A King’s Ransom…okay, maybe a Baron’s

A King’s Ransom…okay, maybe a Baron’s

If you know me, or have gotten a sense of who I am from these articles, you know I am a little strange. I’m not a terribly tidy person, not really, but I DO prize order and organization. I love lists. I like to compartmentalize things, and I live for “kits”. You know, like my Microkitchen.

I mean, even right now as I was headed to a Collegium (SCA event that’s all classes on…various things), I had a tidy little note taking kit, a collection of tools for a variety of classes I might take, and so forth. But with the other stuff I had to get done this weekend, I’d wanted to work on my own Arts and Sciences Projects. So I needed something small to fill my spare minutes.

We also have, in just under a month, the West/An Tir Cooks’ Play Date, aka the W/A War (if you’re more into Ars Combat instead of Ars Cocinara). And getting ready for a solid week of medieval cooking, over fires, in period cookware takes some getting ready. For one, it’s on the coast of Oregon, so some of the stranger ingredients we might need you have to plan to bring with you…McKay’s Market is nice but if you’re after verjus or a whole free-range goat, yeah, good luck! For the second, I don’t know what you drive to go camping, but not having a teleporting multi-dimensional box that is bigger on the inside means I have to pack carefully.

So this is my newly-rebuilt and reloaded spice kit. If I want some grains of paradise, I want to be able to lay hands on them then, not when I get back home. First, the outer case is a cheap and reasonably sturdy equipment case from that lovely establishment of “fine” (cheap) hardware, Harbor Freight. Keeps everything together, has a decent handle, food latches, and also, when it’s closed, it keeps the spices all in the dark, which is good for shelf life.

The inside was a bit of a problem. Those corked glass bottles? Traditional, marginally medieval-looking, and aesthetically pleasing. I’ve been saving them from when I buy saffron at a Trader Joe’s for home use or for feasts I’ve run (head chef’s privilege). I also found more of them, in similar size, at my local health food store and a few at World Market. But here’s the problem. If I stack those little jars two high, I can’t close the lid. And I definitely need more spices than what you can see there I’m a single layer. I’m cooking from a broad range of medieval time (Roman through late medieval), and in a wide area, after all.

So I reverted. In an earlier incarnation of the spice kit I bought from Leevalley.com a set of little watchmakers tins, in a flat tray. The tins hold about as much as the jars, if not a bit more, but they have no aesthetic pleasures at all (unless, I suppose, you’re a watchmaker, or like teeny tiny beads). And the entire tray of fifteen tins fits neatly in the box under the jars. So at least they’re hidden. That seems to give me enough containers so I can add a few extras…a tiny grater for the nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, rock salt, and sugar, and the mini mortar and pestle because whole spices beat pre-ground.

Went to my local health food store, which has a surprisingly good assortment of high quality bulk spices, all organic and everything. Loaded up on the stuff I didn’t already have. The really oddball stuff, grains of paradise, saunders, hyssop and the like…I was fortunate enough to have been gifted a lovely collection from a dear friend on the occasion of my Laurelling. And the long pepper came from a local-ish East Indian Market I visit now and again. So, before you give up on making your own medieval spice collection for cooking, make sure you check out places like ethnic markets, or health food stores.

I have also tucked in there against the lid, a small blank book I was given. I have used it to write down the recipes for my period spice blends, and have plenty more pages for writing down culinary discoveries. Which is good, because I’ve found if I DON’T have something handy, I won’t write it down, and then it can just vanish away again…

But now, spice is the variety of life!

Covering recipes from over a thousand-year span, Arabic to Ireland, Portugal to Transylvania takes some sacrifices. Sure, there are some common herbs and spices (everyone used pepper, for instance), but not everyone used tarragon, or za’atar. I really wanted to leave some empty jars available, in case I found something I just had to have, but….yeah, right. So I’ve left a few things out, knowing that right NOW I’m doing some cultures and times, and not others. And right now there are a few empty bottles in case I come across something I just have to put in. And nothing rattles!

The Contents:

Thyme, sage, bay leaves, oregano, marjoram, black pepper, Long pepper, cubebs, Ceylon cinnamon, cassia cinnamon, savory, hyssop, Grains of Paradise, coriander, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom pods, mace, mustard seeds, cloves, galingale, caraway, tarragon, juniper berries, cumin, rock salt, sugar cones, cream of tartar (to fake verjuice), fennel, basil, rosemary, red Saunders, and of course a jar each of Powder Douce, Powder Fine, Powder Fort, and Duke’s Powder. Plus a grater and a mortar and pestle and a few empty jars.

And there we go, the temporarily finished product.



1 thought on “A King’s Ransom…okay, maybe a Baron’s”

  • And, because I’m a nerd, I managed to cram a few more jars in there, which I have promptly filled with asafoedta and white pepper ( the first may be the spice known as ‘lazer’ In Apicius, and the second is the ‘’pure” or “clean” pepper sometimes called for in the Transylvanian cookbook.

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