A concoction or concoction It is a preparation, a kind of sauce or stir-fry that is achieved by integrating different components, whether they are foods, herbs or other products, and is used for a specific purpose.
It is a vulgar way of calling a preparation that way. When the name is not very well known or it does not have it, it can be called concoction, and it is almost always a homemade recipe whose proliferation later will depend on oral tradition, that is, "word of mouth".
The word menjurje comes from the Hispanic Arabic "ma'yün", which means "kneaded", and is used to call a medicinal paste or food that comes from a homemade recipe. Also, in classical Arabic it is called “mamzug”, which means “kneading”.
"Menjurje" appears for the first time in the dictionary of the Castilian Language in 1837, and at that time it was defined as a "mixture of various ingredients". Meanwhile, for the current Royal Spanish Academy the word is written and says "menjunje", and defines it as a cosmetic or medicine that results from the mixture of some ingredients. Anyway, there is a third form: "mejunje", which is a more nasal version, but not accepted by the RAE.
A concoction can be used when kneading in the kitchen, sauces or, to a lesser extent, salads. But it can also be used to call a liquor, concoction or preparation of the medicinal type rather related to the non-traditional or alternative character.
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The words that have a similar meaning to concoction are: concoction, liquor, potion and prepared. Although also in popular jargon you can say "mixed" or scrambled.
As it is something rather informal and of daily use, it could be pointed out that the opposite of menjurje would be “soup”, “sauce” or in medicinal terms, “medicine”; but in linguistic terms, it does not have a definite antonym.
-In the city of Puebla, Mexico, during the 1920s some families prepared ancho chile concoction. This particular drink was gaining popularity, and today there is a manufactured liquor called Ancho Reyes, based on one of the homemade recipes for that concoction..
-There are concoctions prepared for skin care, which are quite basic. For example, to remove blackheads from the skin of the face, rose petals should be placed in a container of water and boiled. Once it boils, bring your face close and let the steam moisten it for a few minutes.
-In Peru, the Inca culture had a system of medicine practiced by herbalists, shamans or healers, who used herbs, stems, dried flowers and other fresh ones, with which they made concoctions to cleanse the body and spirit..
-In gastronomy it is called menjunje to an improvised sauce, composed of different foods or spices, destined to accompany a meal. Calling a salad like that would also be possible, but it would sound rather derogatory than descriptive.
-You can also refer to concoction in metaphorical terms, such as pointing out that a person "has a concoction in his head", referring to the fact that he is in conflict; or that "my son's room is a jumble of things".
This resignification is very clear in the Rio de la Plata lunfardo (vulgar and street language used in cities of Argentina and Uruguay) present in tango and milongas, for which a concoction is a tangle, mess, problem or confusion..
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