Cooking Spices From The Kitchen of Susan Merrick!

The Art Of Seasoning And Flavoring

People don't just eat because they are hungry and their stomachs are empty, they eat because they enjoy the flavors of good food. Appearance, texture, and nutrition are important too, but good taste is the first mark of good cooking! Cooking Spices are a chef's secret ingredient that takes any dish to the next level.

One of the most critical tasks of a good cook is in the enhancement and adjustments they make to the flavoring of food, which requires experience and good judgment. Unfortunately, however, the fine art of seasoning and flavoring is too often one of the most abused.
What a lot of people don't realize is that the most important flavors of a particular preparation are the flavors of its main ingredients. For example, Roast beef should taste like roast beef, green beans should taste like green beans, etc, etc. It is just a fact of life, that plain foods generally are a little bland to most palates, so a good cook's job is to perk up the taste buds with a few added ingredients, so that the beef does taste more like beef, the green beans taste more like green beans, and etc, etc.

Definition of Seasoning and Flavoring

Whether you are aware of it or not, there is a difference between seasoning and flavoring. Seasoning means enhancing the natural flavor of the food, without significantly changing its flavor. Salt is the most important seasoning ingredient, as well as the most common. Flavoring means adding a new flavor to a food, changing or modifying the original flavor.
The difference between seasoning and flavoring is often one of degree. For example, salt is usually used only to season, not to flavor. But in the case of potato chips or pretzels the salt is so predominant that it can be considered an added flavoring. Likewise, nutmeg is normally used for its distinctive flavor, but just a dash can perk up the flavor of a cream sauce without actually being detectable to most people. The layering of seasoning is my most prized and distinguishable asset, a trait which separates a great cook from just a good cook.

Basic Rule of Seasoning and Flavoring

Your main ingredients are your main sources of flavor. Use good-quality main ingredients, handle all foods with care, and employ correct cooking procedures.
Badly prepared foods cannot be rescued by a last-minute addition of spices. the function of spices, herbs, and seasonings is to hieghten and to give extra interest to the natural flavors of foods, not to serve as main ingredients or to cover up or disquise natural flavors.

When To Season And Flavor

Seasoning

1. The most important time for seasoning liquid foods is at the end of the cooking process.
The last step in most recipes, whether written or not, is "adjust the seasoning to taste." This means that you have to first taste and evaluate the product. Then you must decide what should be done, if anything, to improve upon the taste. Often a little salt in a stew or a dash of fresh lemon juice in a sauce is enough.
The ability to evaluate and correct flavors takes experience, and it is one of the most important skills a cook can develop.

2.Salt and other seasonings are also added at the beginning of cooking, particularly for larger pieces of food, when seasonings added at the end would not be absorbed or blended in, but would just sit on the surface.

3.Adding some of the seasoning during the cooking process also aids in evaluating the flavor at any step along the way.

Do not add very much seasoning if it will be concentrated during cooking, as when a liquid is reduced.

Flavoring

Flavoring ingredients can be added at the beginning, middle, or end, depending on the cooking time, the cooking process, and the flavoring ingredient.

1. Only a few flavorings can be added successfully at the end of cooking. Fresh (not dried) herbs, sherry, or flamed brandy, and condiments like prepared mustard and Worcestershire sauce can be.

2. Most flavorings need heat to release their flavors and time for the flavors to blend.

whole spices take the longest.

Ground spices release flavors more quickly and thus don't require as long a cooking time.

3. Too much cooking results in loss of flavor. Most flavors, whether in spices or in main ingredients, are volatile, which means they evaporate when heated. That is why you can smell food cooking.

As We can see, herbs and spices should cook with the foods long enough to release their flavors but not so long that their flavors are lost. If cooking times are short, you can generally add spices and herbs at the beginning or middle of cooking time. If the cooking time is long, it is best to add spices and herbs at the middle or toward the end of the cooking time.
NOTE: Food safety experts highly recommend adding spices and herbs at least 30 minutes before the end of the cooking, so that any microorganisms that they may have will be destroyed.

Common Seasoning And Flavoring Ingredients

Any food product can be used as a flavoring ingredient, even meat (like when crumbled bacon is added to sauteed potatoes, or diced ham is included in a mirepoix). Sauces, which are compound preparations containing many flavoring ingredients, are themselves used as flavorings for meat, fish, vegetables, and desserts.

Since my time and space is valuable, I am only going to mention the most important ones here. Below I have listed a herb and spice chart that you can use as a guide in finding the best herb for your particular meal.

1.Salt is the most important seasoning ingredient. Don't use too much. You can always add more, but you can't take it out.

2.Pepper comes in three forms: white, black, and green. They are actually all from the same berry, but they are processed differently. (Black pepper is picked unripe; White is ripened and the hull is removed; green peppercorns are picked unripe and are preserved before their color darkens.)

Whole and crushed black pepper is used primarily in seasoning and flavoring stocks and sauces, and sometimes red meats. It is also used at the dining table by your quests.
Ground white pepper is more important as a seasoning in the professional food kitchen. Its flavor is slightly different from black pepper, and it blends well (in small quantities) with many foods. Its white color makes it undetectable in light-colored food.
Green peppercorns are fairly expensive and are used in special recipes, primarily in luxury restaurants. The types that are packed in water, vinegar, or brine are soft. Wet-pack peppercorns are perishable; water-packed peppercorns will keep only a few days in a refrigerator after they are opened, while the others will keep longer.

3. Red Pepper or Cayenne, is unrelated to black and white pepper. It belongs to the same family as Paprika and fresh sweet bell peppers. Used in tiny amounts, it gives a spicy hotness to sauces and soups, without actually altering the flavor. In large amounts, it gives both heat and flavor to many spicy foods, such as those of Mexico and India.

4. Lemon juice is an important seasoning, particularly for enlivening the flavor of sauces and soups.

5. Parsley, chives, and sometimes mint and dill are the only fresh herbs used in most food services operations. The fresh products should be used instead of the dried whenever possible. Their flavor is greatly superior. Parsley, both whole leaf and chopped, is also important as a garnish.

6. Onion, garlic, shallots, and other members of the onion family, as well as carrots and celery, are used as flavorings in virtually all stations of the professional kitchen except the bakeshop. Try to avoid the use of dried onion and garlic products. They have less flavor and the fresh product is always available.

7. Wine, Brandy, and other alcoholic beverages are used to flavor sauces, soups, and many appetizer dishes. Brandy should be boiled or flamed to eliminate the high percentage of alcohol, which would be unpleasant in the finished dish. Table wines usually need some cooking or reduction (either by itself or blended with other ingredients) to produce the desired flavors. Fortified wines like sherry and madeira, do not need cooking and therefore are usually added at the end of cooking.

8. Prepared mustard is a blend of ground mustard seed, vinegar, and other spices. It is used to flavor meats, sauces, and salad dressings and also at the dining table. For most cooking purposes, European styles such as Dijon (French) or Dusseldorf (German) work best, while the bright-yellow American ballpark style is more appropriate as a table condiment than a cooking ingredient. There is also a course, grainy style that is sometimes for in specialty recipes.

9. Grated lemon and orange rind are used in sauces, meats, and poultry. Only the colored outer portion, called the zest, which contains all the flavorful oils, is used. The white pith is bitter, so it is never used.

10. MSG, or monosodium glutamate, is a flavor enhancer widely used in oriental cooking. MSG doesn't actually change the flavor of foods but acts on the taste buds. It has a bad reputation for causing chest pains and headaches in some individuals.

Cooking With Spices (top of page)

Cooking With Herbs and Spices

Making Sauces

Recipes

Home | About Me | Contact Me | Privacy Policy | Sitemap