Seasonings

Seasonings are an essential part of cooking. Seasonings make food more flavorful, and also identify regional
cuisine. In the past seasonings were used as preservatives before modern preservatives came along so that food
could be kept longer. Salt was originally used to draw the water out of food which would preserve it and make it
edible longer. Curing meat not only intensified the flavor it also kept the meat fresher so that it didn’t all have to
be eaten immediately or wasted.
Before there were grocery stores and restaurants, food was a little harder to come by. People had to make the
vegetables that they grew and the meat from hunting trips or livestock last. Over the centuries people improvised
all kinds of seasonings from different materials to keep food fresh and to make it taste better. Some of these
seasonings became an integral part of the cuisine of a particular region so that today we recognize certain foods
as being part of a particular type of cuisine based on the seasonings that are used in that food.
Seasonings are any items that are used to make the taste of food richer. Spices and herbs are the most commonly
used seasonings but sauces, oils, dressings, marinades and other items are also considered seasonings. Even
though some seasonings, like salt, were used by all classes of people in the past using more exotic spices was
something that only the rich could afford because spices and other seasonings were very expensive.
In order to get spices and seasonings into Europe and other countries before the creation of trains and other
motorized vehicles expeditions of merchants and explorers needed to be sent to the Far East to get spices and
other seasonings. The trip was expensive and dangerous, making spices and seasonings something that only
nobility or royalty could afford.