[Sca-cooks] Finding Recipes for spices

[Philip & Susan Troy]

James Prescott wrote:

> 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.

Nah, no speculation here ;  ) . I do suspect that in the latter
instance, though, you're right. My own feeling is that there's some
rather strained mathematical proofing going on in this discussion, and
that the bottom line will end up with a bunch of medieval cooks and
scribes who want us to put a nice mix of some ground spices in or on the
dish.

> 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.

I dunno, I never really thought of it that way. You don't consider the
curry powder to be somewhat defined by its applications? Yeah, they're
spice mixtures, and yes, they're even composed somewhat similarly, but
don't you see a difference between, say, Madras and West Indian curry
blends? Now that I think of it, considering that they're all basically
English inventions anyway, there may be something in what you say.

> 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.

Simplest, yes, but I think perhaps you're taking the logic too far. When
a recipe calls for powder douce, say, I expect a powdered mix of sweet
spices is indicated, and could be bought preground, mixed by the spicer,
or perhaps even mixed in the kitchen from available supplies. For strong
spices, the same thing. Buy a strong spice blend, order it specially or
make it from another cook's (or your own) formula, or just use whatever
strong spices you have on hand for the purpose.

Or, to put it another way, even if, on a case-by-case basis, the exact
formulas (if any) of powder douce, powder forte, fine powder, etc.,
happen occasionally to intersect, I think it is more a matter of
discretionary coincidence than any provable state of sameness.

It's possible to agonize about this stuff too much...

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com