Duke's powder (was Re: SC - saffron)
Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
Fri Mar 31 06:56:59 PST 2000
And it came to pass on 31 Mar 00,, that Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
<color><param>0000,0000,0000</param>> Robin Carroll-Mann wrote:
> >
> > This is his comment at the end of a recipe for "Duke's powder", a spice
> > mixture:
>
> Whoa... is this the same Duke's Powder that Le Menagier mentions as
> pre-sweetened hippocras spice?
>
> Adamantius
I don't know. Possibly. It certainly contains sugar, and appears just
after de Nola's recipe for a hippocras spice mixture. I'm translating the
1529 edition of de Nola, BTW. There is a slightly different version of this
mixture in the 1525 edition, plus a second recipe which does not appear
in the 1529. Here are the recipes:
</color>Source: Roberto de Nola, _Libro de Cozina_ (Spanish, 1525)
Translation: Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)
<color><param>0000,0000,0000</param>POLUORA DE DUQUE -- Duke's Powder
Cinnamon, half an ounce; ginger, half an ounce; cloves, one eighth;
sugar, one pound; all this well ground and strained through a hair sieve
so that it should be quite delicate and subtle, or at least just like the
one for the sauces.
POLUORA DE DUQUE DE OTRA MANERA -- Duke's Powder in
another manner
White ginger, two ounces; galangal, one eighth of an ounce; cinnamon,
one ounce; long pepper, one ounce; grains of paradise, one ounce;
nutmeg, one ounce; fine sugar, one pound; all this should be well
ground and strained through a delicate hair sieve.
[The paragraph on weighing spices follows]
</color>Source: Ruperto de Nola, _Libro de Guisados_ (Spanish, 1529)
Translation: Brighid ni Chiarain (Robin Carroll-Mann)
POLVORA DE DUQUE - Duke's Powder
Half an ounce of cinnamon; an eighth of cloves; and for the lords
cast in nothing but cinnamon, and a pound of sugar; if you wish to make
it sharp in flavor and [good] for pains in the stomach, cast in a little
ginger.
And the weights of the spices in the apothecary shops are in this
manner: one pound is twelve ounces; one ounce, eight drachmas; one
drachma, three scruples: another way that you can more clearly
understand this: a drachma weights three dineros; a scruple is the
weight of one dinero; and a scruple is twenty grains of wheat.
- - - -
How do those compare to the Menagier's recipe? Or doesn't he give
one? (I have a copy somewhere, but don't want to hunt through an
unindexed book before I finish my second cup of coffee.)
<nofill>
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
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