SC - Re: The Perfect Feast

[alysk@ix.netcom.com]

> OK.  It's time for the obligatory "dumb question".  I have run across several
> recipes that call for ambergris, musk, gum arabic and/or orris root.  Where does
> one acquire such ingredients (please remember...I live 'way out in the "boonies"
> in Southern Maryland.  Getting our own Mongolian Barbeque place was a MAJOR
> event!)?

Well, orris root, gum arabic, etc. can be mail-ordered (or web-ordered). I
buy a lot from Penn herb (www.pennherb.com) because they can ship fast,
though I'm not very enthused with their products and service; Nichols
Garden Nursery has orrisroot (www.nicholsgardennursery.com); synthetic
musk and ambergris oils are available too.
 
> And, particularly with the ambergris and musk...is it safe to use these in
> foods?  I had been told that they were used exclusively in perfume-type
> applications and were unsafe in food.

Well, I'm concerned about that myself. Period ambergris and musk, being
the products of non-poisonous animals, were probably reasonably safe to
ingest. However, I don't think you can get those now; everything I've seen
is synthetic (which is good: I don't want to kill a deer to get musk).

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
	"Scratch a lover and find a foe." -- Dorothy Parker