Re: herbs and spices; OT, now tomato

david, it was the u.s. supreme court that decided the tomato was a vegetable--in the 17th or 18th century. seems vegetable imports were taxed but fruit imports were not and, well, the feds needed more revenues [does this come as a surprise?]. at the time, it appears, we imported most of our tomatoes from the west indies.


At 10:45 AM 12/30/02 -0800, you wrote:
I don't claim to be a culinary master however I do have a book someplace that
explains herbs and spices and goes into the history of both. I haven't looked at
it in quite some time (not sure I could even find it) but the question is somewhat
like the fruit and vegetable thing. A tomato is a fruit regardless of what Ronald
Reagan says.

In general though herbs are leafy plants whose leaves are used either whole or
crushed. A spice is a seed or bark of certain or plants. I can't think of an
exception to that right now but I'm sure there are some.

DF

Josh Haskell wrote:

> I know there are several culinary masters on the list. Can anyone explain the
> distinction between herbs and spices?
>
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