The term spices and condiments refer to the natural plant or vegetable products or their mixtures that are virtually indispensable in culinary art.
Many condiments, e.g. vinegars, pickles and chutneys, tomato ketchup, horseradish sauce, mustard and soy sauce are of plant origin.
They are used in various forms such as fresh, ripe, dried, whole, broken and powdered. They impart aroma, taste, flavor, color and pungency to food.
Condiment act principally upon the nervous system.
Some of them, for instance, excite the nerve termini of the mucous membrane of the digestive canal, whence the excitation or stimulus passes to certain centers in the intestine, or to more remote centers in the spinal cord and the brains.
The condiments used in seasoning foods make the food more delectable to the taste and therefore more digestible.
The culinary use of plants as condiment exploits all parts of a plant: leaves (age, bay, basil), stems (ginger, angelica), bark (cinnamon), rhizomes (ginger, turmeric), roots (horseradish), stolons (liquorice), flower buds (cloves).
Definition of condiments
