All searcing (sieving) of cocao nuts ground and other ingredients for the receipt (recipe) To make Chocolate would have been done using a horse hair sieve.  My original horse hair sieve is on display with a bundle of horse tail hair but I use a sieve made with synthetic fiber for actual use.  Typically, the word sieving was used for agricultural sieving and for cookery the word searcing.

After the cacao nuts have been finely beaten in a mortar and pestle for the receipt (recipe) To make Chocolate they are searced.  The process of searcing is sieving  but typically the word sieve was the term for agricultural uses in the 17th and 18th century and the term searce was reserved for cooking.

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The first step in Penelope Jephson’s circa 1674 manuscript receipt (recipe) To make Chocolate is to take a pound of cacao nut.  Since I am making half the receipt, there is one-half pound of fermented trinitario cacao beans in the mortar and pestle ready to be ground.

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The receipt (recipe) To roast a Shoulder of Mutton is ready for the table when the gravy is poured on.  The gravy was made with the drippings from the roast, white wine vinegar, capers, blades of mace and sugar.  The bottle of preserved calendula is in the upper right corner of the picture.

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After the roast was removed from the spit for the receipt (recipe) To roast a Shoulder of Mutton, it was plated on a pewter charger and garnished with pickled purslane and preserved calendula.  I am enjoying the aroma from the roast as I bring it to the table for the gravy.

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The mutton for the receipt (recipe) To roast a Shoulder of Mutton was done when the juices ran clear in the grisset.  The roast will now be removed from the spit carefully so the roast will be perfect for serving.

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The final ingredient added to the gravy for the receipt (recipe) To roast a Shoulder of Mutton is a handful of Sugar.  This was added to the gravy from the roasting mutton, white wine vinegar, capers, and mace.

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The next gravy ingredient after the white wine vinegar and capers  for the receipt (recipe) To roast a Shoulder of Mutton are five to six blades of Mace.  Mace is the covering of the seed (aril) that will mature to a nutmeg.  The covering is scarlet red when harvested and dries to color pictured.  The entire aril when dried is called a blade of mace.  And yes this mace is the same ingredient used for the self-defense spray-mace.

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After half a pint of white wine vinegar has been poured for the gravy of the receipt (recipe) To roast a Shoulder of Mutton a handful of capers are added.  Capers are the unripened green buds of the caper bush (Capparis spinosa) which is a prickly perennial native to the hot, dry areas of the Mediterranean and has whitish pink flowers.  The immature buds are first dried and then pickled.

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After the half roasted shoulder of mutton has been slashed with a knife for the receipt (recipe) To roast a Shoulder of Mutton take half a pint of white wine vinegar.  

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