[Sca-cooks] Whole to ground spice equivalents

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> I don't think you can substitute ground for whole spices - they
> generally get used so differently. Putting whole spices into something
> generally gives a fairly subtle flavor, so you'd only want a tiny amount
> of ground to achieve the same effect. Note on galingale - this rhizome
> is very similar to ginger, and powdered ginger doesn't really substitute
> for fresh at all.

*shrug* YMMV. I have had good luck substituting powdered for whole spices
and obviously it's pretty easy to make whole into powdered.

I have had very good luck substituting a small quantity of fresh ginger
for dried and powdered ginger, though good quality dried or powdered
ginger of reasonable freshness is obviously to be preferred in medieval
European recipes (I don't know about Middle Eastern-- can anyone comment
about the availability of fresh ginger in the Middle East in period).

I've found a number of spice suppliers who will sell you whole dried
ginger, which would be period-style. Someday I want to take some of the
safer recipes for green ginger (which is clearly a ginger preparation,
rather than fresh ginger shoots, or they wouldn't have recipes for it) and
try them with whole fresh and whole dried ginger and see what the
difference is.

-- Jadwiga, just a simple Polack who plays with herbs sometimes.

-- 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."