Spice Tips, Making Flavor & Making It Last

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Dried herbs go a long way but they do lose flavor over time. Store them away from heat and sunlight.

Smell your herbs. If they have lost their scent, they have lost their flavor. Discard them, antique herbs are worthless in cooking.

Date your herbs. When you refill your bottle or buy a new herb, place purchase date on the bottle when you open it. Month and Year is good enough. Replace at the end of a year whether you have used all the herbs in the bottle or not.

When making a soup or stew add herbs in the last hour of cooking. If the soup or stew is canned or frozen add herbs when heating up.

Hamburgers, meatloaf, or stuffing, add herbs when mixing.

Meats and fish, brush with oil add herbs and refrigerate till ready to cook.

Dishes that are not cooked, add herbs and allow to stand for a while to allow herbs to marry into the dish.

Heating some herbs before using releases certain oils and enhances the flavor.

Use fresh and dried herbs to flavor oils and vinegars. Simple to do, just add the herb and allow to stand and take on the flavor. Add more oil or vinegar as you use them to keep it going. Oils and Vinegars can last up 3 months without going rancid. If you use them a lot count on them lasting a little longer.


A Simple Diagram to Understand "What With What"
Breads: Poppy Seed Sesame Seed Fennel Seed Anise Seed
Caraway Dill Weed Thyme Parsley

Vegetables: Tarragon Rosemary Parsley Oregano Marjoram Sage
Garlic Thyme Dill Anise Basil

Beef: Tarragon Rosemary Dill Weed Thyme Bay Leaf Basil
Oregano Marjoram Garlic

Poultry: Tarragon Parsley Sage Basil Thyme Caraway
Bay Leaf Basil Paprika Rosemary Oregano

Pork: Rosemary Cumin Seed Caraway Parsley Fennel Seed
Mustard Thyme Basil

Lamb: Thyme Dill Weed Fennel Seed Basil Marjoram Rosemary
Sage Caraway Tarragon

Soups: Rosemary Dill Weed Caraway Anise Parsley Sage
Basil Bay Leaf Oregano Chives Tarragon

Fish: Marjoram Tarragon Rosemary Bay Leaf Basil Thyme
Dill Seed Sage

Shellfish: Oregano Basil Garlic Salt
Tarragon Thyme Marjoram
Turmeric Dill

Eggs: Thyme Garlic Chives Bay Leaf Oregano Dill Basil Tarragon
Rosemary Parsley

Cheese: Anise Seed Thyme Parsley Caraway Basil Sage
Dill Weed Tarragon

Desserts: Vanilla Bean Anise Seed Allspice

 

[HighTide333]

I've been experimenting with meat rubs, and found them to be a little overpowering.
I like to use herbs of my choice or a powder, and sprinkle on freshly washed and damped meat. As the meat lay on the cooking tray, I'll sprinkle it until covered well, and let the moisture from the wash and inherent meat moisture to pull in the spices before cooking...usually for about an hour.
Ribs...overnight.

How do some of yall use the meat rubs?
Am I using too much, because I always lose the taste of the meat if I cover and rub in spices. Do you "knock" the excess off before cooking? What makes me retarded?

 

[TideBeliever]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Meats and fish, brush with oil add herbs and refrigerate till ready to cook.</font>

I have to disagree.

fish: brush with oil and herbs or rub spices into flesh and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking.

meats: Wash in cold water, pat dry, apply spice by rubbing into surface. Thin cuts: let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking. Roasts and Large Cuts: let stand at room temperature for 1 hour before cooking.



[This message has been edited by TideBeliever (edited 05-24-2004).]

 

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A rub is exactly that "A Rub" If you don't like strong flavors, try a milder concoction.

Meat, chicken, fish should be washed then patted dry first. Then oil is applied. Olive oil or vegetable oil depending on what flavor you are looking for. But you must be aware that different oils have different smoke points with olive oil smoking at a lower temperature than say, peanut oil which has one of the highest. For slow smoke, olive oil is just fine. After a light coating of oil, apply a couple of tablespoons of the rub onto your meat and massage it in like you would rub down someone with a sore muscle. You can shake off the excess, but let the rub sit on the meat for about an hour before grilling.

Of course telling someone how to cook is kind of like telling someone how to raise their children.

Sounds like you haven't found YOUR rub yet. Keep experimenting and trying some of the ready made rubs. Some by Spice Hunter are quite good. Experiment with the ammount of rub you use. Some like to cover the meat and some just like to use a rub sparingly.

Here is a little list on some rubs you might like to experiment with:

*To make a Indian Rub, you can mix a teaspoon each of ground coriander, ginger, turmeric, cumin, paprika, and salt with 1/2 teaspoon each of ground cardamom and cayenne pepper, along with 2 minced garlic cloves.

*To make an Autumn Herb Rub, combine 4 teaspoons of sage with 2 teaspoons each of thyme and savory, and a teaspoon each of salt and ground pepper.

*To make a Creole Rub, combine 2-1/2 tablespoons of paprika with 2 teaspoons each of white pepper, dried oregano, dried thyme, 1 teaspoon each of cayenne, ground celery seeds and salt, 3 tablespoons of grated onion and 2 minced garlic cloves.

*A Jamaican Rub can be made with 1-1/2 teaspoons of allspice, 1 teaspoon each of thyme, curry powder, paprika, and sugar, 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, freshly ground black pepper, cayenne, 1/4 teaspoon each of grated nutmeg and cinnamon, and 1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves.

* A Moroccan Rub is 2 tablespoons of paprika, 1 teaspoon each of salt and sugar, 1/2 teaspoon each of black pepper, ginger, cardamom, cumin, fenugreek, and 1/4 teaspoon each of cloves, cinnamon, allspice and cayenne.

*A Tennessee Rib Rub is 2 tablespoons each of black pepper and paprika, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder, 1 teaspoon each of salt, chili powder and onion powder and 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard.

There are literally thousands of dry rubs you can make yourself that are likely to be better than those that are commercially produced to help sell a kitchen appliance. And even if your spice cabinet is bare, you can buy the spices you need to make batch after batch of various rubs

 

[bayoutider]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by TideBeliever:
I have to disagree.

fish: brush with oil and herbs or rub spices into flesh and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking.

meats: Wash in cold water, pat dry, apply spice by rubbing into surface. Thin cuts: let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking. Roasts and Large Cuts: let stand at room temperature for 1 hour before cooking.

[This message has been edited by TideBeliever (edited 05-24-2004).]</font>

What I was getting at was to not leave raw meat on the counter for hours. If you apply a rub at 1 pm and are not cooking till 5 pm, put it in the fridge. If you are getting ready to cook the meat within the hour, leave it out, but I still have a problem with leaving fish and poultry out longer than 30 minutes.