SPICE world

Follow the history of spice's fragrant, heady journey aound the world in ELEANOR LORD's new book The Nutmeg Trail.

- ELEANOR LORD

What is a spice?

At their simplest, spices are the parts of plants most densely rich in flavour, which can enliven and elevate food. They are the dried seeds, barks, roots, rhizomes, fruits, arils, flower buds and resins from plants that grow mostly in tropical climates.

Ask a cook and they will tell you about the aromas that have to be teased out through cooking and that spices are decidedly not herbs, the fresh and leafy parts of plants grown more locally. They will know that spices’ aromas and flavours are volatile and fat-soluble, the spices best freshly ground and their flavours extracted by sizzling in oil, and how they can be used to build layers of flavour to excite all the senses.

Ask a botanist and you’ll hear about the essential oils, oleoresins, terpenes and other compounds, which each bring specific aromas and tastes. These chemical stores in plants have functions to help them survive and reproduce. Often the very things humans are drawn to – the pungency, bitterness, heat or numbness – are actually defence mechanisms for the plants, their armour to repel predators. In the curious case of cinnamon, the resinous bark of the Cinnamomum tree, its warm, woody scent is created when the plant is being eaten to communicate to nearby trees to prepare their defensive chemicals.