Fromand courtesy of Karen in Colorado: > Aha--I just did a google SEARCH for SEARCE. And in 9/10 cases it's a > misspelling of SEARCH! That should tell us something! However, a few good > gleanings. I'm convinced--I think we're looking at an old sieve. > > However, from the description of a man's antique pharmaceutical "toys:" > > The oldest piece in the collection is a rare, hand-carved wooden searce with > a shallow bowl that screws on a hollow stem and foot; it dates back to the > 1600s. A forerunner of the sieve, the searce is a container with holes or a > brass screen in the bottom that allow the contents to empty into a screw-off > lid. > > From an old cookbook: > > > 17th century recipe for making sugar cakes: Take two pound of Flower, dry it > > and season it very fine, then take a pound of Loaf-sugar, and beat it very > > fine, and searce (sieve) it, and mingle your flower and sugar very well, > > then take a pound and a half of sweet butter, and wash out the salt, and > > break it into bits with your flower and sugar, then take four new-laid > > Eggs, and four or five spoonfuls of Sack, and four spoonfuls of Cream; beat > > these all together, then put them into your Flower, and knead them to a > > paste, and make them into what fashion you please, and lay them upon paper > > or plates, and put them into the Oven, and be careful of them, for a very > > little thing bakes them.*1 > > > > From Robinson Crusoe! > > My next difficulty was to make a sieve or searce, to dress my meal, and to > part it from the bran and the husk; without which I did not see it possible I > could have any bread. This was a most difficult thing even to think on, for > to be sure I had nothing like the necessary thing to make it - I mean fine > thin canvas or stuff to searce the meal through. And here I was at a full > stop for many months; nor did I really know what to do. Linen I had none left > but what was mere rags; I had goat's hair, but neither knew how to weave it > or spin it; and had I known how, here were no tools to work it with. All the > remedy that I found for this was, that at last I did remember I had, among > the seamen's clothes which were saved out of the ship, some neckcloths of > calico or muslin; and with some pieces of these I made three small sieves > proper enough for the work; and thus I made shift for some years: how I did > afterwards, I shall show in its place. > > From an 1813 inventory/Northampton Co. VA > 1 Sifter searce & meal bag 4/6 > > From an "old west" cooking site > Searce: To seive, necessary to remove lumps from pounded loaf sugar and to > remove impurities from flour. > > Source:Food and Cooking in 17th Century Britain History and Recipes > by Peter Brears > English Heritage, 1985 > ISBN 1 85074 083 6 To make a Shropsheere cake: Take two pound of dryed flour > after it has been searced fine, one pound of good sugar dried and searced, > also a little beaten sinamon or some nottmegg greeted and steeped in rose > water; so straine two eggs, whites and all, not beaten to it, as much > unmelted butter as will work it to a paste: so mould it & roule it into longe rouses