kyan

noun

1. (alt-of, alternative, obsolete, uncountable)Alternative spelling of cayenne (in compounds such as “kyan pepper” and “kyan butter”).

   “Take half a pound of black pepper, half a pound of red or kyan pepper, and half a pound of the best saltpetre, all beat or ground very fine; mix these three well together, then mix them with about three quarts of very fine salt: this mixture is sufficient for eight hundred weight of beef.”

2. (obsolete, uncountable)A hot sauce prepared from cayenne pepper.

   “Not but that a grilled salmon, with a spoonful or two of Burgess’s new sauce, and a small matter of genuine kyan, is a mighty pleasant thing after half a dozen hours’ fishing, with the mountain-breeze blowing briskly in one’s face, and creating an appetite that might relish (almost) a smoked fox.”