There are as many kinds of mint as there are sparks flying from the mouth of a volcano, and in the Middle Ages there were probably just as many uses. We come across it in many recipes for widely diverse meat dishes, omelettes, salads and sauces. There are indeed a great many species, peppermint being the best known.
The price of nutmeg was exorbitantly high and remained so until the 19th century, when, thanks to Christopher Smith, botanist and member of the East India Company, nutmeg began to be raised elsewhere and not only in the spice islands, as the Moluccas were called.
The fruits of the tree, one-seeded berries slightly resembling a peach, yield two spices: nutmeg and mace. Nutmeg (1) is the seed without the hard outer seed coat, whereas mace is the dried, fleshy, flat aril (2) which encloses the seed and extends beyond it in up to fifteen narrow strips. The fresh aril is a lovely red, changing to orange when it dries.
In the Middle Ages nutmeg was prized as a spice added not only to food but also to beer and used as a medicine to strengthen the stomach. Nowadays it is used as a flavouring for vegetables, salads and soups as well as breads and pastries. Mace, on the other hand, is used to flavour meat soups, sausages and salamis, vegetables and also in certain herb mixtures.
Peppermint is a multiple hybrid obtained by complex breeding and selection from the two species, M. aquatica and M. spicata. For this reason it may he propagated only by vegetative means, by division, for the seeds would produce widely varied offspring, mostly of poor quality and often with a repugnant odour. The principal component of the essential oil contained in the leaves is menthol, well-known ingredient of mouthwashes, toothpastes and candies.
The chief commercial producers of both spices are Indonesia, Sri Lanka and southern and eastern India. Two sorts of nutmeg are available in the shops: East Indian, graded according to size, and West Indian, ungraded
The price of nutmeg was exorbitantly high and remained so until the 19th century, when, thanks to Christopher Smith, botanist and member of the East India Company, nutmeg began to be raised elsewhere and not only in the spice islands, as the Moluccas were called.
The fruits of the tree, one-seeded berries slightly resembling a peach, yield two spices: nutmeg and mace. Nutmeg (1) is the seed without the hard outer seed coat, whereas mace is the dried, fleshy, flat aril (2) which encloses the seed and extends beyond it in up to fifteen narrow strips. The fresh aril is a lovely red, changing to orange when it dries.
In the Middle Ages nutmeg was prized as a spice added not only to food but also to beer and used as a medicine to strengthen the stomach. Nowadays it is used as a flavouring for vegetables, salads and soups as well as breads and pastries. Mace, on the other hand, is used to flavour meat soups, sausages and salamis, vegetables and also in certain herb mixtures.
Peppermint is a multiple hybrid obtained by complex breeding and selection from the two species, M. aquatica and M. spicata. For this reason it may he propagated only by vegetative means, by division, for the seeds would produce widely varied offspring, mostly of poor quality and often with a repugnant odour. The principal component of the essential oil contained in the leaves is menthol, well-known ingredient of mouthwashes, toothpastes and candies.
The chief commercial producers of both spices are Indonesia, Sri Lanka and southern and eastern India. Two sorts of nutmeg are available in the shops: East Indian, graded according to size, and West Indian, ungraded
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Balm is also a medicinal herb. Tea brewed by pouring hot water on the leaves relieves fatigue, aids digestion and relieves flatulence. .
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