Cooking with spices offer the home cook many options for flavoring foods and recipes, however I often find that many home cooks are intimidated by the sear numbers of spices available. Often times instead of trying something new cooks will opt instead for the tried and true. While this is practical it also limits learning and great tasting food. This section contains a great deal of information on spices, hopefully you will find this useful in helping to understand some of today’s spices.

Allspice is harvested from a dried berry after which it is ground to form allspice. Popular in baked goods such as breads and pies where it becomes an important spice for the Thanksgiving “pumpkin pie”.

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Anise has been cultivated for thousands of years and enjoyed by Egyptians, Romans and Greeks. Anise (seeds) have a sweet mild liquorices taste that is often used in sweets, cakes and other desserts. Anise can also be used to flavor soups, sauces, poultry, meats, fish and shellfish. Sometimes anise seeds are used when making sausages […]

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A very popular spice in European countries like Germany, Austria and Poland where it is added to breads and soups as well as vegetable and meat dishes.

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Cardamom is used often in middle eastern cuisine where it is often added to curry powders to add a depth of flavor.

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The cayenne pepper is a hot chili pepper that is used often in hot sauces and is also dried and ground to create “cayenne pepper”.

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Celery seeds are used often in stuffings, baked goods, sauces and dips.

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Chili powder is sold in many varieties and is a blend of ground chili peppers, some manufacturers also add other spices such as cumin, garlic powder and onion powder.

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Another spice “blend” Chinese 5 spice has a robust flavor that is used in Peking Duck and other Chinese dishes.

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Popular in the states as well as other ethnic groups such as Asia where it is added to the popular 5-spice blend.

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A popular spice that is used throught the world to flavor foods.

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Coriander and the fresh herb cilantro both come from the same plant, coriander seeds have a fruity flavor and are quite fragrant.

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Cumin is derived from a plant in the Mediterranean, used extensively in Spanish and Mexican cuisine it gives foods and earthy mellow flavor.

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Curry powder is not really a “spicy” per-say but rather a blend of spices that are combined to create the seasoning.

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The fennel bulb produces “seeds” that are used to flavor soups, stews and sausages the seeds have a sweet licorice flavor that has long been associated with Italian cuisine.

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Coming from the same plant that produces nutmeg, mace has a more mild flavor with a slight hint of cinnamon.

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Used throughout the world for thousands of years the mustard seed has long been a popular food flavor agent.

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Popular in baked goods nutmeg as well as the middle east nutmeg actually comes from the nutmeg tree.

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Paprika comes from the sweet bonnet pepper, dried and then ground it is used to flavor stews, soups and meats. Used extensily in Spain and Portugal where it is used to color and flavor the popular sausage Chorizos.

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Pepper, such a popular “spice” that is used as a table condiment to spicy up our foods. With several varieties available including green, pink, white and black peppercorns cooks have wide selection of pepper to choose from today.

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Often used to flavor baked goods such as cookies and or muffins poppy seeds are also very popular in eastern cuisine where the seed is often added to curry powders.

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Saffron is the most expensive spice availible today, cultivated from the stamen of the crocus flower it takes an enormous amount of crocus flowers to produce just a small amount of saffron.

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Today chefs and cooks have a wide variety of salts availible to them such as pink Hawaiian salt, black salt, grey salt, smoked salt, sea salt and koshur salt. However, salt was not always used as an expensive flavor agent it was first used to preserve foods in the middle ages

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The sesame seed has been used in recipes for thousands of years, popular in the Far East and The Middle East sesame seeds are used as garnish, seasonings and made into oil to flavor foods.

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The tumeric root is ground to form tumeric powder, often used in various curry blends in Asian cuisine. Tumeric gives mustard (the condiment) it’s yellow color.

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