[Sca-cooks] Help in translation?

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

>Hej!
>     A friend is having a problem with the following pomander recipie.  Could
>someone help her out?
>Olaf
>
>----- Original Message -----
>
>>  Hello,
>>
>>  I'm doing some research on Elizabethan costuming.I came across this recipe
>>  for a pomander on page 86 of Handbook of English Costume in the Sixteenth
>  > Century by C. Willet Cunnington. Plymouth State has this out of
>print book. I
>  > didn't get the source this quotation was from but here is a great
>recipe for
>  > a pomandor if you can figure it out.The quote is word for word
>including the
>>  punctuation:
>>
>  > "Make a pomander under this manner. Take a lapidanum iii drammes, of wodde
>  > of Aloes one dram, of amber of grece ii drames and a half; of
>nutmeg, of storax
>>  calamite of eche a dram and a halfe;confect all together with Rose-water,
>>  and make a ball"
>  >
>>  Looks like the translater had handwiting to try to decipher.I'm assuming
>>  "dram" and "drame" are the same thing."Half" and "halfe" must be too. I
>  > assume "amber of grece" is ambergris. "Storax calamite of eche" puzzles
>  > me as does "wodde of Aloes".The manufacture of woad makes me think that it
>  > doesn't smell that good but I could be wrong.It is probably something else.
>  > Nutmeg and rosewater, I know. Now all I need to find out is how
>much a lapidanum
>  > is.
>  >
>  > Roberta Bromley

First, orthography was not standardized until rather recently, so
it's hardly surprising that the spelling of dram  and half vary
within an Elizabethan recipe. After all, Shakespeare apparently
didn't sign his name the same way twice. It has nothing to do with
anyone's handwriting. Printed books of the time could have one word
spelled several ways on one page.

lapidanum - is labdanum, that is cistus or rock rose. It is NOT a
weight or measurement. The recipe calls for 3 drams of it. I have
some that someone made for me out of home grown plants. This is NOT
the same as "laudanum" which is a poppy derivative.

wodde of aloes - is aloes wood. It's hard to find in the US, but
sometimes very fine, high level Japanese shops that supply a Japanese
connoisseurship have some. It is an ancient ingredient in incenses -
i believe it is called for in the Bible for the temple incense. It
does smell wonderful. I don't own any because of the high price. It
has absolutely NOTHING to do with "woad" or with the succulent plant
known as aloe.

amber of grece - is ambergris. This is generally not available as it
comes from endangered sperm wales. I'm not sure how good the various
synthetics are. Some make me sneeze. A synthetic would be the only
recourse, unless you happen to find some excreted from a sperm whale
on a beach.

of nutmeg, of storax calamite of eche a dram - well, that means a
dram each of nutmeg and storax. I'm not sure about the calamite...
Anyone know: Is storax calamite a form of storax or is calamite a
separate ingredient? I have storax here. It's rather interesting
stuff.

So, i'd translate it as:
  "Make a pomander in this manner: Take 3 drams of labdanum, one dram
of wood Aloes, 2 and 1/2 drams of ambergris; a dram and a half of
nutmeg and of storax calamite. Confect all together with Rose-water,
and make a ball"

Anahita