SC - porridge

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Devra at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Our spices, OOTH, are whisked from their plant-y birth to Mccormick's
> bottelery, [or wherever] and thence to our shelves in mere weeks.  Obviously,
> what we use is likely to give a much bigger bang than what they had!
> 
> Surely this must be a factor.

Possibly. On the other hand, we don't know how long they sit around in
McCormick's warehouse before processing and canning, and, more or less
conversely, it's hard to gauge the shelf life and adulteration level of
spices sold already ground in the medieval marketplace. That being said,
though, the three-year trip on the Silk Road probably didn't abuse whole
spices any more than three years of storage in my
overheated-through-lack-of-ventilation kitchen, and I have cinnamon
sticks, nutmegs, cloves, peppercorns, cubebs, galingale, grains of
paradise and long pepper (some several years old) and when I grind them
they still have considerably more oomph than anything ground and tinned.
 
I agree this must be a factor, but what the effect is is hard to say.
There are good arguments to be made on both sides of this issue.

Adamantius
Østgardr, East
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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