SC - Replies to Centre, marmalde and russian recipe queries

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/28/99 3:27:15 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
ringofkings at mindspring.com writes:

<< Could freshness of
 modern spices (by comparison)
 or stronger modern varieties of the spices account for the apparent greater
 quantities specified in period accounts?
 
 Akim Yaroslavich >>

Possibly, especially with the herbs you mention, such as sage and thyme 
although they would have been grown locally in the herb/kitchen/medicine 
garden so would most likely have not been 'imported'. The only spices I ever 
have trouble with that are oriental are those that can more properly be 
called 'herbs'. I have little problem with any noticeable deterioration of 
seeds and bark personally. I have a few 'spices' that are several years old 
and I see no deterioration evident yet.

I have heard various theories about the so called deterioration of spices 
during transport but have seen no actual period sources which site this as a 
problem so far. Possibly others might have.

Ras
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