[Sca-cooks] Spice Blends

[James Prescott]

At 21:38 -0400 2003-06-18, johnna holloway wrote:
> Brereton's edition gives on page 200 line 13
> "petit de pouldre pardessus."
> The ypocras recipe is on page 270 line 19--
> It ends--
> "Et nota que la pouldre et le succre meslez ensemble
> font pouldre de duc." lines 26-27
>
> Johnnae llyn Lewis
>
> "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" wrote:
>
>> On Wednesday, June 18, 2003, at 08:08 PM, James Prescott wrote:
>>
>>      The Vatican and BN mss have nothing directly for "Pouder Douce".
>>      Menagier (trans. Power) has a recipe embedded within the recipe
>>      for "Hippocras":
>>
>>      Take four ounces of very fine cinnamon, two ounces of fine
>>      cassia flowers, an ounce of selected Mecca ginger, an ounce
>>      of grains of paradise, and a sixth [of an ounce] of nutmeg and
>>      galingale combined.  Crush them all together.  Take a good
>>      half ounce of this powder and eight ounces of sugar [(which
>>      thus makes Sweet Powder)].
>>
>> Okay, so not having seen Le Menagier in French, are we to assume the
>>Powers translation as "The Duke's Powder" is erroneous? Certainly this
>>version makes some sense. What is the phrase in French?


I believe that it is a linguistic variant that crept in through
some misunderstanding, and that the "Sweet" and "Duke's" were, at
least originally, the same.

Santich, B.  "L'influence italienne sur l'évolution de la cuisine médiévale
catalane."  In Manger et boire au moyen age (page 135) says:

"Il semble, donc, que le nom 'polvora de duch' [Catalan] résulte d'une
altération du nom italien ['specie dolce'], et que l'on doit traduire
'polvora de duch' comme 'mélange doux d'épices' plutôt que 'mélange
d'épices du duc'."

  It seems, therefore, that the phrase 'polvora de duch' results from
  an alteration of the Italian phrase, and that one should translate
  'polvora de duch' as 'sweet mixture of spices' rather than 'duke's
  mixture of spices'.

I agree completely with Santich.


Thorvald
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