Condiment is usually defined in etymological works as that which is put along with something else to preserve or pickle it ; seasoning, sauce — from the Latin condimentum, * We quote from John Smith’s ‘Vegetable Cookery,’ London, 187(3, N. 454, p. 201, the following absurd definition of ‘stock ‘Stock is a term employed to denote that part of soup which becomes gelatinous when cold. For vegetable soups it is prepared from sago, tapioca, arrowroot, Salop and Irish moss.’ CONDIMENTS AND SPICES 87 derived from the verb condio, I preserve or pickle. This definition is for our time insufficient, and with regard to sauce being an equivalent to condiment, obsolete. Condi- mentum in Latin no doubt originally meant an aromatic substance capable of preserving, or helping to preserve, food from spoiling ; but its meaning was extended to signalize spice [loort, German Wilrze), a substance which makes food more tasty. This is also the meaning of the Greek word artyma. The present English use of the expression loort for culinary herb (or vegetable of supposed medical — i.e., heal- ing— virtue) corresponds to the Eoman expression of condi- mentum viride — green culinary herb. A condimentarius at the time of Pliny was a spice-merchant ; be sold no green condiments, was not a Covent Garden herbalist, but a Great Tower Street pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc., merchant. Herat and Delens in their Dictionary give the more modern form of definition of condiment, omitting its preservative functions : ‘ Saline, aromatic, sharp substances, etc., which one adds to alimentary substances in order to give them an agreeable taste and facilitate their digestion by stimulating the forces of the stomach.’ This definition would unduly limit the term ‘ condiments’ to spices only. We therefore believe it to be expedient to unite the several definitions (that of sauce always excepted), and to comprise under the title of ‘ condiments ’ all the saline, mineral, acid, and sweet vegetable substances, spices, and aromatic materials and herbs which are included in the classification now to be given. Common salt, as the most important condiment, forms the first group, attended by nitre* ; the peppery s^^bstances form the second group— pepper, cava, betel, cubebs, pimento, unona ; the third group includes the chromatic substances * Nitre might be objected to as not coming under the definition ; for it is not added to salt cither for its taste or for any supposed general pre- servative effect, but only as a means to retain a certain pink colour of the fiesh, which is lost in mere salt. Tn this sense nitre might be termed ‘a culinary cosmetic.’ 88 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Condiment is usually defined in etymological works as that which is put along with something else to preserve or pickle it ; seasoning, sauce — from the Latin condimentum, * We quote from John Smith’s ‘Vegetable Cookery,’ London, 1873, N. 454, p. 201, the following absurd definition of ‘stock ‘Stock is a term employed to denote that part of soup which becomes gelatinous when cold. For vegetable soups it is prepared from sago, tapioca, arrowroot, Salop and Irish moss.’ CONDIMENTS AND SPICES derived from the verb condio, I preserve or pickle. This definition is for our time insufficient, and with regard to sauce being an equivalent to condiment, obsolete. Condimentum in Latin no doubt originally meant an aromatic substance capable of preserving, or helping to preserve, food from spoiling ; but its meaning was extended to signalize spice [loort, German Wilrze), a substance which makes food more tasty. This is also the meaning of the Greek word artyma. The present English use of the expression loort for culinary herb (or vegetable of supposed medical — i.e., healing— virtue) corresponds to the Eoman expression of condimentum viride — green culinary herb. A condimentarius at the time of Pliny was a spice-merchant ; be sold no green condiments, was not a Covent Garden herbalist, but a Great Tower Street pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc., merchant. Herat and Delens in their Dictionary give the more modern form of definition of condiment, omitting its preservative functions : ‘ Saline, aromatic, sharp substances, etc., which one adds to alimentary substances in order to give them an agreeable taste and facilitate their digestion by stimulating the forces of the stomach.’ This definition would unduly limit the term ‘ condiments’ to spices only. We therefore believe it to be expedient to unite the several definitions (that of sauce always excepted), and to comprise under the title of ‘ condiments ’ all the saline, mineral, acid, and sweet vegetable substances, spices, and aromatic materials and herbs which are included in the classification now to be given. Common salt, as the most important condiment, forms the first group, attended by nitre* ; the peppery substances form the second group— pepper, cava, betel, cubebs, pimento, unona ; the third group includes the chromatic substances * Nitre might be objected to as not coming under the definition ; for it is not added to salt cither for its taste or for any supposed general preservative effect, but only as a means to retain a certain pink colour of the fiesh, which is lost in mere salt. In this sense nitre might be termed ‘a culinary cosmetic.’

The spirit of cookery