Stefan's Florilegium

resins-msg

resins-msg - 6/21/02

Resins used in period and how they were used. Modern sources. Camphor, myrrh,
frankinsence, mastic.

NOTE: See also the files: spices-msg, cook-herbs-msg, p-herbals.msg, amber-msg,
amber-buying-art, spice-mixtures-msg, wood-finishes-msg.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that
I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some
messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium.
These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with
seperate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes
extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were
removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I
make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the
individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these
messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this
time. If information is published from these messages, please give
credit to the orignator(s).

Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
mark.s.harris@motorola.com stefan@florilegium.org
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Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 21:32:07 EST
From: LrdRas <LrdRas@aol.com>
Subject: Re: SC - camphor

rsve60@email.sps.mot.com writes:
<< What *is* camphor? I thought it was a petroleum product. How would
they have produced it in the Middle Ages? How else was it used in
the Middle Ages?

Stefan li Rous >>

What is camphor?

Camphor is a gum resin produced by the camphor tree. The petroleum based
product you refer to is "Camphor Oil" .....a modern medicinal dating back to
the 19th century CE used to reduce the symptoms of upper respiratory distress
during cold and flu season especially on young children. It is applied to the
chest area and the rising fumes make breathing easier. It is oftentimes more
effective than others forms of medicine such as antihistamines.

Ras

Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 03:51:32 +0000
From: James and/or Nancy Gilly <KatieMorag@worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: SC - camphor

At 21:59 25-1-98 +0000, Stefan li Rous wrote:
>What *is* camphor? I thought it was a petroleum product. How would
>they have produced it in the Middle Ages? How else was it used in
>the Middle Ages?

Says the *Britannica*:

camphor, an organic compound of penetrating, somewhat
musty aroma, used for many centuries as a component of incense
and as a medicinal. Modern uses of camphor have been as a
plasticizer for cellulose nitrate and as an insect repellent,
particularly for moths. The molecular formula is C10H16O
[C-ten H-sixteen O].
Camphor occurs in the camphot laurel, *Cinnamomum camphora*,
common in China, Taiwan, and Japan....

(*Encyclopaedia Britannica*, 15th edition, Vol II, p 492. Copyright 1977 by
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.)

Alasdair mac Iain

Date: Mon, 26 Jan 1998 08:58:41 -0600 (CST)
From: jeffrey s heilveil <heilveil@students.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: SC - camphor

Camphor is the root of the camphry plant, ground. It can be mixed with
alcohol to make a tincture, and then mixed with a thickner to create an
ointment. It is a cheap and easy way to teach elementary herbalism, and I
made it a long time ago in an intro Botany course.

Bogdan

Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 21:15:35 EST
From: LrdRas <LrdRas@aol.com>
Subject: Re: SC - spices vs. herbs?

acrouss@gte.net writes:
<< frankincense and myrrh >>

IIRC< both are plant products. Frankincense is the resin of an aromatic Asian
or African tree and myrrh is a fragrant gummy substance with a bitter taste
which is used in medicines, perfumes and incense in modern times. There are
period Middle Eastern recipes which use it as a food ingredient. It is
obtained from a shrub that grows in Arabia and East Africa. I do not have my
plant manuals at hand right now but will look up the scientific names if you
want them..

Ras

Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 16:03:59 -0800
From: david friedman <ddfr@best.com>
Subject: SC - Mastic (was: My entry to Queen's Prize Tourney)

At 8:08 PM -0500 3/29/98, Lady Beatrix of Tanet wrote:
>Many Thanks, but I have one question: What is Mastic?

Mastic or gum mastic is a resin used as a seasoning in Islamic cooking; you
use it in very small quantities, say 1/16 teaspoon per 1 or two pounds of
meat. The taste suggests turpentine to us. In very small quantities it
adds an interesting tang to a dish, but it doesn't take much to make the
dish inedible. To find it, try a Middle Easter, Iranian, or Indian grocery
store, or a specialty spice place. It looks like little pale
yellowish/tannish blobs.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook

[Submitted by: "Philippa Alderton" <phlip@bright.net>]
From: Gaylin Walli <g.walli@infoengine.com>
To: herbalist@Ansteorra.ORG
Subject: Re: HERB - Resins
Date: Tuesday, November 03, 1998 2:19 PM

Raisya asked:
>I bought frankinsence and myrrh at Pennsic this year, but didn't have a chance
>to label them immediately, and now I've forgotten which is which. Does anyone
>here know? One is yellow, the shade of butter, the other is brownish, the
>color of a darkish honey. I think the yellow is frankinsence and the brown is
>myrrh, but I'm not sure.

The red-brown one is the myrrh. The yellow one is the frankinsence.

References:

"[Myrrh] flows as a pale yellow liquid, but hardens to a reddish-brown mass,
being found in commerce in tears of many sizes, the average being that of
a walnut."
(http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/m/myrrh-66.html)

"When the milk-like juice which exudes has hardened by exposure to the
air, the incision is deepened. In about three months the [Frankincense]
resin has attained the required degree of consistency, hardening into
yellowish 'tears.'"
(http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/f/franki31.html)

Jasmine
Jasmine de Cordoba, Midrealm, g.walli@infoengine.com

[Submitted by: "Philippa Alderton" <phlip@bright.net>]
From: N.D.Wederstrandt <nweders@mail.utexas.edu>
To: herbalist@Ansteorra.ORG
Subject: Re: HERB - Resins
Date: Tuesday, November 03, 1998 4:10 PM

Not necessarily. Different grades of frankincense are different colors.
Ethiopean frankincense is a very bright golden yellow and is getting harder
to find because the wars over in the Middle East have caused the groves to
be burnt. Arabian frankincense is a mixture and can range from dull gold
with bright yellow bits to darkish brown.... Indian frankincense is the
darkest and is the most common.... It often is cut with other types of
resins. I have an Organic Chemistry Manual that explains the types but it
is at home and this week I'm been off list dealing with Laurel's Prize
Tourney. The difference I have always found is that myrrh is darker and
has a very bitter taste to it. Frankincense is less bitter and even the
dark is not as dark as myrrh. Smell wise - myrrh always has a bitter edge
to it.

BTW, ethiopean has the cleanest and brightest scent to it....It is also the
prettiest.

Clare

[Submitted to the Florilegium by: "Philippa Alderton" <phlip@bright.net>]
From: Gaylin Walli <g.walli@infoengine.com>
To: herbalist@Ansteorra.ORG
Subject: Re: HERB - 'syropp of ela campane'
Date: Wednesday, November 04, 1998 9:29 AM

Phlip asked:
>Any ideas, folks?

This is how I would look at it.

'syropp of ela campane' would probably be a syrup of the plant
elecampane, often called Elfwort or Scabwort. The botanical of
this plant is Inula helenium (L.) I think. One of the major
constituents of the plant is the volitale oil "helenin" which
is sometimes called "elecampane camphor." Camphor, throughout
history, has been used to treat the symptoms of any of the
numerous kinds of arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis.

An excellent write-up on Elecampane can be found in M. Grieve's
(OOP) herbal online at
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/e/elecam07.html

and this writeup includes pointers to period sources (including
Gerard, Culpepper, and others) which may be of use to the SCAdian
or recreator in tracking down the origins of the syrup's creation.

Jasmine
Jasmine de Cordoba, Midrealm, g.walli@infoengine.com

Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 11:48:45 -0500
From: Roberta R Comstock <froggestow@juno.com>
To: sca-arts@raven.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Mastic

On Sat, 11 Sep 1999 18:35:30 -0500 (CDT) <timbeck@ix.netcom.com> writes:
>Does anyone have the botanical name for the "mastic" bush? Just
>currious...
>
>Timothy

Mastic is an aromatic resin obtained from a small anacardiaceous
evergreen tree, _Pistacia Lentiscus_, native to the Mediterranean
region: used in making varnish. (Random House College Dictionary)

This plant family is the same one that includes pistacio nuts, cashews,
sumaca and poison ivy.

Hertha

Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 00:34:50 -0300
From: dwilson@nbnet.nb.ca (dwilson)
To: <sca-arts@raven.cc.ukans.edu>
Subject: Re: Mastic

> Does anyone have the botanical name for the "mastic" bush? Just currious...
> Timothy

Pistacia lentiscus. And a good small article at
http://www.tau.ac.il/~melros/Questions/Hebrew.html

Sheepstealer

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 10:19:18 EST
From: Seton1355@aol.com
Subject: SC - MASTIC

Well, one positive aspect to this whole bruhaha in Trimaris about feasting is
that it has spured me on to start looking up recipes again.
I recently asked what *mastic* is. Well, I found the answer!
Phillipa Seton

THE FOOD OF THE WESTERN WORLD An Encyclopedia of Food from North America and
Europe. Theodora FitzGibbon
Quadrangle / New York Times Book Co. 1976

MASTIC
(Pistacia lentiscus)
An evergreen resinous shrub native to Southern Europe, the sap of which is
used as a culinary flavoring. .... The gum tastes fairly like liquorice, is
obtained by making cuts into the tree bark.

Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 10:47:09 -0600
From: david friedman <ddfr@best.com>
Subject: RE: SC - REC: BAID MASUS

Phillipa Seton said
> For tonight's supper I made **Baid Masus** from His Grace's Miscellany. I
> had never made it before. It was delicious! A very straight forward recipe
> and easy to make. I didn't have any *mastic* however. (I hope everyone got
> my previous post on mastic - a liquorice flavored sap)

I believe the information you posted said that mastic was the sap,
and the bark was liquorice flavored. Mastic doesn't taste in the
least like liquorice. More like turpentine (think retsina for a
similar effect in something consumable), which is why we use it in
very small quantities.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/

Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2002 22:51:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: Philippa Alderton <phlip_u@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Mastic for Stefan
To: sca-cooks@ansteorra.org

--- Stefan li Rous <stefan@texas.net> wrote:
> > From Cariadoc's Mexcellany, the cooking section,
> > the following recipes contain mastic:

Looks like Cariadoc has expanded his Arabic recipes
since Margali got her copy- might need to get the
newest version. Cariadoc, wasn't there a Morroccan
recipe in the 8th edition? I was looking for it to
post for the lady who was looking for Morroccan
recipes, but npow I can't find it.

> > Aha, you say- so far this shows mastic only in
> > Arabic cookery, but not European?
>
> Up to this point that was occuring to me...

Well, why not list it as an ingredient very common in
Medieval Arabic cookery, particularly in regards to
lamb and red meats, but occasionally used with fish or
chicken, and occasionally found in French cookery,
depending on trading habits? Almost every Arabic meat
recipe I found had mastic in it.

Phlip

Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2002 07:20:44 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna@sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks@ansteorra.org
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Mastic for Stefan.

It's not in the index for Two Fifteenth, Curye
on Inglishe, or in Wilson's Food & Drink in
Britain. I would think that its use in non-Arabic
cuisines would be somewhat limited.

Johnnae llyn Lewis Johnna Holloway

Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2002 08:57:18 +1000
From: "Craig Jones." <craig.jones@airservices.gov.au>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] gum mastic source
To: "SCA-Cooks maillist (E-mail)" <SCA-Cooks@ansteorra.org>
Organization: Airservices Australia

>Their gum mastic is $50 for 500 gms.

I would suggest that a pound is probably more Mastic than I'll use in
3 of my lifetimes...

When cooking a pot of Mastaji for 12 people, I'd probably only add 2
grams. It's strong stuff... It's a good price though...

Drake.

Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 07:19:55 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna@sitka.engin.umich.edu>
To: sca-cooks@ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Mastic

"Mastic for Beginners" by Andrew Dalby
is in PPC 65. PP 38-45 which the introduction
notes is longer than what is offered in his
book Dangerous Tastes.

Johnna Holloway Johnnae llyn Lewis

Christina Nevin wrote:
It's still used to make bread in Greece - ask Bear, he would know.
> Apparently it's delicious. So any Greek-orientated Mediterranean grocery
> should have some.
> There was an extremely good article on it in PPC a couple of issues ago.
> Lucrezia

<the end>