Hey smart people, Joe here. My last name comes from Norway, where the
national dish is something called Fårikål: Boiled lamb, cabbage, some salt, pepper…
and, well that’s it, actually. I’ve never tried it. Compare that with one of my favorite dishes,
delicious Indian curry. Full of spices, and so, so good. Why do people in different places prepare
the things they eat so differently? There’s a lot of reasons, from traditions,
what flavors we like, or simply what foods we have around us. But cooking with spices may have been crucial
for humans’ survival... Don’t bay leaf me? It’s thyme for some sage wisdom. Cumin a little closer, I’m about to get
jalapeño brains [OPEN] When we talk “spices” we’re talking
more than just hot things. “Culinary spices” include dozens of aromatic
plants and their seeds. Compare the number of spices in recipes far
from the equator, to ones close to it. People in warm climates use way more spices
even though northern countries have access to just as many herbs and veggies they could
cook with. It’s something any food lover sort of intuitively
knows, but have you ever wondered why people near the equator think spice is so nice? The history of spices extends far beyond the
kitchen. To many peoples, they came to hold monetary
and cultural value. When Alarich, leader of the Goths, besieged
Rome in 408 BC, he demanded 3000 lbs. of pepper as ransom. Neolithic graves have turned up with spices
in tow, and Egyptian scrolls from 1555 BC describe adorning the deceased with aromatic
plants. Caring for the dead was thought to discourage
spirits from sticking around, and a lot of those plants happened to preserve the bodies. The oldest example of spice use in cooking
is 6,000-year-old pottery found with traces of garlic-mustard, a plant with otherwise
little-to-no nutritional value. But beyond the interesting smells and rich
history, there’s a hugely important use for spices that might surprise you. They kill bacteria. Plant tissues – including those we use for
spices – are full of phytochemicals, compounds which give many plants their flavor. Plants manufacture numerous chemicals to defend
themselves from insects and microbes, by poisoning or ripping apart foreign cells. When these flavorful phytochemicals hit our
food, they can have the same microbe-killing effects. The 30 most commonly used spices from recipes
around the world all inhibit growth of some kind of bacteria, often the same ones that
cause foodborne illnesses. Uncooked meats and cooked meat dishes stored
at room temperature can build up massive bacterial populations in just hours. Places where food spoils faster use more bacteria-killing
spices per recipe. And the spices used most often turn out to
be the ones that are the strongest bacteria-killers. There are exceptions to the geography/spice
rule. Some neighboring countries, like Japan and
Korea, can have wildly different spice habits despite having similar climates. Traditional Japanese recipes date back to
a time when much of the meat and fish consumed in Japan was fresh and local, making the preservation
properties of spices less essential. As a result, Korean meat recipes today typically
call for more spices than Japanese ones. Some theories point to spice use in hot climates
to increase perspiration and cool the body by evaporation. If you’re about to leave that comment, spoiler
alert: Very few spices actually make us sweat. And it’s probably a myth that people used
spices to mask the smell and taste of spoiled meat before refrigeration, because these antimicrobial
spices really only work their magic by keeping fresh meat fresh for longer. Before modern awareness of chemistry and microbiology,
spices may have seemed downright magical. And that “magic” might be why many of
these spices are ingredients in witches’ brews: Eye of newt is just another name for
mustard seed. Tongue of dog refers to an herb called houndstongue,
and lion’s hairs are just turnip leaves. Combining modern scientific knowledge with
historical spice traditions has led to some interesting recent discoveries. Doctors have used a compound from cinnamon
bark to ward off bacterial infections like MRSA, and in another experiment rosmarinic
acid added to hamburger meat reduced the level of carcinogens after cooking. We may be entering a renaissance of plant-inspired
medicine, but just like the actual Renaissance, there’s plenty of bad science alongside
the good stuff. So take outrageous spice claims with a grain
of salt, because that essential oil could really just be snake oil. Without a recipe for a time machine, it’s
hard to pin down exactly why we started to use spices. The dishes we eat are part of local traditions
that today are spreading around the globe. Recipes have often been passed down for so
long that no one quite knows how – or why – they originated. But whether we were driven by taste, tradition,
medicine, or all of the above, we stumbled upon some delicious knowledge along our evolutionary
history. Those who control the spice, control the…
microbes? Pretty sure that’s how
that goes. Stay curious.
