Medieval spice powders
Also known as pouldre fine, poudre fine, pouldre de duc, poudre de duc, powder douce
Dry spice blend
Quick answer
The ready-ground spice mixtures of late medieval French and English kitchens. The Ménagier de Paris gives recipes for two — pouldre fine, of ginger, cinnamon, clove, grains of paradise and sugar, and pouldre de duc, the hippocras spices mixed with sugar.
In essentially every version: White ginger, Cinnamon (Ceylon), Grains of paradise, Sugar.
2 distinct versions are set out below. None of them is presented as the correct one, because there isn’t one.
What goes in it
The defining core first, then the versions, with what each ingredient is there to do.
| Ingredient | Role | How essential |
|---|---|---|
| Ginger | primary aromatic | defining |
| Cinnamon (Ceylon) | primary aromatic | defining |
| Grains of paradise | heat | defining |
| Sugar | sweet | defining |
Each powder had its own recipe and purpose: pouldre fine was strewn on and cooked into dishes, and the hippocras powder spiced wine, becoming pouldre de duc when mixed with sugar. The household also bought its kitchen spices ready-made — white powder, fine powder and cinnamon powder by the pound. The Forme of Cury calls constantly for powdour fort and powdour douce without saying what they were; its 1780 editor took the first for a mixture of the warmer spices, pepper and ginger, and the second for galingale or a sweet mixture, and said himself that he was guessing.
The versions
Each attributed to whoever describes it. The sources say what goes in and how it is made and give no amounts, so none are shown.
Pouldre fine
Historical, documentedThe Ménagier de Paris, a Parisian household book of about 1393, in Pichon’s 1846 edition · no amounts given · medium confidence
White ginger, sorted cinnamon, clove and grains of paradise ground to a powder with rock sugar. Used to finish dishes and in pies and fish.
Made with: White ginger, Sorted cinnamon, Cloves, Grains of paradise, Rock sugar. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
Clove and grains of paradise are half a quarter-ounce each. The other measures are written in the manuscript with symbols the editor could only guess at — an ounce and a drachm of ginger, a quarteron of cinnamon and of sugar, each with a question mark — so no proportions are given here.
Pouldre de duc (hippocras powder with sugar)
Historical, documentedThe Ménagier de Paris, a Parisian household book of about 1393, in Pichon’s 1846 edition · no amounts given · medium confidence
A quarteron of fine cinnamon, half a quarteron of cinnamon flower, an ounce each of white ginger and grains of paradise, and a sixth of an ounce of nutmeg and galingale together, beaten to a powder. Half an ounce of it with two quarterons of sugar spices a quart of wine as hippocras; the powder and sugar mixed are pouldre de duc.
Made with: Fine cinnamon, and cinnamon flower, White ginger, Grains of paradise, Nutmeg, Galingale, Sugar. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
The quantities are the source’s, in its own measures; they are not converted here. The editor reads the sixth as a sixth of an ounce rather than six nutmegs. A second recipe in the same book, for the measures of Béziers, Carcassonne and Montpellier, adds clove, mace and spikenard.
Using it
Pouldre fine is strewn over dishes and cooked into pies and fish dishes in the Ménagier’s recipes; the hippocras powder is steeped with sugar in wine and strained through a bag. In the Forme of Cury powdour douce and powdour fort are added to pottages, sauces and dishes of meat and fish.
Sweet and warm, with the bite of ginger and grains of paradise: a spice mixture with sugar in it, made for a cuisine that did not separate sweet from savoury as later European cooking did.
Allergens and safety
Not among the substances that must be declared as allergens under EU Regulation 1169/2011 Annex II or under the United States major food allergen rules. That is a statement about labelling law and not about whether allergy occurs: allergic reactions to spices are documented in the clinical literature and are simply not a labelling category. Where a ground spice presents an allergen risk it is usually through adulteration or shared processing equipment rather than through the plant itself.
Culture and origin
Late fourteenth-century France and England. The Parisian household book of about 1393 gives recipes; the English royal recipe roll of about 1390 calls for its powders without defining them.
Late fourteenth-century Paris
A historical setting: the late fourteenth century, Paris.
A bourgeois household’s kitchen spices, bought ready-ground from the spicer or made at home, and the hippocras served at the end of a feast.
The English royal kitchen, about 1390
Powdour fort and powdour douce added to pottages, sauces and meat and fish dishes throughout the recipe roll of Richard II’s cooks.