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experimental
archaeology

the Trotula's
hair powder

Bancke's
tooth
powder

Hildegarde von Bingen's
mouthwash

the Trotula's
tooth powder

Gilbertus Anglicus's breath freshener

Experimental archaeology
Gilbertus Anglicus breath freshener

Making and testing recipes for skincare and health from medieval manuscripts.
A breath freshening powder to chew and then swallow from Gilbertus Anglicus

GILBERTUS ANGLICUS,
Compendium of Medicine,
Wellcome MS 537
England. about 1400 A.D.

"And let him use this powder:

Take of pepper, one ounce;
and of mint, as much;
and of rock salt, as much.

And make him to chew this powder
a good while in his mouth,
and then swallow it down."

I have recreated this powder to use in my MEDIEVAL BATH DISPLAY and have included a step by step guide to my approach, including my expectations and how it really worked out.

The prep:

There were a number of things to think about before I started.

- Where can I get the ingrediants?
- Drying the ingredients or buying them pre-powdered or using them fresh?
- Air dry or oven dry the grown ingredients?
- How much of which ingredients should I use?
- Will it actually make any real difference?
- How long will it last?
- Do any of the plants have benefits associated with them which make them particularly useful?

What you need: Ingredients 1 oz Rock Salt 1 oz Pepper 1 oz Mint Kitchen things Spoon Small scales Bowl for mixing Mortar and pestle for powdering
	Rock Salt 1 ounce This is easy to find and purchase and is very cheap. Rock salt can be bought from any supermarket or grocery shop.
	Pepper 1 ounce This can be bought from most Asian or Indian supermarkets. Gilbertus doesn't specify what type of pepper to use, but long pepper was the commonly used one in the Middle Ages. Both long pepper and black pepper were used in Roman Britain, so I've chosen long pepper for this recipe. It is a sweeter pepper than black pepper. This image is long pepper, half ground down.
	Mint 1 ounce Fresh leaves or dried leaves? The recipe doesn't say, but I feel like dried leaves would powder down better than fresh ones, so I am using dried mint leaves from my own herb garden.
	Mortar and pestle I have a really great stone set which is sturdy enough to work well on most substances.

Step by step:

1. Weigh and measure out the ingredients. In this case, the exact amounts are given, so it's just about deciding how big a finished quantity you want to make and weighing out the same weight for each of the mint, salt and pepper.

2. Using the mortar and pestle, grind the ingredients to a powder. I did these one at a time.

3. Mix them together. No other steps are needed for this.

The resultant powder smells a little peppery and a little minty.

The results:

The taste really is interesting.

This was a journey of great discovery, where I discovered: Less is more of some things and I'm surprised at the one to one to one ratio.

I expected this to work because of the mint, and expected a minty taste, when in fact, the overriding taste was the sweet pepper, which did, in fact freshen the breath. The mint was barely noticable and while the salt was very... salty, it did provide an abrasive quality which would have worked on teeth.

Overall, this recipe did work. My mouth felt refreshed for an extended amount of time, although quite peppery. The salt taste faded reasonably quickly, and the mint likewise. The end result is a positive. It is palatable, and it works.

The audience results:
This has yet to be tested in my circle of friends. Results will follow.