[Sca-cooks] Poudre Fine / Fine Spices

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Daniel Myers <edouard at medievalcookery.com> wrote:
>On Feb 28, 2004, at 1:43 AM, david friedman wrote:
>  > Le Menagier de Paris has a recipe, with quantites if I remember
>  > correctly, for fine spice powder.
>
>Here ya go...
>
>Powder Fine
>	1 1/2 Tbsp. cinnamon (canelle)
>	1 tsp. cloves
>	3 Tbsp. ginger
>	1 tsp. grains of paradise
>	2 Tbsp. sugar
>
>Source [Le Menagier de Paris, Janet Hinson (trans.)]: FINE POWDER of
>spices. Take an ounce and a drachma of white ginger, a quarter-ounce of
>hand-picked cinnamon, half a quarter-ounce each of grains and cloves,
>and a quarter-ounce of rock sugar, and grind to powder.

The Le Menagier recipe quoted in the Scullys' "Early French Cookery" 
on page 54 is:
Prenez gengembre blanc 1(degree sign) .3, canelle triee 3(degree 
sign), giroffle et graine de chascun demy quart d'once, et de succre 
en pierre 3(degree sign), et faictes pouldre.

This is very differently from Hinson's version, assuming the (degree 
sign) equals an ounce (and i've no irrefutable reason to make this 
assumption):

Take white ginger 1.3 ounces; sifted cinnamon 3 ounces, cloves and 
grains [of paradise] of each half a quarter [i.e., 1/8] of an ounce, 
and of rock sugar 3 ounces, and make powder.

In this case, there is almost three times as much cinnamon as ginger.

On page 56, the Scullys say: "Our recipe is found in the Menagier de 
Paris (p.247; section314) and calls for ginger, cinnamon, grains of 
paradise, cloves and sugar.* The quantities indicated for each 
ingredient are by no means uniform even from copy to copy of the 
Menagier itself; the book's most recent editors, Brereton and 
Ferrier, further debate as to the sense of the abbreviations found 
for these quantities in the manuscript that they have chosen to 
follow."

Note that the Scullys book was published in 1995, and i am not 
familiar with the B and F edition. Heck, i only own the Hinson 
edition in Cariadoc's cookbook compendium. Is the B and F edition 
something i should think of buying?

Farther down page 56 is the note marked by the asterisk above:
"* Later, in the middle of the sixteenth century, the "Livre fort 
excellent de cuysine" - a distant derivative of the Viandier - added 
netumeg, galingale and long pepper to this mixture, but insisted that 
the taste of the ginger should prevail over the cinnamon."

Is anyone familiar with this book mentioned in the Scullys' note, 
"Livre fort excellent de cuysine"?

Anahita