[Sca-cooks] 'powders' - recipes please

[rcmann4 at earthlink.net]

On 2 Jun 01,, Christina van Tets wrote:

> Can anyone help me with recipes for Poudre de Duc or Lombard >
Powder?  I have
> references to these in the van der Noot text, but no recipe is
> given.  If there is more than one recipe, I would prefer the one
> closest to 1514 and/or Brussels.

I know of a couple of recipes for "Duke's Powder" (which some authorities
believe is a mistranslation of Poudre Douce -- "Sweet Powder").

One is in the Menagier of Paris, c. 1393:
<http://www.best.com/~ddfr/Medieval/Cookbooks/Menagier/Menagier.html#
OTHER ODDS AND ENDS>

"HIPPOCRAS. To make powdered hippocras, take a
quarter-ounce of very fine cinnamon, hand-picked by
tasting it, an ounce of very fine meche ginger and an
ounce of grains of paradise, a sixth of an ounce of nutmeg
and galingale together, and pound it all together. And
when you want to make hippocras, take a good half-ounce
or more of this powder and two quarter-ounces of sugar,
and mix them together, and a quart of wine as measured in
Paris.
And note that the powder and the sugar mixed together
make "duke's powder".

And here are two versions from the 1525 edition of Nola:
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.

And from the 1529 edition of Nola:
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.

Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
now at a new address: rcmann4 at earthlink.net