Spices, herbs, or other ingredients added to food to enhance flavor.
From 'season' meaning to make suitable or timely, from Latin 'satio' (a sowing or planting). Originally, to season food meant to make it appropriate for the current season - using preserved spices in winter when fresh herbs weren't available, or fresh herbs in summer. The concept was about timing and appropriateness, not just flavor enhancement.
Seasoning food was originally about eating seasonally - using the right flavors for the right time of year. Medieval cooks 'seasoned' dishes by matching spices to seasons, using warming spices like cinnamon in winter and cooling herbs like mint in summer, making the word a calendar as much as a flavor guide.
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