SC - History of Grains of Paradise

[David Dendy]

Greetings all

Here is a rough history of Grains of Paradise. Since I'm putting this
together on the fly, no doubt there will be some details missed the first
time, and I'm leaving out much tedious detail, so query anything which seems
to be missing or garbled.

Botanically, Grains of Paradise are the small seeds, angular and dark
red-brown, with a hot "spicy" flavour, of a West African plant of the ginger
family, *Aframomum meleguetta* (and sometimes of a couple of other closely
related species). They grow in the forested area of West Africa, near the
coasts, especially in Liberia (known to the Portuguese voyagers as the Grain
Coast), but also eastward through Ghana and Nigeria as far as Cameroon. They
have various names in the African languages, and are used both medicinally
and culinarily.

In terms of our interest (medieval cookery in Europe and the Islamic world),
there has been a great deal of confusion on account of the fact that several
different names have been used in different areas.

Grains of Paradise (Grains for short) first appear in the available sources
in the medical literature of the far west of Islam (western North Africa) in
the 12th century, under the Arabic name of "jawz as-sirk" (or similar,
depending on your transcription), which means literally "nut of association"
(which has to do with being from non-Muslim lands -- i.e. "the association
of God and other gods = infidels") or "gawz as-Sudan" ("nut of the Blacks").
Ahmad al-Ghafiqi (12th century), al-Idrisi (ca. 1099-1154), Moses Maimonides
(1135-1204), and Ibn al-Baytar (d. 1248) all mention it, and are definite
that it comes from West Africa to the south of them (for example, Idrisi
writes "I have seen this nut in the farthest Maghrib, where it comes from
the land of the Negros.")

>From the western Arab countries the product moved across the Mediterranean
to Spain and the south of France, where it was known as "notz ysserca",
"notz ycherca", "noix d'exarch", and other various forms, all of which are
semi-translations of "jawz as-sirk" -- that is, "notz" or "noix" is "jawz"
translated, but the rest of the name is simply transliterated in a more or
less garbled form. This name was the usual usage in the western
Mediterranean -- Spain, Provence, and so on.

The next name, "meleguttta", "meregete", "meleghete", and myriad other
forms, is found initially in Italy and its use spreads throughout southern
Europe. The origin is uncertain -- it has been suggested to be a diminutive
of "millet", the grain, on the basis of appearace, but probably the
likeliest answer is that the name is connected to Mali, the kingdom in West
Africa (fabled for its wealth) through which the spice came on its way
north. It is under this name ("melegetis") that Grains have their first
appearance in European literature. Rolandinus Patavinus wrote a description
of a festival at Treviso in 1214 in which a mock battle was held where the
ladies defending the castle pelted their attackers with flowers and spices,
among which was this "melegetis" (among the other spices, incidentally, was
"cardamo", so it is clear that even at this early date they were known to be
different). During the 13th century, medical texts from as far as Nicea in
the Byzantine Empire mention meleguetta.

The final name, Grains of Paradise, is what we are most familiar with,
simply because it was what was normally used in northern Europe (northern
France, Germany, England, Germany, etc.). The form of the name of course
varies (in France "Graine de Paradis", but sometimes corrupting to "Graine
de Paris"; in Germany "Paradieskorner", etc.). One can only assume that the
name was bestowed for the double reason of a liking of the flavour and an
uncertainty, by the time the spice got this far, of its original source.

The links between the various names are well-establishable, by equivalencies
in various materia medica and merchants' handbooks. I won't go into the
details here -- contact me if you need more particulars.

Oddly, I haven't discovered evidence that grains were used in the Islamic
world as a spice (please do let me know if any of you have found such
examples!), where they were primarily a medicament. In Europe, on the other
hand, their bite seems to have been appreciated early in cooking, and they
rapidly became popular. Most of the medieval and early Renaissance cookbooks
call for them. And account books back up that popularity. For example, in
English accounts (with which I am most familiar), there are the following
examples.  The household of Bogo de Clare, during a fifteen-month period in
1285-86, bought 50.5 pounds of grains of paradise, as compared with 23.5
pounds of saffron, 35 pounds of ginger, 24 pounds of pepper, 25 pounds of
cinnamon, 10 pounds of cloves, and lesser amounts of other spices. The
accounts of Walter of Wenlock, Abbot of westminster, for just under a year
in 1289-90, show purchases of 23 pounds of grains, 13 pounds of pepper, 18
pounds of galingale, 7 pounds of saffron, and one pound each of cinnamon,
mace, cubebs, cloves, and ginger. In both establishments, grains were the
most heavily used flavouring spice. [Sorry about the saffron, Lord Ras]

Grains of Paradise were regularly present, though in lesser quantities,
throughout the rest of the period up to the 1600. The reason for the extreme
popularity in the late 13th century may have been the price -- in the 13th
century grains averaged about 4 pence a pound when bought in large lots,
compared to pepper at about 8 pence. From the 14th century on grains rose in
price, and were consistently more expensive than pepper. There was another
burst of popularity of grains in England during the early to mid 16th
century, probably related to the beginning of English trading voyages to
West Africa.

Thus it may be seen that Grains of Paradise were a popular and relatively
common spice in Europe long before the Portuguese began their voyages to
West Africa in the mid-15th century. The Portuguese simply brought by a new
sea route what had long been coming by the trans-Saharan caravan route.

I haven't given the bibliographic details on my sources here, to avoid being
interminable, but if anyone needs the specific source for a particular piece
of information, please e-mail me. And if anyone has additional information
which I might not have (particularly on usage in the Islamic world and
continental Europe), please let me know, with details on where to find the
references.

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/