Ginepro - Gary Sims
Juniper - Martin Watts
Juniper - Edmund Burton
Ginger
Candied (Crstallized) Ginger - Jan Garvin
Preserved Ginger - John Gosden
Making Ground Ginger at Home
Gember - Jaap Fabriek
Nutmeg
Nutmeg of Consolation? - Susan Wenger
Connecticut Pedlers - Bruce Trinque
Nootmuskaat - Jaap Fabriek
Italians and Nutmeg - Sara Waterson
Seasoning Powder
Ginepro - Gary Sims
In a local Italian restaurant, the decor includes various ceramic pieces. Among them are jars about the size and shape that cooks use to keep handy solids like flour, sugar and so forth. These are labeled "ginepro". Now this is Southern California. About half the servers speak Spanish as a first or second language, and a couple of others look Mediterranean - but none will admit to speaking Italian.
The manager and I have a bet who can find the translation first. The best I can do is "juniper" which seems an unlikely label for a quart container. Would a cook actually keep enough juniper berries around to justify their own ceramic container?
If not, how would one translate that label? Any thoughts?
Juniper - Martin Watts
"Juniper (ginepro)
The berries of the juniper bush are used in pork and game dishes and in marinades. If they are to be included in a dish such as a stuffing they should always be crushed first. Use juniper berries sparingly as their flavour can be bitter if used in too large a quantity."
Juniper - Edmund Burton
According to Google you are correct, "juniper" it is. My first guess was that the grocers dispensed gin to English sailors in these jars, but I ran across the following site, according to which ginepro is good for all sorts of things, including to fight the allitosi (translation by Google):
Juniper
For the beauty
The thymus has elevating to be able detergent for which who it suffers from acne would have to rinse the skin, after the customary washing, with thymus instilling.
For the health
The berries of the juniper contain a balsamic oil that has stimulating property, disinfectants, digestive, diuretic and sudorifere. In order to disinfect the mouth and to fight the alitosi 5 or 6 fresh berries to the day can be chewed; with the fresh berries a decoction is always prepared that favors the digestion and can turn out useful in the case of respiratory diseases. Poiché' can nuocere to kidneys the juniper decoction always goes but assumed, for for internal use only, under tightened medical control. If it comes externally used, as an example adding it to the water of the bath, it does not introduce some contraindication and it is strengthening and heating. The entire plant, if it comes burnt, deodorizes and refreshes atmospheres.
Ginger
Candied (Crstallized) Ginger - Jan Garvin
'Tain't exactly Irish, but I made a fresh recipe of ginger scones this week. The difference between these and all that have gone before them is that I also made the candied ginger that went into them. It really did make them even better.
The ginger is extremely easy, although a bit time consuming. Acquire a half pound or so of fresh ginger -I had found some marked down at the supermarket - cut it into roughly 1/2" pieces, cover it with water and simmer it until it is translucent. Add about a cup of sugar, and cook it down until nearly all the water has boiled off, I put it into a one quart saucepan on top of the stove and let it sit just below a simmer for several hours. By cooking it down that slowly, it required next to no attention until the last few minutes. Roll in granulated sugar, Let dry. That's it.
One reason this week's recipe was even better is that the left over sugar that didn't stick to the ginger itself went directly into the scones.
When I was simmering the crystallized ginger that I made a week or so ago, I noticed that at one point the syrup bubbling in the pot looked a lot like the syrup of the bottle of ginger in syrup that I had purchased all that time ago. The next time I do the recipe, I think I'll make enough to pull some out of the pot before it's completely evaporated so I can have both the crystallized version and the syrup version. The stuff I make might not be as tender as stem ginger, but I think it will taste and perform much the same.
Preserved Ginger - John Gosden
This is balls of ginger root, boiled and preserved in syrup, and comes either in glass bottles or pretty Chinese-style jars (at a premium).
Failing this, you can make your own:
A piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and sliced
1 cup whisky
1 cup water
1 cup soft brown sugar.
Bring to boil, cover and simmer till ginger is soft (about 45 minutes).
Strain into a container, and mince the ginger (e.g. with a cleaver) return to syrup, cover and store in refrigerator. This is also good in gingerbread and ginger cakes.
Making Ground Ginger at Home
You can dry ginger by peeling it, slicing it thinly or grating it, then placing the shards in a dehydrator or on a mesh in a very cool oven (less than 100°F (40°C)) or in a warm, dry location in a room, turning it once daily until dry. At that point, you could use a spice grinder to produce your very own ground ginger. But it will suffer the same diminution of flavor you find with store-bought ginger. And, like store-bought, the longer you keep it around, the less flavor it will have. So don’t make more than you can use within a few months.
You can wrap fresh ginger in plastic and then seal it in a freezer bag and keep it in the freezer for up to a year. Some people find it a bit soggy as it thaws and object to that, but it retains its flavor, and in many cooked dishes the texture change is not noticeable. You can grate it without thawing, which can save you some time. You can also store fresh, peeled ginger in a jar of sherry or Madeira for about three months, which will flavor the ginger a bit, but will also flavor the wine and make it particularly suitable for stir fry dishes, sauces, salad dressings, etc.
Gember - Jaap Fabriek
As ginger comes from East Asia for centuries it has been prominent in Dutch cuisine under the name of 'gember', certainly also in our cookies (which is a Dutchism!). In Indonesian cuisine (where it is known as 'djahe') it is indispensable and we always keep stocks of different forms of it: fresh, powdered, candied and on heavy sugar syrup.
Jaap, who last night for desert had a pancake with old cheese and syrupped ginger
Nutmeg
Nutmeg of Consolation? - Susan Wenger
In the magazine "New Scientist," 23/30 December [2001], there's an article about that hallucinogenic spice, nutmeg. The same nutmeg that you sprinkle in your eggnog. It says that as little as two tablespoons of the ground spice, the equivalent of perhaps a single nutmeg nut, can cause hallucinations, nausea and heart palpitations. Charles Sackville, the sixth Earl of Dorset, was once imprisoned after an evening of nutmeg frenzy for "running up and down all night almost naked through the street." This seems like just the sort of tidbit that Patrick O'Brian would have loved, and I'm sure he knew about it. I'm just wondering how this fits in with his title, "The Nutmeg of Consolation." Yes, the ship's name (and the book title) come from the flowery praise heaped on the Pulo Prabang nabob, the Malaysian "Hiburan buah pala." But so many of POB's book titles (and short story titles) have double entendre meanings. Might this be another?
Connecticut Pedlers - Bruce Trinque
Travelling peddlers of Connecticut roamed the countryside, to isolated farmers or inhabitants of small towns. And especially appealing were spices such as nutmeg. In those days, it was commonly sold in the original solid form, and a cook would grate it on the spot when preparing food.
Supposedly, some travelling Connecticut peddlers carving out of common wood what looked like nutmegs, selling them to unsuspecting locals for the real thing.
Nootmuskaat - Jaap Fabriek
I know about the grating. My wife being Indonesian refuses to use the powdered products of western foodprocessing-industries: in our kitchen is a grater to produce the stuff freshly. We use it a lot, in both Indonesian and Dutch cuisines.
Nutmeg is the fruit of the tree 'Myristica Fragrans', but my wife calls it by the Malay name 'Pala' (see NOC where PO'B uses that same name). In Dutch it is called 'Nootmuskaat': nut (from) Muscat, the Arabian town through which it was traded before the Portugese reached the Spice Islands. Also like that in German, in French 'Noix Muguettes', Chaucer has 'Notemugge', which later must have become'Nutmeg'.
Italians and Nutmeg - Sara Waterson
The Italians too are very partial to nutmeg, and as in all proper 'cuisines', and they insist it is - as a spice in need of its full aroma and flavour - grated fresh; and nothing goes stale faster than those dark spices.
It's sold in Italy in little plastic boxes: of one nutmeg, whole, with a dinky little 2cm grater; I still have mine and pine for Italy each time I grate away... Even as it grates off my thumbnail.
A few essential uses for freshly grated nutmeg [imho]:
- Mashed potato - grate a little in when you add the warm milk and butter
- Spinach - it loves nutmeg, esp if served with a cream sauce
- Parsnips braised with butter
- Bechamel [white] Sauce: ie anything served with: - nutmeg is essential, especially if used for a vegetable like leeks, or dishes like canneloni.
Seasoning Powder
Seasoning powder for rubs, marinades, and to add to soups or stews
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon black powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon cumin
Mix together.
Which it's the Patrick O'Brian list of the world!