Had some cheap pork neck bones, and decided to make a stew. All I did was boil, with chopped onions, garlic, and peppers, and then mixed the following (about a teaspoon of each) in:
Ethiopian berbere spice mix
Creole seasoning mix
Two types of curry powder – Indian and Thai
Korean gochujang chili paste
Mexican chili powder mix
Thai fish sauce
Soy sauce
Chinese five spice mix
Maggi bouillon powder
And it turned out magnificent. Spicy and incredibly flavorful.
Anyone with similar spice/cuisine mixing experiences?
Chili powder and cumin work well in meatloaf in measured quantities.
My pasta bolognese sauce generally has vegemite along with jalapenos and fermented sausage, in addition to the usual basil, oregano, marjoram, garlic, lemon, onions and tomatoes. Does that count?
Marjoram and lemon in bolognese? That’s also new to me.
I’ve been known to add Indian curry paste to chili if I’m being non-traditional. But I tend not to mish-mash too many spice blends together, otherwise.
Of course, since chili powder and cumin is still chili powder!
Not sure what you mean. If you’re talking about a chili powder blend like you find in a supermarket, then yeah. When I say chili powder, I mean ground ancho chilies or ground chipotle or cayenne or paprika. Cumin isn’t a chili, it’s a seed from a plant. I use ancho in the meatloaf and cumin in the glaze.
Yeah, but in American parlance, “chili powder” means powdered chiles + cumin + other spices pretty much always. To avoid confusion, I use the phrase “powdered chiles.”
I apparently need to get out more.
Ethiopian berbere spice blend mixed with salt and a little brown sugar makes a great meat rub.
Or perhaps you’ve spent too much time outside the US. 
But, yeah, in any American recipe book (so far as I’ve ever seen), if you see “chili powder” it always means the mixed stuff. Otherwise, it’s specified as “ancho chile powder” or “guajillo chile powder,” “cayenne pepper,” etc.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of the pre-mixed spices. I like to know what I’m adding, so I can adjust the proportions to suit the dish and my own taste. With a recipe like the OP’s, I find myself wondering if all of those mixes actually contain many of the same ingredients, just in slightly different proportions.
I know it’s lazy and less “authentic”, but they consistently work for me, so I’m a big fan of spices mixes. Good ones, anyway.
Sure, but then you’re being un-lazy again by combining them. And it’s not really all that hard to shake out a few more bottles in your spice cabinet.
I don’t think it’s particularly inauthentic (I’ve seen the kitchens of many ethnic home cooks, and, in general, they don’t seem to have an issue with using pre-made blends) but it’s also that some of the more exotic and complicated mixes are just a pain in the ass to source all the herbs and spices for. For example, I have some Georgian khemeli suneli. It includes finding things like blue fenugreek leaves (I know where to find regular ones) and dried marigold petals (no idea on this one, or even what type of marigold is used.) I mean, I can approximate my own version, or I could get a 100% authentic mix imported from Georgia that I know tastes like something the Georgians actually use in their food.
And then you have your pain-in-the-ass pastes like your Thai curries. I mean, yeah, I can and have made green, red, and masaman curry pastes from scratch, and they do taste a bit “fresher” and more potent than their premade commercial counterparts, but most of the time, it’s too much effort and planning required for a quick meal, and I actually like the way most of the pastes taste. I mean, I guess I could make big batches of it in advance and freeze it, but I’m happy with the pastes.
I’ll play around with chili powder, but I usually start from a base of Gebhardt’s, simply because that’s just the perfect chili powder, and I’m not going to improve on it.
Jerk paste, same sort of deal. I make my own most of the time, because it’s a little cheaper and it’s fun, but Walkerswood paste is almost every bit as good as my homemade stuff.
The one thing I never use premade mixes for is rubs for smoking and grilling. (Mostly because none of them really are to my taste.)
The bolognese name by this point has been applied to many recipes that an Italian wouldn’t recognize. His appears to be one of them. Maybe read “typical” as “typical Midwestern”. Still delicious. And IMO worth trying with those additions.
While I don’t typically even put oregano or basil in my bolognese, it’s not uncommon for a meat sauce that people colloquially refer to as bolognese. It’s just that I’ve actually not heard of marjoram or lemon, particularly, being used in it. Marjoram I can kind of see, being somewhat similar to oregano (although it has a very particular taste to me), but I don’t quite get the lemon. I’ve had plenty of bolognese-type sauces out here in the Midwest, but I can’t recall lemon being used in any of them. If it was, it was very well hidden.
I’m reluctant to use spice mixes too - even Garam Masala (Cumin, Coriander, other stuff) which is pretty ubiquitous in Indian curry recipes. I prefer to add spices individually so I can choose to turn one spice up to eleven, and really find out what it tastes of, for future reference.
My favourite spice has been Turmeric root for the past few months, since I bought a cheap bag of them and froze them, in the summer. A much less dusty taste than powdered Turmeric, and a beautiful golden hue.