SC - Recipes for Powder Douce (long)
Stefan li Rous
stefan at texas.net
Wed Nov 11 21:11:49 PST 1998
Morgan MacBride asked:
>
> I posted a question earlier this week asking what the ingredients in the
> spice mixture powder douce are and haven't got any answers yet. Adamantius,
> Cariadoc, Ras -- anybody? I'm getting desperate. I need to use it to redact
> a recipe I'm doing this Sat. -- yikes!
I had to look a bit, but the following was in Lord Ras' recipe for Compost in
my sauces-msg file. I hope this isn't too long or too much repetition from
previous messages.
Stefan li Rous
stefan at texas.net
- ---------------------
> Powder douce:
> 1 cp sugar
> 1 tsp ground cloves
> 2 tsp ground cinnamon
> 2 tsp ground ginger
> 1 Tblsp ground cubebs (opt.)
> 2 tsp groung galingal (opt.)
> 1 Tbsp grains of Paradise (opt.)
And the following is from a recent message by Adamantius, that is not in my
files, yet:
> As far as I know, we don't really know what was in most of the medieval
> pre-mixed spice powders, except for Hippocras powder (which I've occasionally
> used quite successfully in recipes calling for powder forte, BTW), and a fine
> spice powder recipe in Le Menagier de Paris. What we really have to go on,
> apart from a general knowledge of what Eastern spices were imported and used
> in the cookery of the medieval European nobs, is that powder forte should be,
> well, forte (strong), while powder douce should be douce (sweet), and powder
> blanche should be white, etc. Fine spice powder is, of course, fine ; ).
>
> So, we end up with the idea that, say, cloves, cinnamon, and maybe some nutmeg
> would be good in a powder douce, while pepper, galingale, grains of paradise,
> and cubeb might make a good powder forte. Since there are a limited number of
> things that would make a whitish combination, we assume things like Columbine
> ginger and refined sugar might be in blanche powder... .
>
> I believe you do find some recipes for some of these powders in the very tail
> end of period, at which point the mixtures are largely obsolete anyway, and
> there's no guarantee that what is in them reflects closely what was in them
> in earlier centuries.
And two more messages from recently. Not sure if these are Poudre Douce or
other sweet spice mixes.
> Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 14:16:35 -0600 (MDT)
> From: Mary Morman <memorman at oldcolo.com>
> Subject: Re: SC - Poudre Forte and Poudre Douce
>
> poudre douce is a "sweet powder" and is usually a mix of sweet spices such
> as sugar, cinnamon, and ginger.
>
> elaina
- ------
> Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 01:01:07 -0500
> From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON)
> Subject: Re: SC - Poudre Forte and Poudre Douce
> Redon, Odile. Sabban, Francoise. & Serventi, Silvano. The Medieval
> Kitchen, Recipes from France and Italy. Translated, Edward
> Schneider, U of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 1998.
> ISBN 0 226 70684 2.
> Sweet Spice Mixture
>
> The best sweet spices you can make are good for lamprey in pastry and for
> other good freshwater fish cooked in a crust, and to make good brodetto
> and good sauces. Take a quarter of cloves and an onza of good ginger,
> and take an onza of fine cinnamon, and take the same quantity of leaf;
> and pound all these spices together as you like; if you want to make
> more, use the ingredients in the same proportions; this is wonderfully
> good. [Fr 40] They aren't sure that 'leaf' means bay leaf,
> but says use that until the Indian mint leaf related to patchouli is
> investigated.
>
> 2 rounded tablespoons ground ginger [16 g]
> 2 rounded tablespoons ground cinnamon [16 g]
> 2 heaping tablespoons powdered bay leaves, or dried, ground to a powder
> in a spice grinder to yield 2 heaping tablespoons [16 g]
> 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
> Scully, Terence & D. Eleanor. Early French Cookery. U. of Michigan,
> 1995.
>
> Scully equates fine powder with sweet powder, and says it contains
> ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and grains of paradise. Their redaction is
> from the Menagier, and includes sugar. The quantities are not the same,
> from ms to ms. Experiment with your own version, he says.
>
> 3 tsp ground ginger
> 1 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
> 1 tsp grains of paradise
> 1 tsp ground cloves
> 2 tbsp sugar
> Allison
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