[Sca-cooks] Spices was licorice,

[kingstaste at mindspring.com]

At 02:36 PM 2/23/2004, you wrote:
>It's considered a spice because it is expensive and rare (like spices), but
>technically it would be considered an herb - from the leaves and floral
>parts of the plant.
>Christianna

But Christianna, by your draw, cloves are an herb, because they are part of
the flower of the plant! And pepper...

'Lainie
-majorly confuzled now. Master A?


I guess I would go with the form it comes in.  Since cloves are hard, dried,
closed buds of the flowers of the clove plant, I would consider them spices.
Same with peppercorns, I suppose.  But saffron threads are still flexible
and moist, so I would consider them an herb.  Technically, by my usual
definition (herbs are the leaf and floral parts of the plant, spices are
from the harder parts - bark, rook, stem, rhizome, seeds, pods, etc.) you
are right, and it would seem that dried flower buds should be herbs, but the
form they most commonly come in is dried and hard, making them more
spice-like.  Just goes to show that there are exceptions to every rule.
And then there are the sayings that an herb is just a weed with a use/ a
weed is any plant in a place you don't want it.  So how do we reconcile that
with the fact that the banana is the world's largest herb?
Hmmmm......
:)
Sorry, Lainie, didn't mean to make your brain hurt!
Christianna