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Herbs, Aromatic Powdered, for Seasoning
Dry and pick away the stalks from three ounces of thyme, three ounces of marjoram, three ounces of basil, one ounce of bay-leaves, and two ounces of winter savoury; put them into a mortar, and with them two cloves of garlic finely minced, half an ounce of grated lemon-peel, half an ounce of cayenne pepper, one ounce of nutmeg, grated, one ounce of powdered mace, two ounces of peppercorns, and two ounces of cloves. Pound all thoroughly in a mortar, pass the powder through a wire sieve, and put it into bottles, which must be securely corked until wanted. Time, one hour to prepare. Probable cost, 1s. 6d. for this quantity. Half a tea-spoonful is enough for one pint of sauce.
A dry seasoning blend of the kind kept bottled on Victorian kitchen shelves and spooned into sauces, forcemeats and soups. It scales down cleanly, and one instruction in it should simply be dropped.
- Leave out the fresh garlicTwo cloves of minced fresh garlic put into a corked bottle of dry powder will introduce moisture, and the mix will cake and mould rather than keep. Use granulated or dried garlic if you want the flavour, or omit it and add fresh garlic to the dish itself.
- Total yieldAbout 19 oz of blend — roughly 12 oz of dried herbs and 7 oz of spice. That is a very large quantity by modern standards, several cups of loose powder. Dividing the whole thing by six gives a jar you will actually finish.
- Weigh the herbs after dryingThe wording is ambiguous as to whether the ounces are taken before or after drying; treating them as dried, destalked leaf gives the more usable blend. Fresh herbs lose most of their weight in drying, so 3 oz of dried thyme means a great deal of fresh thyme.
- Winter savouryWinter savory (Satureja montana), rather more peppery and resinous than summer savory. Either will work; the winter type is the closer match.
- Bay and peppercorns need real forceThese two are the toughest items in the bowl. A mortar will do it but slowly; an electric spice mill or clean coffee grinder in batches is faster, and the wire sieve at the end still matters — unpounded bay fragments are sharp and unpleasant in a finished sauce.
- MaceThe dried outer covering of the nutmeg, sold as blades or ground. It is milder and more floral than nutmeg itself, and the two are not interchangeable here since both appear.
- StorageCorked bottles were the period's answer; use screw-top jars, filled full to limit air, kept dark and cool. The ground spices will hold aroma about six months and the herbs rather less.
- StrengthHalf a teaspoon to a pint of sauce, as given, is a light hand — the clove, cayenne and mace dominate quickly. Season at the start of cooking so the powder has time to hydrate and bloom.
Compound seasoning powders like this one are often said to have suited kitchens where a cook making dozens of sauces a week wanted one bottle rather than fifteen. They are generally traced to the French épices composées and the older quatre épices — pepper, clove, nutmeg and ginger or cinnamon — and Cassell's version is essentially that spice core with a heavy load of dried garden herbs added. The costing at 1s. 6d. is a reminder that spices were still a considered expense in a household budget, worth buying in bulk and grinding at home rather than paying a grocer's mark-up on ready-ground powders of uncertain purity.