McCormick & Company, Inc

The company was started by Willoughby McCormick in 1889 in a one-room basement and is now a close-to $4 billion global company. He began selling herbs and spices extract on the street of Baltimore.

He bought a spice company in 1896 and began importing and exporting spices, herbs, seasonings and other products.

In the aftermath of the crash of 1929, the company’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. Profits turned to losses. In 1932 at the height of the Depression, Willoughby died. The board of McCormick & Company elected Charlie McCormick as president.

In the 1990s, McCormick redefined itself from an herb and spice maker to a ‘flavoring company’ and addressed the needs of time-pressed working families by introducing seasoning  mixes, trying to capture the market for gourmet cooking and marketed more aggressively to industrial customers.

On June 8, 2006, McCormick & Company announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to purchase the assets of Epicurean International for $97 million in cash.

In 2008 the company acquired Lawry’s brand of seasonings and marinades.
McCormick & Company, Inc

Celery leaf in history

The modern type of celery was developed from wild celery, which is believed to have originated in marshy areas around the Mediterranean. Its seeds were once widely used as a medicine, particularly as a diuretic. 

Leaf celery has been cultivated for many years in Western Europe for flavoring purposes and as a leaf garnish.

Leaf celery was a herb known to the ancient Romans. Writers of the day often mentioned both a wild and a cultivated sort.

It appears that the leaves of wild celery were first used as a medicine because the earliest mention of the plant in ancient literature is in Homer’s Odyssey, within in the 9th century BC.

Later, just before the Christian Era celery leaves were used by the Greeks as laurels for their athletes and in funeral wreaths.

Cultivated celery as recorded in 1623 in France, where plants with a milder taste were selected from wild plants for use as a vegetable.

Leaf celery is still used today in many parts of Western Europe, Israel and Asia.

Celery was brought to the United States early in the 9th century.
Celery leaf in history

History of herbs and spices in ancient Egypt

As long as 3500 BC, the ancient Egyptians were using local spices to flavor their food, in cosmetics and in lotions for embalming their dead.

Egyptian papyri recording the medical uses of herbs, dating from 2800 BC. Papyrus is a kind of paper made from reeds. Some of the scrolls were more than 6 feet long.

The Egyptians in the days of Pharaohs had developed great skill in the use of herbs. The Ebers Papyrus listed 876 herbal formals from more than 500 plants. This present about one-third of the herbs in today’s western herbal pharmacopoeia.

One of the first world physician name Imhotep made medicine from plants and use these remedies to treat people suffering from appendicitis, arthritis and other ailments.

By the time the Ebers papyrus was recorded, Imhotep was worshipped as a hero, as a blameless physician and later still as the god of medicine.

There were many different types of herbs and spices used in ancient Egyptian cooking. The herbs and spices enhanced the flavor of the dishes, but also acted as preservative.

Aromatics woods such as frankincense were burned as incense to purge unpleasant odors and fumigate homes.

While most of cooking used including cumin, coriander, fennel, anise and poppy seed, would have been plentiful locally, there is evidence that by the second millennium BC other spices were already being bought from overseas.

The Egyptians believed that garlic and onion strengthened the body and prevented disease. They ate a lot that the Greek historian Herodotus called them ‘the stinking ones’. They gave their slaves daily rations and onions to keep them string and healthy.

In Egypt the dividing line between medicinal and cosmetic recipes was often blurred. The priests, controlled the manufacture of the substances were also in charge of the offerings of incense and fragrant oil in the temples.

They also in charge the precious ointments that were used for embalming the bodies of high ranking Egyptians. Most of the herbal spices originated in Mediterranean countries and have been used since ancient Egyptian times mainly for the purpose of embalming.

Egyptian medicine was exclusively disease centered rather than person centered.

By the time of Ramses II (1304-1237 BC) Egyptian ships were sailing into Persian Gulf as far as the Euphrates. Egypt then became a lucrative market for spices from further and further afield.
History of herbs and spices in ancient Egypt

History of herbs and spices

Today international trade brings herbs grown in Turley, and Cyprus to supermarket shelves as a matter of course. Frequent deliveries from Japan, Thailand and Singapore bring tropical herbs and fresh spices to specialist shops and some supermarkets.

Herbs and spices have been added to foods throughout history for preserving and flavor. Although they are plentiful and inexpensive today, herbs, spices and other flavorings were considered as value as good or jewels for many century.

It seems probable that many of the flavoring herbs now in use were similarly employed before the erection of the pyramids and also that many then popular no longer appear in modern lists of esculents.

As early as 3500 BC the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut, used cinnamon as an aromatic. And in 3000 BC, history records that the gods of the Mesopotamian peoples drank sesame wine, one of the products for which this popular seed was used.

Relying upon Biblical records alone, several herbs were highly esteemed prior to current era; in the gospels of Matthew and Luke reference is made to tithes of mint, anise, rue, cumin and other "herbs"; and, more than 700 years previously, Isaiah speaks of the sowing and threshing of cumin which, since the same passage also speaks of "fitches" (vetches), wheat, barley and "rie" (rye), seems then to have been a valued crop.

Both the Bible and historical records reveal that spices and aromatics were held in high esteem and a gift of spices was greatly prized.
History of herbs and spices
Updated: Mar 3 2017

Cumin Seeds: History

Food History
Scientific name for Cumin seed is Cuminum cyminum
Common names: Cumin Seed; Comino

Cumin has a history over 5000 years old. It is a native of Egypt, and was used during the time of the Pharaohs not only as a food spice but also to mummify the deceased kings.

From there it was carried to Greece and Rome, who used it both as a medicine and as a cosmetic to induce a pale complexion.

According to a rather humorous anecdote about this particular effect of cumin, students in ancient Greece and Rome would drink large quantities of cumin oil to induce a pallid complexion that was regarded as the mark of a great scholar! The student would become pale and therefore, appear to have studied late into the night.

Cumin was used by the Romans in place of the more expensive, and sometimes unavailable, pepper. It was so abundant that Christians used it as their tithe when they had no money.

Cumin also finds mention in the Bible, as a form of "tithe" or payment given to priests.

The Saxons first used Cumin in more culinary ways by spreading it on hens and peacocks before cooking.
Food History