Make a habit of adding individual spices or their blends several times during the cooking process. Depending on the dish, you need to add the mixture at the very beginning of cooking so that the spices are mixed with oil and with enrich the main components of the future dish. Then add the mixture in the middle of the cooking process. And then you should raise the dish to taste on the last stage of cooking. Accustom yourself to tasting your future fine cuisine over and over. This habit will help you check and evaluate the taste balance of your dish.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF SPICES AND HERBS

Spices can be added as a separate part to the dish as well as an ingredient to the whole mixture, which will play fragrant and flavor compositions along with other ingredients.

Each individual spice modifies the mixture and adds new hints of flavors and aromas. Just one spice can alter the whole mix beyond recognition adding a new color to it and thus diversify your favorite dish.

Hereafter I will briefly describe the 35 most popular herbs and species that are commonly used in blends. You surely are familiar with each of them but you also might find out completely new ones. Having learned different kinds of spices you can buy it and easily prepare favourite mixture from this book or create your own unique combination for your favorite dish.

In addition to a brief overview, you will find out which spice goes together with other and which products it is blended with.

After reading chapter, you will learn the basics of spice blending art and creating seasoning mixes. You will familiarize yourself with dosing and creating your own unique blends for meat or vegetables, for salads or desserts, for shish kebab or grilling, chicken, fish and seafood.

This does not necessarily mean that one particular spice cannot be combined with something else: this is an approximate and simplified list. But it will help you to combine seasonings and spices with one another and create successful, fancy, balanced and aromatic combinations.

ALLSPICE

It is also known as Jamaican pepper or pimento pepper. This Central America native has flavors and aromas of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and black pepper all in one single spice. An incomparable warm and, at the same time, spicy stream of flavors and aromas explain its name. The spice is quite strong, it gives the dishes powerful aroma and changes their taste. Therefore, you should use it carefully. Despite this, it is very slow in giving its flavor to liquid dishes, therefore, it should be added in the beginning of cooking process. Allspice is an integral part of such mixes as baharat and berbere. Also, it is used in various spicy combinations in Jamaican and Caribbean cuisine.

Allspice pairing:

Fruits and vegetables: pineapple, eggplant, peas green, pear, zucchini, cabbage (including sauerkraut), potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, peach, tomato, turnip, beetroot, currant, pumpkin, apple.

Protein product: lamb, beef (stewed, boiled, fried), game (especially quail, rabbit), legumes (peas, buckwheat, rice oats, pearl barley, chickpeas), goat meat, sausages, seafood, nuts, poultry (chicken, turkey), fish (especially fried; herring marinated), pork, eggs.

Other foods: pastry, mushrooms, lemon juice, honey, beverages, biscuits, pies, soups and broths, dough, minced meat and meatballs, fruit compotes and jams, chocolate.

Seasonings and spices: cloves, mustard, ginger, cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, bay leaf, onion, marjoram, nutmeg, black pepper, chili, rosemary, thyme, caraway, garlic.

Cuisines and dishes: English cuisine, Middle Eastern cuisine, curry dishes, Indian cuisine, Caribbean cuisine, Mexican cuisine, North American cuisine, Mediterranean cuisine, Jamaican cuisine.

ANISE

Anise seeds give the dish warm sweet and fruity accents. To open up its aroma, it is recommended to warm up seeds in a dry frying pan and crush it into powder after that. Anise is perfect for fish, seafood and poultry when paired with dill, fennel and coriander. It brightens flavor of stew, especially beef stew. Anise is the spice that balances sour sumac in syrian za'atar and makes up unsweetened taste in ras-el-hanout. Anise in some rare cases is able to replace fennel. It is added in the early stages of cooking process.

Anise pairing:

Fruits and vegetables: apricot, pineapple, watermelon, pomegranate, pear, melon, cabbage (including cauliflower and sauerkraut), potatoes, strawberries, cranberries, root vegetables, carrots, parsnips, peaches, rhubarb, turnips, beets, plums, pumpkin, citrus, apple.

Protein product: beef, wild game, legumes (especially beans, lentils, rice), seafood (especially crabs, mussels), nuts (almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts), poultry (especially chicken, duck), fish, pork, cheeses (especially goat cheese, ricotta), eggs.