SC - Wegman's

[LrdRas@aol.com]

David Dendy wrote:
> 
> I thought I'd best do this to show
> that my reply was strictly historical, and that I am not actually trying to
> unload half our stock on her in reality 

The chances are in the SCA you could do that, and no questions asked,
but I don't believe anyone thinks you've been anything but helpful to
the lady.

<snip>
> >> I really can't tell how much you need in the way of spices, as it will
> >> depend on what recipes you select, and how much of each you make (and
> those
> >> decisions, I suppose, will depend on your diners and how ready they are
> to
> >> eat spiced dishes). I can give you an example from actual historical
> >> practice. The Menagier de Paris (French, later 14th century) gave an
> account
> >> of an actual wedding feast for 40 persons, which called for the following
> >> spices (using the term in the modern sense--I omit things such as hulled
> >> wheat and sugar, which he considered spices because they were bought from
> >> the spice merchant): 1 lb. ginger, 1/2 lb. cinnamon, 1 oz. saffron, 1/8
> lb.
> >> each of cloves, grains of paradise, long pepper, galingale, mace, bay
> >> leaves. Therefore the total of spices for the cooking was 2 5/16 lb. (37
> >> oz., or a little less than one ounce of cooking spice per diner), and he
> >> specifically notes that "little was left of the spices". (There were also
> >> what he calls "spices for the chamber", such as candied orange peel and
> >> other sweet confections, and the hypocras was bought ready-made from the
> >> spicer, so its spices were not included in the previous total.)

This is pretty interesting stuff! Obviously you're trying to distinguish
between the items we might not necessarily think of as spices, the
spices we cook with, and the ones that seem to have been considered
spices but were eaten without ever entering the kitchen. I believe
Chiquart speaks of having to make sugared anise and other dragees, but
also gives, as I recall, no recipe. Is there any chance any of these
confits have figured into the weight of the spices listed in some of the
documentation you mention, either as sugared seeds, or in their
pre-sugared state?
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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