Spices improve the flavors of foods.
Spices are used in cooking to enhance existing flavors, add new flavors and improve the tastes of food. If you are just learning add spices to recipes, it is important to learn some keys to flavoring food with spices before you start mixing them. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Instructions
1. Taste the spices individually before adding it to any foods. Some spices have strong flavors while others have a subtle flavor. Knowing what the spices taste like makes it easier to add spices which work well together rather than competing for dominance in a dish.
2. Add one strong flavored spice and complement it with subtle spices. It is appropriate to use more than one spice to flavor food, but using only one main spice with a strong taste, such as red pepper, may overpower any other spices you use.
3. Add spices to the food at the beginning of cooking. To release the best flavors, spices are added early so they can cook in and simmer. Simmering releases aromas during cooking and has the strongest effect on flavor after cooking. For example, if you are saut ing onions in oil, before adding other ingredients heat the oil and add some hing before adding the onions. The hing will add aroma and flavor to the onions when cooked at the beginning, but will have minimal effect when added afterward.
4. Pay attention to whether the spice is dry or fresh. Fresh herbs and spices are generally less strong-flavored than dried herbs and spices, so they require more in a recipe than the dried counterparts.
Tags: before adding, herbs spices, than dried