[Sca-cooks] Cypres?

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

A while back we were talking of Chypre and Cypres and so forth, and I just
noticed this recipe in Karen Larsdatter's translation of Manual de
Mujeres:

"Powders of Cyprus
Take an oak leaf and dry it, and make it into powder and knead it with
musk-scented water. And stick this dough inside a box and perfume it with
pellets two or three times every day until it is soaked. And after the
soaking, again grind it and make a dough with the same water, and perfume
it in the same manner. And do this as many times until it has taken the
powders of the odor of the perfume. And then grind it and, very finely
ground, bring it together with musk and amber at your will. And thus will
be made the powders. You are warned that when you perfume the dough you
should cover the box very well with a cloth, so that no smoke escapes. "

"Fine scented powder of Cyprus
An ounce and a half of the flower of small holm oak of the northern part,
that has been dried in the shade, and ground and passed through a sieve.
One ounce of the powders of cardinal iris that were taken in May. Knead
these powders with orange blossom water and rose water, and then put this
dough in a large bowl and perfume it with benzoin until it is dry. And
when it is dry, pulverize it again. And add musk and storax, also
pulverized, and a little civet mixed with rose water, and let them dry.
And then again pulverize it and keep it in a glass flask. "

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa   jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"Words can be your friend or your enemy, depending on who's
throwing the book, so watch your language." Stoppard