Cooking Spices and Herbs
Have you ever wondered how you can raise the volume on the taste of your recipes. Cooking with spices and herbs can really help you achieve great cooking results. The following are some tips to improve your use of herbs and spices.
Webster’s defines herbs and spices as:
"A herb is a plant grown for culinary or medicinal value. Typically, the green, leafy part of the plant is used. Herbs are distinguished from vegetables in that they are used in small quantities and provide flavor rather than substance to food. By contrast, spices are the seeds, berries, bark, or other parts of the plant. Spices are strongly flavoured or aromatic parts of plants used in small quantities in food as a preservative, or flavouring in cooking.
In general, whole spices can be stored longer than ground spices which last about the same as leafy herbs. To know if they are good crush them if no aroma is detected, the seasoning needs to be replaced. Many people prefer to buy whole seasonings and crush or grind what they will use for greater taste. You should be one of them. The mortar and pestle is my favorite tool for crushing herbs and spices.
It is a fact ground spices release their flavor faster than whole. So use strong spices in long cooking and mild herbs at the end of the cooking process. Always remember adding more is easier than trying to fix the recipe if you add too much. If you double a recipe increase spices and herbs only by one and a half, then add more to taste. Most of the time 1 and a half will be enough. Cooking spices and herbs will raise the volume on your recipes.
Webster’s defines herbs and spices as:
"A herb is a plant grown for culinary or medicinal value. Typically, the green, leafy part of the plant is used. Herbs are distinguished from vegetables in that they are used in small quantities and provide flavor rather than substance to food. By contrast, spices are the seeds, berries, bark, or other parts of the plant. Spices are strongly flavoured or aromatic parts of plants used in small quantities in food as a preservative, or flavouring in cooking.
In general, whole spices can be stored longer than ground spices which last about the same as leafy herbs. To know if they are good crush them if no aroma is detected, the seasoning needs to be replaced. Many people prefer to buy whole seasonings and crush or grind what they will use for greater taste. You should be one of them. The mortar and pestle is my favorite tool for crushing herbs and spices.
It is a fact ground spices release their flavor faster than whole. So use strong spices in long cooking and mild herbs at the end of the cooking process. Always remember adding more is easier than trying to fix the recipe if you add too much. If you double a recipe increase spices and herbs only by one and a half, then add more to taste. Most of the time 1 and a half will be enough. Cooking spices and herbs will raise the volume on your recipes.
posted by The Minute Gourmet at 8:05 PM
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