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Seasonings
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Food seasoning is a very personal matter. Some like strong seasonings, but others find anything more than the slightest flavouring too strong, especially garlic or hot peppers. Decades of research confirm how greatly the sense of taste varies. Seasonings can make the difference between a boring dish and a wonderful one.
What are herbs and spices? Definitions vary: to a botanist, a herb is any non-woody plant. In herbal medicine, it’s a biologically active plant. To cooks, a herb may be any plant seasoning, although some people define herbs as leafy plant seasonings, distinct from spices, which include seeds, pods, roots, and barks. Others can tell spices from herbs by their odour. Choose your own definition. The first step to learning how to use herbs is to have them on hand. Keep fresh garlic and ginger where they can get some ventilation. Store parsley, dill, and cilantro in a refrigerator.
You can dry most fresh leafy herbs like mint for future use in a food dehydrator, or by leaving them in a paper bag in a warm, dry, well-ventilated room for a couple of weeks. Store herbs in tightly closed airtight jars. Place them inside cabinets (light eventually degrades dried herbs), arrange them, with leafy herbs (such as marjoram, rosemary, and thyme) on one set of shelves, barks, seeds and pods (such as cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, anise, salt) on another, and combinations in a third cabinet.
Buying tips: Make sure the herbs’ colours correspond to that of the fresh herbs. If you dry green leaves, they usually remain green. If they are brown it means they were decaying and browning before they were dried. Lastly, make sure that half of what you’re buying isn’t dried twigs or other plant debris. Avoid extracts with unhealthy artificial flavours in favour of the natural ones.
Adapted from an article by Naturalist "Wildman" Steve Brill. Check that you understand what these words mean in this document Seasoning: a spice that gives food a special taste Odour: a smell, often one that is unpleasant. On hand: close by. Ventilation: (a system) that allows fresh air to come in. Dehydrator: an appliance that removes water from a plant. Airtight: not letting air go in. To correspond: to match or be similar. To decay: to become gradually damaged. Debris: broken or torn pieces of something larger. Artificial: not natural.