The first Danish Apoteks - Mummy Powder and Scorpion Oil

Danish Apotek, 1700s

Medieval pharmacy

The Danish

apotekerskilt, Tønder, foto: gb

word Apotek comes from the Greek word apothéke which means storage or repository. (English: pharmacy).
The history of the Danish apotek is linked to the common cultural history.The medieval church was encompassing, the medieval Chapters were cultural centers with tasks in administration, education, justice and disease control. Far back in time church people were engaged in medicine and many of those are known by name. Many medical and herbal books were published, but most of them are lost. The development of the apotek/pharmacy is seen in the Pharmacopoeia (= the authorized lists of the medcine which an apotek had to hold). The Pharmacopoeia of 1772 is a turning point. Although some uneffective medicine still was accepted after this time  - like the scorpion oil - the deciding principle was from now on a medical science which rested upon experience, and the old folk-remedies had to give way. The change must be seeen in connection to the interest of natural science and the new discoveries which grew up in the 1700s.

Apotekerhaven, Viborg,

Already in the 1400s were the first traces of an independent pharmacy state in Denmark. Before the permanent apoteks were established, the medicine were procured in other ways. The relict flora by the Danish klosters show the cultivation of medical herbs,  but herbs were also imported and sold in common trade. In the Hanseatic tariff lists from 1368-69 are fx mentioned cloves, sapphron, cumin, poppy oil and ginger. Although some of it was sold as spice, a big part was probably meant for medicine. The border between medicine and spice was undeterminable, also later in time. The oldest Danish apoteks/pharmacies did not look like a pharmacy of today, they were storages and sales of medicine , herbals, details and much more, fx wine. A command from king Hans in 1510 informs that his pharmacist had to send some wine for the king's use.

Viborg Bymuseum

Not until late in the 1700s a more rational production of medicine began to build upon a practical scientific experience, but it never displaced the ineffective compositions and folk remedies, which had great confidence among people, like frk. Thunes balsam (Miss Thune's balm) which uncritically was used for all kinds of diseases and small ailments.  A detailed description was printed in a medical paper in Copenhagen 18 March 1767:  "This balm is a safe healing remedy for all appropiate, wounds by fire or boiling materia , or where the skin is scraped. It also cures frost-boils in hands and feet. It cleans and heals all deep wounds either if they are chopped, cut, encountered, even fistuleuse or desperates, when it is hot injected or injected in another way."

Mortars in the serpentine stone were used in the Danish apoteks since they would supposedly jump into pieces if they came in contact with poison.

Lapis-pin, Museum, the pin in the top is the hell-stone

The primitive stage of the pharmacy and medicine is also seen in king Chr. 6's medical history.  4-5 years before his death he had an abscess on the gums, which was treated with Lapis infernalis, helvedessten (hell's stone). His valet got the dubious task to treat the king, and it went completely wrong. The stone passed down the king's throat, and the valet became so frightened that he concealed the thruth. A borax powder could have saved the situation, but the valet was so scared of the king's eventual rage that he just advised him to take laxative in order to drive out the rest of liquid from the abscess. This accident might have been a cause of the king's later sickness and death.

Mummy Powder

One of the oddest medical remedies, which was popular from the 12th to the 18th century in Europe, involved powdering the remains of the ancient dead. Mummy powder was among the first of the old medicines which the new medical science rejected. Nevertheless this strange médicament  - like the scorpion oil - was used in Denmark almost up till present. In 1866 Assens Apotek (in Denmark) sold mummy powder, and still in 1927 a German medical firm sold mummy. Asphalt - which was used by the embalming  - was higly recommended as a medicine from old times, and it was probably the confidence in this substance which was transferred to the mummy medicine. The belief in the eternal conservation of the mummy was also a part of it. People might have imagined that the embalmed body contained a substance which might secure them something like an everlasting life. In accordance to this the mummy medicine was also the part of a powder which could help against death itself. In the later folk medicine mummy was together with other substances used in a means against dropsy. At the Danish Apoteks (pharmacies) mummy was sold in the name armesynderkød ( poor sinner's meat). Several samples of the fabric have been preserved, some contains without doubt real mummy, while others probably consists of asphalt.

Mummy. Louvre

Mummy powder was obtained by raiding ancient tombs and plundering the corpses found inside. These could include the most famous mummies in history, Egyptian mummies, or other less well known corpses. Once the corpse was obtained, it would be ground down into dust. The powder could be mixed with various other substances and was prescribed to treat everything from headaches, stomach ulcers, to tumors. It could be taken orally or used as a plaster or salve. It was so popular that any apothecary carried mummy powder among its stock. Humans weren't the only beings alleged to benefit from mummy; sick hawks were thought to benefit from their own grade of mummy powder.





Scorpion-oil

Ærø Apotek, Skorpionolie, Wikipedia

         
In ancient Danish medical books is mentioned a means against the poison of the scorpion - and this is obvious a loan from the South. In ancient times medicine against the scorpion's bite was sought after in the southern countries where the poisonous insect lived. Among the recommended means were some which used the animal itself as an antidote. The scorpion played a big role for the medical science up high in time, also in Denmark.
Common scorpion oil was produced by soaking 20 scorpions in oil from 1 pound of bitter almonds.

Besides this there was a medicine like the mixed mathiols scorpion oil for internal use which was used against plague-abscesses, smallpox, fever and paralysis. About year 1800 the scorpion slipped out from the part of the recommended medicine, but it lived on in folk medicine - and the scorpion oil was still sold at the Danish apoteks. In "Den gamle By" (Museum) in Århus is kept a bottle with scorpions found at Frijsenborg Apotek (established 1842) at the village Hammel. A pharmacist at Odder Apotek says in 1961 that it might still happen that someone asks for scorpion oil.
This medicine was from ancient times connected to the astrology. The scorpion gave name to a constellation, and it must be a reflection of this connection between medicine and astrology when the medical doctores at the University of Copenhagen were made responsible for making an almanac. The astrology had also its oppponents though, one was the archbishop in Lund (1201-23) Andreas Sunesøn, who said that "the stars do not show us future events as if man was in the happy possition of the gift of reason and was dependent on a star without feeling and life." Still today 800 years later some people might remember his sensible words.








Source: Danish Archaological Magazine: Skalk, nr. 2, 1961, Sundhed til Salg, Helge Søgård. 


photo from Viborg and Tønder: grethe bachmann
other photos from wikipedia.

The Danish Kitchen in the Middle Ages

.A Brief Summary 

 



The medieval food in Denmark is first of all known from cookbooks handed over from the 1200s and forward. They tell us about what was used in the upper class kitchen,  and since the information is supplied with archaeological examinations and accounts, it can bring us a broader picture, which reveals that the medieval Danish kitchen had a surprisingly international mark. The commodities used were mostly locally produced, but the cooking was similar to the French, English and German sources and the spicing was strong and Middle east.

 

Lent

P.Bruegel: Fight between Carnival and Lent

An important element in the medieval food culture were the numerous Lent days. The Catholic church of the Middle Ages dictated common Lent each Wednesday and Friday, a stronger diet in the 40 days before Easter and in shorter periods up till other ceremonials. All in all it gave 180 Lent days a year. There were special rules about the food in over half the year. The Lent before Easter demanded to renounce all animal food -  but butter, egg and cheese were allowed on the weekly Lent days. Lent food was first of all renouncing meat. Instead people had fish.








Commodities.

The basic food was for the main part of the population mostly bread and butter, made by rye and barley, and to this in lesser amount came oat, wheat, buckwheat and millet. The daily bread was baked on rye, while the broad population had wheat bread only on festival occasions. The barley was used for beer brewing and for porridge. Corn could be stored and used all year, but the food was in general much dependent on the season.

Cattle and swine were usually slaughtered in November and December, and most of the meat were conserved by salting. Poultry like hens, chicken and geese gave fresh meat all year. Cows and sheep gave milch in summer, but not in winter where the fodder was too bad. The milch was not drunk, but conserved as butter and cheese. Meat came also from wild-living animals, but game-hunting was mostly reserved for king and aristocracy.

Plucking cabbage in the garden.

Food like fish played an important role during the numerous Lent days -  and fish were eaten both  fresh salted and dried  Vegetables are almost never mentioned in the written sources, but they must also have been a big part of the food. Even in the cities many people had their own cabbage garden,  where they cultivated green cabbage, peas, beans, onions, red beets and spice herbs.










Spices

The meat - which had been salted down - had to be  watered out in several changes of water hefore it could be used as food. Therefore it was often spiced heavily while cooking. One of the myths of medieval food is that the strong spicing had to drown the taste of rotten commodities, but this was not the truth . The price on spices was very high and it must have been cheaper to get hold of some good meat instead.

Medieval dinner at a prince's house

Royal accounts show that Middle east and Indian spices like saffron, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg and cumin were bought in large quantities. It was probably mostly the upper class who could afford the exotic spices on a daily basis, while the less fortunate impersonated the fine food as much as possible at their festivals. An example of the medieval taste for spices is delivered in todays Christmas food where the composition of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and clove dates from the fine food of the Middle Ages.
Spice herbs like parsley, marjoram and thyme plus garlic, horse radish and mustard recur in the recipes and must have been available to everyone, since they can be cultivated in Denmark. Sugar must also be included with the spices. Sugar was bought in the shape of cane-sugar, imported from the Middle East and therefore very costy. The dishes were instead sweetened with honey and raisins.

Beverage

Brewery 16th century

Another myth about the Middle Ages is that everyone drank beer all the time - which is not quite wrong. In return most beer was very thin and with a low alcohol procent. The quality of water was extremely bad, especially in the cities - and this is one of the explanations why people preferred beer. The water was boiled during the brewing process, and even though people knew nothing about bacterias they might have experienced that beer gave lesser problems about sickness than the drinking water. Beer was brewed in most large households for their own use for both adults and children. A stronger beer was brewed for festivals, and if people could afford it they bought the strong German beer which was of a good quality. Wine was imported too, and sweet wine was preferred, eventually sweetened with honey and spices.





source: Danmarkhistorie, Mad og drikke i Middelalderen, Aarhus Universitet, Kultur og Samfund.
photo: wikipedia

Crocus / Saffron

Danish: Krokus/ Safran)

Crocus is one of the very first spring flowers in the garden


Saffron is commonly used in the Oriental and Mediterranean kitchen.

The wild botanical crocus arrives already in January, and is succeeded by the various garden crocus with the big flowers from February into the month of March. The wild crocus has its origin in the Mediterranean. From Homer's time saffron was called krokos in Greek language. The poet uses saffron as a metaphor for the golden colour of dawn, but the word krokos is also used in Greece for the similarly coloured egg yolk. The word saffron derives from the Arab word Zafaran meaning yellow - it was mentioned as far back as 1500 b.c. in many classical writings as well as in the Bible.

The large-flowered crocus origins from The Alps and the Pyrenees. For garden this crocus is available in many variants. The yellow ones hold much C-vitamin, and the birds love them. They need C-vitamins after the winter. Wise little birds. Crocus react to the light, they open their heads on sunny days and remain closed on cloudy days.

saffron (wikipedia)

The first historic signs of saffron reach far, far back. Saffron based pigments have been found in prehistoric paints to illustrate beasts in 50.000 year old cave art found in today's Iraq. Saffron threads have been found interwoven into ancient Persian royal carpets, and 4.500 years ago it was known in China for medicinal use. The Phoenicians used saffron coloured sheets for weddings, and they traded saffron widely across the Mediterranean. In Kashmir was the first real saffron production. The first crocus was planted here before the birth of Christ.

(wikipedia)

The ancient Greeks and Romans also prized saffron for its use as a perfume and deodorizer. It was also used as a mascara, and saffron threads were stirred into wines, used in potpourris and offered to the deities. It was said that Cleopatra used saffron in her bath, and so did Alexander the Great, but it was for healing his wounds in war.  According to Greek mythology the handsome mortal Crocos fell in love with the beautiful nymph Smilax. But his favors were rebuffed by Smilax and he was turned into a beautiful purple crocus flower.

After the fall of Rome it seems that saffron disappeared from Europe until the 8th century when the Arabs brought it to Spain. Two centuries after their conquering Spain they planted saffron throughout Andalucia, Castile, La Mancha and Valencia. The spice was especially cultivated in Valencia and La Mancha and in the 14th century also in southern France.

The interest for saffron returned when 13th century crusaders brought saffron back from Asia to Northern Europe, where it was used as a dye and condiment. The Saffron Walden in Essex had an industry , where saffron was used in cooking and for dyeing textiles. A recipe from the 1500s has a Fish Cake, where cod is mixed with figs, raisins, cinnamon, saffron and other good stuff.

Saffron is the most precious and most expensive spice in the world - actually it was one of the world's most costy substances throughout history. It's hard work to pluck the crocus, first the flowers, then the stigmas have to be removed - and then they are dried over a charcoal fire. It takes about 80.000 stigmas (some info say 225.000) to produce one pound of dried stigmas.

Paella (wikipedia)

Saffron is very intensive and therefore used in minute amounts. In cooking it's especially known in Spanish Paella, French Bouillabaisse, Italian Risotto Milanese, English Saffron Cakes and Indian Biryani.

Spain is the premier producer of saffron today.







Danish Source: Brøndegaard-samlingen, Dansk etnobotanik, Folk og flora, Krokus: 
In Denmark was before 1800 made attempts to cultivate saffron crocus , the Danish king gave 200 rigdaler for this purpose. the saffron was also usable for dyeing silk and linen, but after hard winters and dry summers the project failed.
In medicine in DK saffron was used to treat anemia, to regulate menses and to drive out the placenta. Saffron was stated in the Pharmacopoeia in 1772.    

photo crocus and kitchen: grethe bachmann
other photos: wikipedia. 

Turmeric is a Painkiller...

 News about Health

turmeric from: Den store Danske

We use the turmeric powder to give rice dishes a yellow and colourful look - and this spice is the prominent part of curry mixtures. It is also called Indian saffron and was used as a substitute for this more expensive spice. Turmeric was also used as a dye for cloth and upon the skin - and still today the buddhistmonks' pretty yellow dresses are dyed with turmeric.

turmeric from: wikipedia

New research shows that the medical plant Turmeric is highly interesting. The content of the yellow dye, curcumin, is both a strong antibiotic and especially a strong painkiller. An Indian study has shown that 2 gram curcumin daily has the same painkilling effect as 400 mg ibuprofen. Turmeric's side effect is that it strengthens the liver and the immune system - which is a further benefit. 





Turmeric = Danish: Gurkemeje

Source: Nyt om din sundhed,  Kvindemagasin Søndag, 2012.

Boosting Your Burning..........

.......... with 5 healthy things.

In  my weekly magazine were 12 pages, a whole section, with advice for health and beauty, one better than the other and one more forgetfull and expensive than the other . But there was a good little page with 5 healthy things which would be easy to remember. And not only if you want a weight loss but just want to treat your body in a good way.

Green Tea.
Most people know green tea. It promotes the combustion, it reduces the bad cholesterol and reduces the fat depots. Studies have shown that green tea inhibits the ensyme lipase, which deplete the fat in the food, and therefore lesser fat is absorbed. Green tea also stimulates the thermogenesis, (which promotes the calorie burning). Green tea reduces the speed, and thereby carbohydrates are taken into the bloodstream.

Chili.
New studies show that special natural plant-substances like capsaicin and epigallocatechin gallate affect the food-caused stimulation of the compustion. Both substances are in chili. Strong spices boot the system and give you warmth -  and at the same time they boot the socalled food-induced compustion - daily just called compustion or burning - and this burns off your calories.

Apple Cider Vinegar
Apple cider vinegar alone does not give you a weight loss, but together with a sensible food it supports the weight loss immensely and counteracts the side effects in a food, which contains lesser calories than you burn.

 







Grapefruit     
It has been shown that plant chemicals in grapefruit can contribute to reduce the insuline level in the body and thereby the amount of the energy from the meal, which is transformed into fat.

 




All Vitamins and Minerals
And then it is important to be supplied with all essential vitamins, minerals and fats daily - especially if you want a weight loss. 












Source: Caroline Fibæk,  Femina, nr. 16, 19. April 2012, Aller Media A/S , Havneholmen, København.

photos: copies

Medieval Easter Dinner at the Bishop's House

The Middle Ages.

The medieval bishops were powerful men. They had a place in the Danish king's council and acted more like princes and statesmen than church leaders.  A bishop's residence was often a castle - a typical bishop-residence was Spøttrup castle in North Jutland which today is a medieval museum. It is one of very few medieval castles left in Denmark. Spøttrup was one of the most modern fortifications in Denmark during the 1500s with high embankments with palisades and double moats - a powerful fortification and a magnifcient residence for a bishop.

The bishop celebrated Easter dinner in the great hall together with his highly trusted employees and possible guests. The other staff had dinner in the associated rooms. On a daily basis all dishes were served at the bishop's high table only, while the staff in the other rooms had fewer dishes - but at a great feast like Easter each dish was served to everyone in the house. Easter was the greatest church feast of the year, and the account from the bishop's house reveals a little about the cuisine at that time. The commodities and the choice of menu was an expression of a wide and advanced range. The dinner had 10 dishes, and the ceremony took several hours.


The bishop sat in his high seat with his fine bishop's cap on his head and his majestic bishop-rod in his hand. He might wear a purple velvet cape, bordered with ermine, and all his guests and all his staff were dressed in their finest clothes. The table was covered in fine tablecloths in several layers. The utensils were mostly ceramics or wood and possibly pewter. In an inventory list from the bishop's household are mentioned 15 drinking horns, carved in animal horn, and 6 candelabres, a part of the table decoration.The Swedish historian Olaus Magnus (1490-1557) recounts that the Scandinavians rarely used glassware, since they had a habit of crushing the glass after drinking, and glass was extremely costy. The utensils were knives and spoons and the fingers - the fork was not yet known.

The Easter Dinner was initiated by the chancellor who said the grace, and the chaplain later read from the holy scripture. During dinner was entertainment with musicians with pipes and drums and a performance by the jester. The basic idea in these feasts was that the music and other cultural events accompanied a high gastronomic cuisine. The symbol of the Easter meal played a decisive role. The first dish was roast lamb or mutton with bread, the second was wine soup, possibly with saffron, and later boiled eggs. The festival bread, called vegge, was possibly also coloured yellow with saffron. Saffron was the most expensive spice together with pepper and reserved for the upper class. All dishes were accompanied by wine. Royal accounts shows that spices from the Middle East and India like saffron, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, nutmeg and cumin were bought in large amounts. It was probably only the upper class, who could afford these exotic spices on a daily basis, while the less fortunate as much as possible imitated the delicate food at festivals and celebrations.

The return of the meat was important in the Easter meal after 40 days' Lent, which had been dominated by bread, cabbage and salt fish. Most meat was salted, and it was a rare thing to have the popular fresh meat like beef, lamb or pork. Venison was a very desirable delicacy, which mostly was reserved at the princes' table. A substantial part of the menu was the beverage: mead, wine and beer.

Mead, wine, beer and herbal water are mentioned as medicine in the medical books. Honey was also considered a medicine; it had to be cleansed carefully before using it in the cuisine and in the preparation of various drinks. Mead was one of the earliest known drinks;  it was produced with water, honey and herbs like sweet gale or hops and with beer yeast. It was a common thing to put a linen bag into the mead barrel. A recipe from an old medical book reports contents like: pepper, ginger, cardamom, clove and cinnamon. This brought a better taste and durability to the mead. Wine was imported and a very rare drink in Denmark. Sweet wine was preferred, maybe sweetened with honey and spices. There is a myth about the Middle Ages: that everyone was drinking beer all the time. This might not be wrong, but the beer was very thin and with a low alcohol percentage; the quality of drinking water was bad, especially in the towns - this might be an explanation why beer was preferred. The water was boiled during the brewing process, and although people did not know about bacterias, they might have noticed that beer caused fewer health problems than tap water.
 
Magnificent display-dishes were carried past the bishop and his guests between each serving. Large decorated centerpieces with a peacock or other animals were crowning the dish. They were not meant to be eaten, but they were shown together with decorated patés, where the lid described the content, and the whole scenery was a festive sight to the dinner party. During and after meals servants appeared with jugs and dishes with fragrant water, mostly rose-water, and with towels, for the dinner guests to wash and dry their hands. A comprehensive serving staff was present at big parties like the Easter festival. They were young men of nobility - as a part of their education they had to serve the Easter dinner to the gentry in the most distinguished way.

A cupbearer, the Kredens, had to cut the meat and the bread - and furthermore taste the food and drink before it was served to the party. At that time people were not afraid of salmonella and other food poisoning, like we are today - they were simply afraid of being poisoned by their enemies. If things went quite wrong they used an antidote called theriaca. It was an Arabic invention from the late 1100s. The content of this medicine was: *slangerod, (snake root), gentian, laurel , the best and noblest myrrh and honey. The original Arabian theriaca contained snake, which in the new recipes was replaced by a crushed powder from the root of the strong and poisonous root of the snake root- herb. It was a common advice to use the powder of this root against snake bites and as an emetic.

* Danish name : Slangerod , Latin:  Aristolochia clematitis ; English name: European Birthwort. 

A  reconstruction of an Easter Dinner anno 1520:
spit-roasted leg of lamb
wine soup
cooked beef
poached eggs
roast game tenderloin
boiled pike
venison paté
roast pigeons
fresh cheese
fig dessert.

Wine Soup in a translated version from a  medieval recipe :
4 egg yolks
50 gram sugar,
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg,
saffron,
6 dl white wine,
1 cinnamon stick,
1/2 teaspoon grated ginger.


1. Whip egg yolk with sugar and nutmeg, crush saffron in a mortar and dissolve it in a little wine.
2. Mix wine, saffron, cinnamon and ginger in a pot. Boil the mix in moderate heat. Just before it boils remove from heat. Remove the cinnamon stick.
3. Whip a little wine mix slowly into the egg mass. The egg mix back into the pot while stirring. Heat the wine soup slowly while stirring, until it is smooth and hot, min. 75 degree Celsius. Serve the hot soup - accompanied by butter-toasted wheat bread.

GB

Source: Bente Leed, Danskernes mad i middelalderen, Forlaget åløkke a/s, 1999

photo Spøttrup: grethe bachmann
images: bishop chess piece in ivory 1200s; medieval castle kitchen; Bayeux tapestry;  
Feast-Canterbury Tales; Theriaca pharmacies jar.
 

Four Spices of Christmas

There's a Lovely Scent in the Kitchen at Christmas Time.......

kitchen, Hjerle Hede, Open Air Museum, Jutland

baking oven, Stone Age, Hjerle Hede.

A very special scent during Chistmas time is the aroma of clove, vanilla, cinnamon and cardamom. Most of the spices we use today- and especially around Christmas - origin from the Far East, one of the reasons why the Arabs during the Middle Ages and later the Dutch grew very rich on the spice trade. The Arabs dominated the world's spice trade from the eleventh century while the Dutch were the dominating part about six centuries later. For hundreds of years spices were so expensive that only rich people could afford them. They were kept in a locked box to which only the lady of the house had the important key in her bunch of keys. Today spices are available to everyone, and especially around Christmas the kitchen is a place with a lovely scent that fills the whole house.

Clove/Nellike/Eugenia caryophyllata
Clove is dried flower buds from an evergreen tree, originally from a group of islands, the Moluccas, but it is also cultivated in other tropic places. Clove was one of the first spices arriving in Europe. It came with the Portuguese after the discovery of the sea route to India.

The custom placing clove in an orange derives from the nineteenth century where people placed the clove-covered orange in the closet to make their clothes smell good. Today we often hang the clove-orange in a red silken band at Christmas. It is best to cover the orange in full with cloves. In this way the orange will not rotten, but will be completely conserved and continue to spread its delicious scent in the room for a long time.

Many lard the pork roast with whole clove, it is also good in a roasted smoked ham, eventually finished with a mustard glazing, a custom for the Swedish Christmas-Ham. Clove has a very strong taste and is easy to overdose. It has to be used with care and suit the other spices in a dish.

Grounded clove is used for baking, in various delicatessen, in Christmas cookies and in many sorts of spiced cakes. It is perfect in fruit dishes and stewed fruit and gives a perfect finishing touch on apple-pies. Grounded clove is also a good spice in strong soups and sauces - or two whole cloves put into an onion to boil it together with the dish. Whole clove is especially fine in vinegar pickling and in green pickled tomatoes, hips, pumpkins and plums - and it is indespensable together with the other good spices in the Christmas Punch (Juleglögg).

Old advice: Spice oil rubbed upon a sore tooth is said to remove the worst pain - and chewing a couple of whole cloves is said to reduce the urge for alcohol.




Vanilla/Vanilje/Vanilla planifolia 
Vanilla comes originally from Mexico. The Totonaco-Indians were the first to use it - they considered it a gift from the gods. Later the Azteks used it in chocolat. In the 1500s the Spanish conqueror Hernando Cortez brought vanilla to Spain from where it spread throughout Europe, but in the beginning vanilla was used mainly in cocoa-drinks. Not until around 1600 vanilla became an independent spice. The first time vanilla is mentioned in Denmark was in 1770 in a book about Natural history.

The biggest production today comes from Madagaskar. The vanilla-sticks are dried seed capsules from a tropical orchid, vanilla planifolia. The fine flavouring is extracted in a complicated process, and the genuine vanilla is rather expensive. Bourbon vanilla is considered the best , followed by Tahiti-vanilla. A good vanilla-stick has to be dark, soft and lustrous. The seeds and the fruit pulp is scraped out from the vanilla-stick and used in creme, icecreme, fruit-dishes, baking, pickled green tomatoes and pumpkins.

Vanilla sugar is made from vanilla seeds and sugar. Vanilla-essence is sold in small bottles and easy to dose. The empty vanilla-stick keeps the scent for a long time - put it in the sugar jar, and the sugar can be used as vanilla-sugar. The vanilla-stick can also be halved and cooked in milk for pudding - or simmer with the milk for hot cocoa. This spice is indispensable in the dessert-kitchen like the salt is in the salt-kitchen. Vanilla brings out the taste from other ingredienses like salt.

Vanilla-stick is a usual spice in desserts and cakes, but also delicious in general baking and a thrilling spice in hot dishes, where it is not expected, fx in poultry together with orange, basil and onion.  All over the world is vanilla used in cakes, icecreme and candy. In Mexico it is also used in sauces - and in Paris in perfumes. But the sweet and strong taste of vanilla is good for more than cookies and desserts, it is useful in sauces and fish soups, since it brings out the full taste of the whole dish. The lovely scent of vanilla is easy to recognize - it always brings good memories of Christmas time.

Cinnamon/Kanel/Cinnamomum zeylanicum.
The best and the most expensive cinnamon is from Sri Lanka. The spice is the bark from a tree, which after peeling and drying rolls together into a little reed. Another cinnamon species is the Cassia-cinnamon, which derives from China and mainly is cultivated there. The genuine cinnamon from Sri Lanka is easy to recognize, since the reed is light brown and in more layers, while the Cassia-cinnamon-reed is dark brown and only has one layer.

Cinnamon was known as a spice for thousands of years. In the Old testament cinnamon is mentioned as the most distinguished of all spices and a gift for gods and princes. The Chinese knew cinnamon about 4-7.000 years ago - it is mentioned in the earliest Chinese herbal books. The Chinese call it "kwei" - and it is mentioned in the Chinese emperor's herbal book from ab. 2.700 b.c. and again in the herbal book "Rha-ya" from ab. 1.200 b.c. Cinnamon came to Eruope in the 1400s.

Cinnamon is  used for adding a fine sweet taste to hot buns, fruitcakes and raisin-apple dishes and spiced wine. Both whole cinnamon-reed and grounded cinnamon are used, the grounded cinnamon mostly for baking purpose. Cinnamon is also used in stewed fruit and in various pickling - and for the Christmas punch, (juleglögg) and toddy.

Grounded cinnamon is perfect in apple pie and mixed with sugar strewed upon the rice porridge. A mix of grounded cinnamon, nutmeg and clove is often used in spiced bread and cakes, and the same mix is good in a dish with fat meat. But cinnamon can also give a fine effect in fish dishes and fried meat dishes. In India cinnamon is commonly used in meat- and rice dishes and as an ingrediense in the spice mix garam masala and curry-mix.

An old advice: Cinnamon prevents wind in the stomach. And if people strewed cinnamon and cardamom upon a buttered roast piece of bread it was a good means against indigestion.


   

Cardamom/Kardemomme/ Elettaria cardamomum  
Cardamom are the seeds from a tropical plant from India. The small seeds are inside triangular capsules , they are dried and used either whole or grounded. The grounded cardamom is the cheapest, but there is a grounded variety called "decorticated", made from the seeds only.

Cardamom is fine together with orange and lemon, either in cakes or in various orange-desserts, and it is an important ingrediense in curry mix and in garam masala. An extra additon of cardamom to a curry dish brings out the good taste. The spice is also a good ingrediense in forcemeat for poultry, eventual with parsley. But only in small quantities.

Commonly used in yeast bread, spiced cakes, apple dessert, panncakes, patés, and as mentioned also in oriental curry dishes and in some forcemeat dishes with parsley. In Scandinavia and in Russia cardamom is used for promoting the taste of Liqueur, and in the Middle East coffee is made tasty and spicy with a couple of cardamom-seeds. Some spiced buns (Krydderboller) with cardamom are very popular in Denmark.

Through 3.000 years cardamom was used in Chinese medicine. It was imported to Greece in the 4th century b.c. and was later used by Greek physicians. The English herbalist William Cole described in the 1700s cardamom as the "seed above all seeds" and told that it removed a phlegmatic temper, both from head and stomach.

Hjerle Hede photo: grethe bachmann

Spice photo: grethe bachmann and stig bachmann nielsen, naturplan.dk

Potpourri

Small Chinese jars with lid, decorated with golden dragons, red dragons or blue dragons and filled with potpourri create a lovely atmosphere in the winter season. The base in a potpourri is always dried rose-leaves, a large handful in a jar with a little salt in the bottom, then rose-leaves, again a little salt a.s.o. Put lid on and stir in it five times a day for five days. When you take off the lid a faint scent of roses is floating out into the room.

A stronger scent: Put some already salted rose leaves in a jar and pour a few drops geranium oil, some whole cloves, a little crushed nutmeg, some coriander seeds, a cut cinnamon stick and a little crushed violrod (Iris florentina at pharmacy). Stir and let it stand for a week, and it is ready to fill the room with a delicate scent when removing the lid in the daytime.

Fill little home-sewed sachets with dried rose leaves, dried thyme flowers and dried sweet gale leaves. Bind the sachets with silken bands. For your own use hang them on the hangers in the wardrobe or put them in draws or under your pillow. Or use them as a fine little gift for the hostess when you're out on Christmas visits in December.

Turkish Meringues: Common meringue paste , mix it with finely crushed dried rose leaves and bake the meringues as you use to. It looks delicate and give a lovely scent.

Source: Annemarta Borgen, Krydderurtehaven på Knatten, 1992.

photo Boller slot 2008: grethe bachmann