I'll happily read anything that talks about spices, but I didn't find the article all that convincing. I sent the link to an old housemate of mine, who is work

I'll happily read anything that talks about spices, but I didn't find the article all that convincing. I sent the link to an old housemate of mine, who is working on a PhD in medieval history, and here is her response: "pinches bridge of nose Apart from the rather random and non sensical use of 'medieval' in here? Yeh it is pretty bad. I mean what? Do they mean medieval as 'anything at all before the year 1600'? In which case there is a significant issue because up until the thirteenth century they didn't have most spices - maybe pepper, some salt (expensive as), bay leaves, clove... but none of the better known ones. Let alone sugar! They had honey.. and fruit, all of which have complex flavour profiles. You see some things coming back the crusades (cinnamon) and the like. Also it depends on where you are, because of course Constantinople didn't have that issue. Likewise parts of the Mediterranean and Iberia, and the Middle East. Normally classic 'medieval' flavours are sweet and sour and little differentiation between savoury and sweet - beer, vinegar, nuts, pepper, hyssop and other herbs achieved the flavouring. They definitely used meat, but almost certainly most people couldn't eat that on a regular basis because it is expensive, so this makes no sense on a class scale. French cooking also comes out of fourteenth century cooking, so load of bollocks (I have a recipe here that is almost identical to what it is today) - there is just more cream with the advent of refrigeration. Most of the stuff we associate with it today is post French revolution and the nineteenth century - I love how the idea of French cuisine seems restricted to really narrow Parisian stuff. Not to mention the humoural theory of medicine was still prevalent into the eighteenth and nineteenth century in some parts (in particular the antipodes and Canada). Protestantism had nothing to do with the price of fish. If anything it was the trading networks established from Malacca and the like, which still meant that spices were only affordable by the wealthy until much later when engineering meant ships didn't take 15 months to get there and 15 months back. Paying in blood for spices. Wars were fought over this stuff, along with tea and opium. I suspect most of our modern eating habits are blameable on the Victorians - although having said that, Queen Victoria had her own Punjabi chef to make her curries! There also seems to be some sort of changing shift about what 'spice' means - herbs are not spices. Neither is salt and pepper. Grah. Talking about cherry picking your responses from historians! "