they are expensive, rare, and exotic commodities, their conspicuous consumption has often been a symbol of wealth and social class. Preservative claim It is often claimed that spices were used either as food preservatives or to mask the taste of spoiled meat, especially in the European Middle Ages. This is false. In fact, spices are rather ineffective as preservatives as compared to salting, smoking, pickling, or drying, and are ineffective in covering the taste of spoiled meat. Moreover, spices have always been comparatively expensive: in 15th century Oxford, a whole pig cost about the same as a pound of the cheapest spice, pepper. There is also no evidence of such use from contemporary cookbooks: "Old cookbooks make it clear that spices weren't used as a preservative. They typically suggest adding spices toward the end of the cooking process, where they could have no preservative effect whatsoever." Indeed, Cristoforo di Messisbugo suggested in the 16th century that pepper may speed up spoilage. Though some spices have antimicrobial properties in vitro, pepper—by far the most common spice—is relatively ineffective, and in any case, salt, which is far cheaper, is also far more effective. Classification and types Culinary herbs and spices Botanical basis Seeds, such as fennel, mustard, nutmeg, and black pepper Fruits, such as Cayenne pepper and Chimayo pepper Arils, such as mace (part of nutmeg plant fruit) Barks, such as True Cinnamon and cassia Flower buds, such as cloves Stigmas, such as saffron Roots and rhizomes, such as turmeric, ginger and galangal Resins, such as asafoetida Common spice mixtures Advieh (Iran) Baharat (Arab world, and the Middle East in general) Berbere (Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia) Bumbu (Indonesia) Cajun (United States) Chaat masala (Indian subcontinent) Chili powder and crushed red pepper (Cayenne, Chipotle, Jalapeño, New Mexico, Tabasco, and other cultivars) Curry powder Five-spice powder (China) Garam masala (Indian subcontinent) Harissa (North Africa) Hawaij (Yemen) Jerk spice (Jamaica) Khmeli suneli (Georgia, former U.S.S.R.) Masala (a generic name for any mix used in the Indian subcontinent) Mixed spice (United Kingdom) Panch phoron (Indian subcontinent) Pumpkin pie spice (United States) Quatre épices (France) Ras el hanout (North Africa) Sharena sol (literally "colorful salt", Bulgaria) Shichimi tōgarashi (Japan) Speculaas (Belgium and Netherlands) Thuna Paha (Sri Lanka) Vegeta (Croatia) Za'atar (Middle East) Handling For ground spices, to grind a whole spice, the classic tool is mortar and pestle. Less labor-intensive tools are more common now: a microplane