Fresh Spices

These days certain spices are so ubiquitous that they have almost become invisible. Is that pepper I see next to the salt on the table? But for most of the history of spices Pepper has been an incredibly expensive commodity. It was only produced in India and found its way to Europe by strange and mysterious means.

As a spice pepper is amazing in that it has 'heat' and pungency but no bitterness. It therefore gives any and all foods an 'oomph' in terms of flavour without making them unpalatable (this is why Romans even put pepper in their desserts!).

Cooking With Spices

But what actually is a spice? In terms of a modern definition, a spice is typically obtained from the dried fruiting body of a plant. Thus it can be the whole fruit (as in cubeb pepper or allspice berries or cumin) or it is the kernel or seed of the fruit (as in nutmeg and fenugreek seeds or nigella seeds).

In contrast, herbs are the vegetative parts of a plant (the stems and leaves) and include lemongrass (stems), thyme (leaves), oregano (leaves). Spices are also obtained from the roots, rhizomes or tubers of plants.

Thus ginger (and its relatives, galangal, zedoary etc) are spices, as is the Medieval spice, Galingale [the root of a sedge])

Humans are odd amongst animals in that we like pungency in our foods and many, many spices and this has led us to use a whole range of spices in our cookery and many of these spices, in some way, echo the nature of black pepper.

This is why the chilli, when introduced to Europe from the Americas was called the 'chilli pepper'. Indeed, the vast majority of spices impart 'heat' on a dish and only very few are purely used for their flavouring properties.

In the Celtnet Guide to Spices you will find descriptions of spices (and recipes for their use) going all the way from Acacia Seeds to Zedoary Root, with everything in between (every letter of the alphabet except 'Q' is represented).