FoodNetArchive

The encyclopædia of practical cookery

1890

Page 361 · 2 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1890. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
“ sweet powder,” or poudre douce, in the dainty dishes of our ancestors, this means a mixture of sugar and Cinnamon. Some recent writers having seen this powder mentioned as pulvis dulcis, have misread it pulvis ducis and have rendered it poudre de due, or “ duke’s powder.” The more probable corruption would be from poudre douce to douce poudre, and thence to “ duke’s ” ( douhee ) powder. The next note of interest concerns cameline sauce, which was a great favourite in the Elizabethan age, and contained Cinnamon amongst other ingredients. The composition is given as equal parts of ground Cin- namon, ginger, cloves, and cardamom, mixed with three or four times the quantity of new breadcrumbs, and the whole wetted down with herb vinegar. “ According to old English receipts,” Kettner tells us, “ dating from the time of Chaucer, it was made of currants, kernels of nuts, crusts of bread, ginger, cloves, flour of Cinnamon, and salt, brayed well and mixed with vinegar,” and that the origin of the name cameline has been long a vexed ques- tion amongst French cooks, and proceeds at some length to account for its connection with Cinnamon through the French canelle. Without following the lead of the ag- grieved foreigners, it will be sufficient to observe that many of the names applied to dishes would be vexed questions if they were for a moment allowed to bother them. The third point mentioned by Kettner is an attempt to connect an ancient sauce called syne, synee, or sene (sometimes cyne or cynne) with the word Cinnamon, because this spice sometimes formed one of the flavouring ingredients ; but the more probable suggestion is that syne is an abbreviation of Sinapis, the chemical name for mustard, which was invariably present in syne sauce. Candied Cinnamon. — (1) Soak some Cinnamon in water for twenty-four hours. Then cut it into pieces lin. long, and boil them in sugar that has been heated to threadCandied Cinnamon (Method 1) ( see Sugar-boiling). When this has boiled once, drain off the sugar and dry the Cinnamon in a stove ; put it into small shapes and cover with sugar boiled to the blow ( see Sugar- boiling). When the candy is half-cooled, set them in a screen for some time, and let the candy harden. They should be kept in tins in a dry place and wrapped in paraffin paper. (2) Cut some sticks of Cinnamon into pieces rather less than ljin. in length, and give them a boil in some thin syrup. Remove the pan from the fire, and let the Cinna- mon soak in the syrup for six hoursCandied Cinnamon (Method 2). Then take the pieces of Cinnamon out of the syrup, lay them on wire gratings, and set them in the stove till they are quite dry. When they are dry arrange the gratings in candy-tins, so that there will be three layers, one above the other. Boil s6me Cinnamon — continued. sugar to the blow degree ( see Sugar-boiling), and pour it into the tin so that the sugar may lie well over the Cinnamon on the upper grating. Put this in the stove and let it stand all night. Next morning see if the Cinnamon is well coated. If so, drain off the loose syrup and gently loosen the pieces of Cinnamon, take them out of the tin, lay them on a sieve, and set in the stove to dry.