Herbs and Spices in Roman Cookery

A whole range of herbs and a narrower range of spices were used in Roman cookery. Some remain commonplace today, others are almost forgotten now. They are all examined in detail here and potential alternates are given if there are potentially toxic compounds present.

Classic Herbs in Roman Cookery

Silphium, Laser and Asafoetida

The most famous (and missing) spice in Roman cookery is Silphium, (also known as silphion, laserwort, or laser) that was used in classical Antiquite as a seasoning, perfume, aphrodisiac, and medicine. The name silphion ultimately derives from the Greek σίλφιον as it’s native range in Cyrene was originally a Greek colony before becoming a Roman province. It was the essential item of trade from the ancient North African city of Cyrene, and was so critical to the Cyrenian economy that most of their coins bore a picture of the plant. The valuable product was the plant's resin (laser, laserpicium, or lasarpicium). The exact identity of silphium, however, remains unclear. It was claimed to have become extinct in Roman times. It is commonly believed to be a fennel relative in the genus Ferula, perhaps a variety of giant fennel.

Silphium appears to have been a victim of both its own success and rarity. It only grew in a narrow strip of land along the coast of North Africa and farmers were unable to cultivate it. Due to the overwhelming demand for silphium, its numbers rapidly dwindled, and by the 2nd century BC, the plant was considered extinct.

Another hypothesis is that it was simply a high quality variety of asafoetida, a common spice in the Roman Empire. The two spices were considered the same by many Romans including the geographer Strabo. Certainly, after silphium’s purported extinction, asafoetida became the go-to substitute and it’s the spice that you should use for silphium/laser when reconstructing ancient Roman recipes.

Silphium was so important to the Cyrenian economy that the plant was depicted on their coinage.

Pliny reported that the last known stalk of silphium found in Cyrenaica was given to Emperor Nero "as a curiosity”. Thus silphium would have been extinct for at least 400 years by the time of the De Re Coquinaria. Yet the spice was copied from one culinary book to another and included in the list of ‘essential spices’.

Another hypothesis as to the origin of silphium is that it might have been a hybrid between two different species of giant fennel. The hybrid may have reproduced asexually, spreading its roots to grow new plants. So, when ancient Greek farmers harvested the seeds and tried to grow them, they may have been completely sterile. The patch of silphium in North Africa, with its incredible flavours and medicinal properties, might have been the only population of this hybrid in the world.

Given that after the extinction of ancient Silphion it was eventually replaced by Central Asian asafoetida (which was also termed Iranian Silphion), we may assume that both plants had a similar flavour profile and, thus, similar constituents. This would, then, indicate a spectrum of sulfurous aroma compounds.

Just like for sylphium, the resin-like gum of asafoetida comes from the dried sap extracted from the stem and roots, and is used as a spice. The resin is greyish-white when fresh, but dries to a dark amber colour. The asafoetida resin is difficult to grate and is traditionally crushed between stones or with a hammer. Today, the most commonly available form is compounded asafoetida, a fine powder containing 30% asafoetida resin, along with rice flour or maida (white wheat flour) and gum arabic.

Lovage (Levisticum officinale)

The flavour profile of lovage is very similar to that of celery (though they are distinct species) and most commercial celery seed spices are actually lovage seeds. Lovage has, interestingly become a fairly rare plant but it was much more common in the past. Great use is made of fresh lovage leaves in Classical Roman cookery and it is referred to frequently in the recipes found in De Re Coquinaria.

Though originating in Afghanistan and Iran it has been long cultivated in Europe, the leaves being used as an herb, the roots as a vegetable, and the seeds as a spice, especially in southern European cuisine.

Lovage is an erect, herbaceous, perennial plant growing to 1.8–2.5m (6–8 ft) tall, with a basal rosette of leaves and stems with further leaves, the flowers being produced in umbels at the top of the stems. The stems and leaves are shiny glabrous green to yellow-green and smell somewhat similar to celery when crushed. The larger basal leaves are up to 70cm (28 in) long, tripinnate, with broad triangular to rhomboidal, acutely pointed leaflets with a few marginal teeth; the stem leaves are smaller, and less divided with few leaflets. The flowers are yellow to greenish-yellow, 2–3mm (1⁄16–1⁄8 in) diameter, produced in globose umbels up to 10–15cm (4–6 in) diameter; flowering is in late spring. The fruit is a dry two-parted schizocarp 4–7mm (3⁄16–1⁄4 in) long, mature in autumn.

The leaves can be used in salads, or to make soup or season broths, and the roots can be eaten as a vegetable or grated for use in salads. Its flavour and smell are reminiscent both of celery and parsley, only more intense and spicy than those of either. The seeds can be used as a spice in the same way as fennel seeds.

Lovage has a very vibrant flavour and makes celery taste insipid by comparison. It’s one of the herbs that I always have growing in my garden (which is great for testing out Ancient Roman recipes).

Oregano (Origanum vulgare)

Oregano is a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It was native to the Mediterranean region, but widely naturalised elsewhere in the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The name is ultimately derived from the Classical Greek ὀρίγανον (orī́ganon).

It is an interesting herb in that the flavour of the leaves become more intense when dried. Among the chemical compounds contributing to the flavour are carvacrol, thymol, limonene, pinene, ocimene, and caryophyllene. It has been a major flavouring in Greek and Italian cuisines since antiquity.

As an herb, oregano is interesting in that it's one of the few where the flavour deepens and strengthens upon drying. As a result, oregano is an herb that tends to be used more dried than fresh.

Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis)

Laurus nobilis is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous (smooth) leaves. It is in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region and is used as bay leaf for seasoning in cooking. Its common names include bay tree (esp. United Kingdom), bay laurel, sweet bay, true laurel, Grecian laurel, or simply laurel. Laurus nobilis figures prominently in classical Greco-Roman culture.

Both Greek and Roman civilizations held laurel to be the symbol of victory (hence the wearing and gifting of laurel wreaths).

Laurel leaves are used both dried and fresh. Typically the leaves are added whole and removed near the end of cooking. Though dried bay leaves can be rendered to a powder which can be used as the basis for a range of spice blends.

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus syn Rosmarinus officinalis)

Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus syn Rosmarinus officinalis) is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native to the Mediterranean region, It is now recognised as a member of the sage family Lamiaceae, which includes many other medicinal and culinary herbs. The name "rosemary" derives from Latin ros marinus (lit. 'dew of the sea').

Rosemary leaves are used as a flavouring in foods, such as stuffing and roast lamb, pork, chicken, and turkey. Fresh or dried leaves are used in traditional Mediterranean cuisine. They have a bitter, astringent taste and a characteristic aroma which complements many cooked foods. Herbal tea can be made from the leaves. When roasted with meats or vegetables, the leaves impart a mustard-like aroma with an additional fragrance of charred wood that goes well with barbecued foods.

Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) wrote about rosemary in his Natural History, as did Pedanius Dioscorides (c. 40 CE to c. 90 CE), a Greek botanist (amongst other things). He talked about rosemary in his most famous writing, De Materia Medica, one of the most influential herbal books in history.

Rosemary contains a number of phytochemicals, including rosmarinic acid, camphor, caffeic acid, ursolic acid, betulinic acid, carnosic acid, and carnosol. Rosemary essential oil contains 10–20% camphor. Rosemary leaves have a bitter, astringent taste and a characteristic aroma which complements many cooked foods. Herbal tea can be made from the leaves. When roasted with meats or vegetables, the leaves impart a mustard-like aroma with an additional fragrance of charred wood that goes well with barbecued foods.

Basil (Ocimum basilicum)

Basil, also called great basil, is a culinary herb of the family Lamiaceae (mints). It is a tender plant, and is used in cuisines worldwide. In Western cuisine, the generic term "basil" refers to the variety also known as sweet basil or Genovese basil. Basil is native to tropical regions from Central Africa to Southeast Asia. In temperate climates basil is treated as an annual plant, however, basil can be grown as a short-lived perennial or biennial in warmer horticultural zones with tropical or Mediterranean climates.

In ancient Egypt, basil was likely used as an embalming and preserving herb as it has been found in tombs and mummies. Perhaps because of its embalming applications, basil was also a symbol of mourning in Greece where it was known as basilikon phuton, meaning magnificent, royal, or kingly herb.

Basil is most commonly used fresh in recipes. In general, it is added last, as cooking quickly destroys the flavour. The fresh herb can be kept for a short time in plastic bags in the refrigerator, or for a longer period in the freezer, after being blanched quickly in boiling water.

The essential oil from European basil contains high concentrations of linalool and methyl chavicol (estragole), in a ratio of about 3:1. Other constituents include: 1,8-cineole, eugenol, and myrcene, among others. The clove scent of sweet basil is derived from eugenol. The aroma profile of basil includes 1,8-cineole and methyl eugenol. In this species eugenol is synthesised from coniferyl acetate and NADPH.

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

Fennel is a flowering plant species in the carrot family. It is a hardy, perennial herb with yellow flowers and feathery leaves. It is indigenous to the shores of the Mediterranean but has become widely naturalized in many parts of the world, especially on dry soils near the sea-coast and on riverbanks. It is a highly flavourful herb with a strong and pronounced anise flavour.

Fennel is widely cultivated, both in its native range and elsewhere, for its edible, strongly flavoured leaves and fruits. Its aniseed or liquorice flavour comes from anethole, an aromatic compound also found in anise and star anise, and its taste and aroma are similar to theirs, though usually not as strong.

Fennel was prized by the ancient Greeks and Romans, who used it as medicine, food, and insect repellent. Fennel tea was believed to give courage to the warriors before battle. According to Greek mythology, Prometheus used a giant stalk of fennel to carry fire from Mount Olympus to Earth. Emperor Charlemagne required the cultivation of fennel on all imperial farms.

As well as the fronds, the bulb and the dried fruit are all edible.

Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)

Hyssop is a shrub (or subshrub) in the Lamiaceae or mint family native to Southern Europe, the Middle East, and the region surrounding the Caspian Sea. Due to its purported properties as an antiseptic, cough reliever, and expectorant, it has been used in traditional herbal medicine.

Hyssop has been in use since classical antiquity. Its name is a direct adaptation from the Greek ὕσσωπος (hyssopos). The fresh herb is commonly used in cooking. Za'atar is a famous Middle Eastern herbal mixture, some versions of which include dried Hyssop leaves. Essence of hyssop can be obtained by steaming, and is used in cooking to a lesser extent. Herb hyssop leaves are used as an aromatic condiment. The leaves have a lightly bitter taste due to its tannins, and an intense minty aroma. Due to its intensity, it is used moderately in cooking

The essential oil includes the chemicals thujone and phenol, which give it antiseptic properties. Its high concentrations of thujone and chemicals that stimulate the central nervous system, including pinocamphone and cineole, can provoke epileptic reactions.

Rue (Ruta graveolens)

Rue also known as common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of Ruta grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Balkan Peninsula. It is grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for its bluish leaves, and sometimes for its tolerance of hot and dry soil conditions. It is also cultivated as a culinary herb, and to a lesser extent as an insect repellent and incense. Rue has a culinary use, but since it is bitter and gastric discomfort may be experienced by some individuals, it is used sparingly. Although used more extensively in former times, it is not a herb that is typically found in modern cuisine. It is a component of berbere, the characteristic Ethiopian-Eritrean spice mixture, and as such is encountered in their cuisine.

Rue’s fragrance is aromatic and bittersweet, and the raw leaves have a very mild numbing effect on the tongue. The fresh leaves are less strong than the dried leaves, and the seeds have a slight hotness, too.

Rutin is the component in rue that is responsible for the bitter taste. Rutin is also found in capers, water pepper and orange peel. However in using rue, you can combine it with an acid such as vinegar or tomatoes, which somewhat dissipates the rutin and leaves the other flavours intact.

A common practice once was to drop a few leaves in a boiling sauce for about a minute then discard them. By so doing, a minimum of bitterness is added but the other flavours in the herb are imparted.

Roman cooks used rue in a bouquet garni, tying together a piece of lovage, parsley and thyme and using it to stir a sauce as it cooked, thus imparting a mild, herbal flavour to the dish.

Rue is generally safe if consumed in small amounts as an herb to flavour food. Rue extracts are mutagenic and hepatotoxic.[5] Large doses can cause violent gastric pain, vomiting, liver damage, and death. This is due to a variety of toxic compounds in the plant's sap. It is recommended to only use small amounts in food, and to not consume it excessively. It should be strictly avoided by pregnant women, as it can be an abortifacient and teratogen.

Exposure to common rue, or herbal preparations derived from it, can cause phytophotodermatitis, which results in burn-like blisters on the skin though this is most common when hot, sweaty, skin comes into contact with plant sap. I have it in my garden and have not had problems when just casually brushing up against the plant.

Savoury

There are two species of interest, Satureja hortensis or Summer Savoury which is among the best known of the savory genus. It is an annual, but otherwise is similar in use and flavour to the perennial winter savory. It is used more often than winter savoury, which has a slightly more bitter flavour.

Winter Savoury (Satureja montana) is a perennial, semi-evergreen herb in the family Lamiaceae, native to warm temperate regions of southern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Africa. It has dark green leaves and summer flowers ranging from pale lavender, or pink to white.

The savoury referred to in classical Roman sources is probably winter savoury and here is evidence of its use about 2000 years ago by the ancient Romans and Greeks.

In cooking, winter savory has a reputation for going very well with both beans and meats, very often lighter meats such as chicken or turkey, and can be used in stuffing. It can also be used in soups and sauces. It has a strong flavour (stronger than summer savory)[3][18] while uncooked but loses much of its flavour with prolonged cooking. It can be added to breadcrumbs as a coating for various meats including trout.

The plant is harvested when flowering in the summer and can be used fresh or dried. I always have winter savoury growing alongside my thyme.

Mint

For something that seems to us so simple (we mainly tend to cook with spearmint Mentha spicata these days) the identification of mint in Roman cookery is actually very complex. All the following could be used and termed ‘mint’: Species: Mentha aquatica; Mentha arvensis; Mentha cervina; Mentha x gracilis; Mentha longifolia; Mentha x piperita; Mentha pulegium; Mentha spicata; Mentha x villosa-nervata; Mentha requienii; Mentha suaveolens and those are just the ‘true’ mints.
Other mints would include:
Genera such as Calamintha (e.g., Calamintha nepeta, C. origanifolia)

Of these, pennyroyal, Mentha pulegium will be treated separately and I’ll come to that next.

Of the mints listed above:
Mentha aquatica = watermint. This is a truly lovely member of the mint family and a good culinary mint.
M. arvensis = corn mint. I find it rather insipid, but some say it has a good mint flavour, but it is common and easy to grow so a good candidate for a culinary mint
M. cervina = Hart’s Pennyroyal. Has a strong spearmint fragrance, but not considered a good culinary mint.
Mentha x gracilis = ginger mint. A good culinary mint with a ginger note
Mentha longifolia = horsemint. A peppermint-scented wild mint
Mentha x piperita = Peppermint. An excellent culinary mint
Mentha spicata = Spearmint. Today’s common mint. An excellent culinary mint.
Mentha x villosa-nervata = A good culinary mint and though it was within the Roman empire it was not introduced to Rome itself.
Mentha requienii = Corsican mint. Mint. A strong peppermint flavour. Makes a substitute for common peppermint
Mentha suaveolens = apple mint. An excellent culinary mint
Calamintha nepeta = lesser calamint
Calamintha origanifolia = Marjoram-leaved calamint


It is believed that spearmint M. spicata was introduced into the UK by the Romans between the 1st and 5th centuries and spearmint seems to have been known by the Romans since the 1st century CE. However, mentions of spearmint before that by Roman authors become much harder to pin down and any mentions of mint in Roman antiquity could refer to any of the mint species named above. It may be that just as today the specific type of mint used was matched to the flavour of the dish.

A distinguishing feature of all the members of the Mentha genus is that their stems have a square cross-section.

The culinary part of mint is the leaf, fresh or dried. Fresh mint is usually preferred over dried mint when storage of the mint is not a problem. The leaves have a warm, fresh, aromatic, sweet flavor with a cool aftertaste, and are used in teas, beverages, jellies, syrups, candies, and ice creams. In Middle Eastern cuisine, mint is used in lamb dishes, while in British cuisine and American cuisine, mint sauce and mint jelly are used, respectively.

The word "mint" descends from the Latin word mentha or menta, which is rooted in the Greek words μίνθα mintha, μίνθη minthē or μίντη mintē meaning "spearmint". The plant was personified in Greek mythology as Minthe, a nymph who was beloved by Hades and was transformed into a mint plant by either Persephone or Demeter.

Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium)

Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) or pennyrile, also called mosquito plant[1] and pudding grass, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae, native to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Crushed pennyroyal leaves emit a very strong fragrance similar to spearmint. Pennyroyal is a traditional folk remedy, emmenagogue, abortifacient, and culinary herb, but is toxic to the liver and has caused some deaths.

Documented use of pennyroyal dates back to ancient Greek, Roman, and Medieval cultures. Its name – although of uncertain etymology – is associated with Latin pulex (flea), alluding to the manner it was used to drive away fleas when smeared on the body.[16] Pennyroyal was commonly incorporated as a cooking herb by the Greeks and Romans. A large number of the recipes in the Roman cookbook of Apicius called for the use of pennyroyal, often along with such herbs as lovage, oregano and coriander.

Pennyroyal is toxic to humans and has differing effects dependent on the volume and concentration ingested. The most concentrated and toxic form of the pennyroyal plant is pennyroyal oil. The oil contains 80% to 92% of cyclohexanone pulegone. Pulegone, the molecule in highest concentration in the pennyroyal plant, causes a variety of ailments in those who ingest it and is what causes the plant to have its peppermint flavour.

The active chemical in pennyroyal is pulegone. Pulegone is a ketone and on the cellular level, ketones can act as enzyme inhibitors. The carbonyl centre of the pulegone structure acts as a strong electrophile, causing active sites on enzymes to bind with pulegone instead of the target protein.

Personally I would substitute Mentha x piperita (peppermint) for pennyroyal as it has a similar flavour profile (but is not as strong) without any of the potential toxic consequences. However, if you are young, not pregnant and do not have kidney or liver disease you could probably try it in small quantities. But I would not really recommend it.

I do grow it in my garden, but that’s more for its insect repelling properties. The leaves do smell great when you crush them, too.

Parsley (Petroselinum crispum)

Parsley or garden parsley is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia. It has been introduced and naturalized in Europe and elsewhere in the world with suitable climates, and is widely cultivated as a herb, and a vegetable.

Parsley leaves were used by the ancient Greeks and Romans as a flavouring and garnish for foods. The leaves are used fresh or dried, their mildly aromatic flavour being popular with fish, meats, soups, sauces, and salads. Parsley is often the principal ingredient of bouquet garni and fines herbes.

As a biennial plant, parsley grows vegetatively for its first season of growth, overwinters, and then flowers in the second season. The compound leaves—deep green, tender, and either flat or deeply frilled (curly)—develop in a cluster the first season; these are harvested for use. Many farmers do not leave parsley plants in the field after their productive leaf season.

Dill (Anethum graveolens)

Dill is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae. It is native to North Africa, Chad, Iran, and the Arabian Peninsula;[3] it is grown widely in Eurasia, where its leaves and seeds are used as a herb or spice for flavouring food.

Dill has been found in the tomb of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep II, dating to around 1400 BC. It was also later found in the Greek city of Samos, around the 7th century BC, and mentioned in the writings of Theophrastus (371–287 BC).

Fresh and dried dill leaves (sometimes called "dill weed" or "dillweed" to distinguish it from dill seed) are widely used as herbs in Europe and central Asia.

Like caraway, the fern-like leaves of dill are aromatic and are used to flavour many foods such as gravlax (cured salmon) and other fish dishes, borscht, and other soups, as well as pickles (where the dill flower is sometimes used). Dill is best when used fresh, as it loses its flavour rapidly if dried. However, freeze-dried dill leaves retain their flavour relatively well for a few months.

Sage (Salvia officinalis)

Sage, also known as common sage is a perennial, evergreen subshrub, with woody stems, grayish leaves, and blue to purplish flowers. It is a member of the mint family Lamiaceae and native to the Mediterranean region, though it has been naturalized in many places throughout the world. It has a long history of medicinal and culinary use, and in modern times it has been used as an ornamental garden plant. The common name "sage" is also used for closely related species and cultivars.

Salvia officinalis has been used since ancient times for warding off evil, snakebites, increasing women's fertility, and more. The Romans referred to sage as the "holy herb," and employed it in their religious rituals.[5] Theophrastus wrote about two different sages, a wild undershrub he called sphakos, and a similar cultivated plant he called elelisphakos. Pliny the Elder said the latter plant was called salvia by the Romans, and used as a diuretic, a local anaesthetic for the skin, a styptic, and for other uses.

Sage has a savory, slightly peppery flavour and can be used fresh or dried.

Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium)

Chervil, sometimes called French parsley or garden chervil (to distinguish it from similar plants also called chervil), is a delicate annual herb related to parsley. It was formerly called myrhis due to its volatile oil with an aroma similar to the resinous substance myrrh. It is commonly used to season mild-flavoured dishes and is a constituent of the French herb mixture fines herbes.

A member of the Apiaceae, chervil is native to the Caucasus but was spread by the Romans through most of Europe, where it is now naturalised. It is also grown frequently in the United States, where it sometimes escapes cultivation. Such escape can be recognized, however, as garden chervil is distinguished from all other Anthriscus species growing in North America (i.e., A. caucalis and A. sylvestris) by its having lanceolate-linear bracteoles and a fruit with a relatively long beak.

Chervil is used, particularly in France, to season poultry, seafood, young spring vegetables (such as carrots), soups, and sauces. More delicate than parsley, it has a faint taste of liquorice or aniseed.

Chervil is one of the four traditional French fines herbes, along with tarragon, chives, and parsley, which are essential to French cooking. Unlike the more pungent, robust herbs such as thyme and rosemary, which can take prolonged cooking, the fines herbes are added at the last minute, to salads, omelettes, and soups.

Spices in Roman Cookery

Cumin (Cuminum cyminum)

Cumin is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to the Irano-Turanian Region. Its seeds – each one contained within a fruit, which is dried – are used in the cuisines of many cultures in both whole and ground form. Although cumin is used in traditional medicine, there is no high-quality evidence that it is safe or effective as a therapeutic agent.

Cumin is the dried seed of the herb Cuminum cyminum, a member of the parsley family. The cumin plant grows to 30–50 cm (12–20 in) tall and is harvested by hand. It is an annual herbaceous plant, with a slender, glabrous, branched stem that is 20–30 cm (8–12 in) tall and has a diameter of 3–5 cm (1+1⁄4–2 in).

Cumin was a significant spice for the Minoans in ancient Crete. Ideograms for cumin appear in Linear A archive tablets documenting Minoan palace stores during the Late Minoan period. The ancient Greeks kept cumin at the dining table in its own container (much as pepper is frequently kept today), and this practice continues in Morocco. Cumin was also used heavily in ancient Roman cuisine.

Cumin seed is used as a spice for its distinctive flavor and aroma. Cumin can be found in some cheeses, such as Leyden cheese, and in some traditional breads from France. Cumin can be an ingredient in chili powder (often Tex-Mex or Mexican-style) and is found in achiote blends, adobos, sofrito, garam masala, curry powder, and bahaarat, and is used to flavor numerous commercial food products. In South Asian cooking it is often combined with coriander seeds in a powdered mixture called dhana jeera. Cumin can be used ground or as whole seeds.[13][15] It imparts an earthy, warming and aromatic character to food, making it a staple in certain stews and soups, as well as spiced gravies such as curry and chili. It is also used as an ingredient in some pickles and pastries.

Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum)

Cardamom, sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indonesia. They are recognized by their small seed pods: triangular in cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin, papery outer shell and small, black seeds; Elettaria pods are light green and smaller, while Amomum pods are larger and dark brown.

True or green cardamom (or when bleached, white cardamom) comes from the species Elettaria cardamomum and is distributed from India to Malaysia. This, in all likelihood, was the cardamom known to the an Ancient Romans.

Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic, resinous fragrance. Black cardamom has a distinctly more smoky, though not bitter, aroma, with a coolness some consider similar to mint.

Green cardamom is one of the most expensive spices by weight,[16] but little is needed to impart flavour. It is best stored in the pod, as exposed or ground seeds quickly lose their flavour. Grinding the pods and seeds together lowers both the quality and the price.

The content of seed essential oil is dependent on storage conditions, and may be as high as 8%. In the oil are found α-terpineol 45%, myrcene 27%, limonene 8%, menthone 6%, β-phellandrene 3%, 1,8-cineol 2%, sabinene 2% and heptane 2%. Other sources report 1,8-cineol (20 to 50%), α-terpenylacetate (30%), sabinene, limonene (2 to 14%), and borneol.

Cardamom production began in ancient times, and has been referred to in ancient Sanskrit texts as ela.[24] The Babylonians and Assyrians recognized the health benefits of the spice early on, and trade in cardamom opened up along land routes and by the interlinked Persian Gulf route controlled from Dilmun as early as the third millennium BCE Early Bronze Age,[25] into western Asia and the Mediterranean world.

The ancient Greeks thought highly of cardamom, and the Greek physicians Dioscorides and Hippocrates wrote about its therapeutic properties, identifying it as a digestive aid. Due to demand in ancient Greece and Rome, the cardamom trade developed into a handsome luxury business; cardamom was one of the spices eligible for import tax in Alexandria in 126 CE.

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is the name for several species of trees and the commercial spice products that some of them produce. All are members of the genus Cinnamomum in the family Lauraceae. Only a few Cinnamomum species are grown commercially for spice. Cinnamomum verum (alternatively C. zeylanicum), known as "Ceylon cinnamon" after its origins in Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), is considered to be "true cinnamon", but most cinnamon in international commerce is derived from four other species, usually and more correctly referred to as "cassia": C. burmannii (Indonesian cinnamon or Padang cassia), C. cassia (Chinese cinnamon or Chinese cassia), C. loureiroi (Saigon cinnamon or Vietnamese cassia), and the less common C. citriodorum (Malabar cinnamon).

The name "cassia", first recorded in late Old English from Latin, ultimately derives from the Hebrew word קציעה qetsīʿāh, a form of the verb קצע qātsaʿ, "to strip off bark". The majority of ancient Roman cinnamon was, in most likelihood cassia.

Cinnamon has been known from remote antiquity. It was imported to Egypt as early as 2000 BC, but those who reported that it had come from China had confused it with Cinnamomum cassia, a related species. Cinnamon was so highly prized among ancient nations that it was regarded as a gift fit for monarchs and even for a deity; an inscription records the gift of cinnamon and cassia to the temple of Apollo at Miletus.[11] Its source was kept a trade secret in the Mediterranean world for centuries by those in the spice trade, in order to protect their monopoly as suppliers.

Cinnamomum verum, which translates from Latin as "true cinnamon", is native to India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Cinnamomum cassia (cassia) is native to China. Related species, all harvested and sold in the modern era as cinnamon, are native to Vietnam ("Saigon cinnamon"), Indonesia and other southeast Asian countries with warm climates.

The first Greek reference to κασία kasía is found in a poem by Sappho in the 7th century BC. According to Herodotus, both cinnamon and cassia grew in Arabia, together with incense, myrrh and labdanum, and were guarded by winged serpents. Herodotus, Aristotle and other authors named Arabia as the source of cinnamon; they recounted that giant "cinnamon birds" collected the cinnamon sticks from an unknown land where the cinnamon trees grew and used them to construct their nests.

Pliny the Elder wrote that cinnamon was brought around the Arabian peninsula on "rafts without rudders or sails or oars", taking advantage of the winter trade winds. He also mentioned cassia as a flavouring agent for wine, and that the tales of cinnamon being collected from the nests of cinnamon birds was a traders' fiction made up to charge more. However, the story remained current in Byzantium as late as 1310.

According to Pliny the Elder, a Roman pound (327 grams [11.5 oz]) of cassia, cinnamon (serichatum), cost up to 1,500 denarii, the wage of fifty months' labour. Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices from 301 AD gives a price of 125 denarii for a pound of cassia, while an agricultural labourer earned 25 denarii per day. Cinnamon was too expensive to be commonly used on funeral pyres in Rome, but the Emperor Nero is said to have burned a year's worth of the city's supply at the funeral for his wife Poppaea Sabina in AD 65.

Cassia induces a strong, spicy flavour and is often used in baking, especially associated with cinnamon rolls, as it handles baking conditions well. Among cassia, Chinese cinnamon is generally medium to light reddish-brown in colour, hard and woody in texture, and thicker (2–3 mm (0.079–0.118 in) thick), as all of the layers of bark are used. Ceylon cinnamon, using only the thin inner bark, has a lighter brown colour and a finer, less dense, and more crumbly texture. It is subtle and more aromatic in flavour than cassia and it loses much of its flavour during cooking. Cassia is important in Chinese cookery as it helps impart a red colour to red-cooked dishes.

Saffron (Crocus sativus)

Saffron is a spice made from the stigmas (male reproductive parts) of the saffron crocus. Each plant yields three anthers and these need to be collected by hand. When dried these are called ‘saffron threads’.

The domesticated saffron crocus, Crocus sativus, is an autumn-flowering perennial plant unknown in the wild. It probably descends from the eastern Mediterranean autumn-flowering Crocus cartwrightianus which is also known as "wild saffron"[14] and originated in Crete or Central Asia. C. thomasii and C. pallasii are other possible sources. As a genetically monomorphic clone,[15] it slowly propagated throughout much of Eurasia.

The saffron crocus, unknown in the wild, probably descends from Crocus cartwrightianus. It is a triploid that is "self-incompatible" and male sterile; it undergoes aberrant meiosis and is hence incapable of independent sexual reproduction—all propagation is by vegetative multiplication via manual "divide-and-set" of a starter clone or by interspecific hybridisation.

Saffron is a key seasoning, fragrance, dye, and medicine in use for over three millennia. One of the world's most expensive spices by weight, saffron consists of stigmas plucked from the vegetatively propagated and sterile Crocus sativus, known popularly as the saffron crocus. The resulting dried stigmas, also known as "threads", are distinguished by their bitter taste, hay-like fragrance, and slight metallic notes.

Saffron features in European, North African, and Asian cuisines. Its aroma is described by taste experts as resembling that of honey, with woody, hay-like, and earthy notes; according to another such assessment, it tastes of hay, but only with bitter hints. Because it imparts a luminous yellow-orange hue, it is used worldwide in everything from cheeses, confectioneries, and liquors to baked goods, curries, meat dishes, and soups. In past eras, many dishes called for prohibitively copious amounts—hardly for taste, but to parade their wealth.

Black Pepper (Piper nigrum)

Black Pepper is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter (fresh and fully mature), dark red, and contains a stone which encloses a single pepper seed. Peppercorns and the ground pepper derived from them may be described simply as pepper, or more precisely as black pepper (cooked and dried unripe fruit), green pepper (dried unripe fruit), or white pepper (ripe fruit seeds).

Black pepper is native to the Malabar Coast of India, and the Malabar pepper is extensively cultivated there and in other tropical regions.

Ground, dried, and cooked peppercorns have been used since antiquity, both for flavour and as a traditional medicine. Black pepper is the world's most traded spice, and is one of the most common spices added to cuisines around the world. Its spiciness is due to the chemical compound piperine, which is a different kind of spicy from the capsaicin characteristic of chili peppers. It is ubiquitous in the Western world as a seasoning, and is often paired with salt and available on dining tables in shakers or mills. The word pepper derives from Old English pipor, Latin piper, and Sanskrit pippali for "long pepper" (see next section). In the 16th century, people began using pepper to also mean the unrelated New World chili pepper (genus Capsicum).

Black pepper is produced from the still-green, unripe drupe of the pepper plant. The drupes are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the pepper, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The drupes dry in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the pepper skin around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer. Once dry, the spice is called black peppercorn. On some estates, the berries are separated from the stem by hand and then sun-dried without boiling.

After the peppercorns are dried, pepper spirit and oil can be extracted from the berries by crushing them. Pepper spirit is used in many medicinal and beauty products. Pepper oil is also used as an ayurvedic massage oil and in certain beauty and herbal treatments. The ancient history of black pepper is often interlinked with (and confused with) that of long pepper, the dried fruit of closely related Piper longum. The Romans knew of both and often referred to either as just piper. In fact, the popularity of long pepper did not entirely decline until the discovery of the New World and of chili peppers. Chili peppers—some of which, when dried, are similar in shape and taste to long pepper—were easier to grow in a variety of locations more convenient to Europe.

Pepper (both long and black) was known in Greece at least as early as the fourth century BCE, though it was probably an uncommon and expensive item that only the very rich could afford.

By the time of the early Roman Empire, especially after Rome's conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE, open-ocean crossing of the Arabian Sea direct to Chera dynasty southern India's Malabar Coast was near routine. Details of this trading across the Indian Ocean have been passed down in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. According to the Greek geographer Strabo, the early empire sent a fleet of around 120 ships on an annual trip to India and back.[26] The fleet timed its travel across the Arabian Sea to take advantage of the predictable monsoon winds. Returning from India, the ships travelled up the Red Sea, from where the cargo was carried overland or via the Nile-Red Sea canal to the Nile River, barged to Alexandria, and shipped from there to Italy and Rome.

Black pepper was a well-known and widespread, if expensive, seasoning in the Roman Empire. Apicius' De re coquinaria, a third-century cookbook probably based at least partly on one from the first century CE, includes pepper in a majority of its recipes.

Pepper gets its spicy heat mostly from piperine derived from both the outer fruit and the seed. Black pepper contains between 4.6 and 9.7% piperine by mass, and white pepper slightly more than that.[51] Refined piperine, by weight, is about one percent as hot as the capsaicin found in chili peppers. The outer fruit layer, left on black pepper, also contains aroma-contributing terpenes, including germacrene (11%), limonene (10%), pinene (10%), alpha-phellandrene (9%), and beta-caryophyllene (7%),[53] which give citrusy, woody, and floral notes.

Long Pepper (Piper longum)

Long Pepper sometimes called Indian long pepper or pippali, is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. Long pepper has a taste similar to, but hotter than, that of its close relative Piper nigrum – from which black, green and white pepper are obtained.

The fruit of the pepper consists of many minuscule fruits – each about the size of a poppy seed – embedded in the surface of a flower spike that closely resembles a hazel tree catkin. Like Piper nigrum, the fruits contain the alkaloid piperine, which contributes to their pungency.

It reached Greece in the sixth or fifth century BCE, though Hippocrates discussed it as a medicament rather than a spice.[1] Among the Greeks and Romans and prior to the Columbian exchange, long pepper was an important and well-known spice. The ancient history of black pepper is often interlinked with (and confused with) that of long pepper, though Theophrastus distinguished the two in the first work of botany. The Romans knew of both and often referred to either as just piper; Pliny erroneously believed dried black pepper and long pepper came from the same plant.

Laurel Berries (Laurus nobilis)

Laurel berries, are the fruit of Laurus nobilis the sweet bay/bay laurel, an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous (smooth) leaves. It is in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region and is used as bay leaf for seasoning in cooking. Its common names include bay tree (esp. United Kingdom),  bay laurel, sweet bay, true laurel, Grecian laurel, or simply laurel. Laurus nobilis figures prominently in classical Greco-Roman culture.

Dried laurel berries are a robust spice, which was quite commonly in use during Roman times, but whose use has declined precipitously in modern times. Part of the reason for this decline is the conflation of bay laurel berries with the poisonous cherry laurel (sometimes also just known as laurel or common laurel, or English laurel), Prunus laurocerasus.

However, both bay laurel berry powder and dried fruit are available commercially these days due to increased interest in their potential health benefits.

Grains of Paradise (Aframomum melegueta)

Grains of Paradise, also known as melegueta pepper, Guinea grains, ossame, or fom wisa, and is confused with alligator pepper. The term Guinea pepper has also been used, but is most often applied to Xylopia aethiopica (grains of Selim). Aframomum melegueta is a species in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, and closely related to cardamom. Its seeds are used as a spice (ground or whole); it imparts a pungent, black-pepper-like flavor with hints of citrus.

I’m giving this an honourable mention here, partly as being familiar with West African cooking I really love this spice. However, it should be noted that it was mentioned by Pliny as "African pepper" so the Romans knew of it. It probably came to Rome across the Saharan trade routes from West Africa via Carthage.

It may well have been added to ground black pepper as an adulterant, so, as a flavouring it might have been more prevalent in Roman cookery than we realise. In their raw form they are red, but when lightly toasted they turn black and more closely resemble black pepper.

Myrtle Berries

Myrtle, (Myrtus communis) is native to the Mediterranean region in southern Europe, Macaronesia, western Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. It is also cultivated. The plant is an evergreen shrub or small tree, growing to 5 metres (16 ft) tall. The leaf is entire, 3–5 cm long, with a fragrant essential oil. The fruit is a round berry containing several seeds, most commonly blue-black in colour. A variety with yellow-amber berries is also present. The seeds are dispersed by birds that eat the berries.

Many Mediterranean pork dishes include myrtle berries, and roasted piglet is often stuffed with myrtle sprigs in the belly cavity, to impart an aromatic flavour to the meat. The berries, whole or ground, have been used as a pepper substitute.

In Rome, Virgil explains that "the poplar is most dear to Alcides, the vine to Bacchus, the myrtle to lovely Venus, and his own laurel to Phoebus." At the Veneralia, women bathed wearing crowns woven of myrtle branches, and myrtle was used in wedding rituals. In the Aeneid, myrtle marks the grave of the murdered Polydorus in Thrace. Aeneas' attempts to uproot the shrub cause the ground to bleed, and the voice of the dead Polydorus warns him to leave. The spears which impaled Polydorus have been magically transformed into the myrtle which marks his grave.

Mustard (Sinapis/Brassica)

White mustard (Sinapis alba) grows wild in North Africa, West Asia, and Mediterranean Europe, and has spread farther by long cultivation (the seeds are generally yellow) and it's likely that this is the mustard used by the Romans. Indeed, the Romans were probably the first to experiment with the preparation of mustard as a condiment. They mixed unfermented grape juice (the must) with ground mustard seeds (called sinapis) to make "burning must", mustum ardens—hence "must ard". A recipe for mustard appears in De re coquinaria, the anonymously compiled Roman cookbook from the late fourth or early fifth century; the recipe calls for a mixture of ground mustard, pepper, caraway, lovage, grilled coriander seeds, dill, celery, thyme, oregano, onion, honey, vinegar, fish sauce, and oil, and was intended as a glaze for spit-roasted boar. Apicius' recipes contains spectacular recipes for high-end feasts. However, two more common recipes for more basic mustard recipes: Palladius gives a recipe for a basic sweet mustard De Senapi with honey as its main ingredient; Columella provides a recipe for mustard in a vinegar base which he elaborates with the addition of pine nuts in his Quemadmodum Sinapis Facias

The Romans likely exported mustard seed to Gaul, and by the 10th century, monks of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris absorbed the mustard-making knowledge of Romans[clarification needed] and began their own production.

Mixing ground mustard seeds with water causes a chemical reaction between two compounds in the seed: the enzyme myrosinase and various glucosinolates such as sinigrin and sinalbin. The myrosinase enzyme turns the glucosinolates into various isothiocyanate compounds known generally as mustard oil. The concentrations of different glucosinolates in mustard plant varieties, and the different isothiocyanates that are produced, make different flavors and intensities.

Interestingly, Columella in his recipe recommends adding hot coals and pouring a solution of saltpetre over the ground mustard seeds to remove the bitterness. This indicates that Roman mustard was not fully domesticated yet, in that all the bitterness had not yet been removed from the seeds (as is the case for modern mustard).