[Sca-cooks] Re: Glossary

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

On 10 Nov 2001, at 12:01, Cindy M. Renfrow wrote:

> >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". <snip>
>
> Then how would you account for Le menagier's recipe of 100 years
> earlier calling for pouldre de duc?

I took another look at the article.  Santich's point is that the recipe
in the 1529 Nola is closer to the Italian tradition than to its Catalan
predecessors.  She does not mean (and I hope I didn't imply) that
the anonymous Venetian is the first appearance of this recipe.
Santich goes on to discuss other similarities in Nola to Italian
recipes.  So, if I dare summarize her reasoning: this spice blend is
similar to the Italian version; its name may be a corruption of the
Italian name.

Perhaps *all* such blends were originally "sweet powder", or
perhaps there were two different blends (duc/dolce), each with its
many variations.  To confuse matters further, the Menagier's blend
is for making Hypocras.  Nola has a different blend entirely for that
purpose, and uses "Duke's Powder" in cooking.

A tangled matter, this.


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