Spice Mixes for an Auction, and an Announcement

When the Queen calls, you answer.

Her Majesty Sha’ya of An Tir laid a challenge on our Kingdom, and in particular upon the Laurels: produce a work to be auctioned off to benefit RAINN during the Knights Auction (all donations are sponsored by a Knight) at 12th Night.

I was moved — this is an incredible organization whose mission I believe in. I wanted to produce something worthy of auction. I found a sponsor, Sir Philip de Mantel, and proposed to put together a set of spice mixes for period cooking.

And I did make a set of spice mixes, a rather nice set if I do say so myself:

Most of these (4/6) were made using actual period recipes. The remaining two (powder douce and powder fort) are more “generic” spice blends that I have my own versions of. You can see I found cute bottles and a cute basket and even made little labels for them.

Here are the sources for each one, and their ingredients:

• Powder Fort: Black pepper, cubeb, cassia cinnamon, mace, clove
• Powder Douce: Sugar, ginger, Ceylon cinnamon, nutmeg
• Duke’s Powder (Menagier, 14th c. French): Sugar, ginger, grains of paradise, Ceylon cinnamon, nutmeg, galangal
• Clarée Spices (Two Anglo-Norman Culinary… 13th/14th c English): Spikenard, cinnamon, ginger, mace, clove, nutmeg, fennel, anise, caraway, cardamom
• Fine Spices 1 (Libro di Cucina, 14th/15th c. Italian): Black pepper, Ceylon cinnamon, ginger, clove, saffron
• Fine Spices 2 (Livre Fort, 16th c. French): Ginger, Ceylon cinnamon, black pepper, long pepper, nutmeg, clove, grains of paradise, galangal

Fun, right?

But here’s the thing: I didn’t feel like it was enough. I got it into my head that spices are okay, but you need recipes to know how to use them.

So, long story short, I kind of wrote a cookbook.

No, really:

That’s a screenshot of the cover. I wrote a cookbook, and I got a copy of it printed, and I put it and the spices together as one lot for the auction. The winning bidder currently owns the only copy of this cookbook in existence.

For now.

Yeah, soooo… I’ve given myself a year. I’m going to edit what I have and add more recipes to it if I can (my goal is 1 new tested recipe every 1-2 weeks), then I plan to release it for sale. I’m not planning a big run, and I’m planning to self-publish for a few reasons (although, um, if you work for a publishing house and want to talk me out of that and offer me $$$$ to change my mind and publish through you, let’s talk!)

To get you excited, here is the table of contents so far:

• Preface    4
• Brief Notes on Some Ingredients    5
  • On Salt    5
  • On Spices    5
  • On Verjus    5
  • On Vinegar    5
  • On Saba    5
  • On Almond Milk    6
  • On Rose Water    6
• Spice Mixes for All Manner of Dishes    7
  • Powder Fort    7
  • Powder Douce    7
  • Clarée Spices    8
  • Fine Spices 1    8
  • Fine Spices 2    8
• Beverages    9
  • Quick Mead    9
  • Hippocras / Ypocras / Clarée / Piment (Spiced Wine)    9
  • Oxymel / Posca (Vinegar/Honey Drink)    10
  • Clarée D’eau / Clarea de Agua (Water with Honey and Spices)    10
  • Rose Drink Concentrate    10
• Finger Foods, Nibbles, and Snacks    11
  • Pescods (Peas in the pod)    11
  • To Churn Your Own Butter    11
  • Whole Pickled Onions    11
  • Pickled Onion Rings    12
  • Pickled Champignons (Mushrooms)    12
  • Fried Livers with Saba    13
  • Hais (Date and Nut Balls)    13
• Meats, Fishes, and Their Sauces    14
  • Sour Grape Juice with Fried Summer Fish    14
  • To Dresse a Crabbe (Crab with Butter and Verjus)    14
  • Peiouns Ystewed (Stewed Pigeons)    14
  • Grilled Quail with Lemon Sauce    15
  • Good and Perfect Hens with Sumac    16
  • Roasted Chicken with Orange Sauce    16
  • Limonia (Chicken in Lemon Sauce)    16
  • To Make Stekys of Venson or Bef (Steaks of Venison or Beef)    17
  • Alows de Boef (Herbed Rolled Beef)    17
  • Fresh Lamb Sausage with Cilantro Sauce    18
  • Pork Loin with Peach Sauce    19
  • Cormarye (Spiced Pork Loin)    19
  • Salt Pork    20
  • Mustard Sauce    20
• Egg and Pasta Dishes    21
  • Erbolat (Medieval English Frittata)    21
  • Sphoungata (Byzantine Omelettes)    21
  • Cressée of Noodles (Heraldic Chequy Noodles)    22
  • Cheese Gnocchi    22
  • Makerouns (Baked Noodles with Cheese)    23
• Vegetables, Grains, and Legumes    24
  • A Dish of Leeks    24
  • Onion salad    24
  • Asparagus    24
  • Parsnips in Pottage    25
  • Basic Green Salad    25
  • Sprouts of Life    25
  • Carrot Puree    26
  • Chyches (Seasoned Chickpeas)    26
  • Green Chickpeas    26
  • Fresh Fava Beans    27
  • A Dish of Rice    27
  • Almond Porridge    28
  • Oatcakes    28
• Pies of All Sorts    29
  • Basic Self-Supporting Hot Water Pastry    29
  • To Raise Coffins    29
  • Coffins Another Way    30
  • To Build a Large Coffin    30
  • General Baking Instructions for Coffins    31
  • Richer Hot Water Pastry for Molded Pies    31
  • Paest Royall    32
  • Short Paste for Tarts    32
  • A Formula for Meat Pies    33
  • Crustardes of Flessh (Birds in a Pie)    33
  • Cheshire Pork Pie    34
  • Simple Pork Pies    35
  • Une Tourte (Greens Tart)    35
  • Leche Frys of Fische Daye (Cheese Tart)    36
  • Tarte of Apples    37
  • To Bake Pippins (Elizabethan Apple Pie)    37
  • Daryols (Mini Cream Custard Tarts)    38
  • A Formula for Fruit Tarts    38
• Sweets and Desserts    39
  • Dulcia Domestica (Candied Stuffed Dates)    39
  • Payn Ragoun (Pine Nut Candy)    39
  • Marzipan    39
  • Nucato (Honey-Nut Candy)    40
  • Suckets 1 (Candied Citron Peel)    40
  • Suckets 2 (Candied Orange Peels)    41
  • Pears in Confit (Poached Pears)    41
  • Quince Paste    42
  • Sweet Dessert Yogurt    42
  • Gingerbrede    43
  • Stamped Shortbread Cookies    43
  • A Jellied Ypocras, or, Elizabethan Jelly Shots    43
• Assorted Useful Non-Edible Things to Make    45
  • Herb Water    45
  • Basic Lard Soap    45
  • Tooth Powder    46

Next addition will be a chapter on recreating medieval bread in a home kitchen (with a normal oven).

I look forward to posting updates as this project develops 🙂