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larpgourmet · 5 years

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Herbs and Spices, a Primer

Image above taken from: https://www.thermofisher.com/blog/food/the-microbiology-of-herbs-and-spices/ -- a truly fascinating read if you’re interested!

This is going to be the first in a series, I think. With all following posts focused on a specific cuisine and what spices they use. For the start of this though, we’re going to go on a journey about the use of spices in cooking, and how to spice food to the greatest effect.

The Difference between Herbs and Spices Let’s start at the beginning, Spices come from the root, stem, seed, fruit, or flower of a plant. Herbs come from the leafy green part of the plant. There’s some plants that serve double duty that you may not even realize. For instance – cilantro is a well known herb, but it comes from the coriander plant! And, ground coriander and cilantro don’t taste at all the same.

There’s a few things that we use to spice food that are neither an herb nor a spice… the most common one is a mineral – salt.

The Basics Really, the backbone of any dish are salt and pepper. If you have both of those in the house, you’ll be fine for 90% of things you want to make. Though, they do get boring on their own!

Invest in good quality for both. When it comes to salt, the chef standard is kosher salt. (Though you may need a pickling variety if you get into making your own pickles! https://larpgourmet.tumblr.com/post/186377848864/homemade-pickles-the-snack-of-snacks

I still use iodized salt. I used to think it would help with my iodine intake, but recent science says it’s probably not enough on its own. If you’re worried about your iodine, get a vitamin pill for it, and switch to kosher anyway. I’ll be getting kosher salt as soon as my current salt container runs out. (I hate to waste money.)

Grind pepper yourself. Certain cuisines prefer certain peppers. Many, many cuisines call for white pepper, or black pepper. And I know they have a bit of a flavor variance, but I don’t want to own four pepper grinders for the different types of pepper I could potentially keep – so I prefer a mixed peppercorn blend, shown below:

(https://www.amazon.com/Starwest-Botanicals-Organic-Rainbow-Peppercorn/dp/B00DURIC8M/ref=asc_df_B00DURIC8M/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312167861240&hvpos=1o2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16564574377351784513&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030820&hvtargid=pla-570914731898&psc=1)

When you’re adding salt and pepper to food, there’s two things to keep in mind. The first thing is to start early. If you neglect to salt and pepper a dish at the beginning, you’re going to need a lot more salt and pepper at the end to get the same effect. Giving the salt and pepper a chance to really mingle into the food is key. Second – watch out for sauces that you’re adding to the dish. You may not need to salt your dish if you’re adding soy sauce, for instance.

Salty Thoughts Let me get this out of the way. You really don’t need a salt grinder. You need a pepper grinder. There’s no preserved freshness of salt if it’s ground in advance. That said – salt grinders can look pretty, and if you’re doing it for the aesthetic, I can’t blame you.

There’s really two categories of salt. Cooking salt, and finishing salt. There’s going to be a chef or two in the audience who will say I’m oversimplifying that, but run with me for a second. You really don’t want, or need, to use finishing salt when you’re cooking. Good old table or kosher salt is well enough for cooking. Additionally, pickling salt is really just fine ground cooking salt. You can run it through a mill of some sort to get what you need (Though, it’s easier to just buy it.) Finishing salt is where you start getting the weird stuff. Himalayan pink rock salt, French sea salt, Hawaiian lava salt, smoked salts, red salts, etc. etc. etc. And I know what you’re thinking, “They can’t all taste different!” But they can, and they do. I went on a run for awhile trying different finishing salts. They’re fascinating and fun to use – but ultimately way more expensive than their more pedestrian counterparts.

If you’re interested in fancy finishing salts, have fun with them! I like them on salads when I’m making a simple vinaigrette dressing, they add a little crunch and a nice, salty bite. They also go nicely over some pastas, where a little added salt is welcome. I will say, they are ultimately fun, and not necessary to cooking. So, enjoy them, but won’t worry if you can’t afford them. And don’t use them as daily cook salts, get the cheap stuff for that!

Taste Early, Taste Often When you’re making a new dish, always start tasting the sauce as soon as you can. That way you know where you might need to make adjustments down the road. You’ll get used to where a dish may taste too salty, or not salty enough, but where it may mellow out as it cooks over time. Taste and make adjustments in small amounts. You can always add more spices, but adjusting when you added too much is much more difficult! Dry vs. Fresh When it comes to herbs, it sounds right to say that fresh herbs are better than dry, but that’s not necessarily the case. Speaking very broadly, use dry herbs if they’re going in at the start of a dish, when they’ll be subjected to heat for a longer time; and fresh herbs when they’re going in toward the end of a dish. You can use fresh and dry interchangeably if needed, at an exchange rate of 1x dry herbs to 3x fresh (or vice versa).

I would also say that I find dry herbs to have a different effect on a dish to fresh. Dry herbs permeate the flavor of a dish differently. So, if a recipe calls for dry or ground herbs, go with it, instead of using the fresh. (At least the first time you make the dish).

When it comes to spices, the dry or fresh becomes a bit more of a grey area. There’s very few spices that you would buy in a more wet-fresh state (ginger being one of them). I find less of a flavor variance between dry or ground spices than I do fresh ones, and they’re often used in the same way when cooking more so than herbs. The exchange rate is different for spices though, it’s generally more 1 to 1, unlike the above.

Whole vs. Fresh Ground Though we would all love to fresh grind everything we make, it’s not always feasible in modern life. Hell, my spice rack is full of plenty of pre-ground herbs and spices so I can use them quickly, especially when I’m cooking something fast on a busy Tuesday. The trick is to keep an eye on the expiration date, and let go of the spice when it expires.

If you can, and you have the time and inclination – always go with fresh ground. Get yourself a pulse coffee grinder for the purpose. The flavors are way better, and you’ll catch some of the oils for your dish. But don’t beat yourself up if you have a go to in a glass vial, your sanity is worth more than the extra flavor.

Flavor Categories When I think of herbs, I think of them in a couple of overarching categories. Those are: warm, spicy, fresh, citrus, and earthy.

Warm spices are things like clove, cinnamon, garlic, or ginger. They’ve got a bit of a bite to them, but even at high doses they don’t get hot. They can also be done as a sweet spice very easily.

Spicy takes warm to the next level. Cayenne, and crushed red pepper flakes are the easiest to come to mind. These make your nose run and your eyes water (and happen to be some of my favorites!)

Fresh as a flavor means things like mint, parsley, or cilantro. To me they’ve got a ‘cold’ quality about them, and taste best at the end of the dish. (Side note about Cilantro. I’m one of the people who thinks it tastes like soap, so I will almost never use it, nor put it in a recipe. I use parsley as my cilantro replacement.)

Citrus is an easy one! Lemon zest, or ground lemon powder are the best examples. Citrus is one of the few things I will almost exclusively do as a fresh spice instead of a dried spice. Dried citrus peel is just nowhere near as flavorful as its fresh counterpart.

And lastly, earthy: Oregano, tumeric, cumin, or thyme are among my favorites in this category. This adds a woodsy, earthy depth to any dish. Cumin and tumeric are especially useful as the backbone for whole cuisines.

I mention this to give you kind of a place to start. Develop favorites in each category that you keep around the house. You’ll be making a dish some day, and you’ll want a little something in it – and having at least one of each on hand to throw in as you need it can go a long way.

The Starting Spice Drawer Last, but not least, my list of ten starting herbs and spices (and one mineral!) to get for your kitchen, if you have none at all:

- Salt - Pepper - Basil - Cayenne - Chili Powder - Cinnamon - Cumin - Garlic Powder - Parsley - Tumeric

Bonus: invest in either lemon or lime juice in bottles, or keep a couple of fresh lemons and limes on hand, and you’ll be good to go!

Bonus Reading Material:

https://www.spicesinc.com/p-3746-most-popular-spices-by-cuisine.aspx

https://www.spicesinc.com/t-list-of-spices.aspx

https://www.spicesinc.com/p-3743-flavor-characteristics-of-spices.aspx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Spices

#LARP #Cooking #Spices #Herbs #Recipes

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