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Spices Info
Spice From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is part of the Cuisine series Foods Bread - Pasta - Cheese - Rice Sauces - Soups - Desserts Herbs and spices Other ingredients
Regional cuisines Asia - Europe - Caribbean South Asia - Latin America Middle East - North America - Africa Other cuisines... Preparation techniques and cooking items Techniques - Utensils Weights and measures See also: Famous chefs - Kitchens - Meals Wikibooks: Cookbook For other uses, see Spice (disambiguation). “Spiciness” redirects here. For the sensation of eating spicy-hot foods, see Pungency. A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavoring, and indirectly for the purpose of killing and preventing growth of pathogenic bacteria[1].
Many of the same substances have other uses in which they are referred to by different terms, e.g. in food preservation, medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics, perfumery or as vegetables. For example, turmeric is also used as a preservative; licorice as a medicine; garlic as a vegetable and nutmeg as a recreational drug.
Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are leafy, green plant parts used for flavoring purposes.[citation needed] Herbs, such as basil or oregano, may be used fresh, and are commonly chopped into smaller pieces; spices, however, are dried and usually ground into a powder.
Contents 1 Classification and types 2 History 2.1 Middle Ages 2.2 Early modern period 3 Common spice mixes 4 Production 5 Further reading 6 Notes 7 Sources 8 See also 9 External links
Classification and types See also: List of herbs and spices
Shop with spices in MoroccoSalt is a very common seasoning, often mistakenly considered as a spice, but it is in fact a mineral product.
The basic classification of spices is as follows:
Leaves and/or branches of aromatic plants, all or part of the plant can be used as one pleases. Basil, bay leaf, parsley, rosemary, tarragon, and thyme are all good examples. Ripened fruits or seeds of plants. Examples include dill, fennel, mustard, and pepper. Roots or bulbs of certain plants, garlic and ginger, for example.
History Spices have been prominent in human history virtually since their inception. Spices were among the most valuable items of trade in the ancient and medieval world. The culinary use of spices originated in the Indian Sub continent and South-East Asia. In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Generally, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian and Mesopotamian sources do not refer to known spices.
The spice trade developed throughout the Middle East in around 2000 BC with cinnamon, Indonesian cinnamon and pepper.
A recent archaeolgical discovery suggests that the clove, indigineous to the Indonesian island of Ternate in the Maluku Islands, could have been introduced to the Middle East very early on. Digs found a clove burnt onto the floor of a burned down kitchen in the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in what is now modern-day Syria, dated to 1700 BC [2]. The ancient Indian epic of Ramayana mentions cloves. In any case, it is known that the Romans had cloves in the 1st century AD because Pliny the Elder spoke of them in his writings.
In South Asia, nutmeg, which originates from the Banda Islands in the Moluccas, has a Sanskrit name. Sanskrit is the language of the sacred Hindu texts, this shows how old the usage of this spice is in this region. Historians estimate that nutmeg was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BC [3].
Indonesian merchants went around China, India, the Middle East and the east coast of Africa. Arab merchants controlled the routes through the Middle East and India until Roman times with the discovery of new sea routes. This made the city of Alexandria in Egypt the main trading centre for spices because of its port.
Middle Ages
Harvesting pepper. Illustration from a French edition of The Travels of Marco Polo.Spices were among the most luxurious products available in the Middle Ages, the most common being black pepper, cinnamon (and the cheaper alternative cassia), cumin, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. They were all imported from plantations in Asia and Africa, which made them extremely expensive. From the 8th until the 15th century, the Republic of Venice had the monopoly on spice trade with the Middle East, and along it with the neighboring Italian city-states. The trade made the region phenomenally rich. It has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the Late Middle Ages. The value of these goods was the equivalent of a yearly supply of grain for 1.5 million people.[4] While pepper was the most common spice, the most exclusive was saffron, used as much for its vivid yellow-red color as for its flavor. Spices that have now fallen into some obscurity include grains of paradise, a relative of cardamom which almost entirely replaced pepper in late medieval north French cooking, long pepper, mace, spikenard, galangal and cubeb. A popular modern-day misconception is that medieval cooks used liberal amounts of spices, particularly black pepper, merely to disguise the taste of spoiled meat. However, a medieval feast was as much a culinary event as it was a display of the host's vast resources and generosity, and as most nobles had a wide selection of fresh or preserved meats, fish or seafood to choose from, the use of ruinously expensive spices on cheap, rotting meat would have made little sense.[5]
Early modern period The control of trade routes and the spice-producing regions were the main reasons that Portuguese navigator Vasco Da Gama sailed to India in 1499. Spain and Portugal were not happy to pay the high price that Venice demanded for spices. At around the same time, Christopher Columbus returned from the New World, he described to investors the many new, and then unknown, spices available there.
It was Afonso de Albuquerque (1453–1515) who allowed the Portuguese to take control of the sea routes to India. In 1506, he took the island of Socotra in the mouth of the Red Sea and, in 1507, Ormuz in the Persian Gulf. Since becoming the viceroy of the Indies, he took Goa in India in 1510, and Malacca on the Malay peninsula in 1511. The Portuguese could now trade directly with Siam, China and the Moluccas. The Silk Road complemented the Portuguese sea routes, and brought the treasures of the Orient to Europe via Lisbon, many of which are coveted spices.
Common spice mixes
A kitchen shelf of spice.Colombo (paprika, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, ginger, black pepper, star anise, cardamom, cloves, mustard grains, saffron); Curry powder; Five bays; Five-spice powder; Garam masala; Quatre épices; Ras el hanout; Za'atar.
Production Wikibooks Cookbook has an article on SpiceLook up Spice in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Wikimedia Commons has media related to: SpiceProduction in tonnes. Figures 2003-2004 Researched by FAOSTAT (FAO)
India 1 600 000 86 % 1 600 000 86 % China 66 000 4 % 66 000 4 % Bangladesh 48 000 3 % 48 000 3 % Pakistan 45 300 2 % 45 300 2 % Turkey 33 000 2 % 33 000 2 % Nepal 15 500 1 % 15 500 1 % Other countries 60 900 3 % 60 910 3 % Total 1 868 700 100 % 1 868 710 100 %
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spice
Complete List of Spices Products By Product
List of Cities for Spice Sourcing
By Cities
Other Categories Under Spices
Spices Industry Reference & Resources
The Most Prominent Spices:
SpiceSource.in Directory
Ø Indian Spices – Spices Board of India Ø Chili Appreciation Society International Ø International Society of Hot Sauce Aficionados Ø Rocoto – The South American Capsicum, Chile Pepper
Pepper
Ø Pepper Clicks Pepper Directory Ø India Pepper & Spice Trade Association Ø Brazilian Pepper Trade Board
Ginger
Some ginger facts:
Other spice facts: India is one of the leading producers of the famed red chilli A major competitor to India in spices is Vietnam The major spices market in India include Kochi (Cochin) in Kerala for pepper & Unjha in Gujarat.
Other Crop & Agricultural Resources
Oilseeds
Ø Australian Oilseeds Federation Ø FAPRI International Oilseeds Model Ø Directorate of Oilseeds Research – Indian Council of Agricultural Research Ø Eastern Cereal & Oilseed Research Centre, Canada Ø Natural Resources Institute – Oilseeds Research Ø International Association of Seed Crushers
Agri Associations & Organisations
Ø The American Society of Agricultural Engineers Ø Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research Ø Agricultural Groups Concerned about Resources & the Environment Ø Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy
R&D
Ø AgBioForum – Journal of Agribio technology & economics Ø Council for Agricultural Science & Technology Ø Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Ø Research in Agricultural & Applied Economics Ø International Center for Tropical Agriculture Ø Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture Ø International Food Policy Research Institute Ø International Water Management Institute Ø Center for International Forestry Research Ø International Livestock Research Institute Ø International Maize & Wheat Improvement Centre Ø International Crops Research Institute for the Semi Arid Tropics Ø Agricultural Research for Developing Countries Ø Agricultural Network Information Center Ø Agricultural Research for Development, Switzerland
General Agri Resources
Ø Future Harvest – Science for Food, the Environment & World’s Poor Ø International Food Policy Research Institute Ø ICARDA – Sustainable Agriculture for the Dry Areas Ø National Gardening Association Ø Organic Farming Research Foundation Ø Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Ø National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service Ø Food Alliance – for Sustainable Agriculture Ø Land Institute – Natural Systems Agriculture Ø American Horticultural Society Ø American Society for Horticultural Science Ø Botanical Society of America Ø American Society of Agronomy
Tea Links
Ø Tea Page Ø Tea Association of the United States Ø Kenya Tea Development Agency Limited Ø UPASI Tea Research Foundation Ø Tea Time Ø Specialty Tea Information Source Coffee Links
Coffee Info & News
Ø Coffee Review – Coffee Buying Guide Ø Coffee Geek – Coffee & Espresso News & Reviews Ø Coffee @ National Geographic Ø International Coffee Organization Ø Fresh Cup – Specialty Coffee & Tea Trade Magazine Ø Specialty Coffee Resource Guide Ø Virtual Coffee – Online Coffee Zine Ø Koffee Korner – for coffee connoisseurs
Coffee R & D
Ø Coffee & Caffeine Health Information
Coffee Associations
Ø Espresso & Coffee Information Listing Ø Specialty Coffee Association of America Ø National Coffee Association USA Ø Specialty Coffee Association of Europe Ø Institute for Coffee Studies Ø Norwegian Coffee Association Ø Guatemalan Coffee Association Ø National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia Ø Association Scientifique Internationale du Café Ø Coffee Association of Canada Ø Vietnam Coffee & Cocoa Association Ø International Cocoa Organisation Ø Brazil Specialty Coffee Association
Coffee Directories
Ø DMOZ Open Directory for Coffee
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