HERB - A Modern Herbal

[Jenne Heise]

> By the time of the Renaissance there were three different spices identified 
> as grains of paradise.  One was paprika, another was cardamom, and the 
> other was grana paradisi. 

Interesting. I have one book (_Spices and Herbs, Lore and Cookery_ by
Hayes, published by Dover) that identifies cardomom as grains of paradise
(they are similar in appearance). I had not heard of paprika being
referred to in this manner. (Though I note that the Britannica mentions,
"the paprika of commerce, a powdered red condiment that was known in
Hungary by the late 16th century" which would make it period... a fact
that will make my Hungarian friends happy.) Chasing down the reference in
the OED... I see that both grana paradisi and paprika were known as guinea
pepper or ginny-pepper... 

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.

"You only have power over people as long as you don't take everything away 
from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in 
your power-- he's free again." -- A. Solzhenitsyn   

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