Sitemap Cooking With Herbs and Spices It is amazing to consider how much impact herbs and spices have had on the history of the world; the spice road where spices were practically currency, battles were fought, and kingdoms were conquered all in the name of spices. Cooking With Herbs and Spices Page 2 In ancient times herbs and spices were used in rituals and ceremonies, for embalming and some cultures even buried people with a jar of spice. Some spices were more valuable than gold. Cooking With Herbs and Spices Page 3 In modern times we use them for cooking and they’re much more reasonably priced, thankfully, although saffron may still set you back a fair amount. Just thinking about herbs and spices conjures images of far off lands and exotic places and with good reason; India produces about 85% if the world’s spices, and India is pretty far off. Cooking With Herbs and Spices Page 4 Some cultures still rely on spices for medicinal purposes. Peppers are said to speed the metabolism. In current times we use herbs and spices to flavor food and for an occasional cup of soothing tea, not nearly so exotic. They become even more important in lean cooking when we do not rely on fat for flavor.