When the Normans conquered Britain they brought with them in their cooking much more use of spices than had previously been used in Anglo Saxon dishes. Pepper and mustard were the two main spices used. Mustard was home grown, brought over by the Romans, but pepper came from overseas and was a very valuable commodity, often only given as gifts between monarchs and high churchmen. Because the spice-trade ships rarely made it as far west as Britain and even if it came overland through Europe it usually did not make it as far as our shores. .....
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