5 Must Have Seasonings For The Kitchen

There is a trend these days to stock your kitchen with as many spices as possible. Every chef on television has their own spice blends, and if you want to be able to copy their style, you have to buy their spices, right? The problem is, most of these spices go unused and forgotten. Unless you are a chef, the most these designer spices do for you is take up space in your cabinets. What spices do you really need in a kitchen? Here are five of the hardest-working spices you can buy.

1. Salt
You've probably got a large, cylindrical box of salt that cost you 33 cents, and you use it to fill your salt shakers every once in a while, which you then use to salt almost everything you eat. That's not all there is to salt. Sea salts from around the world have their own flavors, benefits, and nutrients. Celtic brand salt, Real Salt, and pink Himalayan salt all have distinct flavors. These brands (unlike the generic "sea salt" from the grocery) haven't been bleached or homogenized, either. You get a wide range of tastes from these salts. Use them in cooking, and don't be stingy. This kind of salt is actually good for you. It helps ward off dehydration and delivers trace nutrients to your body. Try buying your sea salt in a grinder for a fresh, earthy delivery and bright flavor.

Kosher salt is a large-grain salt that is also good in cooking. Its flavor is more neutral. This salt is a favorite of chefs like Alton Brown, who sprinkle it liberally when cooking.

Popcorn salt has a fine grain and is good for baking, uncooked foods, and any use where dissolving is an important attribute.

2. Fresh-ground pepper
Pepper loses its flavor and bite after it is ground. The fine powder in the jars at the grocery is tasty on its own and is good for applications where you want the flavor of the pepper to be lost in the dish. Fresh-ground pepper has a sharp, awakening quality to it that, like salt, brings out the flavors of a dish while also keeping its own flavor note intact. Use it on salads, meats, and buttered corn on the cob.

3. Garlic
Garlic is a seasoning that crosses cultural lines. Italian, Latin, Southern, and classic American cooking all call for garlic. Used alone or with only salt and pepper, it rounds out the flavor notes of many dishes, giving them depth. It has a heady, spicy aroma and can be used fresh, dried, or powdered. Try in spaghetti, garlic bread, and in soup bases with fresh onion and olive oil.

4. Onion
This spice isn't as widely used as garlic, but it should be. Its flavor is a few notes off of garlic's and can be used to complement and heighten dishes in the same way as, or along with, garlic. It can be used alone to create intense flavor, especially when used dried or when simmered in butter or olive oil. It is a good spice to keep in your emergency food storage because it keeps its freshness for a long time and can make an otherwise bland meal quite satisfying. Try ground beef with dried onion, steak with onion powder, salt, and ground pepper, or onion powder with sage on turkey breast.

5. Crushed red pepper
Often, when dishes are missing a certain "something," they can be fixed with the addition of a little spice. Our palates are able to ascertain five flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and savory. Ideally all should be present, in varying amounts, in every dish. Adding heat via crushed red pepper or another spicy herb can bring out flavors and balance tastes in the mouth. It creates an explosion of flavor in the mouth and helps carry flavor notes to your sensory receivers in nasal passageways, as well as heightening the ones on your tongue.

You'll undoubtedly want to own more than five herbs and spices to round out your cooking palette, but if you start from a foundation of these five spices, you'll have excellent building blocks for lasting culinary enjoyment.