I Never Promised You a Herb Garden Quiz

Answer:

Herbs and spices are both used for flavouring food, and it can sometimes be hard to distinguish one from the other. For culinary purposes the distinction does not matter. Some people regard herbs as anything they can find growing in the garden or the hedgerow, while spices are exotic imports from other parts of the world. Another difference is that herbs are very often added to a dish at the end of cooking to preserve their delicate flavour, while spices are usually added earlier to give the flavour a chance to permeate throughout the dish.

The leaves of the following herbs are used as flavourings when cooking - basil, bay, chives, coriander (sometimes called cilantro), dill, marjoram, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme. The flowers of a chive plant can also be used when cooking. Coriander seeds are ground for use as flavouring. While the leaves of lavender are used medicinally, the flowers are dried and used in cooking.

The wrong answers are all flavourings which come from the roots, fruits or bark of their plants.

Cinnamon is obtained from the bark of some trees in the laurel family. The outer bark of the stems is discarded, and the inner part is allowed to dry, forming into the curls know as quills in the process. These quills can be up to a meter long, so they are cut into shorter lengths before being sold. The quills can also be ground into a powder before use.

Garlic comes from the bulb at the base of the garlic plant. There is a short season when fresh garlic is available, so it is more commonly found dried. The bulb is divided into several sections known as cloves. The skin of a clove is discarded before using the inner flesh which can be crushed or chopped.

Ginger comes from the roots of the zingiber plant. The outer skin is removed, and the flesh inside can be sliced, grated or crushed to add flavouring to food. Alternatively the flesh could be candied, crystallised or preserved in syrup as a sweet delicacy. Sometimes the root is dried and powdered before use.

Paprika is derived from the fruits of a pepper plant. They are dried and ground into a fine powder, which gives an orange colour to the food it is cooked with as well as adding flavour. It is very common in Hungarian dishes, such as goulash.

Star anise is a spice which comes from the dried fruit of an Illicium verum tree. The fruits are shaped like an eight-pointed star, hence the name. Sometimes the whole dried fruit is used, but it is often ground to a powder before use. The spice is commonly used in Chinese cooking.

Turmeric is another spice which comes from a root. It is commonly grown in the Indian subcontinent and parts of South-East Asia. Although it can be used fresh, it is usually boiled and dried before being ground into a fine powder which adds a rich yellow colour to the food it is cooked into.

There are some flavourings which are definitely regarded as spices, not herbs, but they fit the definition of a herb, so were too ambiguous to appear in this quiz.

Cloves are dried flower buds from a tropical myrtle tree, and can be used whole, or ground into a powder. Nutmeg is a spice which is obtained from grating the seed of a myristica tree. The outer casing of those seeds can be used to get another spice - mace. Saffron is derived from the stigma of a crocus flower; it is one of the most expensive spices in the world, and is used to add a yellow colour to dishes such as paella. Vanilla is obtained from the seed pods of an orchid plant; the seeds can be used as they come out of the pod, or the pod can be boiled in milk which is then used for dishes such as milk puddings.

For this quiz I have taken the following definition from the Concise Oxford English Dictionary - tenth edition (1999). 'A herb is defined as any plant whose leaves, seeds or flowers are used for flavouring.' Some definitions of spices include the use of seeds as well as roots, fruits and barks.