Sundry Old World Spices

Fenugreek is a distinctive annual plant with an equally distinctive Latin name, Trigonella foenum-graecum (meaning ‘Greek hay’). It resides in the Fabaceae (bean) family.

The oldest known occurrences are from around 6,000 years BP from Tell Halaf in Iraq and c. 5450–5650 BP from Ma’di in Egypt.¹⁷ Numerous Bronze and Iron Age examples are known from South Asia, parts of Europe, Egypt and the Levant.¹⁸ Roman period evidence is known from Germany, Egypt and Bulgaria. Fenugreek (methi in Hindi) has a long history in the Asian subcontinent and this is still the centre of usage. It occurs in a wild state in areas of the Kashmir and Punjab and in the Upper Gangetic plain.

Classical era authors referring to fenugreek include Theophrastus, Columella, Pliny, Dioscorides, Celsus and Galen. Pliny emphasised use for treating various women’s problems, among other disorders. He listed thirty-one remedies, including ‘A decoction … of fenugreek seed is a corrective of the rank odours of the armpits’.¹⁹ Fenugreek is mentioned in the Price Edict of Diocletian (310 CE), and also appears in Apicius’ De Re Coquinaria, where it is treated as a food in its own right rather than a herb or seasoning.

Fenugreek was rarely used in medieval Europe, but in medieval Cairo bad-smelling meat was moistened with pounded fenugreek and boiled in water, which had the effect of ‘refreshing’ the meat.²⁰ A more wholesome dish was ‘tabikh al-hulba’, in which fenugreek seeds were left in a pot over glowing embers overnight, and in the morning were mixed with spices, honey, butter, raisins and figs and cut into two or three parts.

Fenugreek’s other medical uses are: to reduce fevers; soothe intestinal inflammation; seeds ground to a paste as a poultice for battle wounds; as a treatment for boils and other skin conditions; to assist in labour and to improve lactation; and a cure for baldness. In Turkey it is used as a deodorant and breath freshener, in Albania mixed with lemon and onion juice for head colds and sinusitis, and in Bavaria to dissolve mucus.²² Avicenna (980–1037 CE), a Persian physician and philosopher, prescribed it for diabetes and blood pressure.²³ John Gerard (1597) listed many medicinal uses for fenugreek.²⁴ For example, ‘the juice of boiled Fenegreeke taken with honie, is good to purge by the stoole all manner of corrupt humours that remaine in the guts’. Nicholas Culpeper noted that the seeds were only used in medicine.²⁵ According to Pamela Westland, Middle Eastern harem women ate fenugreek seeds as they were the secret to ‘rounded plumpness’. In Ethiopia and India, nursing mothers use fenugreek to promote lactation.²⁶ Modern evidence for the efficacy of these traditional uses of fenugreek is scant!

Modern culinary uses include the leaves, greens or seeds as ingredients in curries, stews, salads and masalas (South Asia), seeds in drinks and in bread (Egypt), and in Turkey and the Middle East as a seasoning. It is also used in chutneys, pickles, confectionary, cakes and syrups. It is a constituent of the North African Berbere mix and (due to its Indian colonial heritage) the French Vadouvan. India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of fenugreek in the world.²⁷ Liquorice (Fabaceae)

Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) is another herbaceous plant in the Fabaceae family and is famous for its sweet flavouring, which is extracted from the root (the generic name Glycyrrhiza means ‘sweet root’).

Liquorice is referred to for its medicinal value in the Chinese Shennong Ben Cao Ying, a materia medica that probably dates from the third century BCE, though its use probably pre-dates this. Theophrastus referred to liquorice as ‘Scythian Root’ and commented:

it is useful against asthma or a dry cough and in general for troubles in the chest: also, administered in honey, for wounds: also it has the property of quenching thirst, if one holds it in the mouth: wherefore they say that the Scythians, with the help of this and mares’ milk cheese can go eleven or twelve days without drinking.²⁸

It was also known to Pliny, Celsus and others of that era.²⁹ In Britain, it was one of the many spices reported to have been left by the Bede to his brethren, but it must have been extremely scarce at that time. It may have come to Britain in greater quantities around the time of the Norman conquest, but it is still very rare in medieval recipes, even in Europe. It was generally inexpensive – it sold for 3d per lb in 1264, 1½d in 1326, and 4d in 1360. Pontefract in Yorkshire became a centre for limited liquorice cultivation by local monks, probably from the sixteenth century. Pontefract cakes – small discs of liquorice ‘cake’ – date from the early seventeenth century and were first used as a medicine. Local apothecary George Dunhill added sugar to the mix, thus creating the eponymous candy still popular today.

A recipe for gingerbread from 1623 includes ‘a little Licoras and Aniseeds’, but recipes using liquorice were still scarce at this time.³⁰ In 1727, Eliza Smith used liquorice, but in medicinal compounds (e.g.

Today, liquorice is chiefly used in confections, particularly in Europe, where it is most popular, but also in China, Turkey and the Middle East. Tamarind (Fabaceae)

Tamarind (Tamarindus indicus) is an evergreen tree belonging to the Fabaceae family, whose fruit is a pod containing the seeds surrounded by a delicious tangy edible pulp. The tree can reach 18m in height and the characteristic leaves are small and oval, arranged in a pinnate pattern. Despite the species name, tamarind is probably native to Africa (or Madagascar) but has spread to many tropical and subtropical environments worldwide. The pods range up to 15cm long and have a hard, cinnamon-coloured shell with a typical arcuate shape, while the fleshy pulp is dark brown and fibrous.

Early evidence of tamarind use was found at the Vadnagar site in Gujurat, India, with seeds apparently representing wild forms in deposits ranging from 100 BCE to 400 CE.³³ However, it is likely that tamarind was introduced to India long before this.

Pliny, describing some trees of India, may have been talking about tamarind in this passage: ‘There is another tree … bearing a still sweeter fruit, though very apt to cause derangement of the bowels. Alexander issued strict orders, forbidding anyone in the expedition to touch this fruit.’³⁴

The Arabs considered tamarind an important medicine. Numerous medical authors have commented on its qualities, particularly as a purgative, e.g. Rhases, a ninth- to tenth-century Persian physician, said that ‘it extinguishes yellow bile, opens the bowels, removes thirst and vomiting, and strengthens the stomach. Its action is said to be similar to that of prunes.’³⁵

Van Linschoten noted that tamarind grew in most parts of India, but especially in Gujurat and the areas north of Goa.³⁶ He observed that:

it hath a sowrish and sharp taste, and is the best sauce in all India, like vergis [verjuice] with us, and they never sieth Rice but they put Tamarinio into it wherewith their composition called Cariil [curry] is made … yet those that see it drest will have no great desire to eate it, for they crush it through their fingers, whereby it sheweth like rotten Medlers, yet it giveth the Rice & the meate a fine sharp taste.

Van Linschoten also noted its excellent purgative qualities. It was salted and exported to Portugal, Arabia, Persia and elsewhere, and he noted its extensive use in Turkey and Egypt. Sugar conserve was also made from it ‘which is verie good’. Export to the Arabian peninsula had probably been carried on since at least the ninth century CE.³⁷

Its medicinal use has also persisted through time. Tamarind appeared in a formula for ‘Lenitive Electuary’ in the first London Pharmacopoeia of 1618, together with prunes, senna, jujubes, violets and liquorice, among others; no doubt it was effective.

The Spanish and Portuguese are believed to have introduced tamarind to the Caribbean, Central and South America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and it became extremely popular there and is widely used today. Tamarind trees were observed by the naturalist Francisco Hernandez de Toledo in the 1570s in Mexico.³⁸

India is the main producer of tamarind, though it is grown commercially in many other tropical countries. It is a common ingredient in curries, chutneys and pickles and in many recipes where a souring agent is needed; and also in sauces (including Worcestershire sauce), pastes, jams and syrups. In Thailand, it is a popular snack and is commonly sold candied. It is also made into refreshing soft drinks, e.g. in Egypt and the Middle East. Mustard (Brassicaceae)

Mustard plants are members of the cabbage family (Brassicaceae) and comprise species of the Brassica and Sinapis genera. The most common variants are black mustard (Brassica nigra), white mustard (Sinapis alba) and brown (or Oriental) mustard (Brassica juncea). They are probably native to the Mediterranean–Middle East–West Asia region. They are characterised by yellow flowers, edible leaves, and seeds that are used as spices and to make the common mustard paste. Mustard seeds range up to 2mm in diameter and vary in colour from yellow and brown to black. The name ‘mustard’ is a contraction of the Latin ‘mustum ardens’, meaning burning wine.

The mustards Brassica/Sinapis sp. and Neslia paniculata were present at a Neolithic site in western Iran (Sheikh-e Abad) where the occupation spanned the agricultural transition (9800– 7600 BCE).³⁹ They could have been used as flavouring and/or for their oil, though there is no evidence for this, and they may only have been crop weeds. A different study looked at phytoliths from the inside of Neolithic cooking pots at three sites around the Danish Straits in Germany and Denmark, dating from around 6,000 years ago.⁴⁰ The phytoliths were correlated with modern garlic mustard, Alliaria petiolata, one of the mustard family, and their use in cooking pots, which also contained residues of marine animals, proves that it was used as a culinary spice.

Mustard was one of the first cultivated crops in the Near East at the start of the Neolithic agricultural revolution.⁴¹ The earliest Christian and Islamic texts refer to the mustard plant, mainly as a religious symbol; for example, the parable of the mustard seeds is a well-known biblical story.

Mustard was grown by the Indus River Valley civilisation several millennia BCE and seeds were recovered from Harappa and Rodji.⁴² It was tentatively identified in Mesopotamia at Umma (third millennium BCE), Lagash (late third millennium), and Ur, Nuzi and Mari (second millennium).⁴³ If the identification is correct, it was also used to flavour date beer in the Neo-Babylonian (626– 539 BCE) period (date beer with mustard … that would be an interesting beverage).

Mustard was referred to in the 1550 BCE Ebers Papyrus from Ancient Egypt and was cultivated in Hellenistic and Roman times. Black mustard seeds from a building layer (probably from a seed store) in the Roman town of Serdica, Bulgaria, date to the second century CE.⁴⁴ Black mustard spread from its origin in Asia Minor and the Middle East to become naturalised in Europe.⁴⁵ It became more widespread during medieval times (probably because it was a cheaper alternative to more expensive imported spices). Mustard seed was used extensively in Apicius’ De Re Coquinaria, appearing in sauces for wild boar, spiced hare, and various birds and fish.

The Romans introduced black and white mustard to England. Mustard seed is mentioned in Leechdoms and may have been used as food, flavouring and medicine in Anglo-Saxon times.⁴⁶ Prepared mustard appears to have been used as a flavouring with bread or other food, likely to have had the same pasty consistency that mustard has today.

Dijon became a centre for prepared mustard in the thirteenth century. The famous Grey Poupon brand was established in 1877 using white wine in its recipe, replacing the vinegar or verjuice that was previously used. Its only ingredients are mustard seeds, wine and water.

Mustard was popular in medieval England. The Forme of Cury (1390) has a recipe for Lumbard Mustard:

Take Mustard seed and waishe it & drye it in an ovene, grynde it drye. farse it thurgh a farse [sieve it]. clarifie hony with wyne & vynegur & stere it wel togedrer and make it thikke ynowz. & whan ?ou wilt spende ?erof make it thynne with wyne.⁴⁷

Lumbard Mustard was also used with wine, honey, vinegar and various spices to make a dish of pickled vegetables called ‘Compost’ in the same book.

Mustard appeared in a few recipes from The Viandier of Taillevent – a fourteenth-century cookbook – such as mustard soup and a sauce that combined it with red wine, sugar and cinnamon powder. Others called for it to be used as a condiment.⁴⁸

Clarissa Dickson Wright referred to a wedding party of forty people which needed 2 quarts of mustard, and a fifteenth-century household that consumed 84lb of mustard seed in a year (presumably a very large household).⁴⁹ In 1419, Alice de Bryene purchased seed mustard at 1s per bushel. This seems to have been a favourite spice of Dame Alice – the household ate mustard with almost everything and the seed was ground up with vinegar and honey.

In the Taylors Feast of 1638 there is a story of three Highlanders visiting England who, while staying at their inn, had for their dinner powdered beef (salted or preserved beef) and mustard, which they hadn’t encountered before:

one of them demanded what the deele [devil] it was? the Host answered, that it was good sawce for their meate; Sawce said the other? it hath an ill looke, I pray let me see yon eat some first; then the Host took a bit of Beefe, and dipt it in the Mustard, & did eate it: the Highland-man presently took his meate and rowl’d it in the Mustard, and began to chaw, but it was so strong, that it was no sooner in his mouth, but it set him a snuffing and neesing, that he told his friends (Ducan and Donald) that hee was slaine with the grey Grewell in the wee-dish; he bid them draw their Whineards, and sticke the false Lowne, (their Host) hee pray’d them to remember his last love to his wife and Barnes, and withall to have a care for the grey grewell, for the Deele was in’t. But after the force of the Mustard was spent, the Gentleman left neesing, all was pacified, mine Host was pardon’d, and Mustard was good sawce for powderd Beefe.⁵⁰

In 1720, a Mrs Clements of Durham originated a process to remove the husks from ground mustard seed, to make a smooth finely milled paste, the first of its kind in England (the brand is still marketed today). A more popular English mustard has an origin in the Norfolk fens at the beginning of the nineteenth century, where Jeremiah Colman milled a blend of brown and white mustard seed to create the very strong and distinctively bright yellow Colman’s Mustard. East Anglia is still the main area for mustard growing in the UK. Sadly, the Colman’s factory in Norwich closed down in 2020, with Unilever, the brand’s owner, moving production to Burton-on-Trent and Germany.

Mustard has long been used as a medicine: Pythagoras hailed it as a treatment for scorpion stings; mustard plasters were used to stimulate blood circulation, treat arthritis and rheumatism; it promotes appetite and has been used as a laxative (helping out at both ends, as it were); it has also been used as a treatment for asthma, to induce vomiting and to treat coughs.⁵¹ It is also popular in Ayurvedic and Yunani medicine. John Gerard in his 1597 Herbal recommended mustard seed pounded with vinegar as an excellent sauce to be eaten with fish or flesh and mustard was a good remedy for various ailments.⁵² Similarly, Nicholas Culpeper waxed lyrical over the virtues of black mustard for a wide variety of bodily systems – blood, stomach, heart, brain, spleen, bowels, mouth, throat, joints, shoulders, hair, skin and various afflictions thereof!⁵³ Victorian households commonly used mustard baths to relieve and prevent cold symptoms, on the theoretical basis that the heat of the mustard would draw blood away from the congested area.⁵⁴ Mustard is cultivated in many countries today, including Canada and the USA, Russia, various European countries, Myanmar, India and Nepal. Horseradish and Wasabi (Brassicaceae)

Horseradish and wasabi are also members of the Brassica family, the former appealing to Western tastes, the latter to the East, most notably Japan. Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) is grown for its large root which has a sharp pungent taste, best eaten fresh for maximum effect. The leaves are also edible but not so commonly used. It seems to be native to eastern Europe, or possibly Russia. Horseradish sauce is a common European condiment, and in the UK is traditionally served with roast beef, among other dishes.

It has also been used since antiquity, for both medicinal and culinary needs. Both Pliny and Dioscorides referred to horseradish as ‘wild radish’ or ‘Armoracia’ and observed that it was diuretic and heating.⁵⁵

Local horseradish was known to be used in mid-fourteenthcentury Prague.⁵⁶ In 1597, John Gerard observed: ‘The roote is long and thicke, white of colour, in taste sharpe, and verie much biting the toong like pepper.’⁵⁷ It was mainly planted in gardens (in England) but was also found growing wild. He described its common use by the Germans ‘for sauce to eat fish with, and such like meates, as we do with mustarde; but this kinde of sauce doth heate the stomacke better, and causeth better digestion than mustard’.

Horseradish was fairly commonplace in eastern Europe and Germany during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and started to appear in English recipes during the seventeenth century, sometimes with fish dishes. It appears in recipes for stewed bream and boiled pike with oysters.⁵⁸ Its versatility was shown in recipes for stewed calf’s head, boiled haunch of venison, boiled pike, stewed bream, soused ram’s head, roast mutton, fricassee of chickens, pigeons and rabbits, fried mushrooms, and fried beans.⁵⁹ A simple recipe for horseradish sauce appears in 1669 wherein the horseradish is soaked in water, finely grated then mixed with a little vinegar and sugar.⁶⁰ Horseradish was also used in a preparation for mustard in the same text – the blend of mustard and grated horseradish root probably originated in medieval times and is known as Tewkesbury mustard. The roast beef and horseradish sauce combination appears to be an eighteenth-century development. Hannah Glasse said of roast beef: ‘Take up your meat, and garnish your dish with nothing but horse-raddish.’⁶¹

Wasabi belongs to the same family but to an entirely different genus – Eutrema japonicum – and has the informal name Japanese horseradish. It is used extensively and almost exclusively in Japanese cuisine, where it is one of the most important flavourings. It has been used in Japan since at least medieval times. Its rhizomes are ground into a paste or powder. The taste develops after mixing with water and is sharp and burning, similar to horseradish, but with sweet and fruity notes. Horseradish is often used as a substitute, especially in the West where fresh wasabi is not usually available. Wasabi’s main use is as a condiment for sushi, sashimi, tofu, tempura, etc. and other dishes, but wasabi-flavoured snacks are also quite common now in Japan and elsewhere. Poppy Seed (Papaveraceae)

The poppy, Papaver somniferum, is an annual herb famous for three things: its beautiful flowers, its edible seeds, and the source of opium, the latex being obtained from the seed capsules and processed into heroin or other medicinal alkaloids. The seeds themselves have no narcotic effect. The plant is native to the western Mediterranean area but has been introduced across the globe.

Human use of the poppy is truly ancient, and dates back at least to the Bronze Age, and probably the Neolithic. Sumerian clay tablets dating to the third millennium BCE refer to poppies; it is likely that their knowledge was passed to the Babylonians and ultimately the Egyptians and Persians. Poppy seeds and plants are listed in the 1550 BCE Ebers Papyrus and their use to stop the crying of a child was documented (‘It acts at once!’).⁶²

Poppies were a part of ancient Greek mythology, the plants adorning statues of various deities, e.g. Apollo, Demeter, Pluto and Aphrodite.⁶³ A Minoan terracotta ‘poppy goddess’ found on Crete dates from around 1400 to 1100 BCE – various aspects of this find may symbolise the use of opium, not least being that she looks like she’s in a state of euphoria. The ancient Greeks used capsules, stems and leaves to produce an extract that was used as a soporific drug. Hippocrates used white poppy as part of a pleurisy treatment, fresh poppies in a consumption treatment and poppy in a typhus treatment.⁶⁴ Poppy (or hemlock) also appears to have been used as a means of suicide for the weak and elderly in some areas, and possibly euthanasia.

Pliny mentioned the use of white poppy seed mixed with honey served to the ancients and the continuing use of it sprinkled on bread and bound with egg yolk.⁶⁵ Pounded white poppy was taken in wine as a soporific.⁶⁶ The milky juice of black poppy was obtained via an incision just beneath the corolla and kneaded into lozenges: ‘This juice is possessed not only of certain soporific qualities, but, if taken in too large quantities, is productive of sleep unto death even: the name given to it is “opium”.’

Celsus observed that ‘Sleep is procured by the poppy, lettuce … mulberries, and leeks’.⁶⁷ He noted that bread laid on with poppies (presumably the seeds) helped reduce fever.⁶⁸ White poppies were helpful to promote urine; tears of poppy (i.e. opium) were part of a treatment for disorders of the large intestine, an emollient and an antidote.⁶⁹ Poppy tears were used as a treatment for pains in the head, and in another recipe, a handful of wild poppies was boiled in water and the liquor mixed with passum (a raisin wine) and boiled together – ‘for they both procure sleep’. Poppy tears appear in cough medicines, medicines for eye disorders, to treat ulcers and scars, ear infections and toothache.⁷⁰

Poppy seeds were referred to as a condiment in the Excerpts of Apicius by the fifth-century writer Vinidarius. They also appeared quite frequently in the prolific Cardo V sewer deposits at Herculaneum.⁷¹ However, the second- to third-century writer Athenaeus didn’t rate poppy very highly as a food:

And Epicharmus also shows us plainly this … ‘The poppy, fennel, and the rough cactus; now one can eat of the other vegetables when dressed with milk, if he bruises them and serves them up with rich sauce, but by themselves they are not worth much.’⁷²

Arabs were responsible for disseminating knowledge of opium’s medicinal qualities beyond the West and especially to India and China in medieval times.⁷³ The existence of the poppy plants there probably extends back long before this, and opium poppies may have been cultivated in China by the seventh century CE. In any event, by the beginning of the sixteenth century India was already exporting opium to China. The nineteenth-century Opium Wars were the result of an extension of this trade, with the British East India Company expanding its (illegal) business to the extent that the Chinese had to react.

In 1596, van Linschoten made a very early account of the habit of opium using in India: ‘The Indians use much to eat Amfion [opium] … He that useth to eate it, must eate it daylie, otherwise he dieth.’⁷⁴

In 1653, Nicholas Culpeper noted that the seeds, ground and mixed with barley water, were good for strangury (painful urination), but lacked any of the qualities of opium, of which he says:

Opium has a faint disagreeable smell, and a bitterish, hot, biting taste; taken in proper doses, it procures sleep, and a short respite from pain, but great caution is required in administering it, for it is a very powerful, and, consequently, a very dangerous medicine in unskilful hands. It relaxes the nerves, abates cramps, and spasmodic complaints; but it increases paralytic disorders, and such as proceed from weakness of the nervous system … An over-dose causes immoderate mirth or stupidity, redness of the face, swelling of the lips, relaxation of the joints, giddiness of the head, deep sleep, accompanied with turbulent dreams and convulsive starting, cold sweats, and frequently death.⁷⁵

After these scary descriptions, Hannah Glasse’s cordial poppy water of 1747 sounds very innocuous:

Take two gallons of very good brandy, and a peck of poppies, and put them together in a wide-mouth’d glass, and let them stand forty-eight hours, and then strain the poppies out; take a pound of raisins of the sun, stone them, and an ounce of coriander seed, and an ounce of sweet fennel seeds, and an ounce of liquorice sliced, bruise them all together, and put them into the brandy, with a pound of good powder sugar, and let them stand four or eight weeks, shaking it every day; and then strain it off, and bottle it close up for use.⁷⁶

Turkey is currently the world’s largest producer of poppy seed (while Afghanistan is the largest producer of opium). Poppy seeds are widely used in bakeries, confections and as a spice, e.g. in various curries in Indian food, and to provide texture. Sesame Seed (Pedaliaceae)

Sesame (Sesamum indicum) is a flowering annual plant in the mint family native to northern India. It can grow to about 1m tall and has tubular flowers that can be white, purple or blue. The seeds are small (typically around 3?2mm or less), flat and oval, and occur in a grooved capsule up to 8cm long. The phrase ‘Open Sesame!’ from the Arabian Nights was the magical command used to open the cave in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves – it was based on sesame capsules, which contain about seventy seeds, tending to burst open when ripe. The seeds can occur in many colours but are most commonly creamy white. There are many related species, mostly wild. Sesame seeds have a rich nutty and buttery flavour and are commonly used raw or roasted. After roasting they acquire a golden-brown colour and a mild almond-like flavour. Sesame oil is deep brown, aromatic and nutty and is used both as a cooking oil and flavour enhancer. Its domestication on the Indian subcontinent is proven by DNA analysis, and the data confirm the close relationship between S. indicum and its progenitor S. orientale var. malabaricum.⁷⁷

‘A quantity of lumped and burnt’ sesame was reported from Harappa in the Indus Valley – probably from 2500 to 2000 BCE.⁷⁸ Material from Miri Qalat in Baluchistan dates to the same period. There are numerous other archaeological records of sesame across India from the second and first millennia BCE.

It is likely that that sesame arrived in Mesopotamia from trade with the Indus Valley Harappa society, possibly before the end of the third millennium BCE.⁷⁹ Charred seeds have been found dating from the third millennium BCE in Abu Salabikh, Iraq.⁸⁰ John W. Parry reported that according to translations of tablets in the British Museum, Assyrian gods drank a wine of sesame, perhaps making this the earliest mention of a herb on record.⁸¹ There are several references to sesame seed on sixth-century BCE tablets and sesame seed was highly prized throughout Babylonian history – used in cakes, dainties, wine, medicines and oils.

Sesame may have reached Egypt by the second millennium BCE, though evidence is scant. However, there is also a record of sesame (pollen) from Naqada in Egypt, dating from the Predynastic Period.⁸² It was certainly cultivated during the Graeco-Roman period.

Theophrastus refers to sesame and its peculiar seed capsule. He noted that the white seeds are sweeter than the dark. Pliny mentions that the Arabian nomadic tribes extracted oil from sesame, ‘like the Indians’.⁸³ He correctly recognised that India was the source of sesame; there were a few useful medicinal qualities, but ‘as an aliment it is injurious to the stomach, and imparts a bad odour to the breath’. Galen, too, appeared to disapprove, at least as a food – being of an oily nature it was heavy on the stomach – though it had merits as an emollient (moisturiser) and was warming.⁸⁴ Dioscorides recommended for burns, bites inflammations and the like. Medieval Arabian physicians took a similar view to the Greeks.⁸⁵

A curious story about sesame appears in Herodotus’ account of how it helped save 300 boys of Corcyra (Corfu) from castration by the tyrannical Periander of Corinth.⁸⁶ Periander had abducted these children and sent them to Alyattes to be made eunuchs, but they stopped en route at Samos, whereupon the Samians, on learning the reason for the journey, had the children seek sanctuary in the Temple of Artemis. The Corinthians were unable to enter the temple and so tried to starve them out. But the Samians invented a festival and:

Each evening, as night closed in, during the whole time that the boys continued there, choirs of youths and virgins were placed about the temple, carrying in their hands cakes made of sesame and honey, in order that the Corcyraean boys might snatch the cakes, and so get enough to live upon.

This went on so long that the Corinthians tired of waiting, gave up and went away, the boys were saved and returned to their families.

Sesame was certainly used by the Romans – the seed was included in Diocletian’s Price Edict of 301 CE and it is recorded as a condiment by Vinidarius, but its main use was almost certainly for the oil. Its export from India in the first century CE is inferred by its listing at the west coast port of Kalliena in the Periplus. It was likely introduced to Britain by the Romans (as was poppy seed), but archaeological records are rare.

John Gerard (1597) added little to the Greek and Roman medicinal viewpoint but observed that it ‘is a stranger in England’. It certainly never seemed to have been popular in medieval Europe, perhaps apart from Moorish Spain.

Sesame is grown in many tropical and subtropical environments, though it can also handle temperate climates; the largest producers are India, Sudan, China and Myanmar. Most of the production is used for culinary purposes and a large part of that is for sesame oil; the remainder is used in baking and confectionary, a few spice mixes, etc. Spikenard (Caprifoliaceae)

Spikenard is an oil from the flowering plant Nardostachys jatamansi, which belongs to the honeysuckle family and is native to the Himalayan region – and now critically endangered. It is commonly abbreviated as ‘nard’, which derives from the Latin nardus. The oil is obtained from crushing the rhizomes and is highly aromatic; consequently, it has been used in making perfumes and incense. It was also used as a flavouring and was very popular in Ancient Rome. Spikenard is listed in the Periplus as an export product from Barbarikon, Barygaza, Muziris and Ganges (town of the same name as the river). Its importance can be seen from the Muziris Papyrus, which records the loading of sixty valuable containers of nard to the ship Hermapollon. Nard was very important in Jewish religious ritual of the time; this may also have contributed to its high value.⁸⁷ Pliny referred to nard as holding ‘the principal place among our unguents’ and ‘its sweet smell, and the taste more particularly, which parches the mouth, and leaves a pleasant flavour behind it’.⁸⁸ He quoted the price of leaf nard as 40–75 denarii per lb, while the spike was 100 denarii per lb. It commonly appeared in medicinal compounds, such as in Celsus’ De Medicina.

Spikenard essential oil is still used in aromatherapy, perfume and incense, and has a pleasant, intense earthy smell. Star Anise (Schisandraceae)

The wonderful eight-rayed stars of Illicium verum are a visual treat, perhaps one of the most exotic of spices. It is the fruit of a medium-sized evergreen tree that is native to south-eastern China and Vietnam. Each of the star’s rays (which are carpels, the female part of the flower) contain a single seed; the fruits are fleshy when fresh but become rusty brown and woody on drying. The flavour is also exotic – an intense, very sweet anise taste and aroma, which is due to the high content of anethole, the same compound found in anise, fennel and liquorice.

It has been cultivated in China since around 2000 BCE but only appeared in Europe in the sixteenth century, reputedly seized with other goods from a Spanish ship in the Philippines by Thomas Cavendish in his first voyage of 1587–88 and brought back to London.⁸⁹ Nonetheless, it is infrequent in historic European recipes and appears to be something of a rarity. It was added to fruit syrups and conserves.⁹⁰

In Chinese culture it is sometimes chewed after a meal to aid digestion; the fruit is also used to treat colic and rheumatism.⁹¹ It is an ingredient in Chinese Five Spice mix and is commonly used in marinades, stews, roasts, soups and sauces. It is used in Vietnamese cooking (e.g. in beef pho), a few Indian masalas, some Persian recipes and in certain Malaysian and Thai dishes (e.g. curries and soups). Small quantities are typically employed, due to the intense flavour. Black Limes and Kaffir Limes (Rutaceae)

Black lime, also called loomi, or dried lime, is a powerful spice which reputedly originated in Oman and is extremely popular in the Middle East. The blackened objects don’t look very appealing – like rotten or burnt-out husks – and are very lightweight, all the water of the heavy fresh fruit having been driven out by the drying process. But the taste is concentrated and tangy, acid lime with a smoky acrid aroma.

The limes (Citrus aurantifolia) are usually prepared by curing in brine and drying in the sun. They can be used whole or sliced/broken, but normally they are added as a ground ingredient where a souring agent is needed … and you don’t need to use much – a little goes a long way.

Limes are native to Southeast and South Asia and were introduced to other parts of the world via trade. The timing of introduction is unclear; citron (Citrus medica) was known to Theophrastus and Pliny, and used by Apicius, but limes were probably not brought to the Mediterranean until medieval times, e.g. lime found in medieval deposits at Quseir al-Qadim (the old Roman port of Myos Hormos on the Red Sea) – on a major trade route from the East – was absent from earlier Roman remains.⁹²

Dried limes are also a favourite in Persian cuisine (‘limoo amani’) and have been cultivated there for many centuries – there are two varieties: almost black, and those of a creamy colour, the latter being generally preferred due to their more delicate flavour.⁹³

The distinctive knobbly-skinned Kaffir limes and their leaves (Citrus hystrix) are used extensively in Southeast Asian cuisine, e.g. in curry pastes, tom yum, tom kha and other soups and sauces. They are also used in perfumes, cosmetics and medicines. Szechuan Pepper and Sansho Pepper (Rutaceae)

Szechuan pepper (or Fagara) and Sansho pepper are closely related species of the genus Zanthoxylum belonging to the Rutaceae family, which also includes limes and other citrus fruits. Zanthoxylum has about 250 species, but the important ones that produce spices are Z. bungeanum and Z. armatum (Szechuan pepper) and Z. piperitum (Sansho pepper). Despite being named ‘pepper’, they have no relation to black pepper or chilis.

Szechuan pepper is native to Asia, especially China and the Himalayas. The fruits are small red-brown berries. It has sharp, peppery flavour with a strong citrus tang and a characteristic pungency that has a curious mouth-numbing, tingly effect; all the flavour is in the outer berry husk and not in the seeds contained inside.

It has been used in China since ancient times and is one of the key ingredients of the Chinese Five Spice mix, but never caught on in the West. In fourteenth-century China, the painter Ni Zan referred to fagara as one of the frequently used condiments and it also appeared in the cuisine of the Imperial dietician Hu Sihui, though the latter appeared to rate black pepper above fagara.⁹⁴

Used as a spice, it is typically roasted first to release the strongest flavours, and is used whole, crushed or ground in a variety of roasts, barbecues and stir-fries, and particularly in Szechuan cuisine. It is also used as a dry condiment when ground, sometimes mixed with salt.

Sansho pepper, also called Japanese Prickly Ash, is native to Japan and Korea and is used as a condiment and seasoning (it is an ingredient in Japanese Seven Spice blend), but the leaves and shoots are also used in Japanese cooking, garnishing soups, etc. Both Sansho and Szechuan pepper are used in Himalayan cuisine, especially in curries and pickles. Amchoor (Anacardiaceae) and Mango Achar/Pickle

Amchoor is the Hindi word for dried green mango powder, which is a spice used in Indian cuisine, primarily as a souring agent, similar in effect to tamarind pulp. It is prepared by peeling, slicing and sun-drying before grinding. A pre-1900 recipe for amchoor appears in an anonymous Indian cookery book and involves peeling and quartering green mangoes, sprinkling with salt, then placing under the sun to dry. After beginning to dry they are then rubbed with dried powdered turmeric, chilis and ground ginger, more salt and then further dried until completely desiccated, bottled and stored for use.

Mangifera indica is a tree native to the north-eastern part of the Indian subcontinent (and perhaps also to Southeast Asia) and has been used here since ancient times – it is closely connected with Sanskrit and early Hindu mythology.⁹⁵ The thirteenth- to fourteenth-century Indo-Persian writer Amir Khusrau was lavish in his praise of the fruit. In the late sixteenth century, van Linschoten also sang its praises, both as fresh fruit and pickle: ‘they have a verie pleasant taste, better than a peach … they are gathered when they are greene, and conserved.’⁹⁶ Sumac (Anacardiaceae)

Sumac is one of several plant species belonging to the genus Rhus of the Anacardiaceae family. It has a wide range in various tropical and temperate settings, but perhaps the most commonly used species is R. coriaria, or Sicilian sumac, which is native to southern Europe and western Asia. Its dried fruit is used as a spice, which has a sharp, fruity but sour taste. It also has a long history in tanning and medicine.

Sumac goes back a long way – both Theophrastus and Pliny observed that the fruit reddens like the grape and that it was used to dye white leather; also that it had medicinal uses – Pliny said the leaves, pounded with honey and applied with vinegar, were good for treating bruises, coeliac (intestinal) affections and ulcers of the rectum.⁹⁷ A decoction was good for suppuration of the ears.

Dioscorides hailed its efficacy in a wider range of complaints and also recognised it as a food.

Culpeper (1653) said sumac ‘seeds dried, reduced to powder and taken in small doses, stop purgings and hemorrhages, the young shoots have great efficacy in strengthening the stomach and bowels, if taken in a strong infusion’.⁹⁸

The ground spice is used as a condiment for salads, meze, stews, meat and rice dishes, for seasoning kebabs, as an ingredient in the Za’atar spice blend, and also used to make refreshing soft drinks. It is most popular in the Middle East, west Asia and parts of North Africa.