[Sca-cooks] Citron leaves / Cinnamon buds

[Susanne Mayer]

Stefan li Rous asked:
> Is "flower of cloves" the blossom of the clove plant? or cloves
> pounded into a powder?
>
> Maybe it is just time and learning, but some of these recipe
> ingredients don't seem quite as unusual as they did several years ago
> when I first tried to figure out how I might make them. :-)

http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Cinn_zey.html

Gernot Karzer does have a picture of flowers of Cinnamon or Cinnamon buds on 
his pages and I have bought them here in Vienna.
They are used in a Hypocras recipe I have, from  the Medieval Cookbook by 
Mary Black transcript Curye on Inglysch IV199 Piment. If you read the 
original and forget the redactions the book is not so bad.
This recipe also uses spykenard of Spain

here is also an excerpt of Karzers pages:
Spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi, Valerianaceae/Dipsacales/Cornidae) is a 
similar case: It is also native to the Himalaya region and is of great 
importance for perfumery, but in our times practically never used for 
cooking. The related herb Valeriana celtica (Alpine valerian, speick) was, 
since the Middle Ages, often used as a cheaper substitute for expensive 
spikenard.

Some of the other spices do sound strange s I would not use seeds and twigs 
of Elder.

regards Katharina
Drachenwald

> Message: 3
> Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 23:01:17 -0600
> From: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
> Subject: [Sca-cooks]  Citron leaves
> To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> Message-ID: <F2604DED-F19D-460E-A501-57090DFEE697 at austin.rr.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Cut

> =====
> A Syrup of Honey
>
> Take a quarter ?qiya each of cinnamon, flower of cloves and ginger,
> mastic,
> nutmeg, Chinese cinnamon, Sindi laurel, Indian lavender, Roman
> spikenard,
> elder twigs, elder seeds, oil of nutmeg, bitter and sweet nuts, large
> and
> small cardamom, wild spikenard, galingale, aloe stems, saffron, and
> sedge.
> Pound all this coarsely, tie it in a cloth, and put it in the kettle
> with
> fifteen ratls of water and five of honey, cleaned of its foam. Cook all
> this until it is at the point of drinking. Drink an ?qiya and a half,
> and
> up to two, with hot water. Its benefit is for weak livers; it
> fortifies the
> stomach and benefits dropsy among other ailments; it dissolves phlegm
> from
> all parts of the body and heats it a great deal, gives gaiety,
> lightens the
> body, and it was used by the ancients like wine for weariness.
> =======