Saracen Sauce

[Mark Harris]

Derdriu said:

>Depending on how hot/spicy you want this sauce to be, red paprika (which is
>period) could also be used as a coloring.

What do you base this statement on? Paprika is a New World spice. If
you mean used in Europe before 1600, I would still like to see the
referance because it varies from what I've seen such as the message from
one of my files that I've pasted below.

Thanks.
  Stefan li Rous

=============
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
From: ddfr at quads.uchicago.edu (david director friedman)
Subject: Re: Period Herb Gardens, or, If I Could Save Thyme in a Bottle
Organization: University of Chicago
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1993 03:19:03 GMT

"Are there any modernly common herbs and/or spices that are not
period?
If so which ones?  Are there any obscure herbs that were period yet
are not
in common use today?" (Chandler)

Vanilla, allspice, and the capsicum peppers (including chili,
paprika, cayenne, green peppers, ...) are from the New World and
became available in Europe at or just after the end of our period.
The same is true of cocoa, if you count it. Coffee and tea are old
world, but were apparently not used in western europe until just
after the end of our period; coffee is late period for Islamic
personae (c. 1400).

There are a number of spices that are common in the period cookbooks
but not in common use today. They include cubebs, grains of paradise,
long pepper, saunders, and turnsole (the last two were medieval food
coloring).

David/Cariadoc