SC - questions: TO BOIL PHEASANTS, PARTRIDGES, CAPONS AND CURLEWS

[swbro@mail.telis.org]

Speaking of Spices....I was surfing Ebay and the following book is for sale.
About $6.00. I know nothing of it, but it looks interesting.  It is called "The
Lore of Spices".  It's item # 153114346  It has two days left on it.

Rayne

cclark at vicon.net wrote:

> Based on this excerpt, I'm not impressed with the book. Sorry. Here's why:
>
> CUBEBS: I was suspicious of the recommended substitute, so I tried it. It
> doesn't work. Then I tried some other things. They don't work either.
>
> My best guess is that the author suggested allspice not because it resembles
> cubebs at all, but because it isn't as obviously different as other spices
> are. It doesn't have anything like the heat of pepper or ginger, the zing of
> cinnamon, the cold tingle of cloves, or the distinctive pungency of dill.
> This makes it a relatively good filler spice. And filler is needed because
> of the pepper. Freshly ground black pepper seems to be about the only spice
> that resembles cubebs, but pepper has a lot of heat, and cubebs don't. So
> the allspice serves to dilute and weaken the heat of the pepper.
>
> The result of this mixture is still much hotter than cubebs, without very
> much cubeb-like flavor, and a generally broader and more nondescript flavor.
> The allspice doesn't seem to add any particular cubeb-like flavor. I would
> recommend that anyone who doesn't have cubebs substitute a *very* tiny bit
> of black pepper, or nothing at all.
>
> SAUNDERS: A few years ago I was passing along some information to someone
> else who was going to cook a feast. This bit about saunders being sandalwood
> got in, and she had some sandalwood, so she experimented with it.  She told
> me that her experiment had an unappetizing flavor and did not come out red.
> My saunders, bought at Pennsic some years ago from the Pepperer's Guild, did
> produce a red color and a more food-like flavor, so I loaned her some.
>
> So I'm inclined to doubt that saunders is sandalwood, and suspect that this
> is just one of those things that some food history writers pass around among
> themselves without checking their facts. Are there any botanists or spice
> experts around here to provide further information?
>
> As for substitutes, there is an approximately period precedent for using
> brazilwood to color comfits red, but I don't know whether it's safe for use
> in food. In any case, it seems no more likely than saunders to turn up in
> one's local supermarket.
>
> POUDER-FORTE: I don't know that there is any period recipe for this, but if
> there were I would expect something a little different from the one here.
> Something like pepper, ginger, and a bit of cloves, for instance. Perhaps
> also including cinnamon, nutmeg, cubebs, grains of Paradise, or cumin. I'm
> especially suspicious of the dried chives, because they are not among the
> more familiar spice powders in the medieval English tradition.
>
> POWDER DOUCE: Again, I don't know of a period recipe, and again I don't
> quite like this one. Pepper doesn't seem like a sweet spice to me. A more
> plausible sweet powder might call for some cloves and/or mace instead. And
> just *maybe* some sugar ground in the mortar with the spices.
>
> Sorry to have looked your gift horse in the mouth, but I figure it's better
> to do that than to put it to work first without checking. The recipes might
> still be good, but I'd take them with a grain of salt.
>
> Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon
>
> >My good lord husband recently gifted me with the book SEVEN CENTURIES OF
> >ENGLISH COOKING: A Collection of Recipes by Maxime de la Falaise.
> >This is from the back of the book.
> >Phillipa
> >
> >CUBEBS
> >A mixture of black peper and alspice can replace the taste of cubebs.
> >
> >SAUNDERS
> >A red coloring made from powdered sandal wood.  Use of cochineal, carmine, or
> >red food coloring.   I don't like any of these options.
> >
> >POUDER-FORTE
> >A mixture of dried chives, mace and pepper
> >
> >POWDER DOUCE
> >A blend of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and peper
>
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