[lit-ideas] Re: Carminative shopping
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 11:28:14 -0800
A discovery worth sharing. I'm working my way through Simon Winchester's
books. I've reached "Krakatoa," which begins with a history of the spice
trade. Here's what he says about pepper:
"Pepper has a confused reputation. There is no truth, for example, in the
widely held belief that it was once used to hide the taste of putrefying
meat [I shall look into this challenge to conventional wisdom]; this
charming thought perhaps derives from the equally delightful notion, still
recognized by pharmacists today, that pepper can be used as a carminative, a
potion that expels flatulence. But it was very much used as a preservative,
and more commonly still as a seasoning. By the tenth century it was being
imported into England; the Guild of Pepperers, one of the most ancient of
London's city guilds, was established at least before 1180, which was when
that body was first recorded (they were in court for some minor infraction);
by 1328, the guild had formally registered as an importer of spices in
large, or *gross* [his italics], amounts: its members were called grossarii,
from which comes the modern word grocer."
That should spice up your post-prandial talk.
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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