[Sca-cooks] Turmeric

[KarenO]

> > Does anyone happen to know when the spice "turmeric" became available in
Europe? > > --maire
>
 "The Lore of Spices" by J.O. Swahn.  Under turmeric, it says, "Europe got
acquainted with turmeric during the Middle Ages, when it was also called
'Indian (or Eastern) saffron'.  But it was never a leading item of trade
until the fashion of eating curry arrived."
> I just looked up turmeric in the Oxford Companion to Food, which only
states the Marco Polo found
> turmeric in China in 1280.
> Huette

    Adding from Andrew Dalby's _Dangerous Spices_:  {paraphrasing} certain
people in central India have been grinding the root of the native plant,
"Curcuma domestica" to add to food for much longer than two thousand
years.While ginger traveled west, turmeric traveled eastwards. eastern
Indonesia or New Guinea, and across the southern Pacific by early speakers
of Oceanic languages.  To the northeast, turmeric had reached southern China
by the 7th century at the latest.  To the west, in countries where saffron
was traditionally available, turmeric had few attractions in ancient &
medieval times, because the cost of transportation  made it as expensive as
it's rival.  So early western writers know little of turmeric.

Caointiarn