[Sca-cooks] To Make a Fine Spice

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Dear SCA-Cooks:

I realize the message containing my Fine Spice documentation was 
rather long. I just hope some folks take time to read through it, 
because i'd like feedback on the docs. I only sent it yesterday at 
noon, so i don't expect any responses right away.

Naturally no one can comment on the spice blends themselves :-)

I'll be cooking some pork chops with my spices tonight - i'd frozen 
them last week, but took them out of the freezer Monday AM and they 
finally thawed yesterday. I'll report on my opinions.

The blends were rather different - Sent Sovi streses ginger, De Nola 
1520 cinnamon, Tresor de Sante nutmeg (2 ounces!), Le Menagier has 
sugar, Venetian has proportionally a lot of saffron, De Nola 1529 has 
coriander - Even the ones with virtually the same ingredients are 
quite different.

And i finally tasted long pepper on its own. Whew-eee! Snappy! I 
tasted the powder i'd ground - just stuck a fingertip into it and got 
a tiny amount. At first there was no flavor and i thought maybe mine 
was stale - after all i had bought about 8 oz in Morocco in Jan 2001, 
and it's been tied up in a bag that was tied up in another bag that 
had been hidden in an unpacked box since August 2001. But then it 
began to release a peppery flavor with a *really* hot bite (like good 
quality dried ground ginger AND chili) that was sustained and some of 
the, how shall i say, nose, of wasabi. Hoo-boy-howdy! NOTHING like 
black pepper. I gotta use it more! If only i had a reliable source 
for it (the only place i know of is World Spice in Seattle, and they 
don't always have it).

Anahita