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There can be no more traditional end to a Christmas dinner than Christmas
pudding. Contemporary ones are prepared from dried fruit and nuts, spices,
sugar, eggs, flour, suet and alcohol, but early versions were rather
different. In the 14th century the pudding was more of a porridge, known
as “frumenty”, comprising beef and mutton mixed with raisins,
currants, dried plums, wines and spices. By 1595, frumenty became known
as plum pudding, incorporating eggs and breadcrumbs to thicken it, and
beer or spirits for additional flavour. By the 1650s, it had become the
final course of a Christmas meal which included a decorated boar’s
head ceremonially eaten over eight hours.
The Puritans banned plum pudding — it
was deemed “unfit for god-fearing people” — but King
George I reinstated it in 1714. The yuletide season in this era abounded
with extravagant pageantry, with puddings so vast that they were boiled
in the same huge copper pot that was used to heat water for the weekly
wash — 800 pound puddings are described in some texts. At some
point in this evolution the prunes in the recipe disappeared but the
name plum pudding survived.
Christmas pudding as we know it today dates from Victorian times. It
was promoted by the cook Eliza Acton in her highly successful book ‘Modern
cookery for private families’ published in 1845. Her Christmas
pudding recipe contained 2kg of dried fruit and candied peel, 16 eggs,
570ml of brandy, and 900g of beef kidney suet, as well as a whole nutmeg
and mixed spice (a blend of spices, including cinnamon, ginger, cloves,
caraway seeds, coriander seeds and more
nutmeg).
Traditions
There are a number of traditions surrounding the making of Christmas
pudding. The day chosen to make the pudding was normally “Stir
Up Sunday”, this was the Sunday before Advent, when the set prayer
for that day, as used from the 16th century, reads:
Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people,
that they plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may be
of thee plenteously rewarded.
Intended as a call to encourage greater faith and action it also reminded
the congregation to make their Christmas puddings in time for them to
mature, ready for Christmas. Every member of the family would take a
turn at stirring the pudding, from east to west in honour of the three
wise men (making a wish as they did so) and, often, 13 ingredients were
used to represent Christ and his disciples. Sometimes silver charms would
be put into the pudding. A silver coin would indicate wealth in the coming
year for the person finding it and a silver thimble symbolised a year
unmarried or of thrift.
Another tradition is that of turning out the pudding, dousing it in brandy,
setting light to it and bringing it to the table ceremonially.
The spice trade
Although Christmas pudding is viewed as a classic British tradition,
its ingredients came from all over the world. From medieval times vine
fruit, sugar, citrus fruit and spices were all part of the trade in
foodstuffs, but it was trade in spices in particular that stimulated
global exploration and had a fundamental effect on world history.
Spices are aromatic or pungent flavourings made from hard parts of
aromatic tropical and subtropical plants. Examples include dried bark
(cinnamon),
seeds (pepper), flower buds (cloves) and roots (ginger). They were known
and traded in the East thousands of years ago, being transported to the
Middle East either by land or sea and sold by Arab merchants. By the
time of Christ, the Romans were trading with India, selling their wares
in the Egyptian commercial centre of Alexandria, and so spices found
their way to the markets of Greece and the Roman Empire. By the 13th
century, Venice had secured a monopoly in the trade of spices in Europe.
In the 15th century the Europeans, trying to break the stranglehold that
the Venetians held, opted to build their own ships and reach the spice-producing
countries themselves. So began what became known as the spice race.
The Portuguese were the first over the finishing line in 1501, bringing
spices from India to Europe via the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1511 they
were also the first to reach the Molucca islands (now part of Indonesia).
These islands produced nutmeg and cloves in abundance and were known
as the Spice Islands. Christopher Columbus had already tried to reach
these islands by sailing westwards from Spain but instead discovered
the Americas in 1492. Ferdinand Magellan took a fleet of five Spanish
ships and sailed across the Atlantic to reach the Spice Islands in 1521.
Although he died on the journey one vessel made it home to Spain, loaded
with 26 tons of cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and mace, having accomplished
the first circumnavigation of the globe. The first Dutch adventurers
reached the Moluccas in 1595. They returned to Amsterdam two years later
with only a tiny quantity of spices, the inaugural voyage marred by mutinies
and massacres. From these inauspicious beginnings, however, the Dutch
developed a monopoly on the spice trade with Indonesia.
English attempts to reach the Spice Islands had begun with a bizarre
plan to reach the Pacific via the North Pole in 1553. Two ships foundered
in the ice floes; the crew of the third abandoned ship and came home
via Moscow. It would be 400 years before a nuclear submarine succeeded
in reaching the Pacific via this route. It was the privateersman Francis
Drake who, in 1577, commanded the first successful English voyage to
reach the Moluccas. Ostensibly on a diplomatic trade mission, he followed
Magellan’s route and returned home victorious in 1580, his ship
the Golden Hind laden not only with spices but also with gold, silver,
pearls and precious stones pillaged from the Spanish and Portuguese.
For this, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth I.
In 1600, the English East India Company was founded to trade in spices.
The company’s maiden voyage was carried out under the command of
Captain James Lancaster. Lancaster’s trip was a success; he brought
all his ships home safely in 1603 carrying more than a million pounds
in weight of spices.
Elizabethan England craved new luxuries and extravagant fashions so the
English East India Company diversified and also traded in cotton, silk,
indigo, saltpetre (for gunpowder), sugar and opium. Opium was shipped
to the Far East from India, enabling Chinese luxury goods such as silk,
tea and porcelain to be acquired without having to spend precious gold
or silver. However, as a result of the company’s illegal export
of opium, addiction became widespread in China causing serious social
and economic disruption, and the Chinese government’s attempts
to prohibit the import led to the Opium Wars. Use of spices
Spices have been used for thousands of years to preserve and flavour
food. They prevent decay by slowing oxidation and mask the smell of meat
past its best. Ancient cultures also valued spices for their medicinal
properties as well as using them in worship, magical rituals and embalming.
By the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans a variety of spices were
used to flavour food and
beverages and to treat almost every ailment imaginable.
In Chaucer’s day, spices were a rare luxury only for the affluent.
However as Europeans began to take a greater role in the spice trade,
the price gradually fell enough to allow rich and poor alike to enjoy
them. By the time of Shakespeare nutmeg, ginger, mace and saffron were
being widely used in cooking, and were readily available in London.
Nutmeg was used to treat flatulence and the common cold, and was said
to have aphrodisiac properties. It had always been costly but when the
Elizabethan physicians of plague-ridden London claimed that nutmeg pomanders
worn around the neck were a certain cure for that “pestiferous
pestilence” it became as sought after as gold. Cloves were reputed
to aid earache, pepper helped colds and saffron was claimed to bring
back the dead.
Modern uses of spices are primarily
culinary, with the whole spice or its essential oils being used. Spices
and herbs are also
used as flavouring in several liqueurs, and
essential oils of spices and herbs are used in perfumery, cosmetics,
hair oils, toothpastes and soaps.
Nutmeg is encased in a red net-like coat |
Nutmeg Nutmegs are the dried kernels of the seeds of
the tropical, dieoecious (ie, there are male and female trees) evergreen
tree Myristica fragrans.
A native of the Moluccas, the tree grows to 10–20m tall and bears
apricot-like fruit which, when opened, contain a seed encased in a red
net-like coat (which is dried to make mace). The tree is now cultivated
not just in Indonesia but also in Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Grenada, in
order to satisfy global demands of 10,000 tonnes annually.
The fruits are picked by hand or allowed to drop to the ground, the seed
and mace removed and dried, and the seed is then broken open to liberate
the nutmeg. The odour of nutmeg is strong and aromatic, the taste pungent
and slightly bitter.
Nutmegs contain 5–15 per cent of volatile oil as well as 30–40
per cent fat, phytosterin, starch, amylodextrin, colouring matter and
a saponin. The oil contains terpenes, dipentene, alcohols, the benzene
derivatives myristicin, elemicin and isoelemicin, safrole and eugenol,
and various methyl and methoxy derivatives of eugenol and isoeugenol
as well as many dimeric phenyl-propanoids. The composition of the oil
varies depending upon whether the nutmegs are sourced from the West or
East Indies.
Adapted from Trease and Evans pharmacognosy, 15th edition
Figure 1: myristicin and elemicin, found in nutmeg, bear structural
similarities to amphetamines |
Nutmeg has hallucinogenic properties, which may be accounted for by
the myristicin and elemicin components, which bear structural similarities
to amphetamines (see Figure 1 above). Its potential for abuse has long
been recognised: Samuel Pepys records the imprisonment of the sixth Earl
of
Dorset, his neighbour, for indecent exposure when his addiction to nutmeg
led him to run around naked in the streets. Nutmeg represents a low cost,
readily available alternative to recreational drugs which makes it appealing
to young abusers especially when combined with alcohol. Nutmeg abuse
is often under-reported but intoxication has been known to be fatal.
Symptoms include nausea and vomiting, flushing, dryness of the mouth,
tachycardia, stimulation of the central nervous system possibly with
convulsions, miosis, mydriasis, euphoria and hallucinations. As well
as amphetamine-like properties, myristicin has weak monoamine oxidase
inhibitor action, and other components of nutmeg are structurally similar
to serotonin agonists, producing cardiovascular effects and anxiety in
those who are intoxicated. Some authors have even suggested that the
ingestion of spiced dishes at Christmas may cause a chemically induced
elevation of mood in the consumer and, indeed, nutmeg has been shown
to have antidepressant activity in mice.
Modern day uses of nutmeg and its oil are as flavourings and carminatives.
Nutmeg has been shown to have in vitro activity against rotaviruses,
lending credence to the use of the spice in infantile diarrhoea in traditional
Indian medicine. The reputation of nutmeg as an aphrodisiac in the Unani
system of medicine has received some support from rodent studies, in
which nutmeg has been shown to increase both libido and potency in rats.
Ginger Ginger is the rhizome of Zingiber officinale. Its use in India and China dates back thousands of years
and it was introduced to Jamaica and other islands of the West Indies
by the Spanish. Jamaican ginger was once the source of pharmaceutical
ginger. The spice has a pungent, biting taste, and may be used fresh
or dried, and ground to flavour food and beverages.
Zingiber officinale is a reed-like herbaceous perennial plant, probably
native to South-eastern Asia. It grows to about one metre high and the
elongate leaves are 15–30cm long. Although it bears flowers the
plant is sterile, and so has to be propagated by vegetative means. Pieces
of rhizome each bearing a bud are planted in the ground, much in the
same way as potatoes are cultivated, and once the roots are fully grown
they are lifted, cleaned and dried, to yield rhizomes varying in colour
from dark yellow to pale buff.
Ginger contains about 1–2 per cent essential oil and 5–8
per cent resinous matter, starch and mucilage, lipids and amino acids.
Oil of ginger which is distilled from the root for use in food or perfume,
contains more than 50 different components, including monoterpenes, sesquiterpene
hydrocarbons and the sesquiterpene alcohol zingiberol. The ingredient
lending ginger its pungency is gingerol, an oily liquid comprising homologous
phenols (or gingerols), varying only in the number of CH2 groups in the
side chain. Diarylheptanones known as gingerenones and shogaols (compounds
formed by loss of water from gingerols) have also been isolated. The
active ingredients of ginger include [6]-, [8]-, [10]-gingerol and [6]-shogaol.
Ginger is said to possess carminative, antispasmodic and sweat-inducing
properties. In vitro and animal studies have described numerous pharmacological
activities for its components, including antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory,
antioxidant, hypoglycaemic, hypo- and hypertensive properties, as well
as antithrombotic activity and effects on prostaglandins. While ginger
is of low toxicity some findings indicate the potential for consumption
of excessive quantities to interfere with established anticoagulant,
antidiabetic and antihypertensive therapy.
Ginger is also a popular antiemetic, and clinical studies have indicated
it may have value in treating motion sickness, post-operative nausea
and vomiting, and emesis following cancer chemotherapy. A Cochrane review
indicated that ginger may be of benefit in nausea and
vomiting of pregnancy, being effective but lacking adverse effects. However
other authors have highlighted the reputed abortifacient activity of
ginger, emphasising that pregnant women should not consume quantities
of ginger greater than that used in foods.
Other clinical trials have shown ginger to be effective in reducing vertigo,
and to improve joint pain and joint movement in a small group of patients
with rheumatoid arthritis. This may be mediated via inhibition of cyclo-oxygenase
and lipoxygenase pathways.
Ginger may have a role in the future treatment of peptic ulcer disease
because it has in vitro bactericidal activity against Helicobacter
pylori as well as inhibiting adhesion of the bacteria to host tissue, which
may help in preventing disease. Ginger has also been shown to have antiulcerogenic
activity. These findings support the use of the spice in treating gastrointestinal
complaints.
Cinnamon Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of shoots of Cinnamomum
zeylanicum.
This bushy evergreen tree of the laurel family is native to Sri Lanka,
India and Myanmar and is also cultivated elsewhere in the tropics. The
plant is grown from seed, and coppiced once, when two or three years
old. About six shoots are allowed to grow vertically and after about
18 months the shoots are harvested and the bark removed. The outer cork
and cortex are then removed from this peeled bark, which is dried as
groups of curled quills. The resulting spice is fragrant and warm, sweet
and aromatic to the taste. It is used to flavour foods and liqueurs and
in the perfume industry.
Cinnamon bark contains volatile oil (up to 4 per cent), phlobatannins,
mucilage, calcium oxalate and starch. Cinnamaldehyde is the major component
of the oil, which also contains phenols (predominantly eugenol), hydrocarbons
and small amounts of ketones, alcohols and esters.
Cinnamon has been used to treat anorexia, colic, infantile diarrhoea,
the common cold, influenza and dyspepsia with nausea and is claimed to
possess antispasmodic, carminative, antimicrobial and anthelmintic properties.
Some of these properties may be attributable to the volatile oil content
of the bark. In vitro and animal studies have demonstrated antifungal,
antiviral, bactericidal and larvicidal
activity. Cinnamon oil and bark can cause
allergic reactions, due to the cinnamaldehyde content, so the oil should
not be used on the skin or taken internally. The reputed antidiarrhoeal
properties may be attributable to the tannin content of the bark. Clinical
trials have been carried out to assess whether or not
cinnamon can improve glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes patients, but
results are
ambiguous.
Cloves Cloves are the dried flower buds of Syzygium
aromaticum, a tropical
evergreen tree of the myrtle family, which grows to 10–20m in height.
Indigenous to the Moluccas, cloves are now cultivated in Zanzibar, Madagascar,
Indonesia, Brazil and, to a lesser extent, Sri Lanka and Tanzania. The
flower buds are hand-picked from the tree and dried in the sun. Cloves
have a strong characteristic odour, and a pungent aromatic taste, they
are used predominantly in foods.
Cloves contain about 14–21 per cent of volatile oil, 10–13
per cent tannin, several triterpene acids and esters, as well as glycosides
of aliphatic and monoterpenoid alcohols, eugenol, isoeugenol, farnesol,
nerolidol, sitosterol, stigmasterol and campestrol. Distillation of cloves
yields the volatile oil, which mainly comprises phenols (primarily eugenol),
sesquiterpenes and small quantities of esters, ketones and alcohols.
Oils with a high phenolic content are used to produce the flavouring
vanillin, whereas those with a low phenolic content are used pharmaceutically
to produce mouthwashes, a local anaesthetic for toothache and antiseptic.
Cloves and clove oil have been used traditionally as a carminative, an
antiemetic, a remedy for toothache and a counter irritant. Some of these
claims have been given credence by experimental studies. For example,
eugenol has been shown to have antiseptic and anaesthetic properties.
A tincture of cloves was effective in treating athlete’s foot in
clinical studies. However, contact dermatitis has been reported for clove
oil (probably due to the eugenol content) so it should not be used on
the skin and only with caution in the mouth since repeated use can result
in damage to the gingival tissue. Since eugenol has powerful antiplatelet
activity it should be used with caution in those on anticoagulant therapy.
The smoking of cigarettes combining
tobacco and cloves has led to concerns over abuse of cloves since, in
addition to the hazards of tobacco smoking, clove cigarettes may induce
severe lung damage and sometimes fatal respiratory disease.
Conclusion
Spices have been used for millennia for
medicinal, culinary and religious purposes. While current use of spices,
especially around Christmas time, centres on their flavours, there
is still interest in their medicinal properties, some of which are supported
by
evidence from clinical trials. Their carminative properties, in particular,
make them
appropriate ingredients for Christmas pudding and the end of a rich
Christmas
dinner. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal