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.