[Sca-cooks] Poudre Fine / Fine Spices

[Elaine Koogler]

Most of what I'm finding in my search for recipes for my Italian feast 
are references to "good spices", "fine spices", "mild spices", etc.  One 
definite recipe that specifies "fine spices", which could be another way 
of saying poudre fine is from de Nola:

Libro de Cozina of Master Ruperto de Nola, translated by Vincent F. Cuenca

p. 42:  To Eat Figs in the French Style

Take the sweetest black and white figs you can find; and remove the 
stems and wash them with good white wine that should be sweet, and when 
they are very clean, take a pot that should be a bit large and made of 
clay, with a flat bottom, and put them in and stir them around a little 
bit and then put this pot on the coals, well covered so that it stews 
there, and when they are stewed, and have soaked up into themselves all 
the moisture from the wine, stir them a little; and scatter fine spices 
over them; and stir them again so that they incorporate the spices and 
then eat this dish, and it is a remarkable thing, and
should be eaten at the beginning of the meal.

and this recipe from the same source for poudre fines...Jadwiga's Web 
page had this listed along with her redaction:

*Poudre Fines: Spices for Common Sauce (De Nola)

Three parts cinnamon, two parts cloves, one part ginger, one part 
pepper, and a little dry coriander, well-ground, and a little saffron if 
you wish; let everything be well-ground and sifted.

3 tbsp cinnamon
2 tbsp ground cloves
1 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground pepper
1 pinch coriander
1 pinch saffron, ground

Mix together.

Hope this helps....

Kiri




lilinah at earthlink.net wrote:

> Dear SCA Cooks:
>
> In preparation for an  up-coming competition, i had created a word 
> processing document with as many references as i could find in the 
> cookbooks i have to fine spice powder / poudre fine, what period 
> recipes i could find, and my own re-creation.
>
> Of course it, along with many years of SCA-Cooks messages and many 
> files of notes on various spice powders disappeared in my hard drive 
> death.
>
> I am certainly not asking people to do my research for me, but i would 
> appreciate it if people remember where there are references to poudre 
> fine / pouldre fine / fine spice powder / fine spices, please let me 
> know, i.e., book titles.
>
> I've been spending my last few evenings trying to recreate my research 
> and i've found a few references, but any steering towards more good 
> sources is appreciated.
>
> (and when i did a Google search for "poudre fine" i got lots of hits 
> on French web sites for cosmetics :-)
>
> I'm not so much interested in your re-creations (although i wouldn't 
> reject them :-), but in actual period mentions - of course, actual 
> period "recipes" for fine spice powder are preferred, or recipes for 
> other dishes that call for fine spices (and perhaps suggest which 
> spices they mean).
>
> Since i am rather a completist, references to other spice powders 
> (poudre blanche/white powder, poudre douce/sweet powder, poudre 
> forte/strong powder, hypocras powder, claree powder, etc.) are also 
> welcome. But my focuse is "fine spices".
>
> I was so proud of myself that i hadn't waited until the last minute - 
> unfortunately, i hadn't printed it out, and now i have to re-create it...
>
> Thanks for any gentle guidance,
>
> Anahita
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-- 
Learning is a lifetime journey...growing older merely adds experience to knowledge 
and wisdom to curiosity.
					-- C.E. Lawrence