OFFICIAL18 What two factors explain why medieval Europeans did not use spices to cover the taste of spoiled meat? [Click on 2 answers.]

[00:00.00]Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a European history class.[00:08.39]Female Professor: In order to really study the social history of the Middle Ages, you have to understand the role of spices. [00:17.61]Now, this might sound a little surprising, even a little strange, [00:22.05]but what seem like little things now were, back then, actually rather big things. [00:27.68]So, first let’s define what a spice is. [00:31.19]Technically speaking, a spice is part of an aromatic plant that is not a leaf, or herb.
[00:38.45]Spices can come from tree bark, like, ah, cinnamon, plant roots like ginger, flower buds like cloves. [00:46.92]And in the Middle Ages, Europeans were familiar with lots of different spices, the most important being pepper, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, mace, and nutmeg. [00:57.81]These spices literally dominated the way Europeans lived for centuries—how they traded and, uh, even how they used their imaginations.[01:07.21]So why this medieval fascination with spices? [01:11.41]We can boil it down to three general ideas, briefly.
[01:15.31]One was cost and rarity, [01:17.92]ah, two was exotic taste and fragrance, [01:21.48]and third, mysterious origins and a kind of mythical status.[01:26.71]Now, for cost and rarity: Spices aren’t native to Europe, and they had to be imported.[01:32.81]Spices only grew in the East Indies, and of course transportation costs were astronomical. [01:38.92]So spices were incredibly valuable, even from the very beginning.
[01:43.85]Here’s an example, um, [01:45.61]in 408 A.D., the Gothic general who'd captured Rome demanded payment. [01:52.20]He wanted 5,000 pounds of gold, among other things, but he also wanted 3,000 pounds of pepper. [01:59.99]Maybe that’ll give you an idea of exactly where pepper stood at the time. [02:04.29]By the Middle Ages, spices were regarded as so important and expensive, they were used in diplomacy—as gifts by heads of state and ambassadors.[02:15.05]Now, for the taste, [02:17.66]the diet then was relatively bland compared to today’s. [02:21.45]There wasn't much variety. [02:22.81]Uh, especially the aristocracy, who tended to eat a lot of meat, um, they were always looking for new ways to prepare it—new sauces, new tastes, and this is where spices came in. [02:34.99]Now this is a good point to mention one of the biggest myths about spices:
[02:39.67]It’s commonly said that medieval Europeans wanted spices to cover up the taste of spoiled meat, [02:46.11]but this isn’t really true. [02:47.63]Anyone who had to worry about spoiled meat couldn't afford spices in the first place. [02:52.54]If you could afford spices, you could definitely afford fresh meat.
[02:56.88]We also have evidence that various medieval markets employed a kind of police, to make sure that people didn't sell spoiled food. And if you were caught doing it, you were subject to various fines, humiliating public punishments. [03:11.87]So, what actually was true was this: In order to have meat for the winter, people would preserve it in salt—not a spice. [03:20.65]Spices, actually, aren’t very effective as preservatives.
[03:24.33]And, uh, throughout winter they would eat salted meat, but the taste of the stuff could grow really boring and, and depressing after a while. [03:34.34]So the cooks started looking for new ways to improve the taste, and spices were the answer.[03:45.03]Now the ancient Romans had a thriving spice trade, and they sent their ships to the east and back.
[03:51.94]But when Rome collapsed in the fifth century and the Middle Ages began, um, direct trade stopped, and, uh, so did that kind of hands-on knowledge of travel and geography. [04:03.83]Spices now came by way of the trade routes, with lots of intermediaries between the producer and the consumer. [04:11.43]So these spices took on an air of mystery. [04:15.97]Their origins were shrouded in exotic travels; they had the allure of the unknown, of wild places.
[04:24.28]Myths grew up of fantasy lands, magical faraway places made entirely of food and spices. [04:31.80]Add to that, spices themselves had always been considered special, or magical—not just for eating—and this was already true in the ancient world where legends about spices were abundant. [04:44.03]Spices inspired the medieval imagination, [04:47.66]they were used as medicines to ward off diseases, and mixed into perfumes, incense.
[04:53.30]They were used in religious rituals for thousands of years. [04:56.91]They took on a life of their own, and they inspired the medieval imagination, spurred on the age of discovery in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: [05:05.87]When famous explorers like Columbus and Da Gama and Magellan left Europe in their ships, they weren't looking for a new world; they were looking for spices. [05:15.59]And we know what important historical repercussions some of those voyages had.