The Spice Nobody Wanted

The Spice Must Flow

garlic and onion go in the pot before i know what im making

He who controls the spice controls Arraki….I mean the kitchen

Oh... That's why vampires are allergic to garlic... They are wealthy and garlic is beneath them.

The fact that the ceramic pots were short-lived makes me feel a lot better about the ones I have ruined over the years.

It's crazy from a 21st century perspective that wild salmon was considered poor man's food centuries ago in England.

I have often thought that the spices we associate with the Yule season-cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, etc.- were that because people couldn't afford these expensive spices during the full part of a year, but during the holidays some people were able to splurge a bit to liven up their Christmas tables.

My ancestors were farmers in poland. They passed down recipes which are still in my family, most of which use a lot of herbs and alliums for flavoring. Lots of stews too, and fried dishes.

In England, things like watercress, horseradish and mustard could all he produced domestically and would add a bit of 'heat' to dishes.

Call me a peasant, but life without garlic is no fun. Thanks, Townsends, for sprinkling nutmeg dust on our lives! ❤

I remember there was still a prejudice against garlic when I was a kid and I didn't get it as I always liked garlic. Today I feel like garlic has been widely embraced.

Greetings from Mexico! Nowadays, we call "olla" almost any type of pot. "Olla de cerámica" = ceramic pot, "olla de hierro" = iron pot. Love your videos.

Boiled egg yolk is frequently overlooked as a thickener (because bleached flour is much cheaper nowadays), but it can do a lot of heavy lifting. And that's not even mentioning the nice flavor it can add to a savory sauce!

02:59 So that scene in “It’s a Wonderful Life!” where Potter calls the Italian immigrants who George Bailey helped finance loans for “garlic eaters!” wasn’t just Capra trying to avoid more offensive slurs like dago, guido, wop, etc. He might have also been trying to show Potter’s disdain for the poor AND immigrants

This kind of stew with pepper, garlic and boiled eggs (or just the yolks) is called in Spain "pepitoria" and sometimes include grounded almonds. And by the way, ceramic pots last for many many years. I have a couple of them older than 50 years and still us them to make "cocido madrileño" or "olla podrida" in the fireplace.

I'll take Garlic over nutmeg any day.

Juan was really ahead of the times, peppering his recipes with stories before SEO and cooking blogs trying to get you to scroll through and endless barrage of ads was even a thing.

The spice must flow

I am a Spaniard who has been living in the UK for nearly 13 years. I can corroborate that that base, with some modifications like using more parsley or other spices is quite common. (Our "common base" is just garlic and onion fried on olive oil tho, with pepper added before all the ingredients boil). I am used to frying the meat to "seal it" before cooking too. I am grateful to you for putting more context in our food. I always got explained that it is because "spices where too expensive", but never knew time frame. So this video is really cool! And yes, UK guinea pigs find Spanish food "too rich", While I find most UK foods too bland, so I think we are into something!

A couple of notes on English cookery and horticulture. Garlic took its time to be reintroduced to England, we don't find it being used at all until the middle of the sixteenth century and then only medically. It didn't become popular even with the wealthy until after the Restoration and the arrival of the 'French taste' which moved cookery away from heavy use of imported spices to fresh domestic herbs and lighter tastes. The tomato is even later. From the beginning of the seventeenth century it began to be grown in private gardens largely under glass. It took until the nineteenth century for sufficiently hardy varieties to be developed such that it began to be a commercial crop sold in markets. They simply weren't available to ordinary people.