SPICES
Thursday, 2nd August, 2007
HISTORY IN SPICES & SPICES IN HISTORY
IF you’ve read histories of the colonial period then you’ll know that European traders first came to India because they were looking for spices to take back to their countries. In those days, any Indian spice was so highly valued in Western markets that traders found it worth their while to spend years at sea in inhospitable conditions just to return with a consignment of cloves or nutmeg.
And Europeans, in turn, prided themselves on possession of the spices of the East. If a man had a fistful of nutmeg, he was probably a millionaire! To serve any kind of Indian spice was regarded as a mark of great prosperity and social accomplishment.
As we all know, the Spice Route became the stuff of legends (and the subject of many contemporary books) and led, almost entirely; to the birth of colonialism. The Europeans first came here as traders (as in the case of John Company; better known later as the East India Company), then settled down to wage war with the local rajahs and nawabs and then took over great swathes of land.
In most colonies, the traders were then replaced by governments themselves and 19th century imperialism was created: In India, for instance, the East India Company ran the show till 1857 when the violence of the Mutiny/Revolt/First War of Independence (pick your option according to your political perspective) led the Crown to intervene and Queen Victoria proclaimed that her government would administer India henceforth.
Why am I giving you a history lesson? Well, because two things about this story have always intrigued me - more so, now, as we celebrate the anniversary of the battles of 1857. First of all, do we realize that the foundation of Imperialism - and certainly; of British rule in India - was food? If the East India Company had not arrived here in search of spices, there would have been no British Empire.
But it’s the second thing .If the British came here looking for spices and the ones they took back to their country were so valued, then why is all European food (and English food in particular) so lacking in spice?
Think about it. When you consider the diet of the average Brit, or even the rich Brit, in that era, do you imagine him eating anything other than joints of lamb, meat pies and the like?
What use did a nation fed on bland stodge have for the wondrous spices of the East? Why did sailors spend years at sea in pursuit of nutmeg? Who would buy this stuff? And how would they use it? Surely not as a seasoning for roast lamb!
If there was a Spice Route, then there must have been a demand: of for spices. But the cuisines of the countries that sought these spices were so bland that it is hard to see why they would have required them.
Is there a solution to this mystery?
Apparently, yes. What we now regard as bland European food was not always so. Nor are we right to regard the British palate as hostile to spice. As far back as the 18th century, Englishmen loved a good curry. And the current British obsession with spicy Indian food has its roots in a relatively ancient tradition where curry was made regularly at Buckingham Palace.
We think now of French food as being based on butter and cream. But butter was a poor man’s food. Rich people tended to use lard and animal fat. We imagine that the French ate chicken, beef and pork. But in fact, the upper classes never ate pork .
We think of steak and chips as classic French bistro fare. But actually, the French took to beef only in 1735 after a chef who had worked in London introduced the nation to steak.
So, what was European food like when the traders set out in search of the spices of the East?
Well, it wasn’t very different from the food of the Middle Ages.
Traditional banquet fare included such birds as peacocks in preference to chicken. Nobody bothered with sole or trout. Instead they ate whale, porpoise or seal. In those days, bigness was everything: big fish, big birds, and big meals.
It was in this era, long before the great sauces of European cuisine had been invented, that the demand for spices was huge. Traditional cooks would use the strongly flavoured spices of the East to add zing to peacock or to boost the flavour of seal.
(Spices should not be confused with chillies though: those were discovered in America and brought to India by colonial traders. When we talk about spices in that era, we mean pepper, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, saffron, cardamom etc.)
But all this changed with the invention of modern French - and therefore, European - cuisine. The big birds disappeared to be replaced by chicken and duck. Whale and seal were struck off the menu in favour of turbot and langoustine: Beef and pork became staples. The first sauces were invented and food shifted away from bigness in size and flavor.
Instead, the new generation of chefs began to use herbs which, unlike spices, were locally available. Out went nutmeg and cardamom. In came basil, parsley and thyme. European cuisine suddenly became sauce-based and herb-based.
By the 19th century; the new innovations had not only spread all over Europe but they had crashed the class barriers. Poor people did not necessarily make hollandaise at home but they had been weaned away from the strong flavours of big meat (such as whale and peacock) and the pungency of spices. Instead, they ate a blander (some would say; more delicately flavoured) cuisine.
When the East India Company first got here, its officers took to Indian women and Indian food with gusto. Many took Indian “wives” or concubines and nearly all ate Indian food at home. It was only in the late 19th century when their “wives” began ‘coming over that they gave up on the women, and the food at their homes became bland British fare.
But the British love for strong Indian flavours endured even if it became a masculine thing. The shops of London were full of spicy Indian chutneys and Worcester sauce was first made by Lee and Perrin to a recipe for Indian chutney.
History is full of ifs and buts. Sadly, few of these have to do with food. But often wonder whether we underestimate the role of cuisine in shaping the destiny of nations.
