[Sca-cooks] Spice Storage

[Volker Bach]

Am Donnerstag, 28. April 2005 20:28 schrieb Huette von Ahrens:

> > The cloth bags, on the other hand, are. This is most likely taken
> > directly from an illustration in the Buch der Mendelschen
> > Zwölfbrüderstiftung (IIRC) that shows a spice merchant with his wares in
> > bags, arrayed on the table in front of him. I made cloth bags for spices
> > and foud that they work fairly well for unground stuff, but I still
> > prefer (barely defensible) glass jars in a wooden box for ease of
> > transport. One day, when I get rich, I'll buy lathe-turned wooden jars :)
>
> Wouldn't the wood give off flavors, unless it was lacquered or coated in
> some fashion? Ceramic jars would be much more impressive, in my opinion. 
> There are a lot of extant Medieval/Renaissance German ceramics, especially
> the German Salt Glazed ceramics.  They are somewhat less breakable than
> glass and just as unlikely to give off unwanted flavoring.

The wood won't be a problem for stoirage because I'd keep the same spices in 
the same jars, but yes, ceramic would be more period. My reason for not using 
it is simple: My spicebox travels. If I drop one of my glass jars on the 
paving stones at Nibelungen War, I can replace it at next to no cost. If I 
dropped the entire boxful of wooden jars, they'd rattle happily. If I dropped 
just one salt-glazed ceramic jar that would constitute real damage. 

I grew up poor. Some habits are hard to grow out of. :)

Giano