Seasonings and spices: their use in cooking

Culinary seasonings and spices are food additives. Seasonings - improvers of food of vegetable, animal or artificial origin, possessing a spicy smell, as well as dry mixtures of herbs and ready-made liquid sauces. In addition, spices include such spices as salt, sugar, ammonium, yeast, citric acid, sodium glutamate, soda, guar gum, locust bean powder, agar-agar, gelatin, etc.

Spices and condiments - what's the difference?

Spices change the taste and consistency of the dish, without affecting its odor. For the aroma spices are responsible. As for color, spicy herbs, for example saffron, turmeric, parsley, rose, etc., act as colorants. Artificial food colors are usually attributed to spices. It's impossible to make an exact boundary between seasonings and spices, so the salt, sprinkled with ground pepper, is seasoning, and sugar, flavored with vanilla, is a seasoning called vanilla sugar. The dispute about terminology can be pursued endlessly, but our goal is not this.

The ability to properly handle food seasonings and spices is a real art. We will introduce you to some little-known, but very good classic seasonings and the most expensive spices, and also tell you about some rules that should be followed, using southern spices and condiments. Their application with photographs of individual mixtures and plants can also be seen in the material presented to your attention.

Magic additives to food

Most of us constantly have in the kitchen some definite habitual set of natural plant food supplements, as a rule, they are not more than a dozen. It can not change in all life. This is a big omission, because the spicy herbs used in cooking are about one and a half hundred. They are part of sauces, added to the food at the personal discretion of the cook, and are also combined into a bouquet ennobling some particular product or giving the name to the whole dish.

Traveling around the world and getting acquainted with national cuisine, we at some point think: "And what is included in this or that particular, especially liked the dish?" For the original taste, it is not always possible to recognize ordinary beef, rice, cod, pasta, squid, potatoes, etc. The same products are also found in our city. Metamorphosis is achieved through unusual seasonings.

The main supplier of natural fragrant and spicy additives - India. It is Indian spices and condiments considered to be the best in the world. They are the core of any culinary seasoning. The climate of this country, as well as the islands of Ceylon and Sri Lanka, is ideal for the maturation of aromatic herbs used in cooking.

Function of spices in cooking

Let's see, is it so important and necessary in our kitchen spices and condiments? Their use in home cooking is not a cheap treat. One kilogram of pepper, zira, saffron, cardamom, nigella, any of the overseas spices, costs from a thousand rubles (this is the lowest grade) and higher. Why puzzle, guessing which spices will be the most harmonious in this or that dish? Is it not better, without philosophizing slyly, to limit ourselves to salt, sugar, pepper, bay leaf, dill, parsley, vanillin and cinnamon, that is, those additives that have long settled in our kitchens? For ready-made foods it's easier and more convenient to use purchased sauces like ketchup or mayonnaise, mustard and horseradish, and sweet dishes to serve with jam and whipped cream.

All this is true, but the culinary seasonings and spices perform much more tasks than the supplements listed above.

They are intended to shade the best flavor and aromatic notes of the prepared product. So, for example, river bottom fish burbot differs with tender meat, and its liver is a delicacy more valuable than the liver of cod or poultry. However, the specific smell of mud is required to be eliminated, otherwise this fish is absolutely impossible. Rescue properly selected spices and condiments will save the situation. Their application should be mastered for other reasons.

Four Properties

Spices and seasonings add to the appeal of the dishes, first, by ennobling the smell of the original product. This helps to improve appetite and timely release of gastric juice, which promotes better digestion of food.

Secondly, some Indian condiments and spices (names and photos of them can be seen in this article) improve the appearance of products.

Thirdly, they contribute to a longer preservation of the freshness of food, acting as light preservatives and antiseptics.

Fourthly, they all have a powerful therapeutic effect on all organs and systems of the human body.

Effect on the senses and the creation of a pleasant atmosphere

It should be noted that those who know how and willingly cooks delicious food are pleasant and respectable in any company. It is embarrassing to admit this, but a person who comes to visit with refined food is always happy, and this is very conducive to establishing friendly relations.

Entering the house, where it smells of cinnamon from the freshly baked apple pie, or treated to a rich borscht with aromatic herbs, one can not help thinking that the local owners are excellent people.

If you agree that delicious food is the right choice of spices, if you think that spices and seasonings, their use in cooking is a valuable skill that facilitates communication and attracts friends, then our article is for you.

Continental cuisine has long mastered Indian spices. The stores sell ready-made, packaged and packaged popular seasonings and spices, well combined with European products. These mixtures can be purchased in shops in the form of powdered spices mixed with salt, you can find well-known spice kits, or you can try to assemble the classic seasoning yourself. This is much more interesting, besides, excellent quality is guaranteed.

Ras El Khanut

This is a Turkish national seasoning, which has long migrated to many European and Middle Eastern cuisines. Ras-el-khanut - a bouquet of spicy herbs, always accompanying dolma. It necessarily includes basil, tarragon and oregano. In addition, usually a few more components are added to the chef's choice.

If you want to make an authentic dish, go to the bazaar to the place where Turkish spices and condiments are sold. Their use you do not need to know, and it is not necessary. It is enough to say to the trader two words: "dolma" and "ra-el-hanut", and the seller of spices will collect for you an individual and unique set. "Ras El Khanut" is a seasoning, collected by the owner of the shop at his own discretion in accordance with the components included in the planned dish, and also taking into account the personal taste preferences of the buyer. The name of the seasoning is translated "the owner of the shop".

"Baharat"

Among popular Turkish seasonings, one of the places of honor is a mixture of spices called "Baharat". Kebab can not do without a fragrant bouquet of cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg and mint. As a supplement, you can add zira, cardamom, cloves, coriander, Jamaican pepper and paprika. Variative seasonings can also contain ginger, savory, fenugreek, luumi, rose petals or oregano. Turkish cuisine rarely does without leaves of mint and chabera. When adding fresh leaves, we must remember that they should not be cut or crushed in any other way with metal knives. This provokes an oxidative reaction that distorts the properties of plants.

"Beau monde"

Europeans, who prefer meat to seafood, have long mastered southern seasonings and spices. Their use in dishes from squid, shrimp and sea scallops is absolutely justified. The mixture, known as "Beaumonde", is a seasoning that excellently shades the best notes of muscular tissue of marine invertebrates. It softens the sharp taste of algae and iodine. Suitable for both main courses and soups.

In the composition of "Beaumonde" there are ten components: celery seeds, bay leaf, nutmeg and nut, cinnamon, cloves, three kinds of pepper - Jamaican (fragrant pepper peas), white and black burning (peas) and salt.

Punch Puren

"Punch Puren," as the name implies, is a mixture of five spicy herbs. These are taken in equal parts seeds of nigella, black mustard, zira, fenugreek and fennel. The use of "punch puren" is very diverse.

Seeds can be fried in a frying pan with butter until the aroma appears, and then fill with this oil porridge, pour meat or fish, add to the soup. Vegetable, meat, fish and bean dishes will perfectly accept the "punch puren".

Another way to use a mixture of five seeds is to grind the seeds into powder and combine them with the fine salt. This salt is good to sprinkle ready meals, as well as add to marinades. The above spices and spices, their use in different foods, allow you to realize cravings for new experiences and turn the daily standing at the plate into a magical action.

Saffron

Not in vain the first overseas spice, which we will talk about separately, is chosen saffron. He - the record for the number of fakes, and it's not accidental. Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. King of spices and spices of kings, as the saying goes. In a dish, saffron performs a function and spices, and spices, and dye.

Saffron is better not to combine with any other spicy herbs, and in food to add only a few threads, not more.

Under the guise of saffron, turmeric, sofflor, marigolds, etc. are often sold. You can distinguish a refined food additive from forgery by carefully examining it. Purple threads are the stigma of the flower pestle, known as the crocus. At the base, these strands are paler than at the apex. The upper part is somewhat thicker and more bizarre.

One gram of saffron is valued at about two dollars. Why so much? The fact is that the unique consumer value is possessed only by saffron, which grew in certain latitudes, and it is collected manually. From each crocus, three filaments are extracted. They are also spicery. Want to find real saffron? It is very difficult. Try to look in shops where Indian spices and spices are on sale. His names are the same in any language - saffron and crocus. The photo clearly shows how the stigmas of crocus look.

Cardamom

The second royal spice is cardamom. There are two types of cardamom - green and black.

Green is known to many. It is added to coffee, tea, milk drinks. Green cardamom very well acts on the heart muscle, and also destroys the pathogenic microflora and significantly improves overall health. This is a universal spice, so it comes in a huge amount of spices. Its distinctive feature - in small amounts, it enhances the aromas of other components of the dish, and in large - damps them.

Black cardamom is less often green on the shelves of Russian stores. It is distinguished by a slightly smoky, tarry, earthen smell. He goes well with his green fellow, but is less popular. To prepare the mixtures, grind the dry box together with the seeds and add to curry, masala and other seasonings.

Storage Rules

Dry spicy herbs give off their flavor when heated in a liquid, and seeds - when heated to 60 degrees in a dry frying pan with a thick bottom. Store spices in sealed glass jars, in a place protected from dampness and daylight. Whole pea pepper, clove, bay leaf, cardamom, nutmeg, seeds of umbellate plants (zira, nigella, fennel, dill, cumin) and many others can be stored without losing valuable properties for several years.

And as for ready-made spices and seasonings, they are subject to more stringent requirements regarding shelf life. It is better not to make ground mixtures for future use. After a week, they usually run out.

A few words in conclusion

Condiments and spices, their application is a whole science. Do not be afraid of experiments. There is a rule: if the spices are combined, then they are suitable for the same products. The most important thing is to use spices in a very small amount. A couple of grains of crushed zira will play a positive role in a small dish, and the surplus of even the best seasoning will spoil the product.

Remember that the art of cooking does not stand still. Famous expert in cooking, William Vasilyevich Pokhlebkin, in his books on the use of spices, argued that the bay leaf is not compatible with chicken dishes. However, Indian spices, discovered by Russians in recent decades, intended for sowing poultry, offer mixtures of curry type with the content of this spice. In addition, in the time of Poghlebkin broiler poultry did not exist. At present, it is considered that only rosemary does not tolerate a neighborhood with a laurel leaf.

Unfortunately, within the framework of one article it is impossible to tell about all Indian, Turkish and other overseas seasonings and spices. Their application is described in numerous modern guides to the kitchens of different peoples. Zaatar, cabbage, cajun mixture, dukka, adzhika, hmeli-suneli, masala, curry, sambal, havaj - all this is only a small part of the mixtures containing wonderful spicy plants: pepper, cloves, tubberry, cinnamon, asafoetida, nutmeg, saffron, Sumac, nagakeshara, turmeric, cardamom, coriander, etc. Feel free to use them in your own dishes and please yourself and your loved ones with exquisite treats!