What are two spices used during the middle ages?

Answer 1

One answer:

To preserve food. because they did not have refrigerators back then so they needed the spices for that.

Another answer:

Spices were used to flavor food, just as they are today. They were an important status symbol. Some European seasonings, such as onion, and thyme, were available, but people wanted things that were less ordinary, such as pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, and saffron.

Some spices may have been used to preserve food, but this is not a primary use, and does not work very well compared to other methods medieval people had. In those days, there were many ways of preserving food, including drying, salting, smoking, and fermenting. Those people who lived in colder climates even used cold storage areas, which was done from prehistory by using ice in cellars or caves.

Pepper is said to have been used as a preservative, but this is not the case. In fact fresh peppercorns rot very quickly unless they are preserved. There is a source link on this below.

Cinnamon can be used to inhibit bacterial growth when it is added to food, but it was too expensive to be used widely in this way.

Other things such as honey and even sugar can also be used to inhibit bacterial growth, and are much less expensive than imported spices would have been.

There is a source on medieval food preservation below. I did not see any reference to spices in it.

Answer 2

They were used to preserve food in an age of no refrigeration. They were also used to cover the taste of bland food and of food that had gone bad.

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Spices were used in the Middle Ages in much the same way they are used today, to flavor food.

It is possible to use some seasonings to help preserve food, but it does not work as well as one might hope, and the people of the Middle Ages had much better ways of keeping food from going bad. They did not have refrigerators, but used ice houses and caves for cold storage. And they had many other ways to store foods, as well.

There are links to related questions on food preservation and storage below.

Answer 3

Spices were exotic and expensive. Their trade promoted contact between Christians and Arabs, and across the silk road between Christians and Mongols and other people of the East.

When these routes to get spices were closed, as they were from time to time, the spice trade was one of the things that induced people of Western Europe to go off and explore the rest of the world, leading to large empires of the Portuguese, and Spanish. This lead to trade routes to India, and the voyage of Columbus.

Answer 4

There were not many spices used because they didn't have them. Salt was the main spice and some things used saffron but it was more to cover up the rotten food. It turned it bright yellow. Salt was so valuable that it was kept in little boxes and only the wealthy had it.

Answer 5

They were only found in the Middle East and the Far East. They were only found in the Middle East and the Far East.

Answer 6

The spices were very important in Europe for preserving and flavouring food.

Answer 7

To preserve food and make it taste better.

Answer 8

Spices made food taste better. What good is apple pie without cinnamon.

Answer 9

Why were the spices so important to the Tudors ?

Answer 10

Salt