SC - Polish spice question

[David Dendy]

Greetings Fellow Cooks

The mentions of various Polish cookbooks and sources brought to mind a
puzzle which has piqued my mind, and embarassed me a little as an authority
on spices. I found an unfamiliar spice mentioned in an article on early 17th
century Polish trade (Honorata Obuchowska-Pysiowa, "Trade between Cracow and
Ital;y from the Customs-House Registers of 1604", JOURNAL OF EUROPEAN
ECONOMIC HISTORY, 9:3 (1980), pp. 633-653).

The spice is named as "Tatar herb", and its price is given as 2 zloty per
stone, compared with raisins at 2 zloty per stone, pepper at 6 zloty per
stone, and saffron at 5.5 zloty per pound. So the value would be
significant, but not as high as Oriental spices. The wording in the article
seems to imply that it was imported into Poland by Italian merchants, but
this is not directly stated.

Can anyone offer any identification, or even suggestions? Perhaps anyone
with accesss to Polish sources could have a look?

With many thanks for the solution I'm sure will be given,
Francesco Sirene
David Dendy / ddendy at silk.net
partner in Francesco Sirene, Spicer / sirene at silk.net
Visit our Website at http://www.silk.net/sirene/

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