SpiceBy: Jack Turner In this brilliant, engrossing work, Jack Turner explores an erafrom ancient times through the Renaissancewhen what we now consider common condiments were valued in gold and blood. Spices made sour medieval wines palatable, camouflaged the smell of corpses, and served as wedding night aphrodisiacs. Indispensible for cooking, medicine, worship, and the arts of love, they were thought to have magical properties and were so valuable that