quickly became the most popular spice of the ancient world In Rome, lettuce was served at both the beginning and end of meals, and fruit as dessert Thanks to the art of grafting growing shoots from desirable trees onto other trees, there were about 25 named apple varieties and 35 pears Fruits were preserved whole by immersing them, stems and all, in honey, and the gastronome Apicius gave a recipe for pickled peaches From the Roman recipes that survive, it would seem that few foods were served without the application of several strong flavors When the Romans conquered Europe they brought along tree fruits, the vine, and cultivated cabbage, as well as their heavy spice habit Sauce recipes from the 14th century resemble those of Apicius, and the English lettuce-free salad would also have been quite pungent (see box, p 251) Medieval recipe collections include relatively few vegetable dishes New World, New Foods Plants — and especially the spice plants — helped shape world history in the last five centuries The ancient European hunger for Asian spices was an important driving force in the development of Italy, Portugal, Spain, Holland, and England into major sea powers during the Renaissance Columbus, Vasco da Gama, John Cabot, and Magellan were looking for a new route to the Indies in order to break the monopoly of Venice and southern Arabia on the ancient trade in cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and black pepper They failed in that quest, but succeeded in opening the “West Indies” to European exploitation The New World was initially disappointing in its yield of soughtfor spices But vanilla and chillis quickly became popular; and its wealth of new vegetables was largely adaptable to Europe’s climate: so the common bean, corn, squashes, tomatoes, potatoes, and sweet chillis eventually became staple ingredients in the ... order to break the monopoly of Venice and southern Arabia on the ancient trade in cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and black pepper They failed in that quest, but succeeded in opening the “West Indies” to... an important driving force in the development of Italy, Portugal, Spain, Holland, and England into major sea powers during the Renaissance Columbus, Vasco da Gama, John Cabot, and Magellan were looking for a new route to the Indies... New Foods Plants — and especially the spice plants — helped shape world history in the last five centuries The ancient European hunger for Asian spices was an important driving force in the development