[CH] sauce with a sting

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-> While not exactly a specialist, I have read a bit on the subject. Medieval
-> cooking was characterized by a much heavier use of spices than our cooking.
-> They used a greater variety and amount of spices than we we find bearable.
-> If interested, you might want to look at
-> Yes, spices were very expensive -- that was the point. Conspicuous
-> consumption has never been overly concerned with logic or taste.
x
They also spiced things heavily, I'm told, to cover up the taste of
the imperfect preservation of a lot of their meat, and perhaps to keep
meats from going further off.  They didn't know about germs, but they
must've noticed that cinnamon, allspice and rosemary are good
preservatives.  Cinnamon is especially amazing.  It's almost as
good against bacterial spoilage as allspice, and it's also quite a
decent antifungal and antiviral (and topically anti-inflammatory,
too--next time you have swimmer's ear, dry out the ear canal well and
then warm some cinnamon in baby oil and drizzle it in the ear.  Works
better than the prescription stuff since it addresses both bacterial
and fungal problems, both of which may be present, and it's faster.) 
x
But I'm guessing they also did it for the same reason we like to put
scadz of chiles in stuff: flavors intense enough make your eyes fly open
can be fun.  We may not agree with them about which ones (personally, 
cinnamon and clove in beef never really floated my boat :)), but the
principle seems the same. 
x
Rain
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