What are your favorite spices for home cooking?

Old Bay for seafood and roasted vegetables.

Garam masala.

Look for "sept spices" in a specialty shop - Turkish or Middle Eastern. I swear but it!

again

Smoked paprika is my new favorite.

Cumin powder is an old favorite.

Garlic powder + onion powder on everything

[quote]Garlic powder + onion powder on everything

Agreed.

Dill. Add it to fish, potatoes, etc. It's fantastic.

Dill is an herb, not a spice. I love it, though, and agree it’s good on everything.

OP seems to be using "spices" as a catch-all for herbs and spices (referring to oregano, etc).

As are Le Cordon Bleu diplômés here dumping garlic and onion "powders" on their haute cuisine.

Scare quotes around powders. Ha!

Cumin,thyme, curry powder, cinamon

I like Herbes de Provence with pasta, rice, tuna salad, broiled fish, etc. The blend contains thyme, rosemary, basil, marjoram, sage, fennel, and lavender.

Sorry, I meant herbs and spices.

I'm clearly learning the most basic basics of cooking.

Turmeric + bay leaves. Simple.

I probably use mustard seeds, ginger, garlic, chiles and curry leaves the most.

but meh, prepackaged preserves, jams (garlic onion jam or maple bacon mustard are popular) , bases (variety of companies, they're kind of meh, but stocks/bases are in general. minor's is the most accessible.), fats (duck/goose is a go to for many), powders/dehydrated/freezedried/crystalized random crap will save you on effort, space, time - more affordable thru restuarant suppliers as consumer options tends to be overpriced camping/emergency ration shit.

bbq: you can get away with cattlemen's carolina tangy gold or mississippi honey bbq mixed with stubbs hot bbq sauce for most folk. . .

if dealing with white or black americans, adding brown sugar to everything is a must.

Garlic.... cloves, whole or smashed.... not powder or salt.

oregano

I like mixing in a little rosemary and thyme into a pan of noodles .It flavours it just nice.

Spice Supreme brand Garlic & Pepper seasoning is my go to.

MSG and ketchup, natch.

I just made this very nice salad dressing.

Turmeric, fresh ginger, tabasco, salt, sugar, garlic, lemon juice, yogurt, salt, olive oil, almonds.

Mix in a blender and pour over a fresh mixed salad.

Very Nice!!!

what about salt?

I was binge watching Ina Garten this weekend and she uses a ton of salt. I've made a number of her recipes and I always use less salt than her recipe calls for.

With these you should be covered for most all recipes:

Black Pepper

Cayenne Pepper

White Pepper

Red Pepper Flakes

Salt

Oregano

Basil

Thyme

Bay Leaves

Rosemary

Cinnamon

Caraway Seed

Tarragon

Celery Seed

Allspice

Saffron

Nutmeg

Ginger

Vanilla

Cloves

Curry

Coriander

Cumin

Garlic

I've got a bottle of one-time use of Herbs de Provence I'll send anyone?

Yuck

I like cumin but my party said it smelled like old people, whatever that means. Turmeric adds color, but I don’t think I tastes like anything. I like to use saffron, which I get from Trader Joe’s. The exact same little jar there costs $6 there and $13 at the supermarket.

Too many people overlook the basics: salt & pepper. That usually gets you 75% of the way to a good dish. Garlic and onion will get you almost the rest of the way: sauté them if you can, otherwise powder. Helps to add as much heat as you can take: paprika, chiles, chili powder/flakes, etc. Everything else is nice, but those are the real necessities.

Can I just use powder to make the entire dish?

I've recently discovered Kinder's Buttery Steakhouse seasoning. I've been adding it to roasted vegetables and pasta -- it's delicious.

cardamon

A pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper and I grind coriander. Love it.

I read that as species.

I have recently discovered za'atar in the spice aisle after the Palestinian Table author discussed it with Terry Gross on Fresh Air.

I like to cook with avian species.

[quote]Can I just use powder to make the entire dish?

Which powder? Which dish?

As someone stated above, salt and pepper are the two most essential spices. I use them both in many things.

I like to make my own chili powder, using Penzeys' ground ancho, cumin, chipotle (hot and smoky), and garlic powder. I saute onions, add salt, sweat them; then I add the spice mixture, cook that for 30 seconds or a minute, then add the meat. Later I add bell peppers and finally, beans. I've purposely left this vague. I cook my chili for an hour, and may use ground turkey or chicken thigh, or else Black Angus beef. You may like more cumin than I do, so I'll leave spice amounts up to you.

I use Penzeys' dill and freshly ground pepper when I make scrambled eggs. I put them in the pan before the eggs rather than adding them to the egg mixture, as they stick to whatever container you mix your eggs in. I do add salt to the eggs. And cream.

Good Evening America. I'm Chloe Sevigny, and I've recently discovered that I...love... schpisés

If you like crushed red pepper, the kind you put on pizza, try gochugaru (Korean). It’s red pepper flakes without the seeds, more finely ground. Pretty inexpensive, not super hot. No, your food won’t end up tasting like kimchi, but you can make kimchi with it.

I was looking for something without seeds and that’s where I ended up.

I like Mrs Dash. My blatino husbear likes Adobo.

[quote] Too many people overlook the basics: salt & pepper. That usually gets you 75% of the way to a good dish. Garlic and onion will get you almost the rest of the way: sauté them if you can, otherwise powder. Helps to add as much heat as you can take: paprika, chiles, chili powder/flakes, etc. Everything else is nice, but those are the real necessities.

Re: the onions. I would say use just regular onions (not red, not sweet) and take the extra time to caramelize them. It takes longer than they say in cooking shows, but it's not very active time. Anything you make will taste better if you caramelize the onions.

Never used jarred garlic:; use fresh or frozen. Same with ginger.

Pre-peeled garlic is good, though. But fridge (yes, fridge) life is shorter than when you buy the whole bulb and peel yourself.

Oregano

Fan of TJ frozen ginger cubes here, R42.

It's all about fenugreek.

Another tip: if you like the flavor of something, but don't like having bits of it in your food (e.g. garlic, onions, chili peppers), you can fry/sauté it and flavor the oil (or butter, etc.) with it and then just use the oil. My mom makes a batch of super hot oil from chili peppers that she then jars and drizzles as needed.

You can freeze whole bulbs of fresh garlic and just break off as many cloves as you need, easier to peel when it's frozen also.

Za’atar, herb de Provence, harissa

R41 Microwave the onions first and they caramelize in about 2 minutes.

Turmeric Latte is nice.

I like salt AND pepper.

Accent.

Thank you r50! Seriously, I never even considered that. Someone told me once to add baking soda to speed up the process, but it changed the texture too much.

R51, spa types call it Golden Milk--milk of some kind, tumeric, honey--hot or cold--supposed to be healthy.

[quote] [R41] Microwave the onions first and they caramelize in about 2 minutes.

R50, sounds interesting. When you say microwave, do you mean slice/dice the onions first, then microwave (no oil yet)? Sorry to be dense here, but I want to understand specifically what you're talking about.

Another for paprika. I like it in many things. I like all the traditional Italian spices as well.

R56 Prepare the onions sliced or diced, add a few drops of oil or butter (optional) cover with plastic wrap (pierced) microwave about 5 minutes depending on amount/oven power. They will caramelize really quickly afterwards.

Thanks, R58!

Another caramelized onion trick is to pre-slice/dice and put in fridge for a day or two. The onions end up drying out a bit. (The time-consuming part of caramelization is steaming off all the moisture (water) in the onions, i.e., drying them out a bit.)

Turmeric Latte became fashionable some years ago by questionable health gurus. But I think it's a traditional hot drink in India and other Asian countries.

I gave it a try last year, googled for a recipe online and I really liked it. Turmeric has anti inflammatory properties and really developes a nice flavor with hot milk, honey and cinnamon. Other spices like cloves, nutmeg, anisette, ginger and cardamon can be added to the spice mix as well.

R60 that’s a great one!

I had to purchase a small jar of whole nutmeg around Thanksgiving, for pumpkin pie. The jar was about $10 and I was annoyed at the expense. Now I have used all but two of the nuts. I’ve grated fresh nutmeg into a surprising number of things! Into creamed spinach, ricotta filling for shells/cannelloni, coffee, and Dutch baby (which I make most mornings). It’s remarkable.

What do you use to grate your nutmeg, R62? I have the finest Microplane grater. Would that work?

R63, that’s what I use.

Trader Joe's Aioli Garlic Mustard Sauce, I've used it on fish and chicken with a coating of bread crumbs then cooked it in the air fryer.

I've been using a lot of Knorr Aromat lately. Initially, I just used it in a few Swiss recipes but now add it to many different soups, sauces, dressings, etc.

I got some oregano from Eataly (De Carlo organic oregano) that is vastly superior to any other dried oregano I've ever tried.

I'm also addicted to Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel seasoning. Love it on a hot dog with sauerkraut and sweet/hot mustard and on deviled eggs.

That is really good, R65 (Trader Joe's mustard). It's more like a mustard than a mayo (aioli) and that is why I like it.

Sweat of some dangling 32-year-old ballsack adds that perfect umami char for your burgers.

As a Pagan with witchy tendencies, living in a home with negative dark individuals, I pack my food and drink and laundry and bathwater with protective herbs & spices as well as salt and vinegar and honey to ward myself. They go in my morning coffee, my breakfast and lunch, in my face cleanser, in my socks....

My favourites in terms of smell and taste are paprika, clove, cardamom, nigella seed, pepper (especially black and pink), celery salt, basil, rosemary, and sage (though, like cinnamon decent-quality ethical dried sage is hard to get, so you really have to grow it).

Herbes de Provence for beef stew, cardamom for baking, Lawry's seasoned salt to flavor popcorn and frozen or canned foods

When I stir fry beef or chicken, I usually marinate the meat in soy sauce and sherry with minced garlic and grated ginger. The cooking odors will make your stomach grumble loudly. I sometimes use sesame oil when preparing the sauce to serve.

Lately, to ease the boredom, I've been looking into Spice Blends. If you live in the USA you may have heard of Penzey's. They sell spices. I got a set of four blended spice mixes as a Christmas gift, and I finally got around to using them the other day. I put several chicken breasts in a covered roasting pan with olive oil and about 1 inch of water. I used Sea Salt, and ground black pepper, lots of fresh crushed garlic and a few sprigs of fresh oregano. I've done this before. It's simple and easy. But this time, I also used the Tuscan Spice Blend from Penzey's and it made all the difference. They do mail order and store pick up. Check them out.

If I can make a small point (but an important one, I believe): purchase your herbs and spices where there's a high product turnover. That may mean purchasing on-line. Julia Child herself sometimes recommended 'Italian Seasoning', and that is one of the true high-turnover herb blends at my local supermarket. We've discussed paprika in some other thread, and so many people thought it had no flavor, but it's wonderful when it's reasonably fresh. It just becomes stale (and tasteless) pretty quickly.

Chives are very easy to grow, and the more you trim them, the quicker they grow. And they have pretty flowers, which are also edible. They're quite winter-hardy, too.

I like fresh thyme. It's really good on roasted vegetables. I like citrus zest too, lemon for savory dishes and orange for sweet dishes. I don't use dried herbs, no matter what variety or brand, I think they taste like dust.

No love for lemongrass??

As a rule I only ever use fresh herbs (from the garden or greenhouse) and whole spices which I toast and grind.

I have a 10ft Italian Bay tree in my garden.

Honestly I'm not shittin.

From Penzeys I love fox point seasoning, green goddess, and pizza seasoning.

The spice house sells a similar seasoning to Penzeys Fox Point called Lake Shore Drive. I love it sprinkled on fish!

I like putting smoked paprika on my steak.

Smoked paprika and cayenne pepper - it a toss up.

Both very versatile and add a kick to many recipes.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Sorry for that post, I know we're talking about spices here.

Is anyone else here having difficulty obtaining Rubbed Sage, or Poultry Seasoning, which contains sage? I typically use Adams, but cannot find any. Not even McCormick.

I had a small cache of both in my spice cabinet which I used up during Thanksgiving & Christmas 2020. Throughout the last quarter of 2020, I kept looking for them at grocery stores (Kroger, Walmart, WinCo) and kept not finding them. I shrugged it off, attributing the shortage to the pandemic.

It's nearly July, and the dearth of sage has remained. WTF is the deal? Is there a shortage? (Yes, I've asked Google, without fruitful results.)

(Reluctant to start a thread just for this question, I decided to put it on the relatively recent Spices thread.)

^^ Forgot to sign my post.

My first boyfriend's mom was very WASP and never used any spices. He told me that when he was growing up she taught him and his siblings that spices were for the uncivilized, uncouth races who had excitable temperaments and needed to mask the poor quality of their food with spices. She looked down on all cuisine from Southern Europe and wouldn't even consider eating anything from what she considered "filthy Third World foods".

Needless to say she was NOT happy when he started dating me. I wonder if she is still the same stuck up cunt she used to be. Most of what she cooked was just awful, despite all her pretensions.

Spunk. I like spunk.

On the flip side, I have a passionate hatred of basil. I find it overwhelming. Basil is my cilantro.

Something I learned from Food Network is Mexican Oregano. It is different that the Oregano used in Italian food, etc. It in more floral. I use it in making any Mexican food.

This is one of my favorites. You just have to use it sparingly or it gets hot.

Ever since I saw Kit Harington's interview where he complained about eating boiled chicken forever while filming GOT, I have used this herb salt he said got him through the experience. It is tasty, the only salt I use now.

I mix oregano ,lemon juice and olive oil to marinate chicken in...it is delicious and simple

Interesting R86, as I often use dried Thai basil leaves on place of (addition to) regular bay leaves.

r82, Penzeys appears to have rubbed sage.

Man, Penzy's has everything.

I use middle eastern spices but usually end up using more cumin than most people do. Another spice I use that I don’t think many people use is white pepper….it creates a nice subtle warming effect to my soups without being overtly ‘hot’ like say… chili pepper….. It’s great for winter because it is warm,soothing.and pleasant….