SC - semi-precious stones and pearls
david friedman
ddfr at best.com
Mon Jun 12 21:46:47 PDT 2000
At 12:38 AM -0500 6/13/00, Stefan li Rous wrote:
>Is it possible to get second-grade, non-jewel grade precious
>stones that would work fine for this? Or is there even
>such a thing?
I missed the original message, but I assume you are trying to get
gemstones for culinary purposes--perhaps for Maistre Chiquart's
chicken soup or something similar.
1. "Precious stones" is a technical term--diamond, ruby, saphire,
emerald, are the usual ones on the list. I have a vague impression
that some people include pearls, which aren't really stones at all.
2. Generally speaking, junk grade precious and semiprecious stones
are available and cheap--meaning dollars an ounce or even dollars a
pound. Typically that means opaque stones of uneven color, when the
valuable ones are clear and pure of color. Many semiprecious stones,
such as lapis and malachite, are available at that sort of price in
qualities that are good enough to be worth cutting.
Commercial grade pearls are more than that, but still cheap compared
to what you buy in a jewelery store.
The Cleopatra story is that she is supposed to have dissolved a very
valuable pearl in wine. I gather it doesn't work, unless the wine is
pretty close to vinegar, and even then slowly--probably days not
minutes according to my lady wife, who dissolved a lot of calcium
carbonate in strong vinegar in an earlier stage of her life.
David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list