[Sca-cooks] Spices was licorice,

[Ron Carnegie]

  Interesting question, this could be the one that really puts the usage to
the test!  All the references I can find online call it a spice.  They also
however give it locations that almost match the definition that I was given.
(Tropical).  I say almost because they also include some locations I would
call Mediterranean rather than tropical.  Most notably Spain and Greece.
These pages however show no references to the British Isles.  Now this I
believe is wrong.  I am not familiar with English references, but I have
seen Irish references for Saffron, though at the time I was looking at
clothing references rather than foodways!  The list I was looking at was
supposed to be historical sources, but I suspect it was in fact modern
sources.  This would not be surprising as the web is not the greatest place
to do research and the web page in question was a spice merchant rather than
a spice historian.

   By the bye, I feel I have to explain myself here.  I have just made my
second reference in a very short time to a writer being something other than
a historian.  I am not trying to imply or show a historian bias here, far
from it.  I simply mean that history is not the object of the author's piece
or necessarily their interest.  Their history is possibly very accurate,
maybe the individual author has a great interest in the subject and
therefore a great knowledge, but it may also simply be ,"well I think I
heard this once and it sounds good".  No way of to be sure with out knowing
the authors and with no historical sources cited.

Ranald de Balinhard

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sca-cooks-bounces at ansteorra.org
> [mailto:sca-cooks-bounces at ansteorra.org]On Behalf Of Laura C. Minnick
> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 4:55 PM
> To: Cooks within the SCA
> Subject: RE: [Sca-cooks] Spices was licorice,
>
>
> At 01:52 PM 2/23/2004, you wrote:
> >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).
> >>
> >>    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
>
> Where might this put saffron? It is my understanding that it was grown in
> England through the High Middle Ages. Is saffron an herb, or a spice?
>
> 'Lainie
> __________________________________________________________________
> _________
> "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president ...
> right or
> wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to
> the American public." -- Teddy Roosevelt, 1918
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Sca-cooks mailing list
> Sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> http://www.ansteorra.org/mailman/listinfo/sca-cooks