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Posted on 7:13 PM by Wanto and filed under
By Molly Allison
It was not long before the Romans learned about pepper from the Greeks and began to trade with India through the intermediary of the South Arabians (Yemenites). By the second century A.D., the Romans were no longer trading through an intermediary. Their ships sailed from Alexandria along the southeastern canal built by the Egyptian pharaohs not only to the Arabian reloading site Arabia Felix, but also as far as India.
Man's oldest ancestors fed on the seeds of grasses, although later they began to occasionally eat the flesh of various animals. This was eaten raw for fire was unknown to them and so they had no knowledge of cooking. The change to the present wide assortment of foods took place slowly and our day and age continues to see an increase in the variety of foods, which is mainly due to the use of herbs and spices. Thanks to these it is possible to make a tasty pt even from seaweed.
The late Middle Ages might be called the Golden Age of Herbs and Spices for that period saw the emergence of the science of cookery and housekeeping. Cookery was considered an art and a properly prepared dish the best of medicines. The following recipe for 'Douce Ame' (meaning 'sweet breath'), recorded in 1390 by the head cook at the court of Richard II of England, is an example of the recipes of that day.
References to herbs and their use may be found in Chinese documents from as far back as 3000 B.C. Ancient Egyptian recipes on papyrus from the middle of the second millennium B.C. called for the use of herbs such as anise, mustard, caraway, coriander, mint, wormwood, cinnamon and saffron. The cuneiform inscriptions on clay tablets prove that the Sumerians cultivated fennel, caraway, coriander, saffron and thyme in Mesopotamia and that way back in ancient times the Indians were already acquainted with the use of cardamom, turmeric, cloves, nutmeg, pepper and cinnamon.
The city-state of Venice was the most successful and soon became the largest medieval city in the world (population 200,000), due to its trade in spices, silk and oils. Herbs and spices were then shipped from Venice to the other parts of Europe - across Brenner Pass, from Innsbruck to Basel, and along the Rhine to the North Sea and to England. Such a tortuous route naturally further raised the price of the already costly goods. The other route branched off at Innsbruck and led through Augsburg on to Nuremberg and Leipzig, to the trade centres of the Baltic Sea and as far as the old Russian commercial centre, the Boyar republic of Novgorod.
Venice had a monopoly on the profitable trade in herbs and spices until the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 which thus blocked the route to India. This resulted in the gradual decline of Venice's power, though the cost of herbs and spices continued to rise. Desire for the riches from eastern and southern Asia reached new heights following the introduction by Marco Polo, who had travelled extensively through China for 17 years and was the first European to see Indian pepper growing in its native habitat.
Man's oldest ancestors fed on the seeds of grasses, although later they began to occasionally eat the flesh of various animals. This was eaten raw for fire was unknown to them and so they had no knowledge of cooking. The change to the present wide assortment of foods took place slowly and our day and age continues to see an increase in the variety of foods, which is mainly due to the use of herbs and spices. Thanks to these it is possible to make a tasty pt even from seaweed.
The late Middle Ages might be called the Golden Age of Herbs and Spices for that period saw the emergence of the science of cookery and housekeeping. Cookery was considered an art and a properly prepared dish the best of medicines. The following recipe for 'Douce Ame' (meaning 'sweet breath'), recorded in 1390 by the head cook at the court of Richard II of England, is an example of the recipes of that day.
References to herbs and their use may be found in Chinese documents from as far back as 3000 B.C. Ancient Egyptian recipes on papyrus from the middle of the second millennium B.C. called for the use of herbs such as anise, mustard, caraway, coriander, mint, wormwood, cinnamon and saffron. The cuneiform inscriptions on clay tablets prove that the Sumerians cultivated fennel, caraway, coriander, saffron and thyme in Mesopotamia and that way back in ancient times the Indians were already acquainted with the use of cardamom, turmeric, cloves, nutmeg, pepper and cinnamon.
The city-state of Venice was the most successful and soon became the largest medieval city in the world (population 200,000), due to its trade in spices, silk and oils. Herbs and spices were then shipped from Venice to the other parts of Europe - across Brenner Pass, from Innsbruck to Basel, and along the Rhine to the North Sea and to England. Such a tortuous route naturally further raised the price of the already costly goods. The other route branched off at Innsbruck and led through Augsburg on to Nuremberg and Leipzig, to the trade centres of the Baltic Sea and as far as the old Russian commercial centre, the Boyar republic of Novgorod.
Venice had a monopoly on the profitable trade in herbs and spices until the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 which thus blocked the route to India. This resulted in the gradual decline of Venice's power, though the cost of herbs and spices continued to rise. Desire for the riches from eastern and southern Asia reached new heights following the introduction by Marco Polo, who had travelled extensively through China for 17 years and was the first European to see Indian pepper growing in its native habitat.
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