Spice

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.

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

See also: List of herbs and spices

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. 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 ^[1]. The Indian epic of Ramayana, thought to have been written around 200 BC, 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 ^[2].

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. From the 8th until the 15th century, the city of Venice had the monopoly on spice trade with the Middle East.

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 Portugall 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 bought the treasures of the Orient to Europe via Lisbon, many of which are coveted spices.

Common spice mixes

• Bouquet garni;
• Colombo (paprika, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, ginger, pepper, star anise, cardamom, cloves, mustard grains, saffron);
• Curry;
• Five bays;
• Five-spice powder;
• Garam masala;
• Quatre épices;
• Ras el hanout;
• Za’atar.

Production

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Further reading

• Turner, Jack (2004). Spice: The History of a Temptation. Knopf. 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.”

References

1. ^ Buccellati et Buccellati (1983)
2. ^ Burkill (1966)

See also

• 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 Daybr:Spis

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