Cooking Spices and Herbs

Use This List of Spices as a Guide to Cooking with Spices

When you use cooking spices and herbs in your menus, your food will taste, smell and look delicious, provided you do it right.

Spices & Herbs

Cooking Spice

Krogger-Gross/Stockfood.com

Cooking with spices can be fun, but it is important to understand the different types of herbs and spices and how to combine them effectively. You also need to know which spices go with which foods.

On this page, I'll provide you a list of spices I find useful to keep on hand, along with instructions on using these cooking spices and herbs to craft tasty meals.

A List of Spices & Herbs I Recommend

• Cumin & Coriander. These two aromatic and flavorful spices are often used together, in Mexican, Cuban and Indian cooking. They'll add some "heat" to anything you put them in. Personally, I love them!

• Curry. A little bit of this spice goes a long way. Added in small amounts, it adds a bit of piquant sweetness to a dish, but added in copious amounts, it is too hot to handle! I usually use a teaspoon or less.

• Basil. Here is another aromatic herb, best used fresh.It goes great in Italian dishes and mixes well with oregano and garlic.

• Cilantro. This herb, especially when used fresh, is one of my favorite seasonings. I am in love with the scent of it. It goes great with lime in just about any Mexican dish.

• Oregano. Oregano is a hardy, small-leaved herb that goes hand in hand with basil, at least in my opinion. If you buy Italian seasonings, the main ingredients are basil and oregano. So, if basil goes well with your dish, oregano probably will too.

• Thyme. This tiny leaved plant is good both fresh and dried. Bangers and mash are greatly enhanced by the addition of thyme. It works well on poultry too, as well as in soups and gravies.

• Bay leaves. Be sure to remove these from your dish before serving, as the leaves are stiff and can actually puncture an intestine if eaten. But when stewed in a dish for a half our or more, they'll add tons of flavor!

• Cajun seasonings. I bought my first canister of these in New Orleans over 10 years ago. They were called Joe's Stuff. You can find Joe's Stuff on the Internet, but these days I just buy it in my local grocery store. Maybe not quite as good, but good enough. Anyway, I started out using this seasoning in chili, but now add it to a number of dishes, including raw fried potatoes. Yumm!

• Chili powder. Another all around spice that is useful in many different dishes, chili powder adds heat, color and flavor whenever you use it.

• Tarragon. This is a milder tasting spice that is useful in cream sauces, egg dishes and on poultry.

• Coarse ground black pepper. I keep a jar of this on my stove so that I can easily add it just about every meal I make. I like pepper that much! You might not, but you can't deny that pepper is much more healthful alternative to adding tons of salt.

So there you have it... an intro to cooking spices and herbs. Hope you enjoyed it. I'll be adding more to this section later, so please check back often.