I picked up one, and only one, talent from my mother: the "sense" of seasonings. I'm not kidding. It's an actual sense. Based on smell, but there's more to it than that. It's kind of an inner mental formulaic perception, sort of like being the servant to the sense of smell. In simple terms, it's just knowing what seasonings and spices to mix with which others and with which foods in what proportions, and whether those seasonings/spices should be fresh or dried or both. It's also the basic knowledge of what a seasoning is vs. what a spice is.
I'll start with that, because really, that's kind of level 1 in this training course :) It's fairly simple, and I'm sure there's tons in WikiPedia all about the differences, the locations of origin, the seasons of bloom, and the farmers who pick and process them all... But really, when it's just you and your spice wrack duking it out over your kitchen counter - it's important to just be able to at least identify what is a seasoning and what is a spice. Both by vision and by smell or taste, even by touch, once you get really good at this.
Essentially, a seasoning is pretty much any ground or chopped leaf, dried or fresh, which is commonly grown in most North American gardens and can be tastefully added to a tomato based sauce intended for Italian or German cooking. Oregano, Basil, Thyme... Three staples of any "spice wrack" (seasoning section) which I don't suggest any kitchen attempt to do without. Thanks to -mart stores everywhere in the US, there is NO excuse -not- to have at least some small quantity of these (it's best to buy large quantities of very fragrant versions of these three seasonings, as you'll use a LOT of them throughout the years once you taste how wonderful they are)! A fourth "great" is cumin. Vegetarians in particular love cumin: it's the main seasoning in canned veggie-burger and beef-flavored TVP (textured vegetable protein, mainly gluten). A fifth staple, though rarely actually used in most North American cooking, is dried Bay Leaves. You'll never see them ground, only whole. Leave 'm that way -- just remember to pull them out of your lentil stew when you're done cooking it. And never make lentil stew without them unless for some reason you can't stand it with them, of course. Anyway -- it's just not the same without them, in my opinion.
Four more seasonings really aren't seasonings at all. They are "bulbs" by nature, though sometimes confused to be roots. Onion, garlic, chives, and green onions. These are the four bulb seasonings known to be edible and not poisonous, and are the most commonly found in stores. There are other variants you'll sometimes find in some produce sections - go ahead, try those shallots! But I think in the end, you'll find that it's cheaper by far to focus on these other 4 bulbs. Other seasonings that are good to keep on hand include a few good mixed seasonings (Italian, salad bends, poultry seasoning...) and a few "strays" that are good to keep on hand but hardly ever get used (parsley, celery seeds, toasted sesame seeds, and alum, which is really a baking agent). Pretty much anything that's easy to grow in North America, is a leaf, a bulb, or a vegetable of some kind and is sold in any US produce section, that -isn't a spice- is a seasoning.
Spices on the other hand... Absolutely - do think of Arabia! Think of Asia, India (especially India), even Africa... Think Marco Polo and the rotting meat back home in Europe which he was about to "cure." Think Mexico and South America, where "spice" takes on a whole new meaning... This isn't all to say that there aren't some spices that grow in North America. But Anise is hardly technically a spice. It's what they flavor most cheap licorice with these days, if I'm not mistaken. Also root beer. Too sweet - it's hard to call that a true spice. Nor other similar nearly-non-spices. A true spice? That my friends comes with a similar history to all truly good tea, coffee, and cocoa/chocolate. Which can be a sadness, when you include the knowledge of the slavery that not only used to go into making these delights mainly for European and North American enjoyment, but still does even now. I'm not going to rant about that here. But I will not let you ignore it, either. It's a fact until we all stamp it out of existence and can actually be proud of ourselves. Only we can do that.
In any case, spices include things such as what I call the "Pumpkin and Apple Pie Klan": cinnamon, cloves, ginger, all-spice, and pumpkin spice. You can pretty well add at least one of these spices to nearly any pie or cake out there. They are your sweet spices (as are mint and spearmint, though those don't usually go with most pies or cakes, unless there's chocolate involved - just use mint, not spearmint, with it though). I wouldn't suggest adding them to blue berry, cherry, or some citrus flavored foods/beverages though :p Oh do, go ahead, have fun with that -- just DON'T blame me for your puckered, puking mouth! Want to make it really fun? Add some olive oil and OJ to the mix! Sorry, just thought I'd untempt ya early. Hopefully.
Of course, there are other spices which aren't sweet, don't go with sugar at all (at least not for most Americans anyway), which deserve mention and which some chefs would be dismayed that I don't tend to focus on. A number of them are Asian, Indian, or Latin American. What can I say? I was raised on Italian and German foods, primarily, as well as some French. I enjoy Chinese take out (sometimes making it myself, particularly more-so these days than say in my 20s), and while I love the peanut flavor in Thai food, I can't stand how spicy it is... So I don't tend to do Thai food (I should learn to just make it from scratch, I know, and eventually, I will). Recently, I found some Paprika at Wal-Mart that wasn't hot, and I love adding it to the Ball Recipe for Ketchup, as well as to my pizza sauce. Aside from that though, I haven't found a good use for it in my own kitchen. One thing you won't find in my kitchen is curry. Even "mild" or "not hot" curries are still far too spicy/hot for my taste and they cause me to suffer from severe acid reflux. It's just. Not. Worth it, for me personally. Of course, jalapeños are off my personal list, in all forms, though they are beautiful to look at in paintings and such. I suggest at this point just finding some other cooking blog out there if you want to focus on using these kinds of spices in your cooking. I simply don't use them here: as uninformative as that makes my blog.
And then, of course, you have non-hot, non-seasoning, non-spices which I just classify as herbs that have tastes which I don't prefer. Cilantro being one of them. Tastes like metallic soap. Particularly in vinaigrette laden salads. Or even fresh. I'm aware that there are two or three other such herbs which have such a gross taste that I really will just spit them out, no matter where I am, though no one's ever been able to identify which ones were the culprits. In any case, there are other herbs out there which really don't go with anything that I'm aware of.
Also worth mentioning are your (liquid) "flavorings" and "colorings." A lot of people have a problem with food colorings, both health-wise and aesthetically, though Wilton has seriously improved the coloring quality of it's food colorings. I recommend those for people who want to use food colorings, far over any other food coloring system. I've even used them as water-colors: they're superb in that respect, as far as color goes. (I don't know about longevity/acidity though). Some people, including myself, have a problem with a lot of flavorings out there because of their very high alcohol content. Sounds silly, but it's a matter of principle, especially if you have young children around who don't and can't yet understand the concept of "moderation." If you have to have black and white rules at home, then live black and white yourself, or your kids will eventually catch on the dad and mom aren't really serious after all, or else they have double standards, and that won't make sense to your kids either. At least that's my reasoning, though I don't have kids myself: I just was a kid once upon a time, I held my mom to it one day, and from that day on, well, we just always avoided flavorings that had alcohol: and now I just don't use them 'cause I'm not used to them and don't really need them. Particularly now that there are many flavorings available which don't contain alcohol. Heh.
With all that said, it's worth it to keep whatever flavorings on hand that you'll use most and find it hard to get in any other form. Vanilla is a main staple in my home. I now purchase only Fair Trade Vanilla. Two or three others are good to have on hand, though I'm finding I use them a lot less these days: mint (I now have mint tea) and Almond (are you kidding me, lol, read my blog!) Some people like rum or other spirit-flavored flavorings, and if you can find a good butter-flavored liquid or powder, both have their uses as well. Personally, I just get butter flavored pan spray and spray that along with sprinkling some salt on my pop-corn. It's a fake flavor, but with the salt added, it's close enough to theater quality that I don't feel the need to complain about it. My mother always kept a bottle of cherry flavoring around (btw, most if not all of these are of the Schilling variety in my home), but it's so close to Almond flavoring (and more expensive) that it almost never got used. I kinda think she still has the same bottle of it that she had before I was born. Someone probably gave it to her.
You can pretty much find whatever is needed in the average serious kitchen in the three different "spice wracks" I have. Two came from Good Will (a square spinning upright, and a long, thin, 2 tier wall-hanging model, about $2.00 each), and one came from Wal-Mart for (then) $18.00. I must have bought all three during a total 15 year span of time. Of them all, I have to say, the one from Wal-Mart wins, hands down. But I need the extra storage and can't afford to buy more spice racks at full price like that, so I'm keeping the others as well :) There was a fourth, but sadly, it didn't make it in the running, so it had to go back to GW, from whence it came. Ground leaves to ground leaves, flavorings to flavorings.
Anyway, truth is, I have TOO MANY seasonings and spices! Mainly because, though I started out with just a jar of powdered onion and another of powdered garlic, then some Italian Seasoning... When I bought the spice rack at Wal-Mart, guess what?! There's a reason for why it's that spendy. It's got all the seasonings/spices right there in the rack! But, see, by the time I was in need of the rack... I already had all the seasonings and spices I wanted -- and then some! But, with a little picking and choosing which ones to keep or add to older bottles, and which ones I just didn't want at all, and some re-labeling and so on... I got it down to where I actually only needed 3 of the 4 racks I now had. Why didn't I just take the new one back?
Heh. Just look at the rack. Then at the jars. The rack will hold a greater variety of jars that come off the shelf from the store, and the jars it came with are small enough to fit into the holes in my upright square spinning rack... Now, the wall hanging 2 tier model is awesome - it'll hold even more jars of varying sizes! I kept it because I had more odd-sized jars than uniform sized holes in the upright square spinning rack. Thus, I played Towers of Hanoi with my seasonings/spices and my racks, and won ;)
Ideally, one rack should be enough, and I suggest just getting the one from Wal-Mart. Beware though - some of the seasonings just... Weren't as fragrant or flavorful. They're still worth the $ shelled out, but they aren't a great steal, as far as that goes. Really, what you'd be purchasing is the rack and jars. Believe me, those will carry you well into the future, and in that way, will pay for themselves. I recommend this rack to any recent college grad or emancipated aspiring young chef, if you have the $ to fork over for it. Of course, the alternative is just start small, use a drawer or desk organizer to keep your tiny collection in, at first, and then, when you really need it, upgrade to some rack found at a local thrift shop such as Good Will. Don't put in for the more expensive racks until you are more stably employed, etc.
The truth is shocking: it's just food. You could live on plain rice and beans if you had to, and the rest is just icing on the cake. Always at least try to get in some veggies and fruits daily, and remember that while all the extra flavors can make all the difference in the world, you don't always have to have them, and certainly not all of them. Go by cost and need first, and add the extra "for fun" items later on. And if you know you won't use something often, go for the smaller size. Eventually, all seasonings, spices, herbs, flavorings and even colorings do have to be replaced, even if they were dried to begin with. Same thing is true with your oils, your flours/grains, even your noodles and cereal (if you have any old cereal, that is). Even that wholier-than-holy granola or trail mix will have to be replaced sometime. Just to remind you of that.
So, if you're not going to use something up within the next few months or year, it's not worth it to spend $20 on it. Remember that expensive bottle of cherry flavoring my mom had? I think we used it like once. And it probably cost the gifter the equivalent of $20 today. That's a lotta dough for 3 drops ever used. So, as they say, "count the cost." But, at the same time, when you can splurge a little, it's always worth it to branch out, try new flavors or flavor mixtures or just new combinations of flavors and foods (who knew that ketchup has cinnamon in it??!!) This would be such a boring world if we weren't willing as human beings to discover what there is to know, so long as we have reason to believe it's safe to learn something new. Always Google some new flavor source first, just to ensure that what you're putting in your body isn't akin to rat poison.
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