How Use Herbs and Spices

Many people like to keep your spice rack at or above their kitchens, but if you're one of those people, you might want to consider moving to a different place to keep their flavor and freshness longer. I recommend you store herbs and spices in a refrigerator for the humidity level. However, if you want to store large quantities of herbs and spices, I recommend that you store in the freezer in an airtight container to keep them fresh.

As a general rule, I know that spices retain their best flavor for one year. However, there may be a little more for whole spices, some retain their flavor for up to three to five years. The better the care, the longer they keep their flavor and freshness.

A tip is to grind whole spices in a grinder or a mortar before use. Also, if all toasted spices in a dry skillet over medium heat before grinding will take out even more flavor, is careful not to burn.

Tips on how to use herbs and spices:

When seasoning your food with spices, try to use a light hand, remember that your goal is to complement your dish is not, move the flavor of your food. Note: it is almost impossible to remove the taste of a dish, so make good decisions when adding spices to food.

As a general rule, when making long-cooking dishes, try adding herbs and spices, at least one hour or less before serving. If more than spices cook, who could release very strong flavors. In addition, finely crushed dried herbs before adding to your dish (after measuring them.)

You do not want to measure your dried herbs like their fresh herbs. Another rule of thumb to use is the use of 1 / 3 of the amount of dried herbs called for fresh herbs.

Remember to keep things simple. Unless you have a recipe specifies otherwise, use no more than three different herbs and spices in a dish. Of course, like many of you know, an exception to the rule is Indian food, but usually call for 10 or more different species, sometimes in a single dish.

Some good after cooking spices are black pepper, salt, cayenne and garlic powder. People tend to be picky about what spices you put the food so you might want to have these species available on the table.