[Sca-cooks] Spices

[Mark S. Harris]

Anne asked:
> So I went to the Pepperer's Guild, and now I have Long Pepper, cubebs,
> galangale, blade mace, and I don't remember what else... So now what do
> I do? :-\


What is "blade mace" and how does it differ from regular mace? Or is this
just another name for the same thing?


> I remember Phlip, I think it was, suggesting using them in simple every
> day dishes to get an idea of the flavor, which I think is a great idea,
> and which I will try.  But these are all whole spices. Any suggestions?
> Should I be grinding them up, or cooking them whole at the beginning of
> the process (the way I do cumin and black mustard seeds, for example)?


Most you will probably want to grind up as you use them. One advantage
of doing it this way rather than grinding them further ahead, is that
you may want to grind some coarse and some fine depending upon how they
are used in a recipe.


> What kind of foods are they most apt to complement? How much am I apt to
> want in one dish? (I'm usually cooking single servings, just to
> complicate matters... I look at the long pepper and wonder if I need to
> start with little pieces thereof.)


You can always add more later, even at the table.

For instance, you might try some of the Long Pepper on scrambled eggs or
with mashed potatos and gravy. These are often fairly bland dishes so
they shouldn't cover up the flavor of the spices.

> Do I best grind them all in a mortar
> and pestle (don't worry, I have one, and a suribachi, too, if anything
> needs a little more, um, persuasion) or does anything need different
> treatment (as, for example, nutmeg?)


All of these should work well in the mortar and pestle. The only warning
I heard of is to be careful of using whole galangale in most spice
grinders. See the galangale-msg file in the Florilegium for more details.
I'm not sure what a suribachi is, so I can't tell you whether that will
work with galangale or not.


> Mace and (real) stick cinnamon are not totally unfamiliar, so I'm not as
> concerned about them. But I haven't the first clue what the others are
> like. All suggestions welcome!
You might check the spices-msg file in the Florilegium for more

information on these particular spices.


Did you not get any Grains of Paradise? There is this file on those:

G-of-Paradse-msg  (66K)  8/ 2/00    History and use of the spice Grains of
                                        Paradise.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****