[Sca-cooks] Re: Glossary

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On 9 Nov 2001, at 23:00, Vincent Cuenca wrote:

> >
> >Duke's Powder ==
>
> Okay, this one I know.  A spice mixture, featuring mainly sugar.  From
> de Nola (1529 edition): Polvora Duque (Duke's Powder) Cinnamon half an
> ounce; cloves half a quarter; and for lords only add cinnamon, and a
> pound of sugar; if you wish it to have a sharp taste and make it good
> for passions of the stomach add a little ginger.
>
> I think it may also be in Llibre de Sent Sovi.  Anyone?  Master
> Thomas?

Here are the footnotes I wrote to accompany my translation of the Duke's
Powder recipe.  (Cindy, feel free to incorporate them into your glossary.)

Barbara Santich suggests that this recipe title is a misnomer, and an
indication of Italian influence on Catalan cooking. A very similar blend of
spices ­ minus the sugar -- is found in an anonymous Venetian
cookbook of the late 15th century. It is called specie dolce, "sweet
spices". Several recipes in that cookbook call for dishes to be topped
with sugar and unspecified spices before serving. Santich theorizes that
specie dolce was the spice blend which was sprinkled with the sugar.
The Italian name specie dolce, "sweet spices", may have been mangled
in translation to become the Catalan polvora de duch, "powder of the
duke".
The Libre del Coch has a second recipe for this spice mix, De altra
polvora de duch, which contains 2 oz. ginger, 1/2 drachm galingale, 1
oz. cinnamon, 1 oz. long pepper, 1 oz. grains of paradise, 1 oz. nutmeg,
1/4 oz. fine sugar. The Libre de Sent Sovi gives yet another recipe: 1
pound sugar; 1/2 oz. cinnamon; 3/4 oz. ginger; 1/4 oz. total of cloves,
nutmeg, galingale, and cardamon.

Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net