Spices and Flavourings

There are few native British spices, although spices themselves have been used by the British since very early times – coriander seeds, from a Mediterranean plant, were found at a Bronze Age site. The Romans introduced many spices vital to their cooking, as they did herbs, among them pepper, ginger and mustard. After the Norman Conquest, more spicing ideas were introduced, both French and Arab, and the returning Crusaders, too, would have brought back many of the spices they encountered in the East. These included cinnamon, cassia (Chinese cinnamon), cardamom, nutmeg, mace and cloves, and all were incorporated, in sometimes alarming amounts, into medieval cooking, along with other imports such as almonds, almond milk and dried fruits. So you can see that foods from all those years ago were not as basic as their image has led us to believe. But these spices and herbs were not just used in cooking, they played a very big part in medicinal products too.