[Sca-cooks] No Sugar in 10th Century??

[Stefan li Rous]

Ras replied with a variation of his oft repeated phrase:
> lilinah at earthlink.net writes:
> << Still i imagine that shipping and warehousing conditions were a bit
>  different in the Middle Ages than they are now.  >>
>
> Documentation?

We did discuss this a little a while back on this list. I think it was
Bear who cited some interesting info showing the price was higher for
spices transported by ship than by caravan, persumably because the
ship transported stuff was fresher.

I think I put most of those comments in this file in the PLANTS, HERBS
AND SPICES section of the Florilegium:
spices-msg       (126K)  3/23/01    Info. on spices, sources for spices.

I think some similar information my be in the commerce-msg file in the
COMMERCE section as well.

I've pasted one such message below.

I'd love to see more information, though.
--
THLord  Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas         stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****

> Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2000 20:05:32 -0500
> From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
> Subject: RE: SC - transporting ingredients
>
> If you look at the import duties of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, spices
> delivered by sea paid a higher duty than spice delivered by caravan.  This
> suggests that spices shipped by sea via India and the Red Sea were more
> potent and valuable than those brought overland.
>
> Spices shipped by sea would have been sealed in containers which would
> protect them from water.  This would also help protect them from the air.
>
> Bear
>
> > One thing you may have noticed:  when quatities of spices *are* mentioned
> > in period recipes, it looks like a ridiculously large amount.  It is.
> > Their spices weren't very potent. (this is corroborated by explorers'
> > surprise at the flavors when they reached the Spice Islands)  As a friend
> > once told me, "These things were put in hide bags and transported on the
> > back of an animal for months, then put on a leaky boat for more months.
> > Care to guess what happened to the essential oils?"
> >
> > If you want everything to taste good, worry less about how they
> > transported it and look instead at the physical conditions you have to
> > deal with--heat, humidity, wind, rain, marauding drunks.  Screw top jars
> > are fine and medieval people would have killed for them.  Come to think
> > of it, they'd kill for our quality of spices.
> >
> > Morgana