d. 1037 CE), Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine), Book 2 — Materia Medica. Full bibliographic citation in the broader story of olive oil in the Quran and Sunnah.
2. Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751 AH / 1350 CE), Al-Tibb al-Nabawi (Medicine of the Prophet). Full bibliographic citation in the broader story of olive oil in the Quran and Sunnah.

Modern academic / food history

1. Lilia Zaouali, Medieval Cuisine of the Islamic World: A Concise History with 174 Recipes. Foreword by Charles Perry; translated by M. B. DeBevoise. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007 / 2009. Hardcover ISBN 9780520247833; paperback ISBN 9780520261747. Available at https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1525/9780520932906/html ; Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/medievalcuisineo0000zaou
2. David Waines, In a Caliph's Kitchen: Mediaeval Arabic Cooking for the Modern Gourmet. London: Riad El-Rayyes, 1989. ISBN 9781869844608. Used for context on the Baghdad culinary epicentre.
3. Nawal Nasrallah, "Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq's Tenth-century Baghdadi Cookbook," Muslim Heritage. Open-access scholarly summary by the translator. https://muslimheritage.com/baghdadi-cookbook/
4. "The 10th-Century Baghdad Cookbook That's a Poetic Tome to Food," Atlas Obscura / Gastro Obscura. Used only for non-contested popular-press framing. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/medieval-islamic-cookbook

Reference / encyclopedic

1. "Kitāb al-ṭabīẖ." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kit%C4%81b_al-%E1%B9%ADab%C4%AB%E1%BA%96 — used only for general bibliographic framing of the Anonymous Andalusian text. Substantive claims anchor to the primary sources above.