Yet another cut snippet, this one from page 244, after Morsicato touts his excellent taste in wine:

“What about the wine, oh Culinary Maestro?” demanded his goad.

Morsicato composed his face into a sneer that was purely French. In his best Paris dialect he replied, “Take a gallon of Gascon wine. Get some ginger, cinnamon, nutmegs, annis seeds, fennel seeds, and carroway seeds – a dram of each. Then a handful each of sage, mints, red roses, rosemary, wild thyme, chamomile, lavender. Break down the spices, bruise the herbs, the mix it all together and let it simmer for, oh, about twelve hours. Be sure to stir it. Then distill by a limbic of pewter keeping the first clear water that comes to the surface by itself, and so likewise the second. You get about a pint of good spiced wine for every gallon.” The doctor’s face relaxed into something much more Italian. “I learned that from one of our host’s many guests.”

“Yes,” said Cangrande, turning to explain. “Guillaume de Machaut. He and his son were returning from a pilgrimage, and honored us with a visit. The child – also a Guillaume – is a prodigy. He picked up every one of Manoello’s instruments in turn and played some of the finest notes I’ve ever heard.” He smiled wryly. “Unfortunately, he could only sing in French, so I had to send them both away. But they do make good wine.”

This was actually a reference to a famous musician of the next generation – and far too obscure to aid my story. Still, I was trying to link all of these various great artists, since the ultimate theme of the series is the Birth of the Renaissance – and the death of Mercutio.

Oh, and I plan to have at least one recipe in each novel – and after the inside-out fish, this seemed overkill.