Powder-douce (also poudre-douce, literally "sweet powder") is a spice mix used in Medieval and Renaissance cookery.[1] Like modern spice mixes such as Italian seasoning or garam masala, there was not a set ingredient list, and it varied from cook to cook.[2] The author of the 14th-century manuscript Le Ménagier de Paris suggested a mix of grains of paradise, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and galangal.[3]
The 16th-century Catalan cookbook Libre del Coch gives two recipes for polvora de duch:[4] The first is made with ginger, cinnamon, cloves and sugar, all finely chopped and sifted with a cedaç (a fine sieve made of horsehair[5]), while the second adds galangal and long pepper.[6]
There is a related mixed spice called powder-forte,[1] literally "strong powder".