[Sca-cooks] poudre fort
JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
Wed Mar 27 23:01:48 PDT 2013
Sounds pretty late medieval actually:
"Quatre épices is a spice mix used mainly in France but also found in
Middle Eastern kitchens. The name literally means "four spices"; the spice mix
contains ground pepper (white, black, or both), cloves, nutmeg and ginger.
Some variations of the mix use allspice instead of pepper or cinnamon in
place of ginger."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatre_%C3%A9pices
Not that I'd use it in eggs, myself. If you want to go medieval there, try
early medieval - when cumin and pepper were the two top imported spices.
Sounds pretty good for eggs to me. (They liked honey and vinegar, also black
mustard, on a lot of stuff too, for what that's worth.)
Otherwise, here's what Le Grand says in his chapter on eggs, etc:
"Eggs, which according to one of our kitchen sayings we can prepare today
in a hundred and one different ways, only had twenty, in Platina's time
[1421 – 1481]. Further these twenty, for the most part, differed from ours.
Scrambled eggs, for example, were made with butter, water, cheese and
aromatic herbs; then they were made green with the juice of borage or parsley;
because this color was greatly prized in stews. Poached eggs, which our Cooks
serve with a little meat gravy, and upon which they sprinkle a little
pepper, were served with orange juice and sweet spices."
Jim Chevallier
www.chezjim.com
A History of Coffee and Other Refreshments in Early Modern France
by Pierre Le Grand d'Aussy
In a message dated 3/27/2013 7:46:54 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
agora158 at gmail.com writes:
> What is "Quatre' Espice"? Is that a modern or medieval spice mix?
>
> I like these ideas of adding a medieval spice mix to even modern food
> items. I'll have to consider it. What medieval spice mix would folks
> recommend for scrambled eggs?
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