[Sca-cooks] spice mixes

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> >James likes to give staff (cook staff or autocrat staff) bottles of
> >Powder Forte, Powder Douce, etc. He's had people ask to work in the
> >kitchen again with the "Are you giving out spices again?..."
> Do you all have any recipes for these mixes?  I've been TRYING to do
> research on period curries and this was mentioned on one of the websites.

According to the head of the EK Pepperer's Guild, he got his recipe for
one of the Powders (don't have web access right now, so I can't tell you
which) from an academic who had done some research on the subject. Her
recipe/proportions didn't have grains of paradise in it, but he realized
from working with it that the proportions were exactly those of the 'dust'
or 'tailings' left at the bottom of the same sized jars of the various
spices, so he simply added that proportion of grains. (It's certainly an
intriguing explaination of the origin of pre-mixed spice mixtures!)

-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa
jenne at fiedlerfamily.net OR jenne at tulgey.browser.net OR jahb at lehigh.edu
"Are you finished? If you're finished, you'll have to put down the spoon."