Spice Blends

 

Spice mixes were fairly common in Medieval Europe but not all spice mixes were the same. It was assumed that the chefs had their own blends, and they would use those and were guarded secrets – just like the 11 secret herbs and spices of KFC…. oh wait…. we know what those are now. There would be substantial variations due to availability of ingredients, the regions they are in, budgets and even the cooks own personal tastes.

The two spice mixes I have and use the most are Fine Powder and Powder Douce. Whilst they have mostly the same ingredients, there are minor variations and which recipes use what powder. I tend to use Douce (Sweet) powder more for tarts like Apple or Pear, while Fine for a more savoury pie, like the Parsnip Pies in an earlier post. 

Fine Powder

Original Source

Le Menagier de Paris

Fine Powder of Spices. Take an ounce and a drachma of white ginger, a quarter ounce of hand-picked cinnamon, half a quarter-ounce each of grains and cloves, and a quarter-ounce of rock sugar and grind into a powder.

 

My Redaction

3 Tbsp    Ground Ginger
2 Tbsp    Sugar
1.5 tsp    Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp       Ground Cloves
1 tsp       Grains of Paradise

Take the grains of paradise (if whole), and place into a mortar and pestle, or a spice grinder if you have one, and crush the grains until you have a course powder, or to a similar coarseness like cracked black peppercorns.

Put all the spices into a jar and shake to combine. Use as required as per recipes.

 

 

Powder Douce (aka Duke’s Powder)

Le Menagier de Paris

Hippocras. To make powdered hippocras, take a quarter-ounce of very fine cinnamon, hand-picked by tasting it, an ounce of very fine meche ginger and an ounce of grains of paradise, a sixth of an ounce of nutmeg and galingale together, and pound it all together. And when you want to make hippocras, take a good half-ounce or more of this powder and two quarter-ounces of sugar, and mix them together, and a quart of wine as measured in Paris.

And note that the powder and the sugar mixed together make “Duke’s Powder”.

 

My Redaction

3 Tbsp        Ground Ginger
2 Tbsp        Sugar
1.5 Tbsp     Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp           Ground Cloves
1 tsp           Nutmeg

Take all the ingredients and place into a jar and shake well to combine. Use as required as per recipe.

 

Comments

The Powder Douce I have had in my house made up for many years, since I first started in the SCA as a university student. Until recently I was unable to come across Grains of Paradise as per the original hippocras recipe, so was only using what spices I had at home/what I could find in the supermarket.

 

 

Parsnip Pies

 

Original Source:

Le Menagier de Paris (1393)

Chervis. The earliest appearing from the ground and freshly pulled, harvested in January, February, etc., are the best; and the freshest are known by the fact that they break off, and the old ones when pulled from the ground bend. You must clean them and removed the bad parts as with turnips, then you must wash them thoroughly in warm water, then parboil a little, the put them to dry on a towel. Then flour them, then fry then arrange nicely on little plates and put sugar on them.

Item, if you wish to make pies with them, you must prepare them as above up to the frying, and then put them in pastry, breaking the longest in two pieces, and instead of the sugar mentioned above, you should put figs chopped small and grapes.

 

My Redaction:
Allergens: Gluten, wheat (if using Gluten pastry)

2                            Parsnips, extra large
¼ Cup                   Dried Figs, finely chopped
¼ Cup                   Raisins
½ tsp                     Fine Spice Powder
10 Sheets              Puff Pastry

Preheat oven to 180*C.

Peel parsnips and remove the woody core. Dice and place into a pot of boiling water and cook until tender. Drain and let the parsnips cool and dry slightly. Place on to a paper towel if you would like to help remove moisture.

Once the parsnips are dried/less moist, add the diced figs, raisins and the fine powder. Mix until the fine powder is evenly coating the mixture.

Using pastry cutting rings (or egg rings if you don’t have) cut a base and top for each pastry and place into a greased mini muffin/cupcake tray. Fill with mixture and top with the cut pastry, pressing tops and sides together.

Place into preheated oven and cook pastries until golden. Remove and serve warm. 10 sheets of puff pastry made around 50 mini pies.  

Changes Made:

These were made for a finger food service for Bal D’Argent, one of Lochac’s social dance events for the year. The dish can be made to be one large pie, but these worked as small individual pies.

I was asked to make a Gluten free, dairy free, allium free, vegetarian something. And since we also had a vegan, I was also trying to accommodate them. I used two types of Gluten Free puff pastry, one I was able to source from Woolworths, but is slightly smaller than regular puff pastry, the other thanks to a friend who is gluten free, i was pointed into the direction of one of the local IGA supermarkets which stocked the pastry in the picture. This pastry is free from: Wheat, Dairy, Soy Allergens, Yeast, Egg & Nuts, Fructose friendly and vegan friendly.

When cooked, the puff pastry from Woolworths actually puffs up really nicely. The pastry that is vegan friendly is flakier (which I can see in the first picture – the pies marked with a circle are the vegan pastry).

I used dried figs as they are out of season currently, but I don’t think this made too much of a difference to the recipe.

These can be served cold, but after two people tried, it was recommended to serve warm (and its winter and cold, some something warming would be nice). These were made ahead and then reheated under the grill (turned off) as the oven was being used for another dish.

 

Suppliers (not sponsored, but here for me to find later):

Harris Farm: Parsnips from the Imperfect Picks vegetables section gave some MASSIVE parsnips for like $7/kg.

Woolworths:
Angas Park Soft n’ Juice Figs 250g https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/229894/angas-park-soft-n-juicy-figs-soft-n-juicy
Simply Wize Gluten Free Puff Pastry Sheets: https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/763094/simply-wize-pastry-puff-gluten-free
Woolworths Raisins 375g https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/productdetails/726364/woolworths-raisins

Gluten Free Bakery (IGA Sometimes):
https://www.glutenfreebakery.net/products/puff-pastry/savoury-puff-pastry/
This company also has a sweet puff pastry, that after talking to the supplier, the sweet puff pastry is more like a shortcrust pastry so can be used for recipes that require a short crust pastry.

Fine Spice Powder: See recipe page on Spice Powder mixes on my blog. This mix was ground ginger, sugar, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground grains of paradise.