Spices

Nowadays, in our developed world, it is perfectly normal to open the fridge and find everything you may need for a good lunch with fresh products of all kind, and everyone can afford to dress rice or meat with the tastiest condiments.

However, this was not always so. Until refrigeration and artificial preservatives appeared on the market spices had been the main form of keeping food and above all giving them new textures and flavours.

During the Middle Ages and for a large part of the modern age, pepper, clove, cinnamon, saffron, nutmeg or ginger became coveted exotic products that even led to change the conception of the world with the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492. Columbus did not really embark on his perilous journey to discover new worlds, but to find an alternative route to the Indies, whose trade, first controlled by Muslims and Byzantines and then by the Portuguese, had made the king of Portugal the richest one in Europe, controlling the sea routes to East by bordering Africa.

We must not confuse spices with aromatic herbs. We find a wide range of spices along the entire Mediterranean basin, such as thyme, rosemary, myrtle, laurel, etc.  However, they do not serve to preserve, but only to enhance the aroma .

Trade with the Far East, the source of most of the spices, had been initiated by the Greeks and Romans, who spent enormous amounts of gold and silver on this business. To get an idea of how expensive these exotic spices were, we can take as an example that white pepper cost 14 drenarios per kilo, when the daily wage of a free worker was two denarios and especially cinnamon oils could reach exorbitant prices up to 3000 drenarios per litre.

During the Middle Ages, spices were consumed mainly by the nobility in order to avoid the bad taste of the food often resulting from the bad conditions of preservation. 94% of the population could not afford such luxuries. They could simply use salt so that any other preservative was a world of flavour.

With the discovery of America, the Spaniards brought to Mexico another well known spice, vanilla. Who can imagine the world of pastry making without vanilla?  After Columbus’s adventure, Seville became one of the most prosperous ports in Europe and so many new types of food entered, such as tomato, potato or peppers, which would be seasoned with spices as well as decorate the dishes of the increasingly improved pork cold meats. Products from pig slaughter evolved during the modern age until they became the delicacies we know today, where the old and expensive spices still have a role.

Who could have imagined that saffron or cinnamon could change the course of history? Of course we are convinced that they definitely change the flavour of our dishes.

1. Which of the following plants are spices?

a)  rosemary, thyme , lavender .

b) pepper, tomatoes , laurel .

c) saffron, pepper, cinnamon


2. Who were the first to develop the spice trade?

a) Spanish and Portuguese

b) Byzantines and Muslims

c) Greek and Roman people.


3. How much was a kilo of peppers in Roman times?

a) The salary of a month.

b) The salary of one week.

c) A wage.


4. Why did Christopher Columbus discover America?

a) Because he wanted to discover a new continent.

b) Because he was sent by the king of Portugal to trade the Indies.

c) Because he wanted to find a new sea route to East avoiding the Portuguese.