Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination by Paul Freedman

Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination Reviews

• 
  Sarah

  This was an excellent book, both well-written and very informative. Although it's a scholarly book, I think it is quite accessible to the lay-person (it helps that the endnotes are at the back, which makes the reading experience smoother -- this would annoy me if I were reading it for scholarly purposes, though); my public library has a copy, which indicates the press is also marketing it widely. I didn't have any trouble, and I'm no expert on the Middle Ages.
  
  The book deals with several aspects of spices and the Middle Ages: Why and how were they used in foods and medicines? What did people know about their origins (both real and imagined)? What was it about spices that helped to prompt the great voyages of discovery? I think Freedman gives satisfactory and very interesting answers to all these questions, and I certainly learned a lot. I also learned about a number of spices I had never heard of before, which is always fun. Freeman makes enviably good use of primary texts, including cookbooks, account ledgers, and early maps, and I particularly enjoyed the little sidebars with extended quotations from some of the cookbooks. I don't think I'll be trying too many of the recipes, though.
  
  In addition to all this, Out of the East answered my long-time question about spices: why is cardamom used in Swedish baking and Indian cooking, but nowhere in between? The answer has to do with the fact that Medieval European cooking was much closer to today's Indian or Middle Eastern cooking than today's European food, and would have included many dishes with sauces heavy with a wide variety of spices. This type of cooking began to fall out of favor in Europe around the time of the Renaissance, with the rise of traditional French cooking, and spices were mostly relegated to desserts or holiday foods.
• 
  Jessica Strider

  Pros: detailed examination of the subject matter, lots of minor details
  
  Cons: could have used more maps
  
  After the introduction the book has eight chapters and a conclusion. The chapters are:
  
  Spices and Medieval Cuisine
  
  Medicine: Spices as Drugs
  
  The Odors of Paradise
  
  Trade and Prices
  
  Scarcity, Abundance, and Profit
  
  “That Damned Pepper”: Spices and Moral Danger
  
  Searching for the Realms of Spices
  
  Finding the Realms of Spices: Portugal and Spain
  
  The book is fantastic. It examines spices as food enhancements, medicine, trade items from exotic locales, and more. I loved that the author often made asides that filled in information of what was happening in other parts of the world so as to better understand Europe’s place in it.
  
  I especially loved learning about the myths and legends surrounding India and Asia, and the snakes that guard the pepper plants and diamonds.
  
  I find it fascinating the amount of spices used in the middle ages, especially in food, compared to today. Some of the combinations seem so bizarre I want to try them, just to see what they were like. Did they know something we’ve forgotten about spice blends?
  
  The book has a few black and white illustrations and maps, but given the subject matter, more would have been appreciated.
  
  If you’re interested in spices and/or the middle ages, this is a worthwhile read.
• 
  Siria

  Paul Freedman's examination of the role of spices in the medieval world—their social, economic, political and culinary uses—is really wonderful. It's a rare example of the 'crossover book', one which is learned enough to be useful to an academic audience, while also being accessible to an interested lay reader. Freedman uses travellers' account, culinary and health texts, maps, and many other primary sources to examine why spices were so popular in medieval Europe—what they symbolised, why they were used so extensively (medieval European cooking has far more in common with contemporary Middle Eastern food—lots of spice and perfume and rich colour—than it does with modern Western foods), and why they eventually fell out of fashion. Recommended heartily for anyone with an interest in the history of food, or in global history.
• 
  icaro

  Libro eccellente e definitivo sul tema (se si può dire una cosa del genere per un libro di storia). Qualche lungaggine e qualche ripetizione ma veramente completo. Dimostra inequivocabilmente che l'dea che le spezie fossero richieste in Europa per coprire il sapore non eccellente di cibi passati di freschezza o per conservarli è solo una leggenda 'metropolitana'. Come sempre, per quel che riguarda le azioni degli uomini le cose sono molto complesse: gusto, status, esotismo, magia, farmacopea, miti e speranze sono alla base del successo plurisecolare delle spezie. Sorpredente poi seguirne il tramonto per arrivare ai modesti barattoli che allignano nelle nostre cucine
• 
  Lisa Kelsey

  I've often wondered what it was about spices that caused men to risk life an climb in pursuit of them. Yes spiced food is nice and all, but I really didn't think that was enough. Thanks to Paul Freedman I know have a good understanding of what spices meant to people in the middle ages--they were far more than just food flavorings. Spices, especially exotic ones, were also used in religious ceremonies, as medicines, health aids, and as a display of wealth and status. This is a thorough examination, well-written and full of insight. I recommend it for fans of food history, medieval history and even the history of trade and capitalism.
• 
  Tim

  Fascinating look at the role of spice in Medieval European culture -- I only read the sections on food and medicine. The absolute craziest bit of trivia you should come away with is that "momie" or "mumia" was a valued medical spice -- and the best momie came from Egypt. It was, as you probably have guessed... ground-up-mummy. Yummy!
• 
  Elizabeth

  Wheeeeee! A fabulous romp through spices and history, with much amusing quotation of primary sources (and the primary sources are of a variety of types, as well, which is always fun, and makes me feel confident that the author has, in fact, done his own research).
• 
  Keith

  I loved this book - I couldn't put it down. Amazing to think that cloves and nutmeg drove empires to power and downfall. Neat!
• 
  mahatmanto

  ini bukan review, tapi sekadar catatan personal sehabis baca. tapi juga gak baca habis...
  tapi buku ini lucu,
  ia menggunakan komentar-komentar orang eropa di abad ke-17 tentang berjenis-jenis masakan yang memakai atau tidak memakai rempah-rempah tropik asia. ada dikutip komentar orang italia, prancis, german, spanyol, polandia... mengenai apa dampak kayu manis bila dicemplungin dalam sup. apa efeknya bila kunyit dilibatkan dalam masakan tradisional mereka. dan seterusnya...
  melalui cara ini maka bisa dibayangkan betapa dalamnya rempah-rempah tropik asia telah merasuk ke meja makan dan bahkan mempengaruhi lidah dan selera makan orang eropa.
  banyak buku sejarah menjelaskan alasan orang eropa menjajah asia adalah karena perdagangan rempah. tapi jarang yang memasuki area studi ini dari meja makan orang eropa sendiri.
  di meja makan orang eropa di masa abad pertengahan, sudah berlangsung pertengkaran, apakah rempah asia itu perlu atau tidak masuk ke dalam khasanah kuliner mereka.
  penjajahan atas asia adalah konsekuensi berikut dari pertengkaran dari dapur dan meja makan itu.
• 
  Patrick

  A tantalizing if short look at the way desire and fascination can shape world-historical events. Everyone knows that Columbus and de Gama were motivated by a search for the source of spices, but no one ever seems to ask why spices were such a big deal, anyways. Freedman makes a compelling case that they were a mix of medicine, status symbol, and genuine delight that had a much more central role in European culture and cuisine than they do today, now that they are no longer scarce or special. It was precisely because they were unusual and exotic that a market existed large enough to bring them into the realm of the familiar, inadvertently dragging the entire world into the European-centered system. Medieval cuisine might not "explain" why colonialism happened, but the fact that arbitrary personal tastes could play a role in shaping the whole course of the future is a powerful idea to consider.
• 
  Sara

  While this was dry at times, for the most part it held my interest especially the chapters on Medieval recipes and the final chapter analyzing the decline of the spice trade. It's fascinating how food fashion transformed the world.
• 
  Stephen Coates

  Freedman traces the history of the spice trade, mostly from the east, to Europe from pre-Roman times until the late 17th century, a period in which spices were often used in excessive quantities to disguise spoilage and to exhibit wealth. The book covers the uses of spices as medicines at a time when pharmacology was little else, the litergical use of spices, the battles fought over access to spice-growing lands, the trade routes and the cultivation of spices in colonies in the new world and how the excessive use of spices came to an end in the late 17th century when French tastes switched to better cooked foods and thicker sauces over dishes relying on excessive spices. An interesting read for those with culinary interests.
• 
  David Kessler

  The book spend half its time talking about history and ancient history. The book talks about the middle age folks and how they used spices for all kinds of things. No science behind it just applause and cultural bias which lead to unusual claims of what a particular spice could do.
  
  Because the book does not talk about the current conditions of spice growth and what countries export particular spices it was a mostly uninteresting book. No science behind the aromas or tastes of spices, no debunking of the outrageous claims of spices, just this unusual narration about what monks did with it in the 1200s or what kings and queens did with the spices in their recipes in the 13th and 14th century. Totally useless information.
• 
  Pancha

  So the idea that spices were popular in the middle ages because they covered the taste of bad meat is something of an urban legend. Those who were rich enough to afford spices could also afford fresh meat. And spices aren't as good at preservation as salt and smoke, so the poor did waste money on them. Highly spiced food was popular throughout Europe and Asia from at least the Roman Empire up to the sixteenth century, when French cuisine began to focus on the flavor of the base ingredients, and delicacies from the New World (like coffee, chocolate) started to supplant spices at the tables of the elite.
  
  Side note: this book came to me via Link+ from the Asuza Pacific University library.
• 
  Tiffany

  This book was recommended to me by a friend who's a medieval historian. It was remarkably similar to Jack Turner's "Spice: The History of a Temptation." I enjoyed it nonetheless, and thought it was an interesting historical perspective on the uses and economics of spices, especially in the Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery.
• 
  Dawn Paris

  I found the sections on spice use most interesting. So many spices in the diet! But the spice mummy...ugh! The procurement and exploration for spices was not as interesting, particularly in the religious motivations for exploration, but that may be because some elements seemed repetitive.
• 
  Snehal Bhagat

  Exhaustive, and exhausting.
• 
  Kelly

  highly interesting, readable.
• 
  Sarah

  Fascinating book!
• 
  Iris

  An intereseting perspective on European use of spices during the middle ages. Also covers expansionism and the impetus for exploration through the lens of the spice trade.
• 
  Kristin

  A really great book about the spice trade in medieval Europe, and how spices were a major cultural commodity. A bit repetitive, however. Still, not a bad book to have read for school.