All About Herbs & Spices
25 Jul 2011
When we think of herbs and spices, we think of them as plants used by cooks for their flavor and aroma, and yes, they are that, but they are also so much more. Spices have been used as currency, for their properties as preservatives and for healing for thousands of years. They are used to stimulate all the senses, not just the tastebuds, through their aroma, flavor, texture and visual appeal.
When it comes to regional cooking, what people ate was largely determined by what they were able to grow in that particular region. The style of cooking originally depended on local conditions, but what really differentiates the great cuisines of the world is the herbs and spices they use and how they blend them.
Complex flavors are built up in mixtures by using herbs and spices that complement each other. Some are used for their taste, others for their aroma. Some have souring properties; in others, the color is important. The moment at which herbs or spices are added to a dish makes a crucial difference. They will impart their flavor to the dish if added at the beginning of cooking; if sprinkled on toward the end of cooking, it is their aroma that will be emphasized in the finished dish.
The early use of herbs and spices was medicinal, and in many regions where they are grown, they are still valued for their medicinal properties. Often their use in cooking was directly related more to their ability to promote health, combat flatulence, or help digest fatty foods then to their appetizing tastes and fragrances. Fresh herbs and spices provided mineral salts and vitamins long before our need for these was understood.
Most cultrues recognize the importance of providing a balance in food. Indian cooking follows Ayurvedic principles in using herbs and spices to provide flavor and to create physical and emotional wellbeing. Chinese cooking is based on a theory that wellbeing is brought about by the careful balancing of the 5 flavors, sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and pungent, with the texture and color of the food. Similar principals are followed in Iran where the cook strives to maintain a balance between ingredients classed as hot or cold. Here in the U.S., herbs and spices have become important elements in adding flavor to low-salt and lowfat foods and garlic has gained wider acceptance because it is said to lower cholesterol levels and help prevent heart disease.
In all the regions of the world, traditional flavor combinations, using local ingredients, have come to characterize the foods of those regions, saffron, pimento, garlic and nuts in Spain; wine and herbs in France; basil, garlic, olive oil and anchovy in Italy. In Britian it is parsley, thyme, sage and mustard; in Eastern Europe sour cream, dill and caraway. The Middle East uses lemon, parsley and cinnamon; northern India uses ginger, garlic and cumin; southern Indian mustard seed, coconut, chili and tamarind; Thailand has fish sauce, lemon grass, galangal, and chili; China has soy sauce, ginger, and Sichuan pepper; and Meixco has chilies, cilantro and cinnamon.
Food companies are constantly formulating new flavors and trying to synthesize others. They use electronic noses and tongues and other sophisticated equipment to produce “aroma-fingerprints”. They gather aroma moleules from spices, herbs, and fruits or from finished dishes for reproduction in a laboratory, eventually to be unleashed in ready-prepared foods. The results are certainly impressive, but many of the cultural and nutritive values of the original foods are lost.
An herb is the leaf of a plant used in cooking. Most of the culinary herbs we use today grow in temperate climates.
Many herbs remain essential in classic European cuisines, tarragon, thyme, bay and garlic in France; basil, sage and rosemary in Italy; oregano in Greece; dill in Scandinavia; parsley sage, thyme and bay in Britian. The traditional uses of these herbs are still reflected in the choices made by today’s cooks, but the foods with which they are used and their flavor combinations are changing due to our own curiosity as well as increased availability.
Generally, herbs are used to add fragrance and flavor rather than to prove the dominant taste. When cooking with herbs, always add dried herbs at the beginning of cooking giving them time to heat and release their oils. Herbs with tough leaves, such as rosemary, lavender, winter savory, thyme, and bay, can withstand long cooking, keeping in mind to remove the stems before serving. To restore the aroma of herbs used in a long, slow-cooked dish stir a few finely chopped leaves into the pan toward the end of cooking. If cooking with fresh delicate herbs such as parsley, basil, cilantro, dill, you must add them at the end of cooking as the essential oils dissipate when heated.
There are many different herbs, each with their own flavor, smell and taste. There are those that are well known, such as basil parsley, cilantro, dill, sage, oregano, marjoram, rosemary and thyme. There are those that I’m sure you’ve never heard of, as they are authentic to ethnic cuisines, such as mitsuba, known as Japanese parsley; epazote from Mexico; Vietnamese balm native to eastern and central Asia; hyssop native to northern Africa, southern Europe and western Asia. There are leaves that are considered herbs that are usually eaten as salad greens, such as chicory, sorrel, arugula and watercress. There are herbs that we don’t think of as herbs, such as garlic, fennel, marigold, lavender, geranium, catnip, celery, wasabi and horseradish. There is sweet basil, purple basil, purple ruffles basil, bush basil, african blue basil, cinnamon basil, lemon basil, Thai bail, licorice basil, lime basil and holy basil, there’s dill weed and dill seed, fennel bulb, fennel seed, green fennel, bronze fennel, there’s peppermint, chocolate mint, moroccan mint, apple mint, mountain mint, pineapple mint, about 8 different varities of oregano, 8 different varities of sage and 9 different varities of thyme. There are herb flavor combinations that absolutely work together: bouquet garni – bay, parlsey and thme, fine herbs – chervil, chives, parsley and tarragon, herbes a tortue – basil, chervil, fennel, marjoram, savory, and Herbs de Provence – savory, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, sage and fennel.
Spices are aromatic roots, bark, seeds, buds and fruits, usually in dried form, whole or ground, used in cooking. The orginal use of spices in cooking was introduced by the Byzantines. They preserved foods in spiced sauces, sometimes to hide the fact that the meat was rancid and other times to replace the flavor lost after lengthy boiling.
Most spices come from the East. The first spice to be introduced to Europe was pepper, from India, which long remained a rare and expensive commodity. Roman food was always liberally spiced, with ginger being a favorite. The practice of adding spices continued throughout the Middle Ages. Supplies increased as a result of the Crusades, and control of the “spice route” caused much rivalry. Venice managed to obtain a near-monopoly over the distribution of spices in Europe, and the quest for alternative sources of supply was one of the reasons for the voyages that lead to the discovery of America and the West Indies. Spices became more plentiful and less expensive when British and Dutch companies started trading them. But, not all spices were spread due to trade. Some resulted from the breaking of monopolies, as well as French botanists and exploeres smuggling plants to new destinations where they planted plantations. Mirgration also has had an effect on the spread of spices. Ships from southern China carried ginger to the Pacific region and immigrant communities brought their own traditional ingredients to their new homes and married them with local produce to bring to us new types of cusines, including many South American cusines, as well as the most famous, Cajun.
As with herbs there are spices that are associated with certain ethnic cuisines. In Italian cooking it’s nutmeg, saffron, and coriander; Chinese is ginger, cloves, cinnamon, fennel and star anise and sesame; Thai food uses sesame, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin and turmeric; Vietnamese is dried chilies, turmeric, cardamom and tamarind; Carribean cooking uses nutmeg, tamarind, chili peppers, and allspice; African is sesame, turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger and chiles; Moroccan is ginger, black pepper, paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, cumin and saffron; Mexican is anise, saffron, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, cumin and in Indian they use fenugreek, turmeric, coriander, cumin, ginger, tamarind, cloves, cardamom and chiles.
And again, as with herbs, we have our familiar spices cinnamon, cloves, paprika, pepper, allspice, ginger and nutmeg. We have our spices that we have never heard of such as akudjura from Australia, Zedoary from Southeast Asian and Indonesia, Asafetida from Iran and Armenia and Grains of Paradise from West Africa. We have our spices that we don’t normally think of as spices such as vanilla, mustard, sesame, poppy, capers, caraway, rose, pomegranate, licorice and chilis. There is black pepper, white pepper, Indian Malabar pepper, Tellicherry pepper, Indonesian lampong pepper, Sarawak Pepper, Brazilian pepper, Vietnamese pepper and mountain pepper, there is fresh ginger and dried ginger, fresh lemon grass, dried lemon grass and ground lemon grass, cardamom pods, cardamom seeds, white mustard seeds, black mustrd seeds, yellow mustard seeds, and 100’s of different kinds of chili peppers all having different heat indexes that are sold fresh, dried, ground or flaked, as well as in products such as chili oil, chili powder, chili sauces and chili pastes. There are spice mixtures such as curry pastes used in Thailand prepared with chili peppers, cumin, clove and coriander seeds with lemon grass and galangal, there’s gomasio used in Asian cooking made with sesame seeds and sea salt, Chinese 5-spice powder made with star anise, sichuan pepper, fennel seeds, cloves and cinnamon, in India they use garam masala which is cardamom pods, innamon stick, coriander and cumin seeds, whole cloves and black pepper.
To get the full aromatic flavor of herbs and spices, they need to be as fresh as possible. Fresh herbs release their essential oils when they are chopped or rubbed. The tender green plants not only add flavor, but also the nutrients that other green vegetables have. Buy whole spices and grinding them as needed gives food a flavor punch that can’t be compaired. The flavor will be about 3 times more intense as preground spices. Herbs and spices should not be overused, and only their skillful blending leads to a successful dish. Just as too much of a specific herb or spice can ruin a dish, flavors in herb and spice mixtures can cancel each other out. Experiment with combinations you think you might like, but do so with caution; you will find that herbs and spices can bring subtlety, harmony and complexity to your cooking.
Donna Mintz is the owner of Basil & Barbells, Inc., a NYC based personal chef and personal training service that helps busy people fit healthy meals and exercise into their hectic schedules. She specializes in helping couples achieve optimum health to increase their chances of getting pregnant, a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby by offering in-home cooking classes, personal training and personal chef services.
