Master Flavor Match-ups & Add Some Zing to Your Meals!

One of the things I loved about my late Aunt Annie’s cooking was how she would surprise us with unusual flavor combinations. She loved to use herbs and spices and she knew what she was doing. She liked to grow herbs in her kitchen window sill and this was about the time of year she would start new seedlings. (I miss her and love to talk about her—thanks for listening.)

The other day when I was looking through her recipe collection, I found a little booklet that I’m pretty sure was her herb and spice “Bible,” so to speak. It is well-worn, and the corner of a page titled “Flavor Match-Ups” was folded over. My guess is this is where Aunt Annie got her start in flavor combining.

So here’s just a small excerpt from this dandy piece of information—just in case you’re interested in doing more with herbs and spices:

ALLSPICE:

Add 2 whole allspice to the pot when stewing chicken. Dash ground allspice over fruit salad. Season cranberry juice with allspice, cinnamon, and cloves; serve hot or chilled.

CARAWAY SEED:

Add to cream-puff batter—2 tsp for ½ C flour; fill with creamed ham. Or make tiny puffs; fill with ham salad and serve as appetizers. Sprinkle caraway over coleslaw or atop a tuna casserole prior to baking.

CHERVIL:

Add bouquet garni when cooking peas: For 1 lb frozen (or fresh) peas, use ¼ tsp each chervil and thyme, and 1 tsp snipped parsley.

CHILI POWDER:

Add a dash to canned corn—nice zippy change.

CINNAMON: (research shows this spice is a real health booster, so it’ll pay to include it more often in our meals)

Combine 2 Tbsp sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon: sprinkle on 4 grapefruit halves; fill center with butter and broil. Add ½ tsp to crumbs for graham-cracker crust. Or try this: to flour mixture from 1 package angel food cake mix, add 1 tsp cinnamon and ¼ tsp each cloves and nutmeg. Sift and prepare as usual.

CORIANDER SEED:

Add ground seed to potato salad, bread, cookies, pumpkin pie, and cherry pudding.

GINGER:

A must in many desserts, of course. Also goes well with soy sauce to lend an Oriental touch to chicken, pork, lamb, or beef. Try adding to seasoned sour cream to dress a chicken salad.

MACE:

Add dash to cherry pie, a light shake to oyster stew.

MARJORAM:

Particularly good with lamb. Accents mushrooms nicely also. Perfect in scrambled eggs, omelet, or soufflé—add ¼ tsp to 4 eggs. Season rice with marjoram, chervil, parsley, thyme and then serve with roast chicken or lamb.

MINT:

Besides making fruit beverages, fruit cups, and salads more delightful, it’s also great in fresh summer peas. And a little dried mint flakes add an amazing flavor to cooked rice!

I’ll share more of Aunt Annie’s favorite herb and spice secrets another time. Meanwhile, do you have tips on how to use these flavor enhancers? Please share. We’re all in this together, so let’s spread the good stuff. And until next time, happy cook’n!