Spicing Up Thanksgiving

By Lindsay Franz ~

For many, Thanksgiving kicks off all the delicious food of the holiday season. As baking commences, the air is enriched with the wonderful smell of spices. Cinnamon fills the air as apple pie bakes in the oven. Pepper is ground and sprinkled on the turkey and mixed into the mashed potatoes. Frankincense flows through the air as the holidays begin. The spices used during this time of year fill the house with warmth and a feeling of familiarity.

The process of harvesting the spices many of us use during the holiday season is documented in a series of woodcuts from the 1585 French book Les oeuvres Divisees en vingt sept livres by Ambrose Paré, held in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) collection and available in full in NLM Digital Collections. Paré was a French surgeon known to many as the father of modern surgery. Pare entered the army and learned ways to treat open wounds, one of which was the use of oils derived from spices. The NLM Paré book includes illustrations that depict the historical harvesting process for some of the spices many of us use today.

Cinnamon is an American holiday staple found in many Thanksgiving recipes, whether it be pumpkin breakfast cookies or apple bars. This woodcut shows the gathering of cinnamon bark in India, including multiple workers stripping the trees at the same time. Several men stand guard over the working men. The cinnamon bark can be seen strapped to a camel, while another man carries a load of bark over his shoulder towards town.

In the “Treatment of Root Canals,” an essay by J. J. Jennelle from 1890, the author chronicles his method of performing and treating a root canal. Cinnamon oil is used as a form of antiseptic to clean the wound. Jennelle provides details on the use of cinnamon and the pain it causes when used to clean the wound: “the cinnamon or cassia is quite irritating and sometimes painful.” Regardless of the pain, he argues, “the cinnamon being a diffusive medicament penetrates the remaining contents of the pulp canal and tubuli, rendering it aseptic.” The sweet-filled holidays luckily have cinnamon baked into many recipes.

A second woodcut print in Paré’s book shows the harvesting of black pepper in India. It reveals men using a long pole to pull pepper clusters from trees. The pepper clusters are then gathered once they fall to the ground. Pepper is loaded into baskets and carried away. Pepper seasons our food all year round and is a must for many Thanksgiving dishes.

A third woodcut jumps us ahead to Christmas (the season can’t start too soon for some!). It depicts the harvesting of frankincense in Arabia. Several men are seen gathering gum resin from trees. They are depicted using their hands to gather the resin into large pots. Frankincense is an ancient incense used in religious and secular settings. Historically, it had medicinal uses as well for cleaning wounds. As Elise Vernon Pearlstine notes: “The name frankincense reminds us that it is the very definition of incense; it derives from the old French franc encens, which means pure incense or pure lighting. Aromatic compounds in the resin are produced within the plant’s tissues—protective in nature, they help resist infection by fungus, repel attacks by insects, prevent desiccation, and seal injured tissues.”

Frankincense may not help with tooth ache, but it was used as a cleansing solution for wounds. According to the 19th century-physician Francis W. Goss, there was an ancient belief that a solution that Frankincense could miraculously cure all wounds: “Take of Aqua Vitae thrice distilled and well rectified 2 pounds, St. John’s Wort, Hyssop, Millefoil, each 2 handfuls, Frankincense, Myrrhe powdered, each 3 ounces…. When you have closed the wound, wet it with this water.” The gathering of family during the holidays can sometimes end in heated debates. Hopefully Frankincense won’t be needed to clean any wounds.

As Thanksgiving ends, the smell of Frankincense ushers in the Christmas season. The versatility of these spices is a testament to their continued use through out history and their importance to the traditions that connect us to the past. May your holiday season be filled with the spices of Thanksgiving.

Lindsay Franz is a librarian in the User Services and Collection Division at the National Library of Medicine.