A
spice is a dried
seed,
fruit,
root,
bark,
leaf, or
vegetative substance used in
nutritionally insignificant quantities as a
food additive for the purpose of
flavour, colour, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth.
Many of these substances are also used for other purposes, such as
medicine, religious
rituals,
cosmetics,
perfumery or eating as
vegetables. For example,
turmeric is also used as a
preservative;
liquorice as a
medicine;
garlic as a
vegetable. In some cases they are referred to by different terms.
In the kitchen, spices are distinguished from
herbs, which are
leafy, green plant parts used for
flavouring purposes.
Herbs, such as
basil or
oregano, may be used fresh, and are commonly chopped into smaller pieces. Spices, however, are dried and often ground or grated into a
powder. Small seeds, such as fennel and mustard seeds, are used both whole and in powder form.
Classification and types
Spices can be grouped as:
Herbs, such as
bay,
basil, and
thyme are not, strictly speaking, spices, although they have similar uses in flavouring food. The same can be said of vegetables such as
onions and
garlic.
Early history
The earliest evidence of the use of spice by humans was around 50,000 B.C.
The spice trade developed throughout the
Middle East in around 2000 BC with
cinnamon and
pepper. The Egyptians used herbs for embalming and their need for exotic herbs helped stimulate world trade. In fact, the word spice comes from the same root as
species, meaning kinds of goods. By 1000 BC China and India had a medical system based upon herbs. Early uses were connected with magic, medicine, religion, tradition and preservation.
A recent archaeological discovery suggests that the
clove,
indigenous 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 .
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.
In
South Asia,
nutmeg, which originates from the
Banda Islands in the Molukas, has a
Sanskrit name. Sanskrit is the ancient language of India, 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 .
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.
Indonesian
merchants went around China, India, the Middle East and the east coast of Africa.
Arab merchants facilitated the routes through the Middle East and India. This made the city of
Alexandria in
Egypt the main trading centre for spices because of its port. The most important discovery prior to the European spice trade were the monsoon winds (40 AD). Sailing from Eastern spice growers to Western European consumers gradually replaced the land-locked spice routes once facilitated by the Middle East Arab caravans.
Middle Ages
Spices were among the most luxurious products available in Europe 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 with it 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. 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.
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, including many spices.
With the discovery of the New World came new spices, including allspice, bell and chili peppers, vanilla and chocolate. Although new settlers brought herbs to North America, before 1750 it was thought that you could not grow plants or trees outside their native habitat. This belief kept the spice trade, with America as a late comer with its new seasonings, profitable well into the 19th century.
In the Caribbean, the island of Grenada is well known for growing and exporting a number of spices including the nutmeg which was introduced to Grenada by the settlers.
Spice racks
While spices themselves are tens of thousands of years old, the spice rack has an origin that dates to about 1,000 B.C. Today, the rack has moved from a functional kitchen fixture to a largely decorative item, with many spice users content to rely on commercial containers with “one-hand” flip-top closures and even built-in grinders.
Common spice mixtures
Spices and herbs at a grocery shop in
Goa,
India- Chimichurri (Argentina and Uruguay)
- Colombo (paprika, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, ginger, black pepper, star anise, cardamom, cloves, mustard grains, saffron)
Production
Standardization
ISO is has published a series of standards regarding the products of the topic and these standards are covered by ICS 67.220
.
