Homemade Spices and Seasonings

Name: Homemade Spices and Seasonings: What to Keep and Blends
Total time: 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Salt, pepper, spices to taste

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30 mins

Spices and seasonings: leave them out, and food is usually almost tasteless.

Whichever way you look at it, seasonings are chemical additives to food, either natural (of natural origin) or artificial. The main job of spices and seasonings is to improve the flavor of food. Often they also help preserve it.

Seasonings include spices, salt and sugar, flavorings and some chemical substances (monosodium glutamate, acetic essence, citric acid). Natural seasonings and spices are parts of plants (fruits, seeds, stems, rhizomes, leaves, flower buds) that are dried, ground, or used as tinctures and extracts. Ready-made seasoning blends sold “for something or other” are common, and the composition of these mixes is often frightening.

Branded chemical cocktails for every occasion. But few people stop to think that it is much simpler and safer to make a blend yourself from “simple” components, fresh and just for one use.

At home we use about 30-35 simple spices, used individually or in blends, as the dish requires. A kitchen should have a mortar: marble, stone or wooden.

Of the ready-made blends we only buy curry, khmeli-suneli, a soup root mix and “herbes de Provence”. Even those only because of their complex composition and because some of the components are hard to find, and only where the ingredients list has no suspicious “chemical” names.

Ingredients

Salt, pepper, spices to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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What to keep at home

Salt Keep four kinds.
- Coarse rock salt without iodine: for pickling vegetables and fish, curing dried roach, baking meat.
- Iodized rock salt: for everyday cooking.
- “Extra” fine iodized salt: for dough, fried eggs, sandwiches. I confess I can’t learn to season dishes with this kind of salt, so I use rock salt.
- Sea salt: for marinating fish.
Vinegar white wine, red wine and balsamic.
- Ordinary table vinegar: rarely.
- Food vinegar infused with natural herbs (tarragon, basil): rarely.
Pepper whole peppercorns and ground.
- Black peppercorns.
- Ground black pepper: only freshly ground from peppercorns right while cooking.
- Allspice berries.
- White pepper: rarely.
- Chili: coarsely ground and whole pods.
- Cayenne pepper.
- Red paprika (sweet).
Spices: cloves, vanilla, cinnamon (ground and sticks), caraway, coriander (ground and seeds), fenugreek, savory, thyme, elecampane, basil, cardamom, barberry, bay leaf, turmeric, tarragon, ginger (ground and root), mint, cumin, oregano, nutmeg (ground and whole), dry mustard, marjoram, star anise, saffron or marigold.
I use rosemary strictly fresh, so there is none in my jars.
That’s really all. Everything else we make ourselves, as needed.

Blends

A few recommendations. Proportions are to taste unless given in the mix.
Mushrooms don’t need a blend: mushrooms are a seasoning in themselves. Salt lightly and pepper very, very lightly, and the flavor and aroma of the mushrooms will only get stronger. It’s best not to overpower the taste of porcini with anything.
Grind the spices in a mortar (marble, stone or wooden) right before cooking: the blend will be fresh and made for a single use.
For the grill meat, poultry and fish.
- For grilled meat: sweet paprika, dry mustard, chili, black pepper, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, coriander (50% of the volume of the mix), salt.
- For grilled chicken, or just baked or fried drumsticks: sweet paprika, turmeric, coriander, fenugreek, ground black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, chili, salt.
- For grilled fish: salt, basil, garlic, dry mustard, thyme, dried parsley, ginger.
For ground meat and patties.
- For ground meat: salt, garlic, caraway, coriander, fenugreek, chili, savory, sweet paprika.
- For grilled patties and sausages: salt, caraway, coriander, savory, fenugreek.
For pilaf: salt, garlic, coriander, sweet paprika, black pepper, turmeric, barberry.
Herb blends.
- Provençal blend (soups, broths, pasta and so on): basil, marjoram, rosemary, sage, savory, oregano, thyme, mint.
- Mediterranean blend: thyme, dill, coriander, marjoram, savory, parsley.
Balkan table seasonings.
- Sharena sol (colorful salt) (Bulgaria): for patties!!! And just as good with fried eggs. Salt, black pepper, fenugreek, red sweet paprika, savory, in equal proportions.
- Balkan table seasoning, instead of pepper: salt, savory, cornmeal, fenugreek, chili.

How to choose and store

Tips for choosing homemade seasonings.
Choose spices by ingredients, place of sale, smell and packing date.
- Don’t buy ready-made blends if the ingredients list shows an “E” number or glutamate. Love yourself and your family.
- Don’t buy “in reserve”. One or two packets at most. Spices lose their aroma, oxidize and go rancid.
- Don’t buy spices at the market, where they sit in open boxes. They lose their aroma, mix with dust… and, well, there are the birds.
- Buy simple ingredients in supermarkets and only from well-known packers. The smell of a fresh spice comes through even foil packaging. Smell it. And look at the packing date. Strange as it is, the big packers keep up their brand, and their product is good.
Store spices and seasonings in completely airtight containers (small jars), and not in a cabinet with the range hood pipe running through it: it will be too hot for them.
- Spices and seasonings must not be damp (!). If you bought them and they’ve clumped together, feed them to the trash can.
- Remember that too much spice and seasoning is harmful and will change the taste of a dish beyond recognition.

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