Spices! What do I do with them?

[Haruki-kun]

So my ladyfriend, who is a pretty good cook, recently got a spice rack and has been attempting to teach me how to cook. The spice rack, as far as I'm concerned, looks intimidating as heck and is full of powders I can't understand.

So my question to the Playground today, on the subject of cooking: What do you do with spices? :smalleek: All she told me about them was "well, you sniff them, and if they smell like they'd go well with what you're cooking, you try it", but this doesn't help me much: a lot of them smell somewhat similar and I don't know what the proper quantities to use are, or if you're supposed to mix them with each other.

I tried cooking a chicken breast today and adding paprika to it because it smelled OK and it's a name I recognized from an Anime film I like and from a character from a children's show from a really long time ago*. I was told later that I may not have used quite enough as the chicken only turned slightly red.

Please help me figure this out, Playground. I would really like to understand why connecting Spices raises my civilization's :smallsmile: Happiness by 4 points. Yay, reference.

*You know the one.

EDIT: By the way. Rosemary makes Ramen taste interesting.:smallconfused:

[thorgrim29]

Try different recipes that use those spices, and eventually you'll have a pretty good idea of what goes with what. For example I've found that rosemary (an herb BTW) goes super will with pretty much any dish involving tomato sauce.

[zlefin]

I'm not that familiar with spices myself; I'd recommend doing some google searching to get more details on how to use spices well.
I found this very quickly which looks like a place to start
http://www.frontiercoop.com/learn/ss_usage.php

Expecting someone with little cooking knowledge to just have some spices and be able to use them well without any training is unrealistic. It also may not fit your style (some cooks prefer to go with feel and estimate measurements, others prefer to get precise measurements and theories).

They raise happiness because well used spices can significantly improve meal flavoring, particularly in terms of making otherwise bland foods that serve as a base into something more interesting, and helping avoid eating the same thing day after day (less of an issue in modern times).

[Temotei]

My favorite way to test it is by dropping some spice on the food, taking a fork to it and trying it. If it's good, put more on there. If not, put a different spice on there. Rinse, repeat, serve when satisfactory. You'll figure out what kinds of spices you like soon enough and then you can just add whatever whenever.

Oh, and some barely taste like anything. They just look good, mostly, from what I can tell.

[Ravens_cry]

It really depends on what spices and what foods to be honest.

[Tebryn]

I tried cooking a chicken breast today and adding paprika to it because it smelled OK and it's a name I recognized from an Anime film I like and from a character from a children's show from a really long time ago*. I was told later that I may not have used quite enough as the chicken only turned slightly red.

Other than visual appeal why did you want your chicken to be red? If you want a deeper color you should go with a yogurt and spice mixture with the paprika and let the chicken marinate. Tandoori Spice will give you a better color if that's what you're aiming for. But that's not really what spices are for. Spices are used to flavor foods and accent them.

[Savannah]

Honestly, I'd get some basic cookbooks and try various recipes until you start to see some patterns in what spices are used with what types of foods before you start winging it (and you usually use more than just one spice, which adds to the complexity). I can super wing spices in baked goods and many types of sauces, but would have to go to a cookbook for ideas if making a meat rub, for example, as I don't have enough experience with different meats and the different spices that go with them to come up with something really tasty all on my own.

As for what you do with spices....well, they add flavors to food. They tend to be pretty strongly flavored, so you use a relatively small amount of the spice for a relatively large amount of food. The exact amount will vary with the spice and your personal preferences (I like my food spicy and have to remember to tone it down if I'm cooking for others...). Some spices tend to be used with sweet dishes (for example, cinnamon, cloves), and others tend to be used with savory dishes (for example, cayenne, oregano). Some are stronger than others (for example, the pumpkin bread I made earlier tonight used two teaspoons of cinnamon but only a quarter teaspoon of cloves). A given spice tends to pair well with certain types of food (for example, I use nutmeg almost exclusively in two types of dish: baked desserts and milk/cream based sauces and dishes) -- this is where knowing where spices are traditionally used with what foods will help you.

Since you mentioned it specifically, paprika is a spice typically used with savory foods, and it tends to be a very mild spice, so that a fairly large amount is needed to get a distinct flavor. It's not one of my favorites, but when I do use it, I typically put it on chicken, bland fishes, and deviled eggs (okay, that last one is really specific). If I were to season chicken with paprika, I'd also use salt and black pepper (of course), garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and possibly some oregano or basil (which one, if any, depends on how I am feeling that day). I don't use specific measurements with that mixture; I just sprinkle the spices on each side of the meat (it's one I've been doing long enough I can do it by feel). Hmm...I'd say I usually put a very fine, even layer of all the spices except the garlic powder and paprika -- with those, I use a thicker layer, so that I see more of them than meat (again, though, I like my food hot -- you may want to start with less, as it's always easier to add more later than take away if you accidentally put on too much).

...this has been Savannah's Rambling Thoughts on Spices at 2am. Hopefully it helps a bit (and if not, blame the tiredness :smalltongue:).

[Tebryn]

Since you mentioned it specifically, paprika is a spice typically used with savory foods, and it tends to be a very mild spice, so that a fairly large amount is needed to get a distinct flavor.

Then you're not using the right paprika :smalltongue: There are actually a number of grades for Paprika, the typical non-Hungarian (it matters) being the Noble Sweet grade. If you want a stronger, more spicy you should go for Strong though it lacks the bright red color.

[Savannah]

Eh, fair enough. Ye Bog Standard paprika isn't terribly spicy and I don't like it enough to bother with the fancy stuff :smalltongue:

[KuReshtin]

Try different recipes that use those spices, and eventually you'll have a pretty good idea of what goes with what.

This. Very much.


Honestly, I'd get some basic cookbooks and try various recipes until you start to see some patterns in what spices are used with what types of foods before you start winging it (and you usually use more than just one spice, which adds to the complexity).

Again. This.

Using recipes when you start cooking is the best thing you can do. A lot of recipes may be a bit conservative with the use of spices, but once you start getting the idea of what spices to use, then you can start experimenting a bit with how much you want to use to make the food taste to your liking.

One of the things I usually try to tell people when they start cooking is to not be afraid to mess up. It happens. And most of the time, you can sort of fix it to save a dish after a mess-up*.

Try to enjoy cooking, and try to get good at one or two things to start with, and then start expanding your repertoire of stuff to do.


*Except if you get way too much salt in a dish. Salt is a bastard like that. Don't be afraid to use it, but don't overuse it.

[The Succubus]

If you want a good introduction to spices used in baking, try making something like gingerbread, fruitcake or pfefferkuchen (see Koala blog for details). Then as you eat some of your creation, try to taste the different flavours. Smell each of the different spices as you put them in.

[Grozomah]

Well, i'll assume that you're a total beginner to cooking and give you the simple version. There is no absolute rule on how to properly spice - in this aspect it is much like art and depends greatly on taste.

I suggest you start with the classical and by trial and error find your way to what you prefer. But the quick and dirty way of doing quite good meals is as follows:

0) Salt and garlic. You need salt on pretty much anything and everywhere. Vegetables and sea fish generally need just a little (a pinch per fish), red meat needs a moderate amount and it is very difficult to put too much salt on chicken & turkey. As a rule of thumb you can also put garlic on anything. There are exceptions, but they are very few and still quite good even with garlic.

Other than that i generally divide the tastes onto broad spectrums and spice accordingly:

1) Continental food - meat, steaks, usually with pasta or potatoes as a side dish.
You can't go wrong with 0) pepper, paprika. If you're making beef/pork other options are thyme, marjoram and bay-leaf. If you're making soup fresh parsley and some celery is delicious.

2) Asian food - lots of veggies, notn-sticky rice, chicken.
If it includes chicken that curry is the way to go and lots of it. Other than that use 0), chilly and soy sauce. If you have coconot oil use that in place of oil. You can add more spices after the dish is served and figure out you preferences, but that is a good base.

3) Italian/mediterranean - pasta, pizza, lazagna etc.
0), fresh tomatoes, basil, rosemary, parmesan. Use olive oil if oil is needed - olive oil with spices (paprica, tomatoes) is even better. Skip tomatoes if you're making fish and add a tiny bit of garlic.

4) Mexican - anything that fits in a tortilla.
Use 0) onion, lots of chilly, some paprika, and complete the taste with the fillings you like (corn, beans etc.)

Like said, this is quick and dirty, through the eye of an european (so preferences may differ greatly). But it is a decent base to build on and discover your prefered tastes. We could write a thesis for each recipe, but if you need it short follow 0-4. :smallwink:

[Kalmageddon]

General advice, use them to exalt the taste of the dish you are cooking, not to cover it completly.

[valadil]

Just experiment. Go nuts, but don't go overboard. A little bit of a spice goes a long way.

If you want to be more methodical about it, I've read that plain white rice is a good base for sampling spices. Just make some rice, put a new spice on it, and taste. That gives you a good idea of what it'll taste like in other things.

Also try skimming a bunch of recipes. If you look up marinara sauce, you'll see that all of them include garlic, oregano, basil, and salt. Chili will almost always have chili powder, cumin, cayenne (or something stronger), and salt. You don't have to follow the recipes step by step, just see what the common elements are and they'll give you a baseline for where to start on a dish.

[EmeraldRose]

I will be honest, the only way to truly figure out which spices work with what, as well as what you actually like to eat, is to just try stuff out. Either google recipes based on whatever protein you plan to use and go from there, or get a cheap cookbook.

And then go crazy. :smallbiggrin:

[The Succubus]

General advice, use them to exalt the taste of the dish you are cooking, not to cover it completly.

This is one of the things that really gets my metaphorical goat about Indian take away. It always seems to be "Hey, lets load this sucker with as much ground chilli seed and ghost pepper as we can, because this is an exercise in oral masochism, rather than, you know, lunch." :smallannoyed:

I might try and make my own curry on the weekend and see if I can make something more agreeable.

[EmeraldRose]

Yeah, that's a problem with the Thai place close to us. Ask them for something above a 3 and they just cover it with red pepper flakes. :smallyuk: I wanted spicier curry, thank you very much, not a crapload of red pepper.

[Aedilred]

The advice above is pretty good for the most part. Really the best way to find out what works is experiment, but checking out recipe books is a good way to get started. You can get a sense of the spice by smelling it, although bear in mind some of them will change flavour while cooking. Mixing spices is fine, and some dishes require it, but don't go overboard and it's best to get an idea of what each spice is like before combining them so you don't end up with something horrible. (That's mixing during cooking, mind, not in the jar).

Generally you want to add spices towards the start of the cooking procedure so that they have a chance to develop and mellow and to permeate the other ingredients, but there are exceptions (garam masala, for instance). Herbs on the other hand tend to want to be added (again, usually, depending on the herb and dish) towards the end of the cooking process.

Paprika comes in a wide variety of subtly distinct flavours and also smoked and unsmoked varities, but tends to be pretty mild, so you can use it with relative abandon. Cayenne pepper is similar but stronger and sharper, so if you're mainly trying to add heat that (or chilli powder) might be a better bet. But there's a lot to be got out of paprika if you use it wisely, you just need to make sure you're not overwhelming it with other flavours.

Another deceptively mild spice is turmeric, which is basically yellow food colouring, although it does have a distinctive flavour if you use too much of it. It's best used as a base or balance for other spices (like cumin and coriander).

Also bear in mind any powdered spice will lose its flavour over time, especially if not kept sealed. For the freshest flavour, it's best to try to create them yourself from scratch, but that's easier with some than others and probably a bit much for you at this stage. For cumin, for instance, it's a piece of cake because you can use cumin seeds whole and just pre-roast them before cooking. For some of the others, you need to grind them which is more of a pain.

[Telonius]

When you're just starting out, unless you're following a specific recipe, stick with a single spice (two at most) per dish, and go easy on the sauce (if any). It will give you a much better idea of what any individual spice does to the food.

I'd actually advise against going too heavy on the salt, as it can mask whatever flavor you're trying to test out.

Some simple favorites of mine:

Chicken with tarragon
Chicken with rosemary
Tomato sauce with basil
Stir-fry with cilantro
Rice with saffron (you only need a very, very little bit of this)

Whatever spice you're using, you don't need to douse the food in it. Just give it a light dusting.

[Tyndmyr]

So my ladyfriend, who is a pretty good cook, recently got a spice rack and has been attempting to teach me how to cook. The spice rack, as far as I'm concerned, looks intimidating as heck and is full of powders I can't understand.

So my question to the Playground today, on the subject of cooking: What do you do with spices? :smalleek: All she told me about them was "well, you sniff them, and if they smell like they'd go well with what you're cooking, you try it", but this doesn't help me much: a lot of them smell somewhat similar and I don't know what the proper quantities to use are, or if you're supposed to mix them with each other.

I tried cooking a chicken breast today and adding paprika to it because it smelled OK and it's a name I recognized from an Anime film I like and from a character from a children's show from a really long time ago*. I was told later that I may not have used quite enough as the chicken only turned slightly red.

Please help me figure this out, Playground. I would really like to understand why connecting Spices raises my civilization's :smallsmile: Happiness by 4 points. Yay, reference.

*You know the one.

EDIT: By the way. Rosemary makes Ramen taste interesting.:smallconfused:

Not all spices are suitable for all situations. I reccomend next time you go to the supermarket, you get Montreal chicken seasoning. For a chicken breast, cake that stuff on there, use as much as'll stick on both sides. I promise you, it'll be tasty.

Now, that's a blend of different spices. You can blend your own to taste by looking at the ingredients and trying to match proportions, and monkeying around a bit.

Most spices have one function they're fairly good at. Red pepper will add heat, for instance. Salt, pepper, these you probably already know. Garlic as well...garlic can make buttered noodles or bread much less bland.

Experiment with one at a time on fairly bland foods and see how it goes.

[WarKitty]

The easiest I've found to experiment with are the italian spices. Dill, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, bay, garlic. These will all pretty much go with each other and can be used with a lot of things. Pastas, pizza, and chicken are all good candidates for these.

Chicken breast and basic pastas are also good dishes to try spices out. White chicken cuts tend to take on spices easily and not clash with much of anything. You might also use a basic butter sauce (I mean basic - melt butter, cook spices in it, pour over pasta) as a good experiment for the taste of different spices.

[Togath]

Another spice advice; don't be afraid of ginger.
Other than the obvious advantage of helping to quell stomach problems(sea sickness, motion sickness, those sorts), it also helps sharpen the flavours of a dish, making it easier to taste the individual flavours rather than just a conglomerate.

I also second the advice of "find un-ground if possible" for most spices.
Ground herbs tend to be a higher quality than spices(though not as good as fresh, with the exception of sage and rosemary), since they don't fade as fast as ground spices(admittedly, the only ground herbs I use are sage, and sometimes ground rosemary, as stated above).

One mix that could be interesting to try using is curry powder, though I should mention that it's virtually never used in Indian cooking, nor is curry.
Despite that, I'm not condemning it, it's a great tasting blend... Just aim for Scottish/Irish/English recipes instead of Indian ones:smallwink:.

[Aedilred]

One of the things I usually try to tell people when they start cooking is to not be afraid to mess up. It happens. And most of the time, you can sort of fix it to save a dish after a mess-up*.

*Except if you get way too much salt in a dish. Salt is a bastard like that. Don't be afraid to use it, but don't overuse it.
Oversalted dishes can be salvaged if you discover it early enough. If you do find yourself having over-salted a dish, and there's cooking time remaining, peel and roughly chop a large potato (or more, depending on how overs-salted the dish is), and bung that in with the dish. Then at the end of the cooking, throw the potato away. That should help to mitigate the over-salting.

[Mauve Shirt]

I went to the store and looked at packets of dry seasoning for taco meat, dry rub for steak, things like that and looked on the back to see what spices actually went into those things. Then I went home and experimented with amounts until I got the flavor I wanted!

[BWR]

Try different recipes that use those spices, and eventually you'll have a pretty good idea of what goes with what.

This is the best advice you can get.

And it applies to all aspects of cooking. Find recipes, read them, find variants and make them. Then you can start experimenting. Though I've been capable of cookingsimple stuff it wasn't until last year that I really started teaching myself how to cook and experimented a bit. Recipes are of varying quality. Some are very explicit, some assume a lot of basic knowledge about cooking that beginners may not have - one otherwise nice Greek cookbook we have tends to forget about a few of the ingredients during the cooking process . Make sure you read them thorougly first and find out if they all make sense.

You will make a few mistakes. If you have a good recipe and manage to follow it, any mistake tends to be negligible. Once you start experimenting, it's a bit iffier. As for spices specifically, follow recipes. Find ones you like, follow them exactly the first time, then start adjusting. It means you will tend to make a lot of the same dishes trying to find out what tastes best. Soon, you start thinking about other possibilities and realize that you are basically making recipes on your own. for the most part, it will have been done before by someone. This is fine, because it shows you are thinking along the right lines.

[Traab]

I say stick with the basics. Garlic powder, onion powder, and seasoned salt. I basically use those three seasonings for everything and the first two are pretty self explanatory. Seasoned salt just adds some good flavor to everything. Once you get confidant with those, you can start branching out into other stuff. A nice light coating of each should give you a good flavoring, and once you have that you can adjust untill its as strong or mild as you like.

[Aedilred]

If you can get hold of a book, or recipe collection etc, for good recipes which assume no innate knowledge of cooking but aren't excessively basic, try Delia Smith. Not the recent How to Cheat at Cooking, though; something like the Cookery Course. Her book or website is usually my first port of call when I'm looking for guidelines on how to cook something new.

[Karoht]

So my ladyfriend, who is a pretty good cook, recently got a spice rack and has been attempting to teach me how to cook. The spice rack, as far as I'm concerned, looks intimidating as heck and is full of powders I can't understand.
Suggestion 1: Google Things
The biggest thing you can do to understand all these spices is read about them. I own an entire book devoted to Basil. Trust me, mastery of ingredients is key, and it is an ongoing process. My advice is pick one of the spices on the rack, check it out on wiki. Get to know it. Then google some recipies involving that spice plus another ingredient you feel comfortable with.
Basil + Eggplant is awesome.

Suggestion 2: Trial and Error
Taste things. Taste all the things. Constantly. Try to picture in your mind how something might taste with a specific spice. IE-Nibble some basil, picture it with chicken. While cooking with a spice, taste constantly. If you can barely taste it, add more. If you can taste it and identify it and it isn't overpowering everything else, consider stopping.

Suggestion 3: Recipes
Having someone else (be it my charming self or Julia Child) that basil and chicken go together is entirely different from actually experimenting yourself. Find a good sounding recipe that you think you might enjoy, get all the ingredients together, and make it. Seek out new ones constantly. Refer back to Suggestion 1.

[Vizzerdrix]

I gave up on real spices long ago. Now I just use Adobo on everything I cook.

[The Succubus]

I used a little too much spice in a cake I was baking and ended up with sandworms burrowing through my kitchen. Again. :smallannoyed:

[Ravens_cry]

I find curry powder and chili powder is delicious together in egg-salad.
Adding a little Italian seasoning to Chili con carne adds a nice flavour, as does adding Chili powder to spaghetti sauce, especially if you are making it without meat. It adds an extra richness of flavour.

[Mauve Shirt]

Turmeric and oregano and cumin and curry powder, IN EVERYTHING, FOREVER.

[BWR]

"A man can live on packaged food from here 'til Judgment Day if he's got enough rosemary."

[noparlpf]

I mostly use salt, garlic, chili powder (I don't like black pepper), and sometimes parsley or oregano. How to cook: Put salt, garlic, and chili powder on meat. Pan-sear. Eat. Or, put salt, garlic, less chili powder, and some parsley on chicken. Pan-cook. Eat.

I also make chili. About 2/3 meat (ground beef or shredded stew beef or shredded chicken work), 1/3 beans (I use kidney beans because one time there was a sale and I bought about thirty pounds of kidney beans and only recently finished them), then add a can of tomato paste, about one and a half of that can of water, a chopped onion, half a chopped clove of garlic, a load of chili powder, some garlic, salt, a dash of cayenne pepper, black pepper (I use a bit in chili), a good bit of cumin, and I've found that a Cajun spice mix works well in chili if the store happened to be out of cayenne pepper. If you feel fancy you can even add some actual fresh pepper, but I always forget to try that. Anyway, you stew that for several hours on low heat. That's a good way to use up spices.

[Moriwen]

Like others have said, garlic, salt and pepper in everything. Salt and pepper you're probably used to from seasoning food at the dinner table; garlic is hard to go wrong with, but generally in the realm of tablespoons for a normal recipe-size (most spices are teaspoons).

For Mexican dishes (things with beans and/or tortillas, and names in Spanish -- tostadas, enchiladas, quesadillas, nachos) add chili powder and lots of cumin. Cumin (a.k.a cumino) is what gives Mexican food its distinctive flavor; chili powder gets spiciness.

Oregano goes well in anything Italian -- pasta, pizza, etc.

Sweet foods, especially apple-based, do well with cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. (That's what goes into gingerbread, for instance -- not just ginger, but all three.) Cloves I usually use less than most spices -- on the order of half a teaspoon, rather than a teaspoon.

It's handy to have a couple of jars of mixed spices that you can just sprinkle on something, depending on the type of dish; these can be bought at the grocery store. I have one that's mostly garlic, onions, and salt, with a little bit of other things, and I can basically put it on any savory/salty dish. (Probably obvious, but despite the name, allspice is not one of these. It's a single spice.)

Those are the ones I use most often. I'm sure those more knowledgeable than me will give you lots of good advice.

[Serpentine]

I have a great big cookbook that's divided up into ingredients. My favourite thing about it is that for each ingredient (e.g. chicken) it has a big long list of other things that go with it (e.g. bacon, rosemary, etc).

A couple of things I like doing as a start for you:

One of my favourite spices is cumin. I think it goes particularly well with kangaroo, but if you can't get that it's probably also good with beef and lamb.
Take a steak or fillet, and cover both sides liberally with salt, pepper and a good covering of cumin. It's pretty much "to taste", but as a rule of thumb I'd say you want somewhere between a sprinkle and a solid crust. Grill or fry.
Cumin also goes well with vegetable couscous.

Get some pork rashers or belly. Put in an airtight container with star anise, cinnamon (whole or ground), ginger (thinly-sliced fresh or ground), allspice, and some or all of the following: soy sauce, hoisin sauce, plum sauce, honey, something else that I've forgotten right now. You might like to mix the marinade up separately first so you can taste it before you add the meat. Shake up the meat and marinade, refrigerate for at least a couple of hours. Cook on a BBQ or slow in an oven. Serve with rice.

[Knaight]

Generally speaking, I find that the easiest way to use spices is by smell. Cook something up, smell whatever spices you have, and use the ones that fit. For now you probably don't want to use too many, and pronounced spices are often a better fit. You'll find combinations of spices that fit with various things, and it works out. If they are particularly good, write them down.

A few starting points:

Lemon pepper goes extremely well with fish, and is a pretty versatile spice in general. Steamed fish and vegetables with lemon pepper is a simple dish, and quite good.
A mix of tumeric, pimenton, and cumin with yoghurt and some flatbreads makes a nice light snack. I generally keep a premade mix of the three spices for exactly this, though it's useful elsewhere.

[RebelRogue]

As a beginner, start out with using just one spice in each dish (except for very basic ones, like salt, pepper and garlic). That way you learn the character and uses of each. As you get more experienced, you can mix and experiment a bit more. Here's a few suggestions and pointers:

Nutmeg is excellent with spinach.
Cumin, to many is the taste of falafels. Serps list of uses is great (haven't tried it with kangaroo, though). Also a must in chilis, at least for me.
Coriander seeds is often used with cumin, at least in dishes of indian/middle eastern origin (wouldn't use it in chili). Not quite as aromatic as coriander leaves, but similar in taste.
Thyme goes well with just about everything. It's probably my favorite herb.
Oregano and basil (as well as thyme) are staples of many Italian dishes.
Rosemary is great with lamb. Perhaps surprisingly, it can also work well with some berries (raspberries, for instance) in desserts, but be careful, as it's rather strong tasting.
Caraway is kind of an acquired taste. Used in gullasch (along with lots of paprika), beetroot soup, for bread, and in some curry mixes.
Fennel seeds are liquorice-ey to the taste. Goes very well with pork, lamb and fish. If (like me) you're not that keen on caraway, they can be used as substitute. For instance, in beetroot soup I find they really compliment the beets' natural flavors well.
One way to use ginger I really like is for marinades with soy, garlic and bit of honey. Great for poultry in wok dishes.
Allspice works well with pork.

[Haruki-kun]

Other than visual appeal why did you want your chicken to be red? If you want a deeper color you should go with a yogurt and spice mixture with the paprika and let the chicken marinate. Tandoori Spice will give you a better color if that's what you're aiming for. But that's not really what spices are for. Spices are used to flavor foods and accent them.

I didn't WANT it to, but my GF asked me afterwards if the chicken turned red as a sort of way to see if I used enough, because I didn't know by myself.


Not all spices are suitable for all situations. I reccomend next time you go to the supermarket, you get Montreal chicken seasoning. For a chicken breast, cake that stuff on there, use as much as'll stick on both sides. I promise you, it'll be tasty.

Ooooh. OOOOH! I have some of that! I'll try it next time. Thanks!


Suggestion 1: Google Things
The biggest thing you can do to understand all these spices is read about them. I own an entire book devoted to Basil. Trust me, mastery of ingredients is key, and it is an ongoing process. My advice is pick one of the spices on the rack, check it out on wiki. Get to know it. Then google some recipies involving that spice plus another ingredient you feel comfortable with.
Basil + Eggplant is awesome.

Suggestion 2: Trial and Error
Taste things. Taste all the things. Constantly. Try to picture in your mind how something might taste with a specific spice. IE-Nibble some basil, picture it with chicken. While cooking with a spice, taste constantly. If you can barely taste it, add more. If you can taste it and identify it and it isn't overpowering everything else, consider stopping.

Suggestion 3: Recipes
Having someone else (be it my charming self or Julia Child) that basil and chicken go together is entirely different from actually experimenting yourself. Find a good sounding recipe that you think you might enjoy, get all the ingredients together, and make it. Seek out new ones constantly. Refer back to Suggestion 1.

Alright, this sounds like sound advice... I'll have to try to make a recipe. Hopefully you won't see me make a thread about how much it sucks that I set my kitchen on fire. ._.


"A man can live on packaged food from here 'til Judgment Day if he's got enough rosemary."

Unless he's making Ramen. :smallfrown:


Like others have said, garlic, salt and pepper in everything. Salt and pepper you're probably used to from seasoning food at the dinner table; garlic is hard to go wrong with, but generally in the realm of tablespoons for a normal recipe-size (most spices are teaspoons).

So.... NOT just a dash?


For Mexican dishes (things with beans and/or tortillas, and names in Spanish -- tostadas, enchiladas, quesadillas, nachos) add chili powder and lots of cumin. Cumin (a.k.a cumino) is what gives Mexican food its distinctive flavor; chili powder gets spiciness.

Oregano goes well in anything Italian -- pasta, pizza, etc.

Sweet foods, especially apple-based, do well with cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. (That's what goes into gingerbread, for instance -- not just ginger, but all three.) Cloves I usually use less than most spices -- on the order of half a teaspoon, rather than a teaspoon.

It's handy to have a couple of jars of mixed spices that you can just sprinkle on something, depending on the type of dish; these can be bought at the grocery store. I have one that's mostly garlic, onions, and salt, with a little bit of other things, and I can basically put it on any savory/salty dish. (Probably obvious, but despite the name, allspice is not one of these. It's a single spice.)

Those are the ones I use most often. I'm sure those more knowledgeable than me will give you lots of good advice.

Thanks. This is all really useful advice. I'll keep it in mind.

[Karoht]

Alright, this sounds like sound advice... I'll have to try to make a recipe. Hopefully you won't see me make a thread about how much it sucks that I set my kitchen on fire. ._.
I would look for a recipe before you try inventing something. More or less analyze what flavors you like and dislike, then begin experimenting with increasing or decreasing or adding new things.
Here's a really easy starting point. Risotto. It's a great platform for flavors, everyone is intimidated by it, but it is actually EXTREMELY easy to make. You can get away with some lower quality ingredients but if you go for higher quality it will make every last bit of difference.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/rice-recipes/a-basic-risotto-recipe

Seriously, give that a try a few times, then start experimenting with new stuff.