(Redirected from Spices)
A 'spice' is a dried
seed,
fruit,
root,
bark or vegetative substance used in
nutritionally insignificant quantities as a
food additive for the purpose of
flavoring, and indirectly for the purpose of killing and preventing growth of pathogenic bacteria
[1].
Many of the same substances have other uses in which they are referred to by different terms, e.g. in
food preservation,
medicine, religious
rituals,
cosmetics,
perfumery or as
vegetables. For example,
turmeric is also used as a
preservative;
licorice as a
medicine;
garlic as a
vegetable and
nutmeg as a
recreational drug.
Spices are distinguished from
herbs, which are
leafy, green plant parts used for
flavoring purposes. Herbs, such as
basil or
oregano, may be used fresh, and are commonly chopped into smaller pieces; spices, however, are dried and usually ground into a
powder.
Classification and types
Salt is a very common
seasoning, often mistakenly considered as a spice, but it is in fact a
mineral product.
The basic classification of spices is as follows:
★
Leaves and/or
branches of aromatic plants, all or part of the plant can be used as one pleases.
Basil,
bay leaf,
parsley,
rosemary,
tarragon, and
thyme are all good examples.
★
Ripened
fruits or
seeds of plants. Examples include
dill,
fennel,
mustard, and
pepper.
★
Roots or
bulbs of certain plants,
garlic and
ginger, for example.
History
Spices have been prominent in
human history virtually since their inception. Spices were among the most valuable items of trade in the ancient and medieval world. The culinary use of spices originated in the
Indian Sub continent and South-East Asia. In the story of
Genesis,
Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical
poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Generally,
Egyptian,
Chinese,
Indian and
Mesopotamian sources do not refer to known spices.
The spice trade developed throughout the
Middle East in around
2000 BC with
cinnamon,
Indonesian cinnamon and
pepper.
A recent archaeolgical discovery suggests that the
clove,
indigineous to the
Indonesian island of
Ternate in the
Maluku Islands, could have been introduced to the
Middle East very early on. Digs found a clove burnt onto the floor of a burned down kitchen in the Mesopotamian site of
Terqa, in what is now modern-day
Syria, dated to
1700 BC [2]. The ancient
Indian epic of
Ramayana mentions cloves. In any case, it is known that the
Romans had cloves in the
1st century AD because
Pliny the Elder spoke of them in his writings.
In
South Asia,
nutmeg, which originates from the
Banda Islands in the
Moluccas, has a
Sanskrit name. Sanskrit is the language of the sacred
Hindu texts, this shows how old the usage of this spice is in this region. Historians estimate that nutmeg was introduced to
Europe in the
6th century BC
[3].
Indonesian
merchants went around China, India, the Middle East and the east coast of Africa.
Arab merchants controlled the routes through the Middle East and India until
Roman times with the discovery of new sea routes. This made the city of
Alexandria in
Egypt the main trading centre for spices because of its port.
Middle Ages
Spices were among the most luxurious products available in the
Middle Ages, the most common being
black pepper,
cinnamon (and the cheaper alternative
cassia),
cumin,
nutmeg,
ginger and
cloves. They were all imported from plantations in
Asia and
Africa, which made them extremely expensive. From the
8th until the
15th century, the
Republic of Venice had the monopoly on spice trade with the
Middle East, and along it with the neighboring Italian city-states. The trade made the region phenomenally rich. It has been estimated that around 1,000
tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the
Late Middle Ages. The value of these goods was the equivalent of a yearly supply of grain for 1.5 million people.
[4] While pepper was the most common spice, the most exclusive was
saffron, used as much for its vivid yellow-red color as for its flavor. Spices that have now fallen into some obscurity include
grains of paradise, a relative of
cardamom which almost entirely replaced pepper in late medieval north French cooking,
long pepper,
mace,
spikenard,
galangal and
cubeb. A popular modern-day misconception is that medieval cooks used liberal amounts of spices, particularly black pepper, merely to disguise the taste of spoiled meat. However, a medieval feast was as much a culinary event as it was a display of the host's vast resources and generosity, and as most nobles had a wide selection of fresh or preserved meats, fish or seafood to choose from, the use of ruinously expensive spices on cheap, rotting meat would have made little sense.
[5]
Early modern period
The control of trade routes and the spice-producing regions were the main reasons that
Portuguese navigator
Vasco Da Gama sailed to
India in
1499.
Spain and
Portugal were not happy to pay the high price that Venice demanded for spices. At around the same time,
Christopher Columbus returned from the
New World, he described to
investors the many new, and then unknown, spices available there.
It was
Afonso de Albuquerque (
1453–
1515) who allowed the Portuguese to take control of the sea routes to India. In
1506, he took the island of
Socotra in the mouth of the
Red Sea and, in
1507,
Ormuz in the
Persian Gulf. Since becoming the
viceroy of the
Indies, he took
Goa in
India in
1510, and
Malacca on the
Malay peninsula in
1511. The Portuguese could now trade directly with
Siam,
China and the
Moluccas. The
Silk Road complemented the Portuguese sea routes, and brought the treasures of the
Orient to
Europe via
Lisbon, many of which are coveted spices.
Common spice mixes
A kitchen shelf of spice.
★ Colombo (
paprika,
cumin,
coriander,
nutmeg,
ginger,
black pepper,
star anise,
cardamom,
cloves,
mustard grains,
saffron);
★
Curry powder;
★ Five bays;
★
Five-spice powder;
★
Garam masala;
★
Quatre épices;
★
Ras el hanout;
★
Za'atar.
Production
{{commons|Category:Spices|
'Production in tonnes. Figures 2003-2004'
Researched by FAOSTAT (FAO) |
| India | 1 600 000 | 86 % | 1 600 000 | 86 % | |
| China | 66 000 | 4 % | 66 000 | 4 % |
| Bangladesh | 48 000 | 3 % | 48 000 | 3 % |
| Pakistan | 45 300 | 2 % | 45 300 | 2 % |
| Turkey | 33 000 | 2 % | 33 000 | 2 % |
| Nepal | 15 500 | 1 % | 15 500 | 1 % |
| Other countries | 60 900 | 3 % | 60 910 | 3 % |
| 'Total' | '1 868 700' | 100 % | '1 868 710' | 100 % |
Further reading
★
Spice: The History of a Temptation, Turner, Jack, , , Knopf, 2004, ISBN 0-375-40721-9
★
Food Bacteria-Spice Survey Shows Why Some Cultures Like It Hot Quote: “...Garlic, onion, allspice and oregano, for example, were found to be the best all-around bacteria killers (they kill everything)...Top 30 Spices with Antimicrobial Properties...”
★
August 18, 1998, Common Kitchen Spices Kill E. Coli O157:H7 Quote: “...The study is the first in the United States that looks at the effect of common spices on E. coli O157:H7. Previous studies have concluded spices kill other foodborne pathogens. “In the first part of our study, we tested 23 spices against E. coli O157:H7 in the laboratory,” Fung said. “We found that several spices are good at killing this strain of E. coli.”...”
★
The Lure and Lore of Spices Quote: “If the appearance of spices were to reflect their real importance in the history of the world, the bottles of spices would be filled with bright glittery substances, diamonds, rubies, emeralds or gold would be appropriate. When you opened the bottle, a poof of vibrantly colored, mystically fragrant, magical smoke would slowly billow softly throughout the room.”
Notes
1. [1]
2. Buccellati et Buccellati (1983)
3. Burkill (1966)
4. Adamson, p. 65
5. Scully, pp. 84-86.
Sources
★ Adamson, Melitta Weiss (2004), ''Food in Medieval Times''. ISBN 0-313-32147-7.
★ Scully, Terence (1995), ''The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages''. ISBN 0-85115-611-8.
See also
★
List of herbs and spices
★
List of Indian spices
★
Spice trade
★
Run (island): Seventeenth-century British-Dutch rivalry for a source of nutmeg, lead to the British exchanging this Indonesian island for Manhattan (New York)
★
International Spicy Food Day
External links
★
Enspicelopedia at McCormick.com
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
