Herbs, spices and seasoning - Dill or be dilled

[admiral]

Unless you live in the taste-deficient North of England, the secret to improving any dish is a good seasoning. What are your preferences? Is home-grown better than store bought? Why do white people think that salt counts as seasoning?

 

[Rumpled Foreskin]

Ground cayenne pepper is my jam. Goes with virtually any dish if you're looking for some heat.

 

[Nekromantik]

I use homegrown when I can, rosemary will take over your yard if you let it. I love me some seasoning on everything, then again I from the South where we put all the spices on everything. Habanero hot sauce is great on pork ribs and BBQ chicken. I need to make more.

 

[AnOminous]

There's no such thing as too much garlic. Even cloves of garlic oven roasted until they're brown, hissing and spitting and as soft as butter isn't too much.

Oregano is another great addition to anything.

It's not technically a seasoning, but few things suffer from being fried in sesame oil. In similar cooking items, Shaoxing rice wine is also good for almost anything Asian or Asian-ish.

Star anise is another star (along with the other four of the classic Asian five spice blend).

I've also recently become fond of smoked paprika. This adds a real zing to lentil-based dishes.

As for hot sauces, I love Tabasco, but will settle for almost any of the cayenne sauces, even weaksauce like Crystal where you have to shake half a bottle of the stuff onto something before it's hot. As for super hot sauces, I still like the classic Dave's Insanity (not the goofy gimmick sauces where they just jack up the Scoville units for no real reason and the sauce is otherwise tasteless). Something in between the two is the Heartbreaking Dawn's line. The 1498 Trinidad Scorpion Pepper sauce packs a punch but still has actual flavor.

As for hot pepper as a spice, Dave's also has a Dave's Insanity Spice, which is ground habanero peppers like the standard pizza topping, but with added pepper extract. A tiny amount of this goes a long way, and even using it nearly daily, a small shaker of it lasted well over a year.

Also Walkerswood Jamaican Jerk rub. This stuff is monstrous. I once added this to some diced chicken and then forgot about it for a few days. When I cooked it, the chicken was inedible even by me. So I ground it up and used the chicken itself as a spice in several future dishes.

 

[Prince Jello]

My family's garden is filled each summer with basil, parsley, mint and thyme. We tried to grow oregano one or two years ago, but it thrives in dry climate and thus never produced enough to be useful.
While I prefer homegrown herbs and spices, some of them can pretty much only be bought at a supermarket: cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom (which is delicious in a spicy beer ham), laurel, coriander...
I'm not a fan of rosemary, but its scent is very relaxing.
As for regular meals, I just put heaps of black pepper everywhere. And as said above, there's no such thing as too much garlic.

 

[The Fair Lady]

I'm a salt whore, fight me. Other than that my mom puts rosemary in her chicken soup, which helps strengthen the aroma and taste.

Garlic's alright, really only like it on garlic knots though.

 

[Hen in a tie]

I'm terrible at growing shit.
Honestly Garlic powder and Lemon pepper are my 2 favs next to Onions, onions make that shit taste good.
I will always put basil in my Tomato soup, it gives it a rich flavor.
Also Parsley on my Pasta, it gives it more flavor.

 

[GS 281]

I'm terrible at growing shit.

shit doesnt grow, it comes out of you

 

[ES 148]

I season things based on what they go with. Common-sense seasoning, the stuff you get told in the recipe.

I do add paprika to an awful lot of things, though, as well as turmeric and cumin.
Also, Tabasco sauce and sriracha, but iunno if they count.

 

[Orth]

Badia Complete Seasoning for almost everything.

 

[toilet_rainbow]

I heard that British cuisine used to have seasonings (I mean, look at colonization), but that they rationed them heavily during WWII and use pretty much stopped afterward.

Anyway, I don't mind store bought but fresh is always nice. There's rosemary and basil growing in my backyard, and black peppercorns in a grinder in my house. I like Lowry's seasoning salt and/or black pepper for frozen fries and tots.

 

[An Ghost]

growing things isnt hard. i generally have basil, rosemary, sage, parsley, and mint but i never cook with it. they pretty much grow in one or two pots outside. most recipes plan on dried herbs anyway so know some conversions but nothing beats the look of having a sprig of sage in a dish. there are common pairings like rosemary and chicken and cumin in anything mexican (it's the best in guac). theyre easy and have combinations for a reason.
i am always over zealous with spices because i'd rather have that than risk weak flavor. and i put parsley in rice cause i like the way it looks.

Star anise is another star (along with the other four of the classic Asian five spice blend).

eat shit anise and die. this is garbage.

 

[XYZpdq]

I was on a big chinese five spice kick for a while.

 

[Lipitor]

People don't know, but there's a secret seasoning at Popeyes... they keep it behind the counter and you have to ask for it. They don't even let you know they have it. Each time they give you some they'll only give you like 1 or 2 packets... It's called Cajun Sparkle.

Spoiler

 

[A Skeleton]

garlic

 

[heathercho]

Ground cayenne pepper is my jam. Goes with virtually any dish if you're looking for some heat.

As for hot pepper as a spice, Dave's also has a Dave's Insanity Spice, which is ground habanero peppers like the standard pizza topping, but with added pepper extract. A tiny amount of this goes a long way, and even using it nearly daily, a small shaker of it lasted well over a year.

Gochugaru or get out.

Really though, if seasonings are people's thing, I find that even people who aren't asian or remotely interested in asian taste, enjoy Shichimi Togarashi. It used to be really hard here to get so it was a rare treat or only something I had in Japan/Korea, but now it's easy to get from Daiso or an Asian supermarket. It's like a really delicious enhanced pepper, with orange peel, sesame seeds and shiso, so it goes with everything.
That and La-Yu (Chili Oil) and Aonori/Parae. You don't even need salt anymore.

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

Cilantro is good only pussies complain about it tasting like soap. You know who you are.

 

[Fiber-Rich Vegetable]

Homegrown basics; basil, rosemary, chives, parsley, dill, and garlic. Does garlic count as seasoning? Also every kind of pepper, black, white, pink, green and lemon.

 

[AnOminous]

Cilantro is good only pussies complain about it tasting like soap. You know who you are.

It's apparently genetic. It just tastes like shit to some people. When I was a kid, I actually hated it because it tastes like soap. Oddly, I now love it, but I still do think it tastes kind of like soap. I've just learned to like that particular flavor of soap, I guess.

Also, I forgot to list basil. My favorite is sweet basil, specifically for pesto and pizza margherita. I generally wouldn't use sweet basil as an all purpose herb, though. I also like lemon basil and Thai holy basil. Why is it holy? I have no idea. But it's pretty good in the dishes that use it.

 

[A Skeleton]

It's apparently genetic. It just tastes like shit to some people. When I was a kid, I actually hated it because it tastes like soap. Oddly, I now love it, but I still do think it tastes kind of like soap. I've just learned to like that particular flavor of soap, I guess.

Also, I forgot to list basil. My favorite is sweet basil, specifically for pesto and pizza margherita. I generally wouldn't use sweet basil as an all purpose herb, though. I also like lemon basil and Thai holy basil. Why is it holy? I have no idea. But it's pretty good in the dishes that use it.

pesto is proof that god is real and is looking out for us

checkmate atheists