While flipping through a catalog from a small chain of spice purveyors, it struck me how suffused our language is with food-related terms. Spices were the driving force behind the first world-wide explorations by Europeans in an effort to make an end-run past the monopoly held by Middle Easterners across the "Silk Road" or Mediterranian trading routes to Asia. Spice, not gold or slaves, was the motive for conquest and exploration when Europe began its rise in power.

Can anyone think of going even an hour without using some term related to food? What are some of the earliest food-related words in English?

I wasn't sure how to look for the earliest food-related words, but in trying to find something I found this site about food words that have been "cut" from the OED (though in some cases they have been added back in). Unsurprisingly, many of the words cut were Americanisms.

By the way, I am now a proud owner of the online OED again! Thank goodness. I was feeling pretty awful without it.