[Sca-cooks] Finding Recipes for spices

[James Prescott]

At 23:50 -0500 2001-06-10, Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Thorvald said:
> > If 'poudre forte' is the same as 'spice powder', which is my belief,
> then ..."
>
> Since there were a variety of spice mixtures, upon what do you base
> this comment that 'poudre forte' is the spice mixture meant by 'spice
> powder'?

Since I formed that belief back in 1987, I'm going to have to try to
recreate at least some of the logic.

1)

In Hieatt and Butler _Curye on Inglysch_ page 208 they list 'powdour
marchant', 'powdour douce', and 'powdour fort'.  For the latter they
say "strong mixture of ground spices, generally including pepper
and/or cloves; we have not found a recipe, but suggested substitutions,
and the name, make its nature clear."

The recipe quoted by Pichon and Vicaire page 26 for 'Spice powder'
includes ginger, pepper, long pepper, and cloves; two ingredients
of middling strength (galingale and grains of paradise); and two
milder ingredients.  This sounds like a recipe for a definitely
'strong powder'.

"Forme of Cury" (part IV in _Curye on Inglysch_) has frequent
mentions of 'powdour douce' and 'powdour fort'.  In Viandier
there is no use of 'powdour douce', so one is led to wonder
if any of the powders that _are_ used in Viandier correspond
in any way to the 'powdour fort' of Forme of Cury.  We'll ask
this question again in item 2.


2)

Sass _To the King's Taste_ page 23 distinguishes between 'whyte
pouder', 'pouder fort', and 'pouder douce'.  For 'pouder fort'
they suggest "ginger or a blend of cinnamon and mace" (contrast
Hieatt and Butler who say that it is "ginger, cinamon, and mace").

Viandier uses 'Fine Powder', 'Spice Powder', and 'White Powder'.
Spice Powder is used exclusively in the first part of Viandier,
and Fine Powder exclusively in the second part (with White
Powder listed as an alternative, and only in a couple of places).
This suggests that the name and exact composition may have changed
between the two parts, but that they may be approximate synonyms.
With ginger and cloves as two of the ingredients (Menagier) Fine
Powder would have been somewhat strong, though it also contained
some sugar.  This would be consistent with the observation by
Hieatt and Butler that spicing in the English recipes became
sweeter as time progressed.  With 'Sweet Powder' not used in
Viandier, though known in Menagier; and with Fine and Spice
powders at least occupying the same culinary ecological niche
even if Fine is not the lineal descendant of Spice; and with
'powdour fort' being prominent in Forme of Cury (see item 1
above); we are tempted to speculate that Fine/Spice Powder
corresponds to 'pouder fort'.  That would avoid having four
distinct spice mixtures (by Occam's Razor).

Scully (E&T) in _Early French Cookery_ page 54-55 call it
"Fine Powder", "Fine Spice Powder", and "Spice Powder" without
distinction.


3)

Rather than being merely tempted to speculate, I go further
and conclude that in all likelihood "Fine Powder" and "Spice
Powder" from Viandier, and "Strong Powder" from other sources,
are either the 'same' mixture or at least occupy the same
culinary ecological niche.

Since the ingredients vary widely this is as illuminating (or
otherwise) as noting that 'curry powder' is the same thing the
whole world over.  Every single curry powder is different, yet
when viewed in a global light there is no difference among them.

In the same way every strong powder was the same, yet different.
Since the Fine and Spice powders from Viandier and Menagier do
contain a predominance of 'strong' spices I find it simplest to
conclude that they are synonyms for Strong powder.


Thorvald