If you’re looking to add flavor to your cooking, then seasoning is going to play a key role in that. One of the best types of seasonings to completely change the taste profile of a meal is some spice. However, spice is very easy to get wrong. You can either end up burning the mouth off or find things a little dull by comparison. But here are some tips on how to spice your meals just right.
Get toasty with it
Do you feel like when you have added spices, they haven’t had as much flavor or impact as you would like? One of the best ways to bring out the aroma and complexities within any ingredient is to heat it up. Toasting spices is easy, all you need to do is swirl them over a hot pan until you can start smelling them. However, there are some spices that don’t toast well. So look up tips for each individual seasoning.
Soak them into the meat
If you’re making a meat dish and you want to make sure that your seasoning’s flavor gets in all the way through them, then you should look at ways to not just add them on top, but to have them soak all the way into the meat. A good jerk rub recipe is a good instance of this, you want to cook them through the surface of the food so that you get that flavor in every bite.
Use contrast in your spice
A little heat to your meals can go a long way. But you can make them much more interesting than that, taste-wise. Rather than just going for hot, a mixture of different flavors, such as sweet and spicy, can be even better. Learning a good Thai sweet chili sauce recipe can make a big difference. The flavors balance each other out without negating one another.
Know how to tone it down
Sometimes you can get overenthusiastic and end up adding way too much spice to a meal. It can happen to the best of us. However, you have to know how to bring a meal back from the brink when it’s too spicy. You can cool your spicy dishes by adding some dairy, such as adding some butter or yogurt to the recipe, or you can make use of citrus such as lemon juice to the same effect.
Taste test regularly
If you’re looking to find the perfect balance of hot and flavorful, then the only way to really gauge it is to test often. You might find that your mouth gets a little spicy throughout. Be sure to cleanse your palate with a couple of crackers or get someone else to come and give it a taste to give your mouth a rest.
By adding a little flavor to your cooking, you can make your meals much more engaging. Make sure that you practice with the tips above. It also makes cooking a lot simpler, if you can just spice up some wings instead of having to make a whole complex meal.
