Alligator pepper and grains of paradise are actually the same spice, but with one key difference: grains of paradise are sold as the seeds only while alligator pepper includes the whole pod. It gets its name from the fact that the texture of the pod can be likened to that …
Mahlab comes from the ground pits of a sour cherry called the St Lucie cherry. The “St Lucie” name comes from the Meuse Sainte-Lucie-de-Mont monastery, but the tree is actually native to western Asia. There are several different ways to spell the spice’s name, including mahalab and mahaleb; the latter …
Grains of paradise seeds made their way to the west via caravan routes across the Sahara. These seeds were once a popular spice in Europe, and Elizabeth I was known to be particularly fond of them. They are not as well known in the west these days. Once used as …
Carom seeds (also known as ajwain) are believed to have originated in the Seychelles, Asia Minor or in Persia. Beyond the three possible locations of the spice’s origin, there is little known or speculated about its history. It is believed that it grew wild in ancient Egypt and was a …
The first paprika was produced in Spain from peppers that Christopher Columbus brought back to Europe with him. The Hieronymites monks at the behest of Charles V cultivated those peppers, which is how they found their way to the La Vera region of Spain. Local farmers also began growing the …
Paprika is a spice that consists of dried and ground chili peppers that originate in central Mexico. The name “paprika” is Hungarian and its root is in the Greek peperi and in the Latin piper both of which refer to pepper. The peppers used to make paprika made their way …
The Aztecs were using chia seeds as far back as 3500 BC. The seeds were considered a staple of the Aztec diet during the pre-Columbian era. Chia seeds were used as both medicine and food. Historians consider chia one of the five main crops of the Aztecs. It was the …
Flax was first cultivated on a large scale between 4,000 and 2,000 BC in the areas around the Mediterranean. At the same time, flax was also being cultivated in certain parts of the Middle East. The first attempts to grow flax may have begun much earlier during the Neolithic era. …