I’m looking advice for which spices and herbs are good to keep on hand for the most basic recipes.
I’m a pretty good cook, though with a narrow range. I love to experiment and based on the cooking shows I watch (Simply Ming, Lidia’s Italian Kitchen, Nick Stallone, Daisy!, etc.) have a basic idea of how to improvise.
Feel free to include the basics (salt, pepper) and also feel free to include non-spice rack items that are good flavor enhancers (good olive oils, cooking wines, etc.).
Help! I’m down to salt, pepper, Sylvia’s seasoned salt, and powdered ginger!
I’ll probably get savaged by the folks for admitting that I use herbs and whatnot from a spice rack, but here goes:
Basil, chili powder, garlic powder, oregano, cayenne pepper, ground cumin, rubbed sage, rosemary, ground thyme (I never bother with parsley, myself), dill, tarragon, marjoram, and believe it or not, unsweetened Hershey’s cocoa (paired with ground cumin, it can give a very nice flavor to Mexican food-type recipes (enchiladas, f’rinstance).
The basics: Lawry’s Seasoning Salt, Malabar peppercorns and a good grinder, lemon pepper, Crystal sauce, kosher salt
Expansion pack #1: red pepper flakes, cumin, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, Mexican oregano, Greek oregano, bay leaves
Expansion pack #2: Get a Penzey’s catalog and go wild. Always have dried basil on hand, but realize that fresh basil is lightyears better.
Basic liquids: pure vanilla extract, Worchestershire sauce, hot sauces, cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, fake balsalmic vinegar, any other kind of vinegar you can find, good olive oil, better olive oil, “Oh my god!” olive oil, canola oil
Pull up a chair kid, grampa’s gonna bore you with a little story.
When I was a young’n, I went to this college see, and this college had just built some new classroom buildings and dormitories. There was a large grassy area between the buildings. The college didn’t bother putting in sidewalks for the students the first couple years because they wanted to find out where the students actually walk before wasting money laying sidewalks only to have the students ignore them and trample all over the grass anyway.
Spices are kinda like that. It’s a pain, but just pick your recipes and buy spices as you need them, rather than buying spices and finding out your recipes don’t need them and you end up with ten-year-old spices in your cupboard. There seems to be a law of the universe that basically says: no matter how many spices you have, you won’t need 90% of them and the next recipe you read will require the one spice you don’t have.
However, speaking of Penzey’s, buy any spice mix you think is interesting, because mixes can always be easily used in sauces, rice dishes, etc. You don’t have to wait for a recipe to call for them. I’ve got some Rogan Josh & Rocky Mountain mixes from Penzeys, and sprinkling some on some chicken and grilling or baking it is easy. One of my favorites was a Thai Spice Blend made by McCormick. I used it all the time to make a quick & easy chicken & rice dish. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find it in years.
Chachere’s Creole Seasoning is one of my staple mixes. It works well with pretty much all meats and seafood. I also keep a ready supply of garlic and Malabar peppercorns on hand, for meats, sauces, and stews. I like to have rosemary on hand for making herb bread as well. I usually avoid dried basil–it loses way too much of its flavor when dried.
The one people most often overlook, though, is summer savory. It’s a wonderful, subtle herb that really enhances the flavor of beef dishes and soups. (Although I also use it on chicken to good effect.)
We had a recent thread on this subject. Do you live in a major metropolitan area with access to good supermarkets and ethnic markets? My technique is to buy as I go. I buy the spices necessary for a particular dish and sooner or later you end up with every spice you need for almost any dish you might want to make. I really like ethnic markets for buying spices because they are cheap. Latino markets are terrific for buying spices because they are available in packets for 99¢. Asian and Indian markets pretty much round out every spice I ever need.
I’m not sure this is good advice, but I store most of my spices in the freezer. They seem to stay fresher longer.
Spices
Whole black peppercorns
Whole white peppercorns
Whole cumin seeds
Whole coriander seeds
Whole allspice berries
Whole nutmeg
Whole caraway seeds
Whole fennel seeds
Quality Hungarian or Spanish sweet paprika
Assorted chili peppers, both ground and whole
Whole cinnamon (not cassia)
Herbs
Oregano (both Greek and Mexican. They taste quite different)
Dried thyme leaves (not the powder)
Dried rosemary leaves
Marjoram
Bay leaves
I do not want to see dried tarragon, cilantro, parsley, or basil. Those herbs are very delicate and when they dry taste like sawdust.
Moving onward, I also like to see the following:
Mustard seed
Saffron
Bourbon (Madagascar) vanilla beans
Turmeric
Cardamom
Mace
Szechuan peppercorns
I tend not to use onion and garlic powder, but they do come useful for spice rubs and creole seasonings and most people will find good use for them, so I’d put them in the first category.
The secret to fresh basil is this: finely chop a bunch, then portion out in one tablespoon increments into the segments of an ice cube tray. Add water and freeze. Store cubes in a ziplock bag. Toss a cube into whatever you need fresh basil in.
Grate your own nutmeg.
Shop the ethnic foods aisle of your local megamart. You can get fresher spices at a third the cost over McCormick’s or Spice Island.
I make a zucchini/tomato/turkey casserole with savory that just screams summertime eating. Savory’s also good as a minor component of cole slaw, especially if you also add some sesame oil.
Caraway seeds, ground in a coffee mill, make an excellent addn to cabbage dishes.
Savory is also known as “the bean herb” for it affinity with beans. Summer savory generally goes with green beans, and winter savory with dried beans and lentils.
It really, really depends on what you like to cook. For instance, I like green beans, which really need dill. Chicken dishes are usually improved by some rosemary. Etc.
I have to admit that I love the little jars of minced garlic in olive oil. They have to be refrigerated, but they’re damn handy.
Get Better Than Boullion flavor bases instead of boullion cubes or powder. Again, they have to be refrigerated after opening, but they taste much richer than the dry stuff. They also come in more flavors, things like lobster, vegetable, and ham bases.
My rack was basically built just by trying different recipes over the years, and going, “oh, I need to get cardamom” or “I need to get white pepper”. Spices keep (though they lose potency) but after a couple of years, you’ll have a huge rack that mirrors what you cook. I wouldn’t set out to say “I need to stock my rack”. You’ll spend $200 and have a bunch of stuff you’ll never use.
I also have a coffee grinder at home that I use just for spices.
Mine (from memory). Some of these are spice “combinations”.
Black pep
White pep
Red pepper flakes
Salt
Cinnamon
Cardamom
Chili powder
Cayenne
Garlic salt
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Ginger powder
Fenugreek
Chinese Five Spice
Old Bay
Asafoetida
Garam masala
Curry powder
Ground nutmeg
Ground sage
MSG
Herbs:
Basil
Thyme
Oregano
Bay leaves
Les Herbes de Provence (combination – essentially of the stuff above)
Seeds & stuff:
Cumin
Fenugreek
Nutmeg
Mustard seeds
Hot red chili peppers
Herbs I grow:
Sage
Tarragon
Basil
Thyme
Oregano
Dill
Parsley
Rosemary (good all year round)
Chives
Okay, I’ll post the things that I use fairly often, both just to express myself and to spark any feeling the OP of, “Oh, I’d never go out and buy _____ just for a recipe, but if I had it I could use it on _______ and _______ and…”
A lot of things I have both in fine and coarser variants, powders versus dry flakes and so on, mostly for the ‘quick dish’ versus ‘it’s going to simmer on the stove all day anyway’ divisions in my cooking. And don’t get on my case about how I should buy fresh instead of dried!
onion (powdered and minced)
oregano (ground and flaked)
thyme (ground and flaked)
black pepper (ground and peppercorn grinder)
basil flakes
garlic powder
salt
poultry seasoning mix
italian seasoning flakes mix
ground sage
ground marjoram
ground savory
ground nutmeg
caraway seed
There’s probably something else on my spice shelf, but that’s all I can think of using in the last little while.
Fresh-ground pepper is the best, but if you’re lazy, coarse-ground black pepper is very good too.
I use kosher salt.
I mix up a container with 1 part kosher salt, 2 parts coarse ground black pepper, 2 parts onion powder, 2 parts garlic powder. This mixture tastes good on just about everything.
I never buy onion salt, garlic salt, etc. If you want more onion (but not more salt), then what?
Mint leaf is excellent in salad. I haven’t experimented with it much but it doesn’t taste like a peppermint etc.
The markets around here often have a “Hispanic” section that sells many spices in packets instead of jars or bottles. A lot of the stuff, like garlic, isn’t exclusively Hispanic in usage. The packets are a lot cheaper, ounce for ounce, the fancy shmancy bottled McCormick spices. Also if you check in dollar-store types of places, they have bottles of off-brand spices for cheap.
ETA: Don’t neglect to add some extracts to your list. E.g. a simple bowl of mandarin oranges is jazzed up considerably by a drop of almond extract.
Thanks to everybody who posted, I appreciate the suggestions for spices, herbs and accompaniments/enhancers.
Good ideas on not going for the overpriced McCormicks stuff. That is partially what prompted me to write the OP. I was trying to restock Sunday and the cost of that brand (practically all my mainstream market had) made me not buy anything but Sylvia’s Seasoning Salt.
I needed reminding to branch out and since I live in Brooklyn, NY, I have not excuse not to check out more herbs spices in the Korean, Chinese, Indian and Hispanic stores, instead of just picking these things up at Pathmark by default. It’s a shame I don’t try cooking more recipes from other cultures (though I make a mean West African peanut stew); then again, it’s another reason I was inspired to ask the Dope.
Also, I’m going this week to pick up some the those 99-cent spices. I’ll be restocked and if I don’t end up using them, I won’t have wasted a lot of money. Which brings me to the good suggestions from folks who said I shouldn’t just buy things to have them sit there and be and expensive waste, but acquire spices according to how and what i cook. I’ll keep in mind the suggestion about garlic salt/more garlic suggestion too.
Sometimes, in food threads, y’all get into some seriously delicious talk about additives (the good kind) and, from those, I’ve gotten some ideas and tried new things. Although I’m not one for elaborate and time-consuming recipes, I’m going to try to be more adventurous – especially come Fall.
Question: What are some (i) good, (ii)better, (iii) best olive oils? I know this been answered here recently, but could you please indulge me?
Dude, a walk through a Hispanic and then an Indian market will drive you crazy. Great spices at rock-bottom prices. If you splurge, you can temporarily disregard the “Buy what you use” rule and try something unknown. If the market isn’t busy, ask a cashier what a spice is good with. I’m sure a number of Indian spices I cook with aren’t designed for what I do with them, but who cares? Authentic it might not be, but it sure tastes good!
Here’s the most recent olive oil thread. Some good suggestions there.
Then you can swing by Penzey’s the next time you are near Grand Central Terminal and browse. I recommend their spice blends, especially their new BBQ3000 blend. Very useful stuff.
If you find an ethnic market, I’d encourage you to take a good look around and sample some things besides spices. In the Hispanic ones around here, the meat, fruits, and vegetables seem fresher. E.g. I think the chain supermarkets buy a jillion pounds of chicken, then freeze it…they seem to get it that day. And of course you can find stuff like jicama there.
If you don’t find a lot of such markets, or if you need something that’s common, fast, try Walgreens or other such stores. Not as cheap as other places but convenient.
Good idea. I guess I need to get out of the frame of mind that the chain supermarkets are th default and then just getting everything there because I’m lazy and unimaginative. Indian foodstuffs would be the hardest as they’re more commonly found in Queens, a borough I don’t travel to much. However, with the melting pot (heh!) that is New York at my feet, I have no real excuse for not be able to expand my horizons. You’ve given me some great suggestions.
There are, of course, plenty of ethnic markets in the New York area, I’ll just have to make more of an effort. Walgreens is actually more out of the way, by some measures.
I’ll try to sum up all the suggestions tomorrow for anyone who wants to make an easy list of them.
