Essential Oils
Herbs and spices can bring flavor to foods because they contain powerful compounds referred to as essential oils, “essential” because they were once thought to hold the essence of the plant.
These oils can be manufactured in just about any part of the plant: flowers smell pretty because of glands that produce oils in the base of the bloom; poison ivy makes you itch because of oils that spread out across the surface of its leaves. The flavor and aroma of spices are made possible by oil deposits in seeds. (cumin), pods or fruits (nutmeg), bark (cinnamon), and even stems (sassafras).
In addition to flavorings, essential oils are used to odorize everything from perfume to paint. Essential oils also were the basis of many traditional medicines and often used in dental products. (Remember the bottle of clove oil that Dustin Hoffman kept in his pocket after being “worked on” by Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man?)
Essential plant oils, whether from orange zest or coriander seeds, are highly volatile, that is they evaporate very quickly when exposed to air. The problem is, you have to grind them to get their full flavor and aroma-and that’s about as exposed to air as you can get. What can you do?
Spice Rules
Don’t:
*buy spice just because you like the packaging.
*name music groups or any members thereof after spices.
*buy spices in bulk unless you’ve got a good darn reason…like you own a restaurant, barbecue competitively or working on a remake of Dune.
*store spices where you can see them.
*store spices near heat sources.
DO:
*Buy whole (rather than ground) spices.
*keep an extra pepper grinder around for grinding small amounts of spice.
*keep an inexpensive electric coffee grinder around for grinding large amounts of spice.
* Make your own spice mix..have some fun!
Good Eats!
Executive Chef John Blair
