• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

CooksInfo

  • Home
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Recipes
  • Food Calendar
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar
×
Home » Spices » Spice Mixtures » Powder Blanch

Powder Blanch

Powder Blanch was a generic name for a spice blend used in the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, which means means “White Powder.”

Just as when we say “Italian seasoning”, there was no set list of ingredients, rather just the spirit of an idea that you attempted to capture.

It was a mix you would have on hand, just as we would have curry powder and “poultry seasoning” today. It may well be that various merchants selling it would have kept their ingredients secret.

Thomas Cogan (1545 – 1607), in his Haven of Health, gives his recipe for Powder Blanch: “Also with two ounces of sugar, a quarter of an ounce of ginger, and half a quarter of an ounce of cinnamon, all beaten small into powder, you may make a very good blanch powder to strew upon roasted apples, quinces or wardens, or to sauce a hen . . .”

Other medieval writers suggested ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg with no sugar (which wouldn’t have been very white) or just ginger and white sugar.

Literature & Lore

“White powder-douce occurs No. 51, which seems to be the same as blanch-powder, 132. 193. called blaynshe powder, and bought ready prepared, in Northumb. Book, p. 19.”

— Samuel Pegge, “The Forme of Cury – A Roll of Ancient English Cookery”. 1790.

Other names

AKA: Poudre Blanche
French: Poudre Blanche

This page first published: Jul 16, 2005 · Updated: Jun 6, 2018.

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · Information on this site is Copyright © 2025· Feel free to cite correctly, but copying whole pages for your website is content theft and will be DCMA'd.

Tagged With: Medieval

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Skylar! This is a fake profile talking about how I switched to a paleo diet and it helped my eczema and I grew 4". Trust me, I'm an online doctor.

More about me →

Popular

  • E.D. Smith Pumpkin Purée
    E.D. Smith recipe for pumpkin pie

  • Libby's Pumpkin Pie
    Libby’s recipe for pumpkin pie

  • Pie crust
    Pie Crust Recipe

  • Smokey Maple Pepper Glaze for Ham
    Smokey Maple Pepper Glaze for Ham

You can duplicate your homepage's trending recipes section in the sidebar to reinforce the internal linking.

We no longer recommend using a search bar, newsletter form or category drop-down menu in the sidebar. See the Modern Sidebar post for details.

If the block editor is not narrower than usual, simply save the page and refresh it.

Search

    Today is

  • Buttermilk Biscuit Day
    Buttermilk biscuits

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • About this site
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright enforced!
  • Terms & Conditions

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Site

  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · The text on this site is © Copyright.