[Sca-cooks] Spices in England

[Suey]

  I stand to be corrected. Now I too find no evidence that Protestants 
prohibited spices. Stefan I believe it is in Robin Howe's, edited 
version of Mrs. Groundes-Peace’s Old Cookery Notebook (which I do not 
have at hand) in which he states that her 15th Century household 
received something like a spoonful or less of sugar per month while 
Americans in the 20th Century were consuming ? lbs per person per month, 
the figure is extraordinary in comparison. Perhaps Queen Bess had all 
the sugar she wanted but I doubt her subjects saw much of it . . . 
Certainly that was not the case of Iberia where sugar cane flourished in 
the south and the Canaries.
Now in the 16th Century we have a waining of Italian merchants, the rise 
and fall of Portuguese importation of spices to Europe and if I remember 
correctly there was English embargo on their goods at some point which 
did include importation of spices they brought from the Far East.
As I say I only dabble with the 16th Century so please don't quote me or 
ask for references as that the job of someone who is into it. One thing 
I do see, as per Frederick Lane, is the price increase of pepper and 
other spices from the 15th to the 16th Centuries with the increase of 
silver imported into Europe from the Americas. So while Queen Bess 
flourishes on mazipan and traditional medieval spiced sauces and other 
delicacies did her subjects as well? How much nutmeg were they receiving?
I've lost something here. So now you can explain to me what happened? - 
Lainie mentions the Roundheads and the Puritans. Did English cooking 
become tasteless with them? But then Charles II marries Catherine of 
Portugal gaining major parts of India. Did English cooking improve then? 
Looking at the size of his stomach compared with his father's, something 
did happen. But why is it today that one must drag an Hispano to England 
to convince him that English gourmet cookery is delicious and not post 
World War II gruel?
Too from what I see British colonies in America had a reputation for 
good wholesome but tasteless cuisine while Iberia and their American 
domains, Peru in particular, have enjoyed a continually good reputation 
for their food except in times of war and after effects as seen by the 
Spanish Civil War in the 1930's.
Susan