[Sca-cooks] Spices was licorice,

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius.magister at verizon.net
Mon Feb 23 13:52:02 PST 2004


Also sprach Ron Carnegie:
>Greetings all,
>
>    Unless I am greatly mistaken I think you will find that NO spice is grown
>in Europe. (Unless in a hothouse).  When I was first taught historical
>cooking, I was taught that Spices by their very nature and definition of the
>word come from exotic locations (i.e. the spice islands).  Before posting
>this this the list I thought I would check my information.  (My teacher was
>a best a tertiary source!)  I do not have time currently to peruse my
>primary sources to see if this is a modern alteration or not (As I can think
>of no easy way to do such).
>
>	Now in the OED (also of course not primary, and in my opinion 
>not always
>the last word in definitions) Spice is defined as," One or other of various
>strongly flavoured nor aromatic substances of vegetable origin, obtained
>from TROPICAL PLANTS, commonly used as condiments or employed for other
>purposes on account of their fragrance and preservative qualities."
>(emphasis is mine.)
>
>	This suggests that what I was taught was correct.  Though used for a
>flavouring agent, if grown in Europe (which is NOT tropical, though it can
>be Mediterranean) it is an herb, not a spice.
>
>    To add to the confusion however, it appears that one may "spice" (the
>verb) with an herb and not just spices!

Of course, it's possible to worry too much about narrow-focus 
definitions. We're looking at a case of intersecting but incongruent 
sets. By that definition, cayenne pepper or other chili powders are, 
arguably, not a spice, to which I simply say, hogwash, and then 
there's also the question of how to classify all the non-herbaceous 
"herbs".

Adamantius



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