…Other than salt and pepper
For me it’s cumin. It’s one of the few spices I buy in bulk and actually use up my supply.
In the winter it may lean towards cardamom thanks to copious amounts of chia.
I love using turmeric. You’d be srprised how well it pairs with so many things, plus it’s very healthy. It goes naturally with a lot of middle eastern and south asian food, but you can also add it to sauces and soups for warm and earthy notes (if that’s your thing like me).
As for spice mixes, I love Cadaver’s greek seasoning. It’s pretty simple (salt, pepper, organo, with a few others) and you can enhance pretty much anything with it
chilies, followed very closely by garlic
My favorites are crushed dried chilis, smoked parika, cumin and nutmeg. I often use vegetable bouillon as a spice as well.
Cumin here too, followed by Berebere mix which is the one I buy in bulk, keep the bag in the freezer. I don’t buy the cumin in bulk because it’s cheap in stores here.
Unless you are counting onion & garlic, but those almost always fresh and I’d call them veg more than spice.
Paprika
Yeah, paprika is my go-to.
It has nothing to do with it being the “third shaker” child of Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper in Blue’s Clues
Paprika is the ultimate understudy of black pepper
Feel kinda bad for white pepper for coming third in a two horse race
Spursy, even
I buy it at Costco because it is an instant win button on frozen fish, and about any other meat.
Heck, I just threw some into Mac and cheese
Mustard
Interesting. Maybe I’m just using no where near enough of it. I rarely every use mustard.
Wet or dry?
I use both.
I find myself using more bullion lately. I also have been using a dry smoke seasoning for when I want a more grilled flavor without the grill.
- Paprika
- Powdered/granulated Garlic
- Powdered/granulated Onion
- Cayenne
Basically almost everything I cook has these in there with salt & pepper. Even if I’m using onion and garlic in the recipe.
Freeze dried garlic, by far.
Propably even tops pepper and occassionally also salt.Oh that’s interesting. Is it powder?
Some top ones for me: MSG, Chicken Bouillon, Smoked Paprika, Thyme, Garlic powder, and finally, controversially, bay leaves.
MSG goes in basically anything. If it gets salt and pepper it’s probably also getting MSG for me. I do a lot of chicken, and whenever I do I’m almost always adding some chicken bouillon to add some flavor to it. I really love Thyme, and find myself just adding it somewhat randomly to things. Smoked Paprika is a perfect flavor that’s so unique, I add it to anything I want to have a bit of a kick, like chili, ect. Not that it’s like spicy or anything, just it adds a little something to those dishes that you can’t really get elsewhere. Garlic powder is an all around great utility, and I tend to “dump” this stuff on things.
Last but not least, Bay leaves. I swear, I’m like the #1 consumer of these things. I throw them in anything. Anything savory with a decent sauce/soupy base is PERFECT to add a bay leaf to. If you use em often you can really taste the difference, since fresh bay leaves really pack a punch in flavor.
People sleep on bay leaves. You really can taste the difference. The experiment I did was to make the standard Kraft blue box mac and cheese, but I added bay. Since I know mac and cheese the bay flavor stood out. It’s just an herb flavor and I use it in any liquid that I’m also using any other herb.
you really need (reasonably) fresh bay leaves tho. They lose flavor fast. If they’re (Reasonably) fresh you can smell what it tastes like.
Complete seasoning is one of my favorites and it has msg
What do you use MSG for? You really use it in everything?
Yeah! It’s like salt but for savory things. There’s a pretty good chance that if I’m cooking with salt and pepper, I’m making something savory, and in those cases MSG improves the flavor of it basically always.
For example: I frequently air fry broccoli. As a base, I toss it in olive oil, salt, pepper, and MSG. If I want it spicy, I’ll add red pepper flakes. Sometimes I substitute salt for season salt for a different vibe. Other times I add garlic powder, or make a balsamic glaze for them. No matter what it’s prolly gonna have salt, pepper, and MSG.
It also goes really well on meat in general. Some cuts of beef don’t really need it cause they’re super savory to begin with, but especially some of the cheaper cuts that aren’t as flavorful.
Another big one is chicken breast. Thighs have more flavor, but when it comes to texture, I like the chicken breast meat better, so in order to boost that savory chicken flavor, I’ll add MSG.
It’s really hard to describe it, MSG is literally just like, pure savory. It’s not quite a salt replacement, tho i could see someone calling it salty, but it really boosts that savory/umami flavor.
Honestly the only time I don’t add pure MSG is when I’m cooking with things that have it included already. A lot of asian food has MSG in ingredients like fish sauce and oyster sauce, it’s totally possible to boost the MSG content of a dish without sprinkling msg onto it.
im not the cook of the family and failing at flavoring is my main failing so I asked my wife and she says onion powder or minced onion with garlic not far behind.
Garlic by far. Salt, Pepper, Garlic.
After that I use quite a bit of cumin
Is… garlic a spice?
Capsaicin
cumin, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder are my heavy hitters
Sage. Always from Penzey’s.
I once accidentally dumped too much sage into a sauce. It tasted so good that I kept doing it.
Penzey’s is the shit. They’re awesome.
