Front Burner: Spice it up!
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A typical spice rack comes pre-loaded with basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme and garlic powder — in other words, all of the seasonings necessary to prepare a basic Italian dish.
However, many of us also own a container of Italian seasoning blend, which probably contains little more than the herbs and spices already taking up real estate on our countertops and in our cupboards.
So why own them both?
Some would argue that purchasing seasoning blends can save time and money, which might be true for folks who don’t cook frequently. But for those whose spice racks already are groaning with dozens of little jars, a lot of seasoning blends are just one more $5 to $10 expenditure, one more jar to cram into the rack and one more source of unwanted sodium.
“Maybe some of the herb blends don’t have a lot of salt in them,” said chef Jeff Bland with US Foodservice, “but the spice rubs probably have quite a bit.”
To continue reading this column about making your own seasoning blends, click here.
Do you rely mostly on seasoning blends for some particular reason or do you usually season your dishes piecemeal? Do you know of a blend I forgot or have a better way of making one? Let us know!
June 20, 2012 - 5:01 AM
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We season everything piecemeal, sometimes making our own spice/herb blends first and keeping it in a small jar. I think the only pre-made blend we still have is a garlic pepper blend we use fairly regularly that we found on clearance, but otherwise it’s a lot of tins of individual herbs and spices.
Our most commonly used blend is garlic & onion powder, black pepper, and a little bit of salt (the pre-made ones simply are too salty). But we also make our own taco seasoning using onion & garlic, salt, cayenne pepper, paprika, chipotle pepper, ancho chili pepper, and cumin…which also works as a mix for making chili.
I have a few blends I bought at a specialty store, generally for cuisines I’m not very familiar with (for example, Ras el hanout, a Moroccan blend) and I buy Old Bay because it’s been encoded into my DNA (my grandparents bought it, my mom bought it, I buy it…). If I’m cooking Greek, Italian, Provençal, or Cajun, though, I always do my own spices, and no two dishes ever turn out the same.
I recently moved, and I was shocked at myself that I my spice “area” went from one cupboard to 3 entire drawers full of spices and sauces.
I consolidated any duplicates that I had. Somehow I had acquired 4 different (open) containers of crushed red pepper. and multiple containers of Cayenne. I blame my annual chili obsession when it starts to get cold. I also managed to toss a bunch of old stuff.
I went to Bed Bath and Beyond to find some sort of spice organization system, but they either relied on containers you had to buy in addition to the rack, or could not fit multiple size bottles. I may have to build an open ended spice rack myself, with stretchy elastic bands on the front side that will keep the larger stuff tied down.