[Sca-cooks] Le Menagier Fine Powder

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Herein lies a mystery - at least to me.

The Pouldre Fine recipe as reproduced in Scully and Scully, "Early 
French Cookery" on page 54 reads as follows

Pouldre Fine
(Menagier de Paris, p. 247/Sec. 314)
(where through out Scully2, the page no. refers to Vol. II of the 
Pichon ed.; and Sec no. to the same material in the Georgine E. 
Brereton and Janet M. Ferrier, pp. 191-283)

Prenez gingembre 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 faicts pouldre.

If i assume the degree sign represents an ounce, my translation is:
Take white ginger 1 ounce .3, selected cinnamon 3 ounces, cloves and 
grains [of paradise] of each half quarter of an ounce, and of rock 
sugar 3 ounces, and make powder.

However, the Janet Hinson version, in Duke Cariadoc's collection and 
on the web at:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Menagier/Menagier.html#OTHER%20ODDS%20AND%20ENDS
which says it's from the same Pichon ed. says
FINE POWDER of spices. Take (probably: Ed.) an ounce and a drachma of 
white ginger, (probably: Ed.) a quarter-ounce of hand-picked 
cinnamon, half a quarter-ounce each of grains and cloves, and 
(probably: Ed.) a quarter-ounce of rock sugar, and grind to powder.

How did she get 1/4 ounce each for the cinnamon and the sugar?

Anahita
still puzzling over Fine Spices