SC - Turkey Day post-mortem

[LrdRas@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/27/99 2:39:37 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
ringofkings at mindspring.com writes:

<< I also  used the finest white pepper and powdered it first.>>

Out of curiosity, why did you choose white pepper over black pepper? Are 
there period references to the use of white pepper? If so, documentation, 
please, as I would be greatly interested in such knowledge. Thanks in 
advance. The use of black pepper in the quantities you mentioned would have 
assured a black end product as mentioned in the original, I presume.

<<  I presume a great deal  of the original recipe process filtered out the 
larger pepper fragments in  the straining process anyway. >>

The period technique that I am aware was to sieve the mortar ground spice and 
then regrind the bits that would not go through the sieve. The use of a 
modern spice/coffee grinder reduces the amount of time needed to reduce whole 
spices to a powder considerably although sifting and sieving does produce a 
better flavor overall, IMO.

One last question, if you don't mind. Is the consistency of the finished 
product similar to that of modern guava paste or is it thicker or looser?

Ras
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