herbsandspices.food is a reference guide to herbs, spices, chillies and the blends made from them, written and checked by its editors rather than edited by the public.
What herbsandspices.food is¶
herbsandspices.food is a reference site about one broad subject, covered in depth: the herbs, spices and chillies that season the world's food, the blends and pastes made from them, and the history, science and practice around them. It is organised like a wiki — cross-linked articles, categories, an A–Z index, a revision history on every page — but it is written by editors, not by the public.
It is a sister site to Gravypedia, which does the same thing for gravy. The two share an approach: useful before comprehensive, specific rather than vague, and honest about what is known and what is only often repeated.
Who operates it¶
This website is operated by Callum Haywood, a software engineer and product development leader.
What it covers¶
The reference guide is divided into fourteen sections, each built out rather than skimmed.
Ingredient pages all share one structure, and blend pages share another, so any two can be read side by side. The style guide sets both out.
Two tools¶
The Spice Finder. Tell it what you are cooking and what is in your spice rack, and it ranks the blends, rubs, pastes and herb sauces you can make with what you have. See the spice finder, or go straight to the Finder itself.
The Heat Ladder. The home page carries an interactive Scoville scale, from sweet peppers at zero to the record-holding superhots, with each rung linked to its chilli page. It is the quickest way to see why a habanero and a jalapeño are not remotely the same proposition. The science behind it is on the scoville scale and capsaicin.
Why it is not publicly editable¶
Open editing works when a large community is watching every change. A single-subject reference site does not have that community, and the alternatives are a permanent moderation burden or a slow slide into spam, vandalism and confident nonsense.
The last is the real risk. Herbs and spices attract more folklore and more unfounded health claims than almost any other food subject. Pages that anyone could edit would, within months, say that turmeric cures things, that the Romans paid soldiers in pepper, or that chilli seeds are the hot part. None of those is supported by the evidence, and each is explained properly on its own page.
So editing is limited to signed-in editors, and every change is recorded in a revision history that anyone can read — the link sits at the foot of every article. Nothing is changed silently.
Readers are warmly invited to send corrections, additions and disagreements; they are how the site improves. See contact the editors.
How pages are written¶
Every page aims to answer the obvious question near the top, give real quantities, times and temperatures, and explain why as well as what. Botanical names, families, origins and Scoville ranges are checked against mainstream botanical and food-science references. Where sources disagree, the page gives a range or says "roughly". Where a story is folklore, it is labelled as folklore.
Health content is limited to traditional uses and established safety facts. herbsandspices.food makes no medical claims: no "cures", no "boosts immunity". Where a spice has a genuine safety issue — the coumarin in cassia, the toxicity of nutmeg in large doses, lead contamination, the poisonous lookalikes of wild herbs — it is stated plainly.
The full rules are in the style guide.