[Sca-cooks] poudre fort

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

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?