SC - Sumac revisited (Italian sauce)

[Ian van Tets]

Greetings fair gentles of the cooks list,
        Back in the not too distant past there was a brief flurry of 
discussion on a middle eastern flavouring known as Sumac.  I recently 
tripped across a description of a European sauce using Sumac and 
thought that one or two of you might be interested.
        Francesco Datini, a merchant from Prato near Venice in the 
late 14th century, was rather fond of his food.  He travelled 
regularly and his correspondence (much of which has survived) 
often covers important topics like "what I would like for dinner when 
I come home".  Among his favourite sauces was savore sanguino, 
which was made by "pounding raisons, cinnamon, sandal and sumac 
together and mixing them with wine and meat".
        My source for this sauce is Iris Origo's "Merchant of Prato", 
(the revised edition published in English by Penguin in 1963).  Origo 
cites the following as her source:
       Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence, Manoscritti, C. 226 (a 
miscellaneous codex of the 15th century), p. 128
best wishes to you all,
Jan van Seist
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