SC - dream camp kitchens

[CBlackwill@aol.com]

Etain replied to my message:
stefan at texas.net writes:
> << > pearls for those who want to try a Cleopatra  Cocktail to impress their 
> cronnies.  Sounds dreadful tasting to me though.<
>  
>  Is this where the pearl(s) are ground up and then drunk in a
>  beverage? >>
> 
> Do they have to be ground?  I thought that pearls dissolved in wine?

I had assumed so since other wise I thought it would take a very long
time to dissolve. The key differance from what I said when I went to
look it up is that it isn't wine (that would have to be a pretty acidic
wine - yeach) but vinegar. And the result looks more likely to be a
face powder or something rather than eaten. Here is the period quote:
> I've been reading through my newly-acquired copies of "A Queen's Delight"
> and came across the following "recipe":
> 
> To make a true Majistery of Pearl.
> Dissolve two or three ounces of fine seed Pearl in distilled Vinegar, &
> when it is perfectly dissolved, and all taken up, pour the Vinegar into a
> clean glass bason; then drop some few drops of Oyl of Tartar upon it, & it
> will cast down the Pearl into fine Powder, then pour the Vinegar clean off
> softly, then put to the Pearl clear Conduit or Spring water, pour that off,
> and do so often untill the taste of the Vinegar and Tartar be clean gone,
> then dry the powder of Pearl upon warm embers, and keep it for your use.
> 
> This is toward the back of the book, in a section entitled "Choice Secrets
> made known", not in the food sections.

- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****