5 Spices Every Cook Should Know

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Five common spices are easy to find and very useful. If you’re not using these in your cooking, it’s time to start.

In order to make your food more exciting, you need to spice it up with some great spices. This is a list of 5 spices every cook should know. All of these are fairly common, and if you haven’t been using them, you should start now!

Cinnamon- Probably one of the most popular spices out there, cinnamon is used in almost everything from applesauce to yogurt. Cinnamon sticks are often used for decoration in desserts such as pie. Cinnamon also goes well with meat dishes like chicken, pork chops and beef stew.

The cloves- Cloves have a powerful smell that can be quite enjoyable when used sparingly in food. Cloves go particularly well with apples and pears, but they are also great with just about any savory dish. Add them whole to stews or desserts or use ground cloves for a more subtle effect.

The nutmeg- Little nutmeg surprises people when they first taste it because it has a slightly sweet taste despite its strong smell of pepper. Nutmeg is commonly found in pumpkin pie and eggnog, but it can be used in just about any type of dish where

Haitian cooking is a blend of French, Creole, and African cuisine with a hint of Spanish influence. In addition to the usual salt, pepper, and butter, here are five essential spices every good cook should know:

1. Ras el hanout

This Moroccan spice mixture is used to flavor lamb, chicken, fish, or vegetables. It’s usually quite expensive but it keeps for a long time so it’s worth the investment. This particular blend can be used in both savory dishes and desserts. I like to use it in pumpkin pie spice where I might have used cinnamon previously.

Tasting notes: warm and spicy with hints of cumin and cardamom.

2. Bouquet garni

A classic French herb mixture that is tied together with string and added to braises, soups, stews, etc., to add flavor without using extra herbs that might otherwise be tossed out at the end of a meal. The bouquet is generally tied together with a string in this manner:

3. Harissa

A North African chili sauce made from chilies (of course), garlic, olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar and spices like caraway and coriander. It’s great as a dipping sauce for bread or as

If you want to cook with exotic spices, you need to know what they are. But if you want to cook every day and still have flavorful food, you need to know which 5 spices to always keep in your kitchen.

This is a list of the 5 spices every cook should have on hand. The first 3 are the ones that make up almost all of the flavor in most good dishes:

SALT: This is not just one thing. There are many different kinds of salt, from fine table salt to kosher salt to sea salt and more. The flavor of salt can vary quite a bit, so it’s important to know which kind you’re using in any given recipe.

TURMERIC: Turmeric is an Indian spice used in curries and yellow mustard. It has a very distinct flavor, but it needs to be used in small quantities: too much turmeric will turn your dish very yellow, and then people might think there’s curry powder or something else in it.

THYME: Thyme is an herb used in lots of different kinds of recipes; it goes particularly well with chicken and bacon.

PAPRIKA: Paprika is a spice made from red peppers; sweet paprika is usually used as a garnish or

Ah, the spice cabinet. One of the most fascinating places in a home kitchen. Rows upon rows of mysterious bottles, filled with spices that spark curiosity and romance. So many exotic names! So much potential to tantalize our taste buds with the flavors of faraway lands!

So what spices do you really need? We’ve put together a list of 5 must-have spices that every cook should have on hand, to guide your culinary adventures!

1. Salt: You probably already have salt in your pantry. It’s so easy to find and so useful for everyday cooking that it’s worth stocking up on. Plus it won’t go bad, so you don’t need to worry about expiry dates or rotating it out. A few different types of salt are nice to have on hand as well if you can afford them–kosher salt is great for recipes where you’ll be adding large amounts at once (like roasts) because it dissolves more easily than other salts. Fleur de sel is another one to try if you’re looking for a special touch for chocolate desserts or just want something pretty to sprinkle over veggies.

2. Black pepper: You always need black pepper on hand, right? Right. You can grind your own at home

When you taste a spice, or an herb, or a blend of spices, it may seem like the taste is coming directly from that ingredient. But the truth is that each spice is merely one element of the greater whole dish. The way to really appreciate the spice is to add it to other ingredients and make a meal out of it.

The key to adding spices to recipes successfully is learning how they work together — and how they react with other flavors. The five spices below are some of my favorites because they work well with so many other flavors and are easy to find.

The spice trade is probably the most important economic engine of all time, and the history of spices is a history of globalization.

Spices were the reason that human beings invented ships, and it’s pretty much the only reason why human beings ever left the Middle East. The spice trade created a whole new kind of world-changing power: not empire, not religion, but capitalism.

There are five spices that have been in nearly every kitchen in every part of the world for as long as people have been cooking with spices. They will give you access to cuisines from all over the world. They will transform your cooking and make it possible for you to be a good cook without ever having to face a recipe. I think they’re worth knowing about, so here they are:

Cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) – Most cinnamon sold in US supermarkets isn’t cinnamon at all; it’s cassia bark, a kind of Chinese cinnamon grown in Indonesia or Vietnam. Real cinnamon comes from Sri Lanka, and if you want to cook like an Indian or a Moroccan or a Mexican you will need to get some.

Spice used to be sold by weight, which is why we still use pounds in recipes even though we no longer measure volume

You’ve probably cooked with all of these spices, but how much do you really know about them? That’s why I put together this list of the five most important spices in your kitchen.

Turmeric is one of the most popular spices in Indian cooking. It has a mild, slightly bitter taste, and rich yellow color that comes from curcumin, which gives turmeric its healing properties. It can be used fresh or dried.

Turmeric is a natural anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, and it’s good for digestion. It can be used to treat respiratory infections like bronchitis, and it may help prevent cancer since it contains kaempferol—a compound found in other plants that have anticancer properties.

Cinnamon is a spice commonly found almost anywhere in the world. It’s usually sold in stick form, although you can also find ground cinnamon at most grocery stores (make sure your cinnamon powder comes from Ceylon or Saigon cinnamon because Cassia cinnamon has high levels of coumarin).

Cinnamon is beneficial for lowering blood sugar and reducing cholesterol levels in diabetics. Cinnamon has been known to reduce inflammation in the body and fight bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus (the bacteria behind staph infections), strep

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