How to Make Spices & Seasonings
Spices are the natural product--such as the bark or the seeds--of tropical plants like cinnamon, nutmeg or pepper. Herbs are the useful leaves or stems of temperate climate plants, like basil, thyme or rosemary. Learn how to use these to make basic seasoning mixtures of traditional French cuisine. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Fresh herbs such as thyme, bay leaves, chives, tarragon, chervil, rosemary, savory, mint, basil, oregano and almost any other herb you can find in grocery stores or in your garden. Ground spices such as cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper and black pepper Cutting board Knife Kitchen string Cheesecloth
Instructions
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Bouquet Garni
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The simplest mixed seasoning is the bouquet garni. Tie a sprig of fresh thyme, 1 bay leaf, and 3 to 4 parsley stems together with string.
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Float the bouquet in a stew or soup so the herbs release their flavor. Take it out and discard it before serving.
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Some cooks add a stalk of celery to the bouquet. The herbs can also be tied in a square of cheesecloth.
Fines Herbes
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The fines herbes are fresh chives, tarragon, chervil and parsley, all chopped together "until the cutting board begins to turn green" (Madeleine Kamman, The New Making of a Cook).
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Measurements vary, but start with 1 tbsp. chives, ½ tsp tarragon, ½ tsp. chervil and 1 tbsp. parsley. Chop and mix together.
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Used as is, fines herbes add visual interest and color to a recipe. However, you can also tie them in a cheesecloth bag, to be removed and discarded before serving.
Herbes de Provence
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To make herbes de Provence, combine 2 fresh sprigs each of thyme and savory, and 1 fresh sprig of rosemary.
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Add a recipe's worth of the fines herbes to this--they can be either chopped or left whole in sprigs.
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Add 1 fresh sprig each of mint and oregano to the mix, plus 2 basil leaves for the true Provencal touch. Tie everything with string or in a cheesecloth square, and float it in your casserole or soup.
Quatre Epices
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Literally "four spices," quatre epices is a freely varied mixture of the "sweet" spices from the tropics. The name remains correct even if you add a fifth spice. Some formulas include eight. For a basic version, mix 2 tsp. cinnamon, 4 tsp. allspice, 1 tsp. cloves, 2 tsp. nutmeg and 4 tsp. coriander.
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Keep the mix in a glass jar and use it, starting with 1/4 tsp. at a time, to flavor pates, terrines, sausage meats or hearty beef stews.
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The addition of 1/3 cup salt to this mix, plus some hotter spices like cayenne pepper and cumin, makes a "sel epice" (spiced salt), very similar to a Cajun spice rub. Rub this on meats or fish before cooking, or add it, beginning with 1/4 tsp. at a time, to sauces or gumbos.
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Tips & Warnings
Rather than tying herbs with string or in cheesecloth, put them in a paper coffee filter liner, fold it securely and staple it shut. Float it in your stew or soup and fish it out before serving. To substitute dried herbs for fresh, use about half the amount. Dried herbs are actually more flavorful than fresh.
Herbs and especially spices are expensive. Store spices tightly sealed and out of direct light. And beware of overusing the strong ones. The strongest herbs are bay, tarragon, rosemary, basil and oregano; and the strongest spices cinnamon, allspice, cloves and pepper.
