The Forme of Cury | Page 8

quarter, though not exactly by the same route, but by Venice or Genoa. It is used both whole, No. 35, and in powder, No. 83. And long-pepper occurs, if we read the place rightly, in No. 191.
Ginger, gyngyn. 64. 136. alibi. Powder is used, 17. 20. alibi. and Rabelais IV. c. 59. the white powder, 131. and it is the name of a mess, 139. qu?re whether gyngyn is not misread for _gyngyr_, for see Junii Etym. The Romans had their ginger from Troglodytica [109].
Cubebs, 64. 121. are a warm spicy grain from the east.
Grains of Paradice, or _de parys_, 137. [110] are the greater cardamoms.
Noix muscadez, 191. nutmegs.
The caraway is once mentioned, No. 53. and was an exotic from _Caria_, whence, according to Mr. Lye, it took its name: 'sunt semina, inquit, carri vel _carrei_, sic dicti a Caria, ubi copiosissimè nascitur [111].'
Powder-douce, which occurs so often, has been thought by some, who have just peeped into our Roll, to be the same as sugar, and only a different name for it; but they are plainly mistaken, as is evident from 47. 51. 164. 165. where they are mentioned together as different things. In short, I take powder-douce to be either powder of galyngal, for see Editor's MS II. 20. 24, or a compound made of sundry aromatic spices ground or beaten small, and kept always ready at hand in some proper receptacle. It is otherwise termed _good powders_, 83. 130. and in Editor's MS 17. 37. 38 [112]. or powder simply, No. 169, 170. _White powder-douce_ occurs No. 51, which seems to be the same as blanch-powder, 132. 193. called _blaynshe powder_, and bought ready prepared, in Northumb. Book, p. 19. It is sometimes used with powder-fort, 38. 156. for which see the next and last article.
Powder-fort, 10. 11. seems to be a mixture likewise of the warmer spices, pepper, ginger, &c. pulverized: hence we have _powder-fort of gynger, other of canel_, 14. It is called _strong powder_, 22. and perhaps may sometimes be intended by good powders. If you will suppose it to be kept ready prepared by the vender, it may be the _powder-marchant_, 113. 118. found joined in two places with powder- douce. This Speght says is what gingerbread is made of; but Skinner disapproves this explanation, yet, says Mr. Urry, gives none of his own.
After thus travelling through the most material and most used ingredients, the spykenard de spayn occurring only once, I shall beg leave to offer a few words on the nature, and in favour of the present publication, and the method employed in the prosecution of it.
[Illustration: Take te chese and of flessh of capouns, or of hennes & hakke smal and grynde hem smale inn a morter, take mylke of almandes with te broth of freysh beef. oter freysh flessh, & put the flessh in te mylke oter in the broth and set hem to te fyre, & alye hem with flour of ryse, or gastbon, or amydoun as chargeaunt as te blank desire, & with zolks of ayren and safroun for to make hit zelow, and when it is dressit in dysshes with blank desires; styk aboue clowes de gilofre, & strawe powdour of galyugale above, and serue it forth.]
The common language of the _formul?_, though old and obsolete, as naturally may be expected from the age of the MS, has no other difficulty in it but what may easily be overcome by a small degree of practice and application [113]: however, for the further illustration of this matter, and the satisfaction of the curious, a fac simile of one of the recipes is represented in the annexed plate. If here and there a hard and uncouth term or expression may occur, so as to stop or embarrass the less expert, pains have been taken to explain them, either in the annotations under the text, or in the Index and Glossary, for we have given it both titles, as intending it should answer the purpose of both [114]. Now in forming this alphabet, as it would have been an endless thing to have recourse to all our glossaries, now so numerous, we have confined ourselves, except perhaps in some few instances, in which the authorities are always mentioned, to certain contemporary writers, such as the Editor's MS, of which we shall speak more particularly hereafter, Chaucer, and Wiclif; with whom we have associated Junius' Etymologicon Anglicanum.
As the abbreviations of the Roll are here retained, in order to establish and confirm the age of it, it has been thought proper to adopt the types which our printer had projected for Domesday-Book, with which we find that our characters very nearly coincide.
The names of the dishes and sauces have occasioned the greatest perplexity. These are not only many in number, but