Curated playlist
Spices
- CorianderCoriander, known to botanists as Coriandrum sativum, is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae, and it splits dinner tables in two. For most people, a fresh leaf tastes bright, with a faint citrus edge. For others, the very same leaf tastes…
- GarlicAncient Greeks left garlic on piles of stones at crossroads as supper for the goddess Hecate.
- CinnamonAncient writers thought cinnamon grew in Arabia, guarded by winged serpents. Traders kept the real source secret.
- Black pepperBlack pepper was found stuffed in the nostrils of Ramesses II. It was placed there during his mummification rituals.
- CardamomOne German coffee planter helped make Guatemala the top cardamom grower. He brought the plant there before World War I.
- CuminAncient Greeks kept cumin at the table in its own container, like pepper today. The habit still survives in Morocco.
- GingerIn 14th century England, a pound of ginger cost as much as a sheep. Ginger began as a crop of ancient seafarers.
- NutmegBritain gave up a nutmeg island to the Dutch and got Manhattan. Run Island was traded in the Treaty of Breda.
- CloveMinisters of a Han Dynasty emperor had to hold a clove in their mouths before speaking to him.
- CeleryCelery was once used to crown winners of the sacred Nemean Games. Ancient Greeks also wove it into funeral garlands.
- Spice tradeSpice merchants told deliberately fantastic tales about where their goods grew. Hiding the source was good business.
- Mustard seedA grieving mother searched a village for mustard seeds from a home untouched by death.
- TamarindTamarind, known to botanists as Tamarindus indica, carries a name that points to the wrong continent. In Arabic it was called tamr hindi, meaning Indian date. Yet the tree is indigenous to tropical Africa. Its pods hold a sweet and tangy…
- SaffronSaffron is the spice made from the crimson threads of a purple autumn crocus, and about 150 flowers are needed to produce a single gram of the dried product. That arithmetic explains why people call it red gold. It also helps explain why…
- ChicoryCommon chicory, Cichorium intybus, is a woody perennial with bright blue flowers, native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia. It looks like a roadside weed, and in many places it behaves like one. Yet cooks, brewers, farmers and food…
- TurmericTurmeric, known to botanists as Curcuma longa, may owe its English name to the Latin phrase terra merita, which means deserved earth. The Latin word longa in its scientific name simply means long. That modest label sits oddly on a root…
- VanillaVanilla, the flavor behind countless cakes, ice creams and perfumes, owes its place in the world to a 12-year-old boy on the island of Réunion. His name was Edmond Albius, and he was enslaved. In 1841 he worked out how to pollinate the…
- SpiceSpices were never actually used to hide the taste of rotten meat. Cookbooks added spices late in cooking.
- SumacSumac was packed into the cargo of an 11th-century ship that sank off the coast of Rhodes. Archaeologists excavated the wreck in the 1970s and found commercial quantities of sumac drupes aboard. No one can say what the merchants intended.…
- Mastic (plant resin)Mastic is a resin that, during Ottoman rule of the island of Chios, was worth its weight in gold. It comes from Pistacia lentiscus, an evergreen shrub whose resin glands release droplets that dry into brittle, translucent pieces. People…
- LiquoriceLiquorice, spelled licorice in the United States, is the name for the root of a bean-family plant called Glycyrrhiza glabra. Dig it up, and you find something that tastes sweeter than sugar. It also tastes different from sugar, and people…