[Sca-cooks] Finding Recipes for spices

[James Prescott]

At 06:50 -0400 2001-06-11, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> 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.

Most of the recipes that call for "curry powder" fail to specify
any details.  The cook is free to use whichever brand and heat
suits them.  Or mix their own spices from scratch.

To get more authentic (that is, leaving aside whether or not curry
powder is an English invention), many genuine Indian recipes while
listing most spices individually call for 'garam masala', which is
a mixture of spices.  The mixture varies.  You can buy half a dozen
brands in the shop.  Or you can mix your own.  The recipe seldom
gives guidance as to what kind of 'garam masala' you should use.

  One of my Indian books gives three 'generic' garam masala recipes,
  one Kashmiri recipe, and two versions of a South Indian garam
  masala that is called sambhar or Madras Rasam.  They also mention
  in passing some of the many other spices that can be used in a
  garam masala.

  The distinguishing feature of a garam masala is that it is often
  added (or added again) towards the end of cooking, or even just
  prior to serving.

  If a thousand years from now someone unearths some Indian cookbooks
  and finds 'garam masala' listed in some and 'madras rasam' listed
  in others, and notices that they tend to be used in the same kinds
  of dishes, and tend to be added towards the end of the cooking
  process, and frequently include cumin and cardamom seeds, might
  they wonder whether they were looking at the same spice mixture
  under different names, or at different spice mixtures?

  In a sense both answers are right.

  In the sense that 'garam masala' and 'madras rasam' are the same
  spice mixture (recognized by Indian cooks as the same despite
  regional and personal variations), so I believe that 'powder fort'
  and 'fine/spice powder' were almost certainly the same spice
  mixture.

    I imagine the cook to Richard II chatting to Taillevent and
    concluding "oh, well I call my version powdour forte".

  On that basis I would advise the original questioner, who was
  looking for recipes that use 'powder fort', to consider those in
  Viandier that call for 'fine powder' or 'spice powder'.  That's
  assuming that they haven't already found the dozens of recipes in
  "Forme of Cury" that call for 'powder fort' by name.


> Simplest, yes, but I think perhaps you're taking the logic too far.

You may be right.  I have chosen to take it that far, and I agree
that for some people it will have been too far.  That's what
research is about.


> 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.

Exactly.  Some sources give a powder douce that contains no sugar,
and some (Menagier) call for huge amounts of sugar and relatively
little spice.  'Powder douce' can probably be translated as either
'Mild powder' or as 'Sweet powder'.


> 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.

Exactly.  Even for 'Spice Powder' the suggested compositions vary
widely.


> 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.

On the other hand, the compiler of the cookbook was trying to convey
some kind of guidance through their choice of phrase.  What kind of
guidance?  How many distinct spice mixtures did the compiler
recognise?  How many would their readers distinguish?  How many
distinct mixtures would be found on the shelves of the spice
merchant?  Unless someone has a dynamite reference, we'll never
know for sure.

My personal guess is that douce and forte were the two main
recognised variations around 1400, probably available from the
majority of spice merchants as 'house blends', and probably
under a number of different names.

'Douce' would cover any mixture that does not involve any of the
'hot' spices, and 'Forte' would cover any mixture that involved
any significant quantity of any of the 'hot' spices.


Thorvald